The seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries saw the emergence and eventual abolishment of one of the most detrimental enterprises in African history, the slave trade. The trans-Atlantic slave trade, born out of an inevitable economic push, radically changed society in African communities, particularly those of West Africa. The effects of the slave trade influenced nearly every aspect of life in Africa from the daily habits of people to the entire commercial and political system of the region. Simply put, the trans-Atlantic slave trade impacted African peoples socially, economically, and politically. The most immediate and unfortunate result of the trans-Atlantic slave trade was the direct impact it had on individuals in African societies. Men, women, and children were being kidnapped or sentenced to slavery, which broke apart families and ruined people’s lives. Through primary documents, historians are able to interpret the despondent, firsthand accounts of those whose lives were forever altered by the slave trade. Historians look past the possibly subjective account in order to figure out what life was like. In Africa and the West: A Documentary History, the authors present a story told by Olaudah Equiano. In the 1750s, he and his sister were kidnapped from eastern Nigeria and separated; eventually he was sold into slavery. In …show more content…
Reid argues in his book, A History of Modern Africa: 1800 to the Present, that “commercial power” had become synonymous with “military power.” The only major way to participate in the economy was to trade slaves in exchange for weapons, specifically guns. With this militaristic shift occurring in trade, men who were successful in this private enterprise also obtained significant military power. In essence, certain elites who were able to gain power commercially (and therefore militarily) controlled the economy and eventually political
From Africa to Brazil is a cultural, identity and, an Atlantic slave Trade article written by Walter Hawthorne with its focus on tracing back the African Slaves in Amazonia, Brazil to their origins or ethnic group in Africa. And how the Slaves of upper Guinea contributed to the Atlantic trade exchange i.e. through the ignored fact that Africans in the trade transferred architectural aesthetic and rice-growing techniques to the new world. In this article, Hawthorne argued for the thesis question. Were the slaves traded to America from the rice producing regions of upper Guinea or not.
A Eurocentric understanding of the early modern era would the Islamic world. While, the role of the Europeans on a global scale was that the Europeans were becoming involved in world affairs. The Europeans also became involved in the oceanic journeys of European explorers and the European conquest and colonial settlement of the Americas. The Europeans also became involved in the global silver trade.
"The Life of Olaudah Equiano” is a captivating story in which Equiano, the author, reflects on his life from becoming a slave to a freeman during the 19th century. Through his experiences and writing, Equiano paints a vivid picture of the atrocities and cruelties of European slavery. Ultimately through his narrative, Equiano intends to persuade his audience, the British government, to abolish the Atlantic slave trade as well as alert them of the harsh treatment of slaves. He successfully accomplishes his goal by subtly making arguments through the use of character, action, and setting.
The African Diaspora has been defined as communities throughout the world that are descended from historic movement of people from Africa predominately to the Americas, Europe, and the other areas around the globe. The process of explaining the affects of the Diaspora to the slave trade have become similar. The slave trade as defined is the business or process of procuring transporting and selling slaves, especially black Africans to the New World prior to the mid 19th century. These two items are fairly similar but vastly different. With explaining how one affected the other I will first go into detail of the African Diaspora and the slave trade then explains how one affected the other.
Slavery has been a part of human history since the beginning of time. It predates any known written records of Ancient civilization. The oldest civilizations know to enforce and allow slavers are, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, Ancient China, along with a few less old ones, The Roman Empire and the American Colonies to name a few.
The Atlantic slave trade was the largest and longest ongoing international voyage in human history. Taking place as early as the 1440’s, the slave trade gives valuable account for the trade in slaves from various parts of the world. The author gives a regulation from West Africa to as far as the Arabic region along southern parts of the Mediterranean Sea into a lesser degree talks about the Arabic slave trade in East Africa, this period profound economic, social, political, cultural, religious, and military change. I strongly agree with how the authors attempted to explain the circumstances under which the African enslavement occurred in Africa through the dismay Middle Passage and sale of the slaves in America. A brief introduction to the Slave trade was in the 1502, the first African slaves were taken to Hispaniola. In 1888, Brazil became the last nation in the western Hemisphere to outlaw slavery. For the nearly 400 years in between, slavery played a major role in linking the histories of Africa, North and South America, and Europe. Johannes Postma begins with an overview and a detail explanation of the 5 most important aspects of the Atlantic Slave Trade. First was the capture of slaves and the Middle Passage, the identities of the enslaved and their lives after captured, the economics of the slave trade, the struggle to end slavery, and the legacy of t...
