The world has a rich history of slavery extending from the past to present day. Although present day slavery is seen for the most part as an abomination to human life, the past tells a tale of a different story; a story that often seems as though slavery was justified and accepted. This paper seeks to provide a brief history of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. It is intended to help educate the reader and develop a perspective on whether or not slavery was a justifiable commodity given the time period. Alternately, it may lead to the conclusion that the triangular trade route was developed by early day entrepreneurs whose intellectual dishonestly allowed the slave trade practice to prevail for centuries.
For this essay, slavery refers to the forced bondage of Africans within the West Indies, as carried out by European nations such as Britain, Spain, France and Portugal. Though each nation entered into the trade of West African slaves at different times, they all did so in pursuit of cheap labour to work the fields in the West Indies that provided Europe with sugar, tobacco and cotton, to name a few of the luxury items produced by colonies as well as the taxes that governments levied against those in the colonies to fatten the government purse. The reasoning and timing of the abolition of slavery is varied across the nations that participated in the trade, each nation’s particular circumstance, whether social, economic or political in the late
The process of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade was a maniac and unsafe affair. Nevertheless, as the demand for slaves grew for the Europeans, African chiefs would organize raids to take people from other societies and frequently launch wars to capture victims for slave trade. People taken right out of their homes, fields, and villages; people’s lives changed instantly. In the book The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Olaudah shows just how frightening, awful, and changing this experience really is for the good and the bad. The book begins with Equiano explaining the history of the place that he was born which is Eboe, a kingdom of Benin, located in Guinea.
Although forms of slavery existed before the 1400s, this decade stigmatized the start of European slave trading in Africa with the Portuguese transferring people from Africa to Portugal and exploiting them as slaves. The development of colonization intensified the slave trade. Throughout the 1600s, more countries were involved in the European slave trade, including Spain, North America, Holland, France, Sweden, and Denmark. After the cessation of the African slave trade, occurred the phenomenon of “white slavery”, which constitutes the “procurement—by use of force, deceit, or drugs— of a white woman or girl against her will for prostitution.” 4.1.2. Human Trafficking in the 1900s
Usually, in history when you read about slavery you think about the harsh conditions that African Americans endured. Equiano however, did not encounter most of the harsh conditions that many African Americans faced. The life of Equiano was very unique and remarkable. The slave trade showed how Europeans treated African American Slaves versus how Africans treated slaves. Equiano was sold and traveled too many countries.
Modern Day Slavery The human history confirms the foundation of many societies on the exploitation of the inferior through slave trade. Slave trade formed the very basis of trafficking in modern day. The Roman law codified by the Emperor Justinian provide clear evidence of the use of slave trade during the Fifth and the Sixth Centuries A.D. Under the Roman law, slaves were treated as private property and often used as maids, guards, cooks, partner in sex of prostitutes, etc. Towards the end of the Sixth Century slaveholders started emancipating their slaves and the slave trade declined.
Especially, Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade (Triangular Slave Trade) not only highly affected the continent but also left it with sophisticated disputes for the continuing generation because it depopulated the continent and morally undermined the peoples. Since the 18th century, even though some European governments had attempted to be abolished slave trade activities by laws; the more bad condition (colonization) could come to replace the slave trade and other trade activities. The reason is that the objective of the slave trade was to use African labor outside Africa; whereas that of colonization was to exploit their labor on their own land, in Africa, and to get the market for industrial commodities. Colonization affected the African histories, cultures and traditions and identities, and shaped the societies with European modes of life. Due to this, Africans were considered as uncivilized societies that had already psychologically and morally marginalized the people.
Introduction: Heart of Darkness, is a novella by Joseph Conrad, stating the story of ivory trade and slavery. His attempt to reflect this view is through the character of Marlow a white character whose child hood obsession was maps and exploration. Marlow tells the story as an eye witness participating in the most of actions of the story giving us dark image of Africa and Africans and a horrible picture of colonialism. This darkness increases as we go into the depth of Congo. As well he reflects the role of the imperialism of the colonials in the exploitation of Africans for their own interests rather than to enlighten the natives ' that they claimed for.
The trade was supposedly beneficial for the 3 sides, but only 2 sides benefited with the third being superficially helpful. The slave trade started in Africa with Europeans cutting deals with African Merchants on the Coastal Tribes and countries. The deals consisted of exchange of young able-bodied male slaves in their prime in return for guns and manufactured goods. The merchants saw this as an opportunity
Frantz Fanon and Chinweizo also identified this same notion of neo-colonialism as a setback in the development of the African economy. For Fanon, as analysed by Teodros Kiros, the solution is an African revolution aimed at conquering deficiency of necessities such as food and shelter (Kiros, 2004). Chinweizo wrote painstaking on on black power, for him, like Cheik Anta Diop, he insisted on a black superpower in order to gain economic sovereignty (Chinweizu, 2010). Diop was only a bit more specific; he focused on restoration of political sovereignty, economic sovereignty and psychic autonomy as the key component for an African economic renaissance (Diop,