The Atlantic slave trade was one of the greatest long-distance forced movements of individuals across continents and countries before the 19th century. Many people particularly Africans were forcefully taken from Africa to America and Europe as slaves to work in mines, plantations, and other industries. From the early 16th century, the Atlantic Ocean, once a tough barrier that hindered normal interaction between the persons living within the four continents it connected, became a viable highway that unified Africa, America, and European histories for the first time. Such trade began after the European colonial masters had built colonies in America and needed a cheap workforce to exploit the resources and land they had grabbed. Nearly ten million enslaved Africans were transported through the Atlantic Ocean and became a part of the New World. Thus, the Atlantic slave trade produced a remarkable and everlasting impact on Europe, America, and Africa forming new cultures, economies, and societies in manifold ways.
The first slave trade journey straight from Africa to America is said to have occurred in 1526. Before then, nearly all trans-Atlantic slave ships traded their slaves along the Spanish Caribbean, with the main purchasers being gold mine owners in Cibao, Hispaniola. Cartagena, in the current Columbia, seems to be the first continental Spanish-American terminus for a slave ship in 1549. The slave journey to Brazil happened around 1560, finally accounting for nearly 40 percent of the trade. This trade was largely promoted by the development of tobacco, cotton, and sugar plantations which needed many laborers to plant and harvest crops. In Africa, the Gulf of Biafra and Benin were major supply sources of slaves for the slave ships that made their way to Africa. Also, Angola and Sierra Leone coasts joined in and engaged in the trading of slaves. By1690s, thousands of slaves were being transported to America and they increased in following centuries.
In the second half of the 18th century, the Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and English imperialists all functioned behind mercantilist limitations and generated products from mining industries and agricultural production. Given the British and Portuguese dominance in Brazil and generally America, it is unsurprising that most African slaves worked in their farms and factories. The Spanish individuals that conquered the earliest stage of the trade before retreating due to competition started to rise again in the late 19th century with the improvement in the Cuban sugar economy. Similarly, just like the British, the French Americans brought in half the slaves as them. As a result, the Atlantic slave trade enhanced the American economy and culture. Enslaved Africans performed a crucial role in the improvement of agricultural economies in places such as South America, Brazil, and the Caribbean. In the hands of colonial powers and owners of the plantations, they produce enough revenues from tobacco, cotton, and sugar farming. Nonetheless, the horrible circumstances of slavery resulted in extensive suffering and rebellion among enslaved individuals, causing an uprising resistance against their oppressors.
On Africa’s side, the Atlantic slave trade had a devastating effect on different countries and their economies. Economic incentives for African generals and tribal leaders to participate in such trade encouraged an environment of violence and lawlessness. This is because every region that traded slaves experienced a notable upswing in the sum of slaves it supplied to Western imperialism. Regions that supplied the least slaves earlier were now supplying high amounts of enslaved people in their regions. Consequently, the depopulation and endless fear of captivity that faced African countries along West Africa made agricultural and economic growth nearly impossible in those regions. A huge percentage of individuals taken captive were young men and childbearing women who typically would have been commencing their families. Also, the European enslavers normally left behind people who were disabled or elderly due to their inability to be productive and contribute to their economic welfare in their dominated territories.
Furthermore, the middle passage to a Caribbean Island or Brazil was known for its cruelty and congested unsanitary circumstances on slave ships in which thousands of Africans were packed closely for a journey that could last nearly 5,000 miles. The slaves were chained together and the journey lasted for several weeks or months. No Europeans including convicts were ever exposed to the conditions that Africans were subjected to. In the ships, the males and females were separated, packed closely, and kept naked while chained together for a long time. Due to congestion, the heat was unbearable as oxygen levels went lower and lower and the water kept seeping into the ships. Since the crew feared the insurrection of the enslaved individuals, they permitted them to go outside the upper decks for a few hours daily. Also, death incidences were directly related to the trip distance and reduced as the voyage period was significantly reduced between the 16th and 19th centuries. Whereas some few carriers sailing from the coast of Guinea could reach America in three weeks, the normal period from all African regions was merely two months.
Technological improvements for ships eventually reduced sailing time in half, but deaths remained high in such a period due to its illegal business nature in the 19th century. This is because killings, illnesses, and sexual mistreatment of the slaves were widespread at that time. Some conditions such as the gastro-intestinal disease pandemic are promoted by the worse ship conditions. In a popular case of a slave ship in 1781, when crew members and enslaved individuals were dying of an infectious condition, Captain Luke Collingwood commanded that over 130 slaves be thrown to the sea in an attempt to stop the illness. After the event, he filed for an assurance claim on the value of the murdered slaves thrown into the ocean. Occasionally, some captives effectively revolted, defeated the crew members, and took over the ships. One of the most popular incidents of such slaves taking over ships was in 1839 when a slave, Joseph Cinque, led a revolt of 53 unlawfully bought slaves on Spanish ships, and killed the captain and two crew members. The American Supreme Court finally ordered the enslaved individuals to be taken back to their homelands.
The Atlantic slave trade reached its end after criticism by the abolitionist movement in America and Europe in the mid-1850s. The call for abolition was a shift at the beginning of who was responsible for the enslavement. In an attempt to suppress the slave trade, a British Statesman, Charles Fox asked a question in the House of Commons who was the foundation of the entire business. This question was the first time to appeared in their parliament and paved the way for discussions. In America, congress passed a law in 1808 placing the importation of slaves, illegal, but Caribbean smugglers often violated the regulation till it was enforced fully in the South in 1861. However, the abolition of such activity did not eradicate the deep scars left by decades and years of violence and exploitation of African slaves. The Atlantic slave trade legacy continues to shape economic differences, social inequities, and race associations in Western countries and beyond, portraying the lasting effect of such a tragic chapter in humanity.
Bibliography
Barker, Anthony J. The African Link: The African Link: British Attitudes in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1550–1807. Routledge, 2022.
Eltis, David. “A brief overview of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.” Voyages: The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database (2007): 2-11.
Fage, John D. “African societies and the Atlantic slave trade.” In The Atlantic Slave Trade, pp. 15-33. Routledge, 2022.
Kanu, Ikechukwu Anthony. “The trans-Atlantic slave trade: A historico-philosophical analysis.” Lwati: A Journal of Contemporary Research 10, no. 4 (2013): 131-143.
Whatley, Warren, and Rob Gillezeau. “The impact of the transatlantic slave trade on ethnic stratification in Africa.” American Economic Review 101, no. 3 (2011): 571-576.
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