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Recommended: Effects of European colonization on Africa

There are considerable differences between the European Slave Trade and the type of servitude that occurred within African culture, sure they both consisted of a man being stripped of his freedom, but the degree to which that freedom was taken is the key difference. Europeans drove the slave trade and turned it into a well oiled machine to fuel their discovery of new lands and demand for trade, whereas in the African culture slaves were not actually the “slaves” we think of but rather indentured servers who had basic human rights. The details of the dissimilarity and similarities will be further discussed.
Slavery in Africa existed long before the influx of Europeans, they practiced it in a much more ethical and civilized manner, however. They were compared to being the same status as serfs in Europe, which leads me to question why the Europeans allowed people of the same “class” to be treated so differently. Many of the texts I analyzed, more specifically stated in the article titled “Atlantic Crossing” by the USI, explains “Within the continent, ethical conventions had for centuries governed the taking of people to use as slaves, whose status, in most cases, resembled that of the serfs of Europe more than the chattel of the Americas.” African slaves should be more properly referred to as indentured servants, or a person who signs and is bound by indentures to work for another for a specified time especially in return for payment of travel expenses, maintenance, etc (Merriam Webster) they were not objects to be bought, sold, and worked to death like a mule, but human beings who were to be treated with respect. African servants were allowed to own land, earn wage, marry, have children, buy their own freedom, and even move up soc...

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...in Thomas Tobin likened the conditions on board his ship to those a ‘nursery in any private family’ where the crew busied themselves ‘making everything as comfortable as could possibly be for the slaves’” (Atlantic Crossing). Obviously we know that this is a very far stretch from the truth. European’s reasoning for the slave trade has many motives but the main one was for growth, and they did not necessarily think about the future when they embarked on this magnificent trade of human beings throughout the world. It left devastating effects to the continent of Africa and changed the culture forever.
The differences between the two types of slavery are greater than the similarities. It can be inferred that African servitude was much less shattering than the European Slave Trade, as the effects are still surrounding us in our culture, politics, economy, and socially.

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