Pre-Columbian Slave Trade (Pre-Sixteenth Century CE)

European powers set up colonies in the Americas. European powers set up colonies in the Americas. This changed the world. One example of this was the enslavement of humans from Africa. Today, it is known as a crime against humanity. It is typically known under the name “the transatlantic slave trade”.

Slavery dates back to some of the earliest societies. The Athenians and Romans had slavery. So did early states in China and India. Slavery also existed in some parts of Africa before to the arrival of Europeans. Slavery in these cultures was different, though. Enslaved people were seen as a social class. It was also possible to gain freedom. Slavery during colonialism was far worse. Enslaved people were seen as non-human property. They were trapped in a system that was larger in scale, crueller, and more violent than anything that came before it.

Origins and overview of the transatlantic slave trade (sixteenth to nineteenth century CE)

The transatlantic slave trade was the result of European colonialism in the Americas. Colonies created an explosion in demand for labor. Spaniards and Portuguese did not want to do the work, though. European diseases had wiped out indigenous populations. As a result, Europeans looked to Africa for a new source of workers.

Africans were thought to be a good fit for work in the Americas. They were unfamiliar with the land, so it was harder for them to escape. They were also mostly resistant to European diseases. Historians still debate how large a role race played at the time. Later on, racist ideas about Africans were used as an excuse for slavery. Other reasons included religion and concepts of “civilization”.

Enslaved people started being traded across the Atlantic around 1526. Before it was over, about 12.5 million Africans were taken from the coast of Africa to the Americas. About 2.5 million of those died during the voyage.

Europe’s demand for more slaves was endless. To find more victims, slave traders from the coasts journeyed into the interior of Africa. They used their military advantage to take advantage of communities there. It is true that many of those doing the enslaving were themselves Africans. However, European demand and wealth is what drove the entire system.

As people were stolen from their homes, many communities in Africa simply fell apart. The chaos was then used by Europeans as an excuse for more enslavement.

Another effect was increased warfare between African nations. The slave trade encouraged African leaders to attack their neighbors. Fighting in wars let them take prisoners. Prisoners could then be sold as slaves.

Over time, the transatlantic slave trade became focused on sugar. Sugar plantations took over Brazil and the Caribbean. They made huge amounts of money. They required endless amounts of hard, painful work, though. Millions of enslaved people were sent there. By the 1800s, more than eight out of every ten enslaved people were sent to either Brazil or the Caribbean. In Brazil, their expectancy was just twenty-three years. The high death rate only increased demand for slave trading.

While ships carried enslaved people from Africa to the Americas, other ships brought materials from the Americas to Europe. This generated more production and wealth. Europeans used this wealth to trade for more slaves. Thus, the triangular trade was born.

Europeans protected their trading rights in Africa. This was because the slave trade made them very wealthy. This wealth would also help to bring about the Industrial Revolution, which first began in Europe.

Middle Passage

The leg of the triangular trade linking Africa to the Americas was called the Middle Passage. This was a journey across miles of ocean. It usually began in ports along the western coasts of Africa. That is where 12.5 million enslaved Africans were shipped to plantations.

They came from many different communities within Africa. Some of them were transported across more 1,000 miles of land. They were marched toward the coasts and put in castle-like prisons. These castles were known as “Points of No Return.” They were the last places in Africa that almost all of those who entered would see. From there, they were put on ships bound for the other side of the world.

Conditions were unimaginably cruel. They were so bad that 15 percent of enslaved people died during the journey. Enslaved people were chained together and stacked like luggage. Each captive had less space than a body in a coffin. If someone became sick, he or she was usually tossed overboard. There is little about these journeys that isn’t horrifying to recall.

When they reached the shore, captives were usually fed some meat. It was not out of kindness. Traders wanted to prepare them for sale.

Eventually, they were brought to shore and sold. After that, new horrors awaited them.