Eassay on History of the Atlantic Slave Trade

EASSAY ON HISTORY OF THE ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE

The Atlantic Slave Trade is a tragedy event that put a hole in a human history. It was a period where the perpetrators' concern in the history was about exploitation, acquiring power, and accumulating wealth at the detriment of the weaker ones. With the European nations' quest for expansion came the need for free labor to meet that goal of expansion.

The discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492, who was representing the Spanish monarch, led other European nations to seek expansion and some control of this discovered New World (William, Capitalism & Slavery, Pg. 3.). Even when the New World was partitioned among the European nations, the need of labor to develop the New World arose. The demand of the labor was not that necessary when the farmers were farming in smaller scale until the demand of the production of staple food on a large scale for an export market. (William, Capitalism & Slavery, Pg. 4.). Even though the initial free laborers were poor white people, convicts, and Indians, the cost of maintaining and controlling these initial free laborers outweighed by the need to use African slaves to do the same work and even do it better and lower cost. As William indicated, "the [non-African] laborers preferred to work for themselves as small proprietors, rather than under the capitalist for wages" (William, Capitalism & Slavery, Pg. 5.). That is to say that "the first instance of slave trading and slave labor developed in the New World involved, racially, not the Negro but the Indian" (William, Capitalism & Slavery, Pg. 7.). However, as William illustrated that "in the New England colonies Indian slavery was unprofitable, for slavery of any kind was unprofitable because it was unsuited to the diversified agriculture of these colonies. In addition the Indian slave was inefficient. The Spaniards discovered that "one Negro was worth four Indians" (William, Capitalism & Slavery, Pg 9.). As William pointed out "the Indian reservoir, too, was limited, the African inexhaustible. Negroes therefore were stolen in Africa to work the lands stolen from the Indians in Africa" (William, Capitalism & Slavery, Pg. 9.). Also, "the New World the British had turned to Africa and by 1680 they had positive evidence, in Barbados, that the African was satisfying the necessities of production better than the European" (William, Capitalism & Slavery, Pg. 16.). Therefore, the Atlantic slave trade was developed because the indentured servants were not sufficient to meet the demand of production and the white servants can easily escape, whereas the Africans can be kept permanently for free (William, Capitalism & Slavery, Pg. 19.).

Portuguese then became the first perpetrator to lead other European nations in this Atlantic Slave trade (Clarke, The Middle Passage, Pg. 4.), then followed by the Spanish, England, the France, Dutch, and the United States (Clarke, The Middle Passage, Pg. 5.). Other countries were the Americas, Barbados, Australia, Denmark and Holland.

The Significance of the year 1492 when the New World was discovered in relation to slave trade is that the need of laborers to help develop the New World gave birth to slavery. That is, the European nations that partitioned the New World among them sought free labor from Africa when other sources like using poor whites, convicts and Indians failed. Therefore, without the discovery of the New World in 1492, probably there would not have had any need for labor and thus the Atlantic slave trade would probably not have been in existence.

However, the Africans were chosen because of economic reason to develop the New World and meet the labor demand of that time. (William, Capitalism & Slavery, Pg. 25.). As William stated, that "slavery was an economic institution of the first importance" (William, Capitalism & Slavery, Pg. 5.). Even though other people, like poor whites and Indian were previously used as slaves and were not successful, the Africans were chosen because they were free and cheaper than the others and they were more easily to be controlled than the other group (Harding, There is a River, Pg. 7.).

Further, it was easier for those involved in this brutal and terrible Atlantic Slave trade to justify their actions by considering the Africans as aliens, non-Christians, non-whites, easy to provide a negative source of identity and a negative rallying point for the New World's white society. (Harding, There is a River, Pg. 9.). In addition of justifying their barbaric actions, Europeans were using arms to bribe and encourage African leaders to capture men, women and children from their neighboring nations and tribes. (Harding, There is a River, Pg. 9.). Further, the slave practice continued to the point that the nations or tribes declare wars "for no other reason than to obtain prisoners. (Harding, There is a River, Pg. 9.). Specifically, Harding stated that "villages were razed, hunting parties never returned home" (Harding, There is a River, Pg. 9.). Further, Rodney indicated that Africans were captured "through warfare, trickery, banditry, and kidnapping" (Rodney, How Europe Underdeveloped African, Pg. 95.).

The Africans that were captured in the interior of the continent were normally transported by canoe or through walking from the interior to the shore where they embarked on the inhumane journey to the New World. As Rodney pointed out, "a captive was sold and resold as he made his way from the interior to the port of embarkation" (Rodney, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Pg. 95.). To make matters worse, some misguided Africans participated in capturing and selling their fellow Africans to the Europeans. The African collaborators were mostly from the African nations of "the Fulas, the Mande, the Susu, and the peoples of Dahomey, who devoted themselves to capturing and keeping other Africans for the slave trade" (Harding, There is a River, Pg. 8.). The role of some of the African collaborators were to provide guard to the African captives who were "huddled together in rows of wooden shacks known as 'baracoons' and 'factories'