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 The evidence and historical documents will show some of the economic and social impacts the Slave Trade had on the African continent.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
... The Economic History Review, by Behrendt, Stephen D. David Eltis, David Richardson that stated, “…second impact of Africans that goes beyond violence on slave ships followed from the natural Africans assumption of equal status in the trading relationship…came in the wake of holding Europeans…”(Source 9). The result of considering the equal status between the Africans and the Europeans from Africa’s point of view was the Atlantic slave trade which millions of African people’s live had been jeopardized and their fate had been seal to work in the fields for the rest of their lives.
In this article, Hawthorne examined some scholars who as written about the African slave trade with information produced from the Slave Ships record .e.g. David Eltis, Stephen Behrendt, David Richardson, and Herbert Klein’s 1999 The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and the postmodern inventory records in Maranhao from 1767 to 1832. In the course of examining the scholarly articles, Hawthorne concluded that the information in those articles didn’t give details of where precisely in Africa Slaves came from. Information recorded in the Slave
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...
In the “Interpretive Essay”, Kenneth Banks discuses the consequences of the Atlantic slave trade. The negative effects on the Africans due to the Atlantic slave trade range from the influence on Africans societies and warfare, inhumane and atrocious living and working conditions, decrease of their population, and the long-term impact of bigotry. During the Atlantic save trade’s peak, the movement to abolish slavery started because it went against certain religious beliefs, several thinkers saw it as inefficient, and was unethical.
One of the most significant catalysts of the system was the growth of the Atlantic slave trade. The success sugar plantations of the West Indies and the colonial expansions in South America would not have been possible without African slave labor. Although African slaves were expensive, approximately equivalent to 6.5 thousand USD in today’s currency , compared to natives or indentured servants from Europe, they were seen as a better investment. The mercantilist policies of European states such as England and the Netherl...
Every year, more and more money is donated to Africa to promote democracy in order to get rid of the powerful coups in many countries through out the continent. While the coups are declining and democratic governments are being established, the economic growth and development of Africa is not anywhere it should be considering the abundant natural resources and coastline that the continent possesses. Even though countries, like the United States of America, donate millions of dollars they are a large reason why Africa is underdeveloped 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.(
Slavery has been used throughout history but the African slave trade of the seventeenth and eighteenth century is the most brutish known to history. It was unique in three major ways. The amount of slaves being traded was tremendous. More than eleven million African slaves were “shipped” to the New World between 1519 and 1867. Of these eleven million, only 9.5 million reached the sure because of disease and extremely poor traveling accommodations.
In the seventeenth century, slaves became the major focus of trade between Africa and other parts of the world, namely the Americas and Europe. This was known as the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The trans-Atlantic slave trade was an involuntary voyage of Africans from their homeland, across the Atlantic Ocean, to the New World. The trans-Atlantic slave trade caused the deportation of millions of Africans to the Western hemisphere of the world. Millions of captives were shipped to their destinations performing hard labor under terrible conditions. The slave trade was horrific, and the enslavement of the Africans was cruel and dehumanizing. Throughout the world of trans-Atlantic slave trade, the Americas, Europe and Africa were connected, playing
Slavery is one of the biggest global issues that have been impacting many lives of African-Americans. Long ago during the 16th century the very first slave ship arrived in the Americas. On the dock of Jamestown, Virginia 1619.( 3 ). During the 16th century 11,363,000 African Americans were shipped across the Atlantic Ocean. (Facts about the slave Trade and Slavery). Slave exports grew to 36,000 slaves annually during the seventeen hundreds to almost 80,000 slaves a year during the eighteen hundreds. (Facts about the slave Trade and Slavery) This was just the begging for slavery all around the globe.
Anytime we hear the word “slavery”, we tend to think of the Southern United States during the Pre-Civil War era. What many people don’t know, is that this horrible act has occurred worldwide! The term “slavery” has many different definitions, and has occurred all throughout our world history. It wasn’t until the early 18th century that the thought of anti-slavery came about. Many economic, social, and technological forces have played a part in the decline of slavery around the globe.
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...
This class was filled with riveting topics that all had positive and negative impacts on Africa. As in most of the world, slavery, or involuntary human servitude, was practiced across Africa from prehistoric times to the modern era (Wright, 2000). The transatlantic slave trade was beneficial for the Elite Africans that sold the slaves to the Western Europeans because their economy predominantly depended on it. However, this trade left a mark on Africans that no one will ever be able to erase. For many Africans, just remembering that their ancestors were once slaves to another human, is something humiliating and shameful.
Slavery, like many ill-fated and evil inventions reached epidemic levels in early Europe and the American colonies. The history of slavery is documented most acutely during the period when slaves first arrived to the new land and when the colonies had first developed into the fledging United States of America. This would lead us to believe that slavery had not existed before this period or that the consequences and relevance of it had little historical, social, or economical importance. While some of this might be true, the act of enslaving other human being has existed for hundreds of before the Europeans ever reached and explored the continent of Africa. Proponents of slavery could argue that it is just a natural step in the evolution and development of civilized man. Historic data revealed that the African people form of enslavement on one another was drastically different then European and American way. Although slavery as we know it has been abolished, the consequences have had and will surely have everlasting effects on you, me and the future of every child
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.
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