The African Slave Trade

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Slavery in Africa had been around for centuries before the Europeans became involved. It was common to the African people since land ownership was rare. Instead, people owned, and made money, from their slaves locally in Africa and by sending them to Asia, Arabia and India. Eventually slavery expanded across continents after the Europeans took a strong hold in the industry. The cause of the African slave trade stemmed from the Americas lack of strong and resilient laborers which in turn created the Triangular Trade in the Atlantic World where effects were seen in aspects of economic, government and population.
With most businesses, the first priority is the bottom line. According to Obandina, “From the outset, relations between Europe and …show more content…
They were “eager to augment their treasuries even preyed upon their own peoples by manipulating their judicial systems, condemning individuals and their families to slavery in order to reap the rewards of their sale to European traders” (Bortolot). The Europeans would sail to Africa and trade guns and other goods for slaves. The guns were used to help expand the African empires and local “strongmen.” In fact, many militaristic kingdoms (because of the guns) took hold, creating an almost constant state of war.
This environment of war led to many Africans being captured and sold into the slave trade which were in turn sold off to the Europeans. Later, after amassing many guns, Africans eventually used them against the European colonisers (Boddy-Evans). African government stood to gain much when it first entered into the slave trade with Europeans, new resources and powerful weapons, but those weapons also shifted the laws and cultural environment into something extremely dangerous for the less well-to-do or those who were not …show more content…
The new settlers had plenty of land to plant crops but the problem was the new tropical climate and the illnesses that accompanied the New World. European slave traders solved this problem with slaves from Africa. In fact, the rising of prices made the slave trade increasingly lucrative even for those in The Americas (Bortolot). Being a slave in The Americas mean constant profit (in one way or another) to the slave's owner. Plantations flourished and those with enough wealth to own slaves grew even richer. Slaves were not merely employees, they were bound to their owners until death. The only exception to this was when certain slaves could purchase their freedom from their owner. In either case, those in the Americas with slaves were in a position to expand their wealth on the backs of slave labor and
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