The African Slave Trade
The Love of Money at the Root of Evil
Social Effects
- Increased insecurity, distrust and high level of conflicts among African groups accured as the Africans were capturing and selling their own people into slavery to meet the Europeans demand for slaves.
- Language: the language of many African tribes were mixed with European language thereby forming new languages.
- Cultural Erasure: the loss of their cultural beliefs or practices over a period of time.
Political Effects
- Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade contributed to the instability as well as the expansion of politics in Africa.
- There was the distribution of ammunition in Central and West Africa which helped with the military and political supremacy of tribes in Africa.
- Political alliances were betrayed between slave traders and African leaders. These alliances enabled the rulers to establish authority over their counterparts.
Plantation System
By the time Europeans ventured into Sub-Saharan Africa, the slave traffic had been well-established for 500 years. The Portuguese explored the west coast of Africa in the 1500s, establishing trade relations with various tribes, and after they secured a piece of the New World in Brazil, brought slaves from Africa for their newly established plantations. Plantation societies were located in thee most tropical regions of the Americas, cultivating cash crops such as sugar, tobacco, cotton, or coffee. The goal and purpose of the plantation was to gain as much profit as possible from the export of these cash crops.
Resistance to Slavery
No matter where they lived, slaves did not meekly accept their servile status, but like Thomas Peters resisted it in numerous ways. Some forms of resistance were mild but costly to slave owners: slaves often worked slowly for their masters but diligently in their own gardens. They occassionally sabotaged plantation equipment or work routines. A more serious form of resistance involved running away from the plantation community.