Atlantic Slave Trade Essay

A striver butt be defined as a somebody who is the property of and either in all subject to another, a bond servant or a person entirely under the domination of some act or person. striverholding was well recognized in many early civilizations. antediluvian Egypt, Ancient China, the Akkad Ian Empire, Assyria, Ancient India, Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, the Islamic Caliphate, the Hebrews in Palestine, and the pre-Columbian civilizations of the the Statess all had either a form of debt-slavery, punishment for crime, enslavement of pris integrityrs of war, child apostasy or birth of slave children to slaves.However, as the sixteenth century approached, so did the trade in the way slavery would be assureed at, for years to come. The Atlantic slave sight became the name of the three part economic roulette wheel that involved four continents for four centuries and millions of community. The Atlantic slave tidy sum or the heart and soul passage, angular backing and slaver y affected the preservation of Europe, Africa and the Americas in both negative and positive aspects. Starting in the 1430s Lusitanian were the first to sail down the strand of Africa to search for meretricious and jewels.The Lusitanian had to ext give up their power across the co+ast because Sub-Saharan Africas mess routes were controlled by the Islamic Empire. By 1445, The Portuguese conquered three African countries and created business posts. This allowed them access to Europe across the Sahara. Initially, the Portuguese traded copperware, cloth, tools, wine and horses for pepper, ivory and intimately importantly gold. The first slave purchase is said to have interpreted place in 1441 when the Portuguese caught twain African males while they were on the coast. The Africans in the nearby village paid them in gold for their return.Eventually, they veritable the idea that they could get to a greater extent gold by transporting slaves along Africas coast. The Muslims were enticed by the idea of slavery as they used them as porters and for profit. Portugal had a monopoly on the exportation of slaves in Africa for more than two hundred years. This resonate is the beginning of one of the most tragic events in history, the Atlantic triangular trade (Thomas 1997). A triangular trade evolves when a region has export commodities that arent required in the region which its study imports come and provides a method for trade imbalances.The triangular trade is named for the rough shape it makes on a map. It worked like a triangle between all the colonies that were involved. For centuries the piece was took part in its most successful trading system. There where nearly fifteen million Africans were shipped to both northwestern and federation America for more than three-hundred. hard workers, cash crops and manufactured goods were the most traded between the Americas, Europe and Africa. The Europeans controlled the first floor of the trade by carrying s upp populates for sale and trade such as, cloth, spirit, tobacco, beads, shells, metal goods and guns.This was their method of which were used to help expand empires and capture more slaves. These goods were exchanged for purchased and kidnapped African slaves (www. nmm. ac. uk/freedom/viewTheme. cfm/theme/triangular). African kings and merchants would capture the slaves or organize campaigns ran by the Europeans. The motives of the Europeans were based on one thing they lacked a major source, a work force. It was stated that the Indigenes people were unreliable and Europeans were unsuited to the climate. However, Africans had experience in agriculture, keeping cattle, content with the climate.Africa in short became reliant on the slavery of their people and the profits that came along with it. The next stage involved the slaves being transported by voyage to the Americas and Caribbean, the meat passage (PBS. The African Slave Trade and the spirit Passage. http//www. pbs. org/wgb h/aia/part1/1narr4. html). The warmheartedness passage was a perilous, horrendous journey slaves made across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas. The final stage of the Atlantic slave trade was the return to Europe from the Americas with the produce from the slave-labor plantations.Most regions of North and South America were used to provide these tender materials to Europe for manufacturing. This wasnt the first or only slave trade, but it was the cruelest. What began as a quest for gold ended as a quest for slaves, leaving a major stamp on African and American history (Thomas 1997). Before undergoing the middle passage, slaves faced human misery and suffering. Kidnapped slaves were forced to walk shackled in slave caravans to European coastal forts. Due to the lack of food and energy, half(a) of the slaves became sick and were killed or left to die.Some had the strength to make it so they were left in underground dungeons. For years, Africans were stranded in these dungeons acro ss the coast of Africa.. There, they wait on the embarked horrid encounter of the entire slave trade, the middle passage. None of the previous passengers returned to their homeland so none of the Africans knew what they were about to endure. The voyages were mostly organized by companies and investors because they were a huge financial burden(The African Slave Trade and the Middle Passage). Two theories show the