The History of Africa and the Transatlantic Slave Trade Era

It's an unfortunate fact that a major part ofrun by slave labor, such as molasses, tobacco,
African history concerns the slave trade era,cotton and sugar. When transatlantic slave trade
when African slaves were taken from theirbegan, slaves were first taken from Senegambia
homes to be slaves in other parts of the world.and the Windward Coast, and then moved to
The transatlantic slave trade era in African historyWest Central Africa in Angola and the Congo in
began when European empires began to flourish inthe 1650s.
the New World but needed a workforce. AfricanFrom 1440 about 1640, Portugal was actually the
slaves were brought over to do the work, andonly country to export African slaves.
were found to be "excellent workers" -- they hadInterestingly, they were also the last country in
knowledge of cattle management and withEurope to abolish the institution of slavery,
agriculture, and they were used to working inalthough it continued to utilize slaves as contract
tropical climates. So, beginning around the 15thlaborers even after that practice was defunct.
century, people were captured from Africa andBritain was the worst transgressor during the
then brought to the New World to work in minesheight of the slave trade and during this difficult
or on plantations.time in African history, though, with 2.5 million of
It might surprise you to know that Africanthe roughly 6 million slaves transported during that
slavery was not actually new to Africa, and hadtime directly Britain's responsibility.
actually been going on for centuries by that timeAfrican slaves were under terrible conditions
-- nor was it the sole brainchild of evil Europeans.during forced marches along the coast and during
In fact, from about 1450 to the end of the 19ththe beginning of the transport; it's estimated that
century, African kings and merchants actuallyfully 13% of them died before ever reaching their
were fully cooperative with slave traders anddestinations. Most African slaves were shipped to
were willing participants in the slave trade process.the Caribbean, the Spanish Empire, and Brazil, with
What made the transatlantic slave trade uniqueless than 5% traveling to North America.
was that it was specifically done for theSlavery's effects continue to be felt today, and
"Triangular Trade" that proved very profitable fornot just because descendents of African slaves
merchants. With this, the first stage involvedremain scattered throughout the world through
manufactured goods taken from Europe totheir ancestors' forced slavery and not because
Africa, such as metal goods, guns, beads,of choice. African American author and activist
tobacco, cloth, and so on. Guns, too, wereMaulana Karenga called the effects of the African
included in the trade specifically because they canslave trade "the morally monstrous destruction of
help the Europeans expand empires and get morehuman possibility involved redefining African
slaves, although this would later backfire andhumanity to the world, poisoning past, present
those firearms would be used against Europeanand future relations with others who only know
colonizers. The goods that were taken to Africaus through this stereotyping and thus damaging
were traded for African slaves.the truly human relations among people of today."
The slaves were then shipped to the Americas asHe has said, in fact, that African slavery
the second part of the Triangular Trade. The thirddestroyed not just the people of that time but in
and final stage of the trade was that a return tofact the language, the culture, the religion -- and
Europe was made with products from plantationsthe very essence of "human possibility.