In the 15 to 17 century’s during the Age of Exploration, Europeans would explore unknown region of the world. Explorers had different reasons of discovering these places from wanting to go there their whole life to doing it for trade with goods or to make money. One thing all of these explorers have in common is conquering the land they find for themselves or their country. Others may argue they are just explorers and do it for the fun. Some argue they were just merchants trading slaves and goods with other countries around them and some say they are missionary’s trying to convert the native people to their religion.
From early on a white soft slavery workforce of indentured servants did most of the labor due to poor life expectancy, making it not worth the money investing in a slave and importing them if they were likely going to die. The colonists in Virginia had something that was very unique when it comes to the conversation of African slavery in America. Evidence exists to suggest than Virginia was even a multiracial society as there were some freed slaves from the south that moved to the region, owned property, and even sued other whites in court. But over time living conditions improved and the survival rate reached a point satisfactory enough for the elites to justify the importation of slaves more than indentured servants. Around the same time the first slave codes were established in the colony carving a lasting racial divide.
Transatlantic slave trade was in operation from 14th century though 19th centuries. In this paper, the writer will do an overview of slavery and its form in Africa with a particular focus on West Africa. The history of slave trade which was believed to have been made popular by the transatlantic slave trade will also be looked into after which slave trade and Christian mission will be put together and the effects of slave trade on Christian missions shall be highlighted. The slave masters did lot of things to the slaves that are so painful, some slave’s fingers, lips and tongues were cut. Some of them were killed and other buried alive.
One thing people seem to forget is slavery has been in existence since the times of ancient Greece, Rome, Africa and Byzantium but Britain changed the way the world perceived slavery. Although, the British didn't have a master plan for slavery, or any idea of this new-found land becoming United States of America, the idea of slavery throughout the world started with Columbus trip to "Hispaniola". Which he thought was Japan but ended up being what is now knows as Dominican Republic and Heidi. Columbus main goal on his exploration was to find goods and spread Christianity but ended up bringing six captive native men because he believed they "should be good and intelligent servants" (Clark, 8). Thus, harboring the Europeans very first slaves.
French colonists first introduced slavery in Louisiana in 1706. These first slaves were not imported from Africa, but were captives taken following French raids on Chitimacha Indian settlements. These raids consisted of killing the male population and enslaving the surviving women and children. Efforts to continue native slavery soon proved futile,
Then “slave factories” were used to sell people to save owners the trouble of going to Africa to find more people. Owners were able to carry out their crops at the expense of the people brought to America. After many years this created negative profiling and obstacles for underprivileged races. When people in Britain started developing their own opinions about slavery everything changed for England. A man named “Earl” decided that slavery would be illegal because it was not fair for people to own others.
Initially, slaves were exposed to either agricultural or domestic work. As a result of the slave trade and the spread of slavery, there was a large number of Africans working in Barcelona, Spain in the early 15th century. This created a leeway for the spread of slave trade across Europe, thereby leading to the distribution of Africans. Even though slaves were not crucial to the success of the European economy at that period, they were still in large numbers. Countries, such as Mali, practiced slave trade long before the Atlantic Slave Trade.
Most people in the world, at some point in their life, has learned something about slavery before. However, just like the Holocaust, there are some facts people are ignorant about. The secrets about slavery most people do not know is, enslavement of Africans occured because there was a massive demand for labor, people were benefitting for it, and also it was justified. In the late 1400s, Atlantic Slave Trade started within three continents; North America, Europe, and Africa. Which resulted in the exchangement of ten million Africans to the Americas.
This all started with the slave trade during the 16th century to the 19th century where the British would go and take Africans into the Americas and sold them to white Americans. They would be put to work in plantations and other places with little to no money and would have to live and work under harsh conditions. These people would be stripped from their homes and lives in African in order to be put to work as slaves in America. Slavery was the act of naming a person as property, as well as owning and selling someone as property. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, slavery was used in order to build our economy in our nation.
However, slaves in the ancient world also could possibly be treated quite well. While the helots of Sparta and the slaves of Ancient Rome were treated much like slaves in the United States, subject to constant whipping and branding, punishment, slaves in other parts of Ancient Greece might be seen as a welcome part of the family. They might be allowed to live outside of the family house, make money themselves after completing work for their masters (though the profits had to be split with their owner), and may even be buried with their master’s family when they died. These slaves could be immensely loyal to their masters, so much so that, if required to testify in court, their testimony must be obtained through torture or else they may lie to protect their master. In contrast, the slaves of the United States, Ancient Rome, and Sparta were subjected to extreme cruelty.