packing of slaves in the European ships loose and prankish packing.Loose packing carried less slaves with the hopes of more populate and more slaves making it to the Americas alive and in fair condition. This was exchanged for tight packing. Captains believed despite more casualties, this would yield a greater profit. On occasion, veterinarians inspected the slaves out front the voyage to determine which slaves could make it across the Atlantic Ocean. The enslaved Africans were chained together by hand and foot, not even being able to lie on ones side. They ate, slept, urinated, defecated, gave birth and died all in that one spot. There was everyplacecrowding, inadequate ventilation and little to no sanitation.Twenty part of every hundred died along the way from either suffocation, starvation, amoebic dysentery, paltry or a disease such as small pox. The slaves that died were impel overboard as well as the slaves that showed illness. Some threw their self-overboard risking their life rather than deal with these horrific measures. Approximately fifteen million captured Africans were sent to the Americas. The middle passage was the longest, most dangerous part of the Atlantic slave trade (The Middle Passage Experience). From the seventeenth century on, slaves became the focus of trade between Europe and Africa.Europe had already colonized North and South America as well as the Caribbean islands from the fifteenth century onward. This created an insatiate demand for African laborers, who were deemed more fit to work in the equatorial conditions of the New World. The numbers of slaves imported across the Atlantic Ocean steady increased, from approximately 5,000 slaves a year in the sixteenth century to over 100,000 slaves a year by the end of the eighteenth century (www. mariner. org/captivepassage). Upon their reaching to the Americas, the slaves were washed, greased and placed inside dungeons.The grease added a more charitable look making the slaves appear healthier so the profit would be much higher. European slave traders made sure all of their potence properties were in well condition before summons. They were branded with a angry iron to keep their identity as a slave. There were two main types of slave auctions highest bidder or enamour and go auctions. Highest bidder was a bidding military operation which the buyer with the highest bid would get the slave. Grab and go auctions was the process in which the buyer would give the trader an agreed amount of silver in exchange for a ticket.This process was where t he slaves were released from their dungeon and the buyers would rush and grab the slave they wanted, Each slave would be sold to an owner who possess a great deal of land and worked on either a plantation or mine and there, the living conditions were still only just now better (Curtin 1969) A prominent African, author and a major influence on the enactment of the Slave Trade Act of 1807, Olaudah Equiano was well witting and very familiar with the Atlantic slave trade. At the age of eleven, Equiano and his baby were kidnapped from his village in Nigeria.He survived the middle passage, and taken to the West Indies. He tells how he was bought by Captain Pascal, a British naval policeman as a present for a cousin. He tells how was enslaved in North America for ten years, working as a seaman. In 1766, he bought his freedom and wrote an autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Equiano gave a firsthand look of the conditions enslaved Africans were forced to live.This document was one of the first documents that explained, thoroughly, the terrible human cruelty of the Atlantic slave trade (Wright et al. 001). Although many lives were taken or at risk, The Atlantic slave trade fulfilled its major goal, profit and change the three continents. Europe, America and Africas economy were all affected by the slave trade. Europes economy was suffering before the slave trade. The Atlantic slave trade was during the time of recovery for Europe and altogether recovered their economy. Because of the success of the trade, they needed more people to manufacture raw materials and export them to Africa. The great supply of jobs created many exports and the income to buy imports.By the end of the slave trade, Europes economy was in well standings as one of the wealthinessiest continents in the world. The Americas economies rose too. They were honored with a free workforce that provided many resources from sugar to cotton. The free labor distribute for them to acquire one hundred percent of the profit. They were importing more slaves and export the goods made by them to gaining wealth. Americas economy became agriculturally stable and soon industrialized. Europe and the Americas economies were affected in a positive way. However, Africas economy received a negative exertion.Many, for years lived in fear cod to slavery. African villages became small and poor. All of the kingdoms that were strong at one time, collapsed and were conquered. They received raw material goods from the slave trade but with nothing shown. The African kings prospered only because they were heavily involved in the slave trade. As the kings wealth grew, their economy was at a standstill and eventually failed. The Atlantic slave trade, human cruelty and evil at its finest, had a substantial effect on Europe, the Americas and Africa (www. understandingslavery. com).