RSSAfrican Slaves – The Side Of African History
Nov 19
Africa About Africa, Africa, African culture, African History, African movies, African people, African Slaves No Comments
It’s sad to realize that such a large part of African history relates to the African slave trade. This was the unfortunate era during which African men, women and children were ripped from their homes and sold to serve as slaves in other regions of the world.
The transatlantic slave trade period began when it became clear that Europe’s burgeoning New World colonies would require a large workforce. The European colonists soon discovered that large numbers of African slaves would be perfect. Familiar with agricultural principals as well as cattle management, the Africans brought over were also accustomed to working in tropical climates. From the 15th century on, African people were captured and brought to the Americas to work in the mines or on the large farms and plantations that were being established there.
Surprisingly, using African slaves was not a new idea. African slavery had been going on for centuries, and it was not solely the brainchild of evil European colonizers. Sadly, from about -1450 to the end of the’ th century, African monarchs and merchants cooperated fully with slave traders. Believe it or not, these privileged Africans were actually willing participants in the African slave trade.
The transatlantic slave trade operated a bit differently than many people think. It was an integral part of what was known as the “Triangular Trade,” a very profitable three-step practice. The Triangular Trade’s first step involved the importation of European manufactured goods into Africa. European metal goods, beads, tobacco and other goods were brought into Africa, then traded for African slaves. Even guns were involved, because they helped the Europeans expand their empires and catch more slaves. That particular practice backfired later, when the guns were turned against their former European owners.
The slaves were then shipped to the Americas as the second part of the Triangular Trade. The third and final stage of the trade was that a return to Europe was made with products from plantations run by slave labor, such as molasses, tobacco, cotton and sugar. When transatlantic slave trade began, slaves were first taken from Senegambia and the Windward Coast, and then moved to West Central Africa in Angola and the Congo in the 1650s.
Portugal was the first European country to trade in African slaves, and it was also the last to abolish slavery. Although Portugal was the only country involved in the slave trade between -1440 and about 1640, other colonial empires eventually jumped in. Britain became the largest slave-trading country during the peak of the transatlantic slave trade. During this tragic era in African history, Britain alone transported 2.5 million African slaves out of the roughly 6 million total.
Horrific conditions caused an extremely high death rate among African slaves. Forced marches through Africa and terrible shipboard conditions caused the death of roughly -13% of all African slaves before they arrived at their destinations. The unfortunate survivors were shipped to the Caribbean, different parts of the Spanish Empire and Brazil. Less than 5% of all African slaves were shipped to North America.
Slavery’s effects continue to be felt today, and not just because descendents of African slaves remain scattered throughout the world through their ancestors’ forced slavery and not because of choice. African American author and activist Maulana Karenga called the effects of the African slave trade “the morally monstrous destruction of human possibility involved redefining African humanity to the world, poisoning past, present and future relations with others who only know us through this stereotyping and thus damaging the truly human relations among people of today.” He has said, in fact, that African slavery destroyed not just the people of that time but in fact the language, the culture, the religion — and the very essence of “human possibility.
You can learn more about African history and African slaves by watching the African Side movie. Visit the African Side website today by clicking on any of the links above to see the movie trailer.
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