From approximately 1526 to 1867 over twelve million kidnapped Africans were forced into the Transatlantic slave trade and shipped to the Americas, only a little over 10 million made it. The Transatlantic slave trade was a small segment of the popular global slave trading network and was responsible for the deaths of over two point two million future slaves. This mass kidnapping of oblivious Africans occurred across the Atlantic from the 16th to 19th century and was the second part of the “Triangular Trade”. The Triangular Trade or Triangle Trade was a trading system between Europe, Africa, and the North America in which commodities such as arms, slaves, sugar, and coffee were transported between the three nations (Lewis).
Social relationships were destroyed and reconstructed, while traditional values became suppressed. The social hierarchy became strained. Practically all relationships were changed, from kingdoms, to religious groups, to the very enslaved themselves. Societies were transformed and new forms of leadership were established in hopes of ensuring protection from merciless raiders. For the most part, the slave trade halted the progression for the majority of Africa. Many agree that the slave trade left the continent massively underdeveloped and disorganized. This is understandable considering that about figures as high as 15.4 millions of records are reported
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.
While many people think and talk about the positive impacts of Atlantic Slave trade on countries other than African countries, we should think of impacts that Atlantic Slave trade brought to people in African countries, too. The impact of the Atlantic Slave trade was greatest in Africa among three main continents that intervened in the trade, because Africa was severely harmed socially, economically and politically, rather than benefited from it. Millions of African people were sold as slaves to overseas and died during its harsh labor or while shipped. The Slave trade violated human rights of Africans. Among African regions, the effect was the greatest in West Africa since it supplied large numbers of captives to the New World. Selling millions
To start, I feel it is sad to know that the traders of Africa would sell their people into slavery. Sell their people's lives for goods and merchandise not realizing what they have to come.
In John Thornton’s “Africa’s Effect on the Slave Trade” he states how Africa may have been put in a weak state as the aftereffects of the trade, but how the African societies involved were also at fault because slave trade was already spreading throughout Africa. “Slavery was widespread in Africa, and its growth and development were largely independent of the Atlantic trade, except that insofar as the Atlantic commerce stimulated internal commerce and development it also led to more widespread holding of slaves.” African societies were already selling slaves within their societies and the Atlantic slave trade only made it spread out and grow. The Atlantic Slave Trade stimulated the internal trade of slaves until it grew out of hand. Thornton is analyzing how African leaders allowed slave trade to spread for a chance of better economy and political power, but the consequences of this action goes to the
Some of the effects of slavery in America were positive, but almost all of slavery’s impact in Africa was harmful. One major change in the areas that slaves were exported from is shown in demographics. Thousands of males were taken from their families and communities, and the tribes were expected to survive without many of their local leaders or role models. Not only did local tribes in Africa have hardships, but the leadership in many of the countries’ governments weren’t stable. The cruel trade demonstrated “how the external demand for slaves caused political instability, weakened states, promoted political and social fragmentation, and resulted in a deterioration of domestic legal institutions” (Nunn) in Africa. In addition to the crumbling political aspects of the tribes, there were cultural and native conflicts. Many wars and disagreements occurred, and those conflicts significantly slowed down development and economic growth in African countries
Towards the end of the nineteenth century, Africa was caught up in a sea of change. By 1880, the slave trade was all but abolished, thanks to many of the European powers. This resulted in an almost complete reshaping of the political, social, and economic landscape; the upper class of Africans that were participating in this horrendous trade had lost one of their biggest means of acquiring wealth. Luckily for the rest of the population, the goods that had a high market value: ivory, copal, cloves, beeswax, honey, wild coffee, peanuts, cotton, rubber, and palm oil, could be procured by simple gathering or agriculture practices. This led to “a more equitable distribution of wealth, especially in the rural areas” (Boahen, 4) because everyone, not just the ruling class, could participate in this up and coming economy. This, in turn, gave rise to the status of the average African, because now he could produce commodities for sale. Additionally, since there were no concerns about becoming a commodity himself he was free of the worry he might be enslaved and shipped off to some unknown land. But most of all, with the absence of slavery came a period of peace and stability because the rulers of various kingdoms ceased to participate in the wars and raids that furnished them with slaves. It is because of these factors that on the eve of colonial conquest and occupation by the European powers, Africa was on the rise, politically, socially, economically, and intellectually. It could therefore be postulated that if it were not for the imposition of the colonial system the nation states emerging at the time, or even the entire continent itself, would have become a formidable world power.
The New Imperialism and the Scramble for Africa 1880-1914. Jeff Taylor, n.d. Web. 19 Mar. 2014.