Slavery remains one of the key concepts that historians study. It is one of the old human activities in almost all parts of the world. One of the major slavery in Africa and its adjacent region is the trans-Atlantic trade. About 15 million people were moved from Africa to other continents during the Tran-Atlantic trades. This paper seeks to analyze the beginning, progression, and the end of the Trans-Atlantic trade.
Prior to 15th century, Africa had been involved in trade with the Europeans. The goods traded majority included salt and gold across the Sahara desert. The demand for gold in Europe was too high leading to an intensives economic activity between the two regions. At this time, the European depended on “middle men” who brought gold from the kingdoms in West Africa across the Sahara desert. This continued until 15th century when Prince Henry of Portugal undertook to establish direct sea routes in order to access the gold directly from the kingdoms in West Africa, and also establish trade routes with Asia. In particular, during the 15th century, Europe was seeking trade routes to Asia, especially the Spice Islands in the south –East Asia. At this time, Spain had sponsored Christopher Columbus to establish sea routes to Asia. The ambition of Prince Henry to establish gold trade routes with West Africa ended up becoming a network of slave trade for over four hundred years (“Exploring Africa,n.d ).
The trade occurred in a form of a triangle. The triangle involved the European moving to West African coast where they bought people, and then they travel to America and the Caribbean Islands where they sold the people into slavery to work in farms. There was high mortality of the slaves as the journey took between 6 to 8 weeks. Then Europeans then went to Europe with goods produced by the slaves such as tobacco, rice, sugar, coffee, and cotton. The slaves were sold in auctions were the buyers would bid for the slaves. The demand for the salves was very high (Hakim Adi, 2012). They were never enough since the economic activities in America were expanding. The sales prepared the slaves for sale by washing them, shaving, and rubbed the bodies with palm oil to disguise wounds and sores caused by the bad conditions on board the ships.
During the Middle voyages, the slaves on board were stripped naked, examined by the captain or a surgeon. The slaves were kept in the deck and tied with leg irons. The space was small and the number of slaves many making them to lie or crouch most of the time. Children and women were kept in different sections, either in the deck or other quarters. They were exposed to sexual abuse and violence from the crew. The sanitation was very poor making the slaves vulnerable to diseases. Frequent bouts of fever, small pox, and dysentery affected them. For two months, some could not survive. They were fed twice in a day and sometimes brought out to exercise. One in every five slave died during the Middle voyages and their bodies thrown overboard. The situation was very bad such that the British and the French had to enact laws to regulate the conditions on board limiting the number of slaves in one ship. It is important to note that the crew also suffered from the diseases. Sometimes the captain of the ship sold the slaves directly to planters or specialized wholesale traders.
The trade triangle adopted from the International Slavery Museum (the dots show the route used in the Trans-Atlantic trade).
The end of the Trans-Atlantic trade came due to various reasons. After over 400 hundred years, there was an increasing public revulsion of the slave trade in early 19th century. The public had enough of the inhumane way the slaves were captured, transported, sold, and treated. Olaudah Equiano, born in the current Nigeria is one for the few slaves in America who significantly contributed to the public awareness on slavery and the revulsion that followed. He bought his freedom from America and wrote books on his experience as a slave catching the attention of the public.
In addition, between 1801 and 1803, there was a successful revolt by the slaves in the Caribbean Island, especially in Haiti. The revolt shook the whole of America as they came to realize slavery may not continue for long. In 1884, Haiti became the first black republican in the world under the leadership of Toussaint Louverture, and one among the first republics to abolish slave trade. The industrial revolution in Europe that was occurring concurrently with the slave trade experienced an increased demands for free labor as opposed to slave labour. More mobile labor increased leading to changes in slave trade. By 1807, Britain Ended slave trade. United States, Holland, and France banned slavery later ending the Trans-Atlantic trade.
Works cited
Hakim Adi. Africa and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. 2012. Accessed from http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/abolition/africa_article_01.shtml on November 22, 2014.
Exploring Africa. “Unit Two: Studying Africa through the Social Studies: Module 7B: African History, the Era of Global Encroachment. Student's Edition.” Accessed from http://exploringafrica.matrix.msu.edu/students/curriculum/m7b/activity1.php on November 22, 2014
International Slavery Museum. “The trade triangle.” Accessed from http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ism/slavery/triangle.aspx on November 22, 2014
