African Slave Trade
When you think of the African slave trade, do you realize that over 10 million people were removed fromthat continent in less than 500 years? Some scholars believe it may be as large a number as 20 million.1I would like to pose a few questions and attempt to answer them in this collection of writings andopinions. The evidence and historical documents will show some of the economic and social impacts theSlave Trade had on the African continent. The first thing that needs to be established is just how many slaves were brought to the Americas. Thishas proven to be quite difficult at best. There have been many scholars debate just this subject alone. Asyou will see, many well known scholars have problems justifying their own estimations or guesses. A quick study of Philip D. Curtin's work: From Guesses to Calculations: Shows his writings are acompilation of bits-n-pieces of information from previously thought of unimportant publishing's. His solepurpose was to try to determine a more accurate account of the number of people brought over fromwhat parts of Africa and to what final location. He goes on to make it clear his findings should not beconstrued as being accurate or to be relied upon with any degree o
The trade was thought of just as any other businessat the time. "So long as the population density was low, then human beings viewed as units of labor were far moreimportant than other factors of production such as land. "The first business of one of our factors [agents] when he comes to Fida [Whydah] is to satisfy thecustoms of the king and the great men, which amounts to about a hundred pounds in Guinea value, asthe goods must yield there. All to serve the white masters on their sugar,cotton, and tobacco plantations on the other side of the world. Similar things happenedin Angola the people were decimated and caused them to scatter which intern caused their economy tocollapse. "Many things remain uncertain about the slave trade and its consequences for Africa, but the generalpicture of destructiveness is clear, and that destructiveness can be shown to be the logical consequenceof the manner of recruitment of captives in Africa. Theyare given as the most probable figures at the present state of knowledge. The Atlantic crossing, or "Middle Passage," as it was called by European slavers, wasnotorious for the number of deaths incurred, averaging in the vicinity of 15 to 20 per cent. They are selling the captured war prisoners of theirenemies. Department of State show there still is large margin of slavery goingon in the Northwestern (Mauritania) and in the Sudan region.
Common topics in this essay:
Middle Passage,
Balanta Guinea-Bissau,
Fida Whydah,
Guesses Calculations,
Sugar Spices,
Africans Europeans,
,
Americas Rum,
Philip Curtin,
Phillip Curtin,
slave trade,
brought americas,
business trade,
european slave,
african societies,
tsetse fly,
people brought,
european slave trade,
own people,
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Acceptance Essays
