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

European powers set up colonies in the Americas. This changed the world. One example of this was the drastic 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, as did early states in China and India. Slavery also existed in some parts of Africa before to the arrival of Europeans. In these cultures, though, the enslaved were treated more like a social class. The enslaved could gain their freedom and become part of new communities. They were not treated like non-human property, as in the transatlantic slave trade.

In the Middle Ages, the slave trade brought many enslaved people from Africa to the Muslim world. There were twice as many enslaved females as men. (The opposite would later be true in the Americas.) Many enslaved people had to work as servants or sex slaves.

These early forms of slavery certainly caused great pain and suffering. The transatlantic slave trade was entirely different, though. It 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 justifications 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 slave traders sent more enslaved people to European colonies, 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 expanded in 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. A new slave was brought over for ever one that died.

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 fiercely protected their trading rights in Africa. They made a lot of money from the slave trade. This wealth would 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 on these ships were unimaginably cruel. They were so bad that 15 percent of enslaved people died during the two-to-three-month journey. Forced between decks at night, they 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 in the same manner as the corpses. There is little about these journeys that isn’t horrifying to recall.

In good weather, the captives were brought to the top deck for exercise, but their chains stayed on. They were fed nothing but mushy beans until the ship closed in on its destination. At that point they were fed some meat and more calories to try to undo signs of malnourishment. Sellers did not do this out of kindness, but rather in order to get a better price. Eventually the slaves were brought to shore and sold. Upon arrival at the home of their new owner, this impossibly harsh journey was over, and new horrors awaited them.