The Beginning of the Atlantic Slave Trade

 

The Beginning of the Atlantic Slave Trade

            Portugal was the first nation who began the slave trade industry.  The Portuguese people would control the trade system during the 16th century.  The demand for laborers was the cause for the increase of slave trading.  Portuguese usually purchased captives during tribal wars, then they began invading towns taking more (Lewis, 2022).  Slave trading was a means to make money for anyone who could take and transport enslaved people.  Although Portugal had created a monopoly in the slave trade industry, other European nations gained access to the trade through privateering.  After Portugal and Spain united in 1580, this broke the monopoly by offering direct slave trade contracts to the other European merchants, known as the asiento system.  The Dutch, British, and French also took advantage of the system (African passages, lowcountry adaptations, n.d.).   

            Initially people would acquire their slaves through raids along the coast, but they soon found this to be too costly and ineffective.  Fear of captivity made economics and agricultural production impossible.  These devastating effects created “economic incentives for warlords and tribes to engage in the trade of enslaved people, promoting an atmosphere of lawlessness and violence” (Lewis, 2022).  Typically, once captured, slaves would be chained together for transport, with nearly 10-15% not making the trip alive (Mintz, n.d.). 

Conditions of Slaves 

Slaves aboard ships lived in horrible conditions and suffered poor health from physical and mental abuse.  Men were packed tightly under the ship,  women and children were kept separate and granted more freedom to move around.  Their journey usually took two or more months.  They were often exposed to physical and sexual abuse from the crew.  Passengers suffered from fever, dysentery, and smallpox, with those that were sick or dead being thrown overboard.  Some European governments passed laws to aid in the slave’s survival, limiting the number of slaves on the ship and requiring a surgeon to be on board.  Not only did the captives have to fear for their life, the Captains and crew were also fearful of revolts.  Captain Richard Norris wrote in his logbook dated June 27, 1770, “the slaves attempted to force up the gratings in the night with a design to murder the whites or drown themselves, but were prevented by the watch... Their obstinacy put me under the necessity of shooting the ringleader” (The middle passage, n.d.).

            Conditions were not much better on land either.   Slaves had no legal rights and were treated poorly.   However, American slave owners would provide limited housing, food, and clothing.  The slaves did not complain in fear of punishment.  Slaves on plantations had better conditions and necessities compared to those who worked in fields.  Mostly they made their own meals, with their diet consisting of fatty meats and cornbread.  Some owners would allow them to make a small garden to supplement their diet.  Slaves were expected to work all day, every day, some being allowed to rest on Sundays (The living conditions of slaves in the American south, 2022).

The Effects of the Slave Trade on Africa

            Before European slavers arrived, Africans had their own culture and ways of life.  They produced luxury items made of bronze, ivory, gold, and terracotta.  Ethiopian rich soil supported large populations and the climate made agricultural diversification and trade possible (Berger et al, 2016). They had developed their own trading systems with products like salt, weapons, textiles, and manufactured goods.  Increasing tension and fear occurred in these regions where capturing was more prevalent.  Europe’s increased warfare and political instability grew in West Africa, “some states like Asante and Dahomey, grew powerful and wealthy as a result.  Other states were completely destroyed, and their population decimated as they were absorbed by their rivals” (West Africa, n.d.).  Even during the time when governments were abolishing slavery, some African regions were unwilling to stop the slave trade industry because of the money it supplied.   Socially and politically, during pre-colonial times, slave trading increased absolutism and reduced democracy.  British colonies that exported more slaves had more indirect rule.  They found that making their own laws and justifications for acts were approved of, even in post-colonial days (Bertocchi, 2016).   

            Aside from the problems within the governing processes, it had direct effects on the population and their own economic system.  Men outnumbered women as captives and the population declined.  It also implicated family structure, as women had to assume roles as men for work and production.  Another topic is the correlation of geography and climate on the slave trade.  The rugged terrain protected them from slavery raids, but also had negative consequences on their economic productions and survival.  This land was less adequate for farming and was more susceptible to crop failure and famine.  The climate affected them because even though slavery declined during the warmer times, famine was present and lowering production.  However, slaving increased in the cooler times, but agriculture was less favorable at this time.  But slave trading was a source of income for wealthy landowners in Africa, and still continues today (Bertocchi, 2016).

