The transatlantic slave trade is one of the most important events in the history of the American continent. Millions of people’s destinies were predetermined by the reckless actions of others. The social, economic, and cultural consequences of the transatlantic slavery for both Africa and African diaspora in Americas are reflected in today’s society.
The Atlantic slave trade was a system founded on human cruelty and exploitation motivated by economic greed, social deviance, and psychological and moral turpitude. As the Europeans voyaged to the “New World,” they stole Africans from their native home to work for free as slaves. Europeans robbed Africans of their families, homes, and culture. Ironically, as the Europeans willingly voyaged to the Americas for freedom, Blacks were forced to accompany them as their slaves. This system of trade began with the Spanish and Portuguese voyage to the New World. They traveled to the Western coast of Africa to collect slaves to perform free labor.
Introduction To African American Studies described the captured African’s voyage to the Americas:
On the voyage to the New World, Blacks were packed like sardines below the main deck of the slave vessels and chained together by their legs, wrists, or necks. Sickness and epidemics often afflicted the enslaved Africans cargo and crew. Extreme heat compounded the foulness of the air. Naked men and women lay for hours and days in their own defecation, blood, and mucus, which covered the floors. Thousands committed suicide or died from harsh and cruel treatment and punishment. Resistance, revolt, and mutiny were not uncommon, and thousands died in such attempts (Anderson, 2007, pg. 52).
The conditions on the boats were unbearable. “Europeans employed specious moral arguments of racial inferiority based on color to rationalize the enslavement of African people” (Anderson, 2007, pg. 51). It is estimated between 1650 and 1860, approximately 10 to 15 million enslaved people were brought from West Africa to the Americas. “The overwhelming majority of... immigrants groups came to America in pursuit of political freedom and economic opportunity, the African presence in America, in contrast, was based on economic exploitation and the denial of freedom” (Anderson, 2007, pg. 1).
The Atlantic slave trade affected the political and economic destinies of millions of people and of many countries other than the United States (Anderson, 2007, pg. 5). The removal of Africans from their homeland left African countries in mourning and poverty. “The economic and industrial development of Europe was substantially based and dependent on the plantation economies of the New World and the West Indies” (Anderson, 2007, pg. 51). European settlers were able to thrive financially due to the free labor and increased goods caused by the transatlantic slave trade. “During the seventeenth century, the British slave colonies produced more than a fourth of all British imports and exports of merchandise and agriculture” (Anderson, 2007, pg. 51). The British economy was highly dependent on slavery. During this time there was a high demand for workers to sustain agriculture of the new land and new commercial markets, thus a high demand for enslaved Africans. This cycle intensified the Atlantic slave trade.
“The actual number of captive Africans transported to the Americas and West Indies cannot be determined” (Anderson, 2007, pg. 51). While millions of slaves died in transport, it is estimated that over ten million survived the voyages. “The period of the slave trade extended for more than four centuries” (Anderson, 2007, pg. 51). It is said that African chiefs and rulers were compliant with Europeans in the initial stages of trade, however once they discovered the inhumane conditions and results of the trade, it was far too late to stop. Introduction to African Studies states, “When African societies awakened and became conscious of the magnitude and horrors of slave marketing to their own societies, it was too late. The naval, military, and weapons superiority of the Europeans rendered Africans helpless to end the trade. The English, French, and Dutch established trading posts or forts along the coast of West Africa to facilitate and defend this sordid trade” (Anderson, 2007, pg. 51)
The British invented the highly efficient and profitable triangular trade, a three-way system of profit. They exchanged goods produced in the slave colonies for more enslaved Africans, which, in turn, were sold and traded for sugar and tobacco destined for English ports (Anderson, 2007, pg. 51).
“If the demand and markets for sugar, tobacco, cotton, and condiments had not existed, slavery on such a vast scale would not have developed. If morality had triumphed over markets, there would have been no slave trade” (Anderson, 2007, pg. 51).
Anderson, Talmadge & Stewart, James. 2007. Introduction to African American Studies: Transnational Approaches and Implications. Baltimore: Black Classic Press.
Images retrieved from:
http://www.lib.washington.edu/subject/History/BI/hist498-smallwood/
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