The African Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade
The shipment of enslaved humans from Africa across the Atlantic Ocean started in the beginning of the 16th Century and lasted all the way until the onset of the 20th Century. This tragic occurrence, rooted out of greed and imperialistic indulgence, not only negatively affected the millions of Africans within that time period, but has also hindered the generations that followed. By simply observing multiple introductory maps on the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database I was able to learn many new aspects of the slave trade. The four maps that I withdrew my data from included: Map 1: Overview of the Slave Trade out of Africa, 1500-1900, Map 6: Countries and Regions in the Atlantic World where Slave Voyages were Organized, Map 7: Major Coastal Regions from which Captives left Africa, all years, and Map 8: Major Regions where Captives Disembarked, all years.
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One tendency I noticed to be evident on multiple maps was that more slaves disembarked from places along the coast of eastern South Africa and the Caribbean than North America and Europe. However, this can be deceiving because, despite the lack of slaves arriving in continental Europe, most of South America and the Caribbean were under European control, and therefore the predominance of the slave trade was established with European acquisition in mind. Another trend that was clear was the embarkment of slaves along the coast of western Africa. West Africa is where the majority of Africans were loaded onto slave ships and sent to the new world because of the easy access to the Atlantic Ocean. Some of the places where an excess number of slaves boarded consist of but are not limited to: West Central Africa, The Bight of Benin, The Bight of Biafra, The Gold Coast, and Senegambia. Other places such as Southeast Africa, Sierra Leone, and The Windward Coast had a smaller amount of slaves
One of the major questions asked about the slave trade is ‘how could so Europeans enslave so many millions of Africans?” Many documents exist and show historians what the slave trade was like. We use these stories to piece together what it must have been to be a slave or a slaver. John Barbot told the story of the slave trade from the perspective of a slaver in his “A Description of the Coasts of North and South Guinea.” Barbot describes the life of African slaves before they entered the slave trade.
An estimated 8 to 15 million Africans reached the Americas between the 16th and 19th century. Only the youngest and healthiest slaves were taken for what was called the middle passage of the triangle trade, partly because they would be worth more in the Americas, and they were also the most likely to reach their destination alive. Conditions aboard the ship were very gruesome; slaves were chained to one anoth...
The documents of the slave trade case study contains documents, which were authored by individuals closely connected to the slave trade. Gomes Eannes de Azurara was a Portuguese chronicler who provided details about the early voyages on the west coast of Africa and the capture of Africans in the slave trade. The primary source that Azurara wrote was titled The Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea written in 1450. The second primary source titled Practices and Contracts of Merchants was written by Fray Tomas De Mercado in 1587. The third primary source, The Travailes of an English Man, was written by Job Hortop in 1567. These primary sources aid in exemplifying how
Though the Atlantic Slave Trade began in 1441, it wasn’t until nearly a century later that Europeans actually became interested in slave trading on the West African coast. “With no interest in conquering the interior, they concentrated their efforts to obtain human cargo along the West African coast. During the 1590s, the Dutch challenged the Portuguese monopoly to become the main slave trading nation (“Africa and the Atlantic Slave Trade”, NA). Besides the trading of slaves, it was also during this time that political changes were being made. The Europe...
African slaves were brought to the America’s by the millions in the 17th and 18th century. The Spanish and British established lucrative slave trades within Africa and populated their new territories with captured and then enslaved Africans. The British brought the slaves to their new colonies in North America to work on the large plantations and the Spanish and Portuguese brought the slaves to South America. Slavery within North and South America had many commonalities yet at the same time differences between the two institutions.
Since the beginning of slavery in the America, Africans have been deemed inferior to the whites whom exploited the Atlantic slave trade. Africans were exported and shipped in droves to the Americas for the sole purpose of enriching the lives of other races with slave labor. These Africans were sold like livestock and forced into a life of servitude once they became the “property” of others. As the United States expanded westward, the desire to cultivate new land increased the need for more slaves. The treatment of slaves was dependent upon the region because different crops required differing needs for cultivation. Slaves in the Cotton South, concluded traveler Frederick Law Olmsted, worked “much harder and more unremittingly” than those in the tobacco regions.1 Since the birth of America and throughout its expansion, African Americans have been fighting an uphill battle to achieve freedom and some semblance of equality. While African Americans were confronted with their inferior status during the domestic slave trade, when performing their tasks, and even after they were set free, they still made great strides in their quest for equality during the nineteenth century.
