African slave trade

From ArticleWorld

The African slave trade occurred all over the continent for thousands of years. The most detrimental slave trade was the trans-Atlantic slave trade, which began in the sixteenth century and continued till the mid-nineteenth century.

Early slave trading

The introduction of camels to East Africa in the tenth century encouraged the growth of the trans-Sahara slave trade. From the tenth to nineteenth century, about 6,000 to 7,000 Africans a year were transported to North Africa. Intermarriage among the slaves and natives was common and helped for the people to assimilate. Slaves were commonly servants in the home, with women acting as chambermaids and men as eunuchs.

The Indian Ocean slave trade came to Africa in the ninth century. Slaves were sold in the Middle East and India and numbers were rather low (ranging from a few thousand to tens of thousands per a year) when compared to the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

West Africans enslaved their war prisoners. Kings of Bight of Biafra (present-day Senegal and Benin) are believed to have sold the first Africans into European slavery in the sixteenth century in exchange for animals and rum. A Portuguese explorer, Antao Goncalves, is believed to have taken the first slaves to help with sugar plantation on the Sao Tome islands.

Trans-Atlantic slave trade

The colonization of North and South Americas led to a severe labor shortage in the areas. Europeans had previously tried to enslave Native Americans, but most succumbed to diseases such as smallpox. Noting both the practice of West Africans to enslaved captured people and the Indian Ocean slave trade, Europeans began the trans-Atlantic slave trade in the sixteenth century.

More than 12 million African slaves were moved across the Atlantic Ocean and traded in South America, the Caribbean, and southern coast of present-day United States.

The majority of the enslaved Africans were traded or captured in West Coast of Africa, where England ran the Royal African Company.

Experts have argued back and forth about the economic effects the large trans-Atlantic slave trade had on Africa. Some argue that it had an overall negative impact on the continent, but more recently scholars are arguing about positive outcomes. The trans-Atlantic slave trade provided West Africa with economic benefits in the way of guns, cloth, and metals. The importance of slaves for trade also significantly decreased the number of human sacrifices and capital punishments.

England abolished slavery in 1807, but the trans-Atlantic slave trade continued illegally in heavy force for another 60 years. From 1815 to 1865, the British Royal Navy posted antislavery patrols off the west coast of Africa. The British also encouraged Spain and Portugal to abolish slavery. The trans-Atlantic slave trade finally came to an end around 1870.