Slave Trade

Many societies in Africa with Kings and hierarchical forms of Government traditionally kept slaves. But these slaves were mostly for domestic purposes. They were an indication of power and wealth and not to make money. However with the appearence of Europeans desperate to buy slaves for the use in the Americas the character of African Slave Ownership changed. Also in the 18th Century there was a huge demand for Ivory, and slaves were used as porters to carry it.

Slavery didn’t begin in the American colonies. It has a long history going back to ancient times. Ancient Egyptians used slaves to build palaces and monuments. The Romans turned prisoners they captured in war into slaves. Aztecs, Incas, and the Maya used slaves to farm and to fight wars.

Atlantic Slave Trade, the forced transportation of at least 10 million enslaved Africans from their homelands in Africa to destinations in Europe and the Americas between the 15th and 19th centuries. European and North American slave traders transported most of these slaves to areas in tropical and subtropical America, where the vast majority worked as labourers on large agricultural plantations.

Between 1440 and 1880 Europeans and North Americans exchanged merchandise for slaves along 5,600 km (3,500 mi) of Africa’s western and west-central Atlantic coasts. These slaves were then transported to other locations around the Atlantic Ocean. The vast majority went to Brazil, the Caribbean, and other Spanish-speaking regions of South America and Central America.

Smaller numbers were taken to Atlantic islands, continental Europe, and English-speaking areas of the North American mainland. Approximately 12 million slaves left Africa via the Atlantic trade, and more than 10 million arrived at their destinations. The Atlantic slave trade involved the largest intercontinental migration of people in world history prior to the 20th century. This transfer of so many people, over such a long time, had enormous consequences for every continent bordering the Atlantic.