The Transatlantic Slave Trade was a service that transported around twelve and a half million men, women, and children to be bought and sold as slaves by countries mostly in the New World, like the United States of America. (The Transatlantic Slave Trade) The Portuguese were the first to bring African slaves over to the new world, but it quickly caught on over the years. Around 80% of the slaves that came across the Atlantic ended up in Brazil or the Caribbean Islands while only 7% wound up in the United States.(Ross) With the climate being completely different in South America, Europeans found it extremely hard to work and were not used to the living conditions so they contracted diseases. Unlike Europeans, the African slaves were capable of handling the climate and were used to working hard. (How Many Slaves Came to America? Fact vs. Fiction.) The reason the Transatlantic Slave Trade worked for many years was because it had a triangular trade form where Africa would send slaves over to America who would send the products of the slave labor over to Europe who would send ammunition and weapons back to Africa. There have been over 30,000 documented trips from Africa to the Americas. The trip from Africa to America lasted about three months by ships. This was called the middle passage, where a large amount of slaves died from malnutrition
The slave trade developed in the mid-15th century after Europeans began exploring and forming trading post on the West coast of Africa. The Portuguese, British, and French were among the ...
Majority of the slaves originated from West and Central Africa, mostly Nigeria, Angola, Ghana and the coast of Sierra Leone. Due to this movement, most of the characteristics of African Culture such as their beliefs, music, and traditions, which were moved to America resulted in cultural incorporation. Auctioning of the Africans marked the start of the middle passage. The europeans carried a cargo that contained iron, gunpowder, fabric, and guns, which were exchanged for africans when they landed. After loading their cargo, the Americans embarked on their journey and traded the slaves for other
Susan Schulten “map Courtesy of Geography and map division”, Library of congress, NY times, December 9, 2010. http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/12/10/opinion/20101210_Disunion_SlaveryMap.html
Also, following the Age of Exploration, West Africa became the main source for slaves specifically the formally known nation of Kongo-Angola. The main reason for Africa being the largest source of slaves was because, unlike the surrounding nations which were powerful, rich empires, Africa consisted of small tribes and kingdoms. These kingdoms’ greatest exports would consist of gold, salt, and slaves, in exchange for the goods imported from the surrounding
Most history books has recorded that between the years 1701-1760, millions of Africans were literally stolen away from their native lands leaving behind their families, work, heritage, and everything that was familiar to them. Robbed of their independence and ‘humanness’; they were reduced to cargo. This was what ‘the Middle Passage’ also known, as the ‘Slave Triangle’ was all about; the trading of goods and commodities among continents including the trading of black men, women and children who were treated like property.
West Africa was greatly impacted by the Atlantic Slave Trade. Though there were countless negative effects, some short-term positive effects did occur. First off, the slave trade directly correlated with the number of wars in Africa. As demand for slaves increased, so did the quantity of wars to capture them. African kingdoms would wage war and go on raids in order to supply prisoners of war to sell. This was a start of a domino effect, in which kingdoms and tribes would capture slaves, trade them for guns to become more powerful, and then use said power to enslave even more people. A vicious cycle was created in Africa as a result of the slave trade. In spite of these negative effects, it is arguable that it was slightly beneficial for a
Slavery has been around since the dawn of humanity coming together to form a civilization. It can be found throughout history. In the age of the Roman Empire slaves accumulated to around 30 percent of their total population and consisted of barbarians that couldn’t speak their language (Walter Scheidel 2007). But the most well-known and most recent is the Atlantic Slave trade which differs from all other periods of slavery for four key reasons. The Atlantic slavery trade lasted nearly four centuries; the targeted group was black African men, women, and children (UNESCO 2014). Along with the development of a consumer culture in where luxury resources become necessities, and finally it is believed to be the first system to be globalized, making it an important mark of history.
The transatlantic slave trade occurred throughout the entire continent of Africa and was divided into two eras, the first and the second Atlantic systems. The first Atlantic system was the slave trade of Africans to Portuguese and Spanish territories. The second Atlantic system which made up most of the transatlantic slave trade is the one I will focus on. This second Atlantic system, was characterized by the shipment of Africans from countries such as Senegal, Gambia, Ghana, Angola, and the Democratic Republic of Congo to the ...