When you think of the African slave trade, do you realize that over 10 million people were removed from that continent in less than 500 years? Some scholars believe it may be as large a number as 20 million.1 I would like to pose a few questions and attempt to answer them in this collection of writings and opinions. The evidence and historical documents will show some of the economic and social impacts the Slave Trade had on the African continent.
The first thing that needs to be established is just how many slaves were brought to the Americas. This has proven to be quite difficult at best. There have been many scholars debate just this subject alone. As you will see, many well known scholars have problems justifying their own estimations or guesses.
A quick study of Philip D. Curtin’s work: From Guesses to Calculations: Shows his writings are a compilation of bits-n-pieces of information from previously thought of unimportant publishing’s. His sole purpose was to try to determine a more accurate account of the number of people brought over from what parts of Africa and to what final location. He goes on to make it clear his findings should not be construed as being accurate or to be relied upon with any degree of certainty: but rather an accuracy range of about 20% approximations.
“It should also be understood that some estimates would not even reach that standard of accuracy. They are given as the most probable figures at the present state of knowledge. These considerations have made it convenient to round out most quantities to the nearest one hundred, including data taken from other authors...”
By the following chart you can see clearly the late eighteenth century was the apex of the slave trade, as described by Philip Curtin. You can clearly see that over 60% of all slaves delivered to the New World were brought over between 1721-1820. Eighty per cent of the total were landed during a century and a half, 1701-1850. 2 I suppose one could find a similar spike in the sugar trade of the Americas, as well as the Rum exports from the colonies and the firearm exports from Europe.
A variety of Opinions
One conclusion that might be drawn is that, in reducing the estimated total export of slaves from about twenty million to about ten million, the harm to African societies is also reduced by half. This is obvious nonsense.
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...rice of the transatlantic slave trade on Africa was absolutely devastating. Not only was there a massive shortage of young women and men especially, but also the future potential of the continent was essentially gone. Many of the young men and women would die before reaching the New World. Thus not being given the chance to hand down their own culture to their children. Their culture was rarely a written culture, but an oral culture. A major factor that must be understood is what is called by some as the “brain drain” Which is considered a by-product of the Triangle Trade of the time. Craftsman, Warriors, politicians, Artist, Princes, Healers, Farmers, and Musician were all sent to be slaves by their enemies, both personal and political or even coincidental. All to serve the white masters on their sugar, cotton, and tobacco plantations on the other side of the world.5
Slavery does still persist. The reports of the United Nations International Labor Organizations, the British Anti-Slavery Society, and the U.S. Department of State show there still is large margin of slavery going on in the Northwestern (Mauritania) and in the Sudan region. The past isn’t dead: it’s not even past. 6
Exchange- the Columbian Exchange term is, described as the massive worldwide trade of animals, plants, foods, and slaves. Christopher Columbus first voyage launched an era of extensive contact between the Old and New Worlds that resulted in the ecological revolution. The Columbian Exchange is important because, it affected every society on earth, by bringing devastating diseases that depopulated many cultures. 2) Spanish Inquisition- the Spanish inquisition term is, described as a group of people
The Atlantic slave trade was abolished by the British parliament in 1807. This caused great problems for West African slave traders who had witnessed a period of vast growth in the industry towards the end of the eighteenth century. They now had to focus on more lawful, legitimate means of trading. The types of industry that often replaced the slave trade were produce based, agricultural goods such as palm oil. The potential problems faced by traders were ‘exacerbated by the fact that it coincided
economically. The Trans-Atlantic Slave trade is the most devastating event in the history of the world. Nearly 14,000,000 men, women, and children were displaced, sold into slavery, and killed by the trade routes.(
elsewhere for laborers. It is then, within the British colonies, do the colonists turn to the enslavement of Africans. Although Native Americans were readily available and were initially numerous, Africans became the primary slave used in the colonies because the Native American slaves could not fill the colonists' labor needs, while the Africans did. Before the subsequent enslavement of Africans, the Europeans, or the English specifically, tried to enslave the natives of America. English colonists could
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
forever. Millions and millions of slaves from all over the continent of Africa were being shipped over to Brazil and Cuba. There are many similarities and differences in slavery terms between Brazil and Cuba, primarily focusing on agricultural production. Sugar production was very important during this time, both Brazil and Cuba proposed in this production. The two countries shared more similarities in terms of the production of agriculture and what they used the slaves for. They had more differences
overview of the encounter between Africans and Europeans from 140-1850. Africans played a huge role of the globalizing of cultural and economic transactions. The first encounters between the two continents were mutual. Both parties tried to gain from each other through their transactions. The purpose of this book is to inform readers that we shouldn’t look at Africans as the victim, rather as an active contributor in the African-European relation. Early encounters of Africans in the Western world and Europeans
The Triangular Trade was the fundamental foundation of many economic and social developments of this nation. However, this historical turning point in America’s history did not develop overnight. In Africa, the practice of enslavement had been occurring internally for centuries, but as the Triangular Trade developed between the Old World and New World, the slave labor system transformed and began to become an integral part of many nation’s economic systems. As the demand for agricultural products
Slavery is a condition in which humans became a property of other people in terms of being owned, bought and sold by others and forced to work without any payment. The history of slavery holds to the hunter and gatherer societies. There was infrequent slavery in Pre-Agrarian societies and the main slavery growth occurred in Neolithic Revolution which is the period of invention of agriculture, about 11.000 years ago because of the requirements in high population density and economic surplus. Slavery
Traditional African-American Soul Food Many African-Americans consume what is known as “soul food”, for which, it is very popular within the black community. Soul food is an African-American cuisine that can be traced back as far as African, however, the term itself was not coined until the mid-1960s. It also comprise an important element of the cuisine of the general American south. Soul food was adopted and modify during the African slave trade and it was during this time food African cuisine and
In July 1839, fifty-four African captives boarded the Amistad and head to the Americas. During their journey, they were able to break free of their chains and take over the ship. Despite their best efforts to sail back to Africa, they were once again captured and put on trial in the United States. Due to the current progress of the abolishment of slave trafficking, all that were captured on the Amistad were set free. However, this was not the fortune of millions of slaves both before and after the
fifteenth century, the transatlantic slave trade refers to the process of trading goods for slaves. It was the practice in which African people were captured and exploited in labour, which provided mainly for the increasing consumerism of the developing new world. Africans were imported to America under the terms that they would benefit the uprising of America and the nation’s impression as a new colony in an international setting. However, conditions suffered by Africans through chattel slavery in America
The African slaves history spans nearly every culture, nationality, and religion in both Western countries and Africa countries from the ancient times to the present day. Considerately, the social, economic and legal position that slaves had was vastly different in various systems of slavery in the different periods and places, especially around the 18th century. When making a trace of slavery, records show that it can be traced back to 1760 BC. African slavery was known in civilizations as
amendment made all slaves U.S. citizens. Even though the Union’s victory gave millions of Blacks their
The Journey of Olaudah (An Informative Text on the Slave Trade) The North American Slave Trade began when slave traders started to kidnap people of all ages from West Africa. They were forced to endure unspeakable horrors on their trek across the Atlantic as well as when they were finally sold into slavery in the Americas. Olaudah Equiano was one of the few Africans to document his experience on paper, and have his two volume autobiography published. The journey Olaudah suffers through showed the