 

The Economic Impact of the Slave Trade

The prices of enslaved people varied.  Accounting for the cost of owning them, they were profitable to keep for their trade value and for the labor they provided.  Women cost slightly more because of their ability to produce children and young men were more valuable because of the labor they could provide (Mintz, n.d.).  Besides being laborers on the plantations, slaves could serve as domestic laborers working as butlers, maids, and stable boys.  They also served as merchants as carpenters, blacksmiths, spinners and weavers.  Merchants and wealthy landowners would also trade their slaves for goods like metals, cloths, jewelry, and guns (African passages, lowcountry adaptations, n.d.).  

Leaving Africa, they would either go to Europe, the Caribbean islands or North and South America.  Sugarcane was a prized crop that was in the Americas.  Sugarcane could be made into refined sugar, molasse, and rum (How slaves helped build a world economy, 2003).  The money most plantation owners made from their products were used to purchase more slaves.  Later in the colonial period of the United States, tobacco was dominating the slave-produced goods, mostly concentrated in Virginia and Maryland.  Then there were rice and indigo plantations in South Carolina.  The invention of the cotton gin in 1793 made slave produced cotton expand from South Carolina and Georgia to newly colonized land west of Mississippi (How slaves helped build a world economy, 2003).

The lack of statistical evidence of economic effects in Africa makes it hard to label the impacts directly.  Known facts about the tribes in Africa, the rival African rulers competed for slaves for their own uses.  This not only created conflict with the other slaving countries, it demolished a valuable source of income for these kingdoms.  Slaves that were captured carried diseases that were not accustomed to the New World and other countries, wiping out the local population, decreasing the labor force and production.  For Britain, slaves were the boost they needed to “industrialize” their nation.  Free labor in their newly formed factories allowed them to increase products cheaply for a worldly market (Riches and Misery: The consequences of the Atlantic slave trade, 2020).

The slave trade instilled a social and cultural divide that is still known today.  The lack of trust, education, and equality has influenced all the nations around the world.  However, there has been some improvement in cultural life in the past 100 years, as black individuals have gained rights and given more equal opportunities.  New cultural identities have been formed with the bridge of African traditions and European culture merging to create new traditions.  Slavery is illegal in most of all nations; however, it does still occur in underdeveloped countries.  The abolition of slavery changed the way the world does business and set us up for a new form of industry, the mechanical industrial revolution.

References

African passages, lowcountry adaptations. (n.d.). LDHI.  https://ldhi.library.cofc.edu/exhibits/show/africanpassageslowcountryadapt/introductionatlanticworld/trans_atlantic_slave_trade

Berger, E., Israel, G., Miller, C., Parkinson, B., Reeves, A.; & Williams, N. (2016). World History: Cultures, States, and Societies to 1500. Galileo Open Textbooks. Chapter 9.

Bertocchi, G. The legacies of slavery in and out of Africa. IZA J Migration 5, 24 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40176-016-0072-0

How slavery helped build a world economy. (2003, January 3). National Geographic.  https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/how-slavery-helped-build-a-world-economy

Lewis, T. (2022, August 23). Transatlantic slave trade.  Britannica.  https://www.britannica.com/topic/transatlantic-slave-trade

Mintz, S. (n.d.). Historical context: Facts about the slave trade and slavery. The Gilder Luhrman Institute of African history.  https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/teacher-resources/historical-context-facts-about-slave-trade-and-slavery

Obikili, N. (2016, September 12). The transatlantic slave trade and local political fragmentation in Africa. AEHN.  https://www.aehnetwork.org/blog/the-trans-atlantic-slave-trade-and-local-political-fragmentation-in-africa/

Riches and misery: The consequences of the Atlantic slave trade. (2020, September 25). Open Learn.  https://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/riches-misery-the-consequences-the-atlantic-slave-trade

The living conditions of slaves in the American south. (2022, September 8). History on the net.  https://www.historyonthenet.com/living-conditions-of-slaves

The middle passage. (n.d.). National Museum Liverpool.  https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/history-of-slavery/middle-passage

West Africa. (n.d.). National Museum Liverpool.  https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/history-of-slavery/west-africa