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African trade
Why the Africans?
1.Europeans started to take people from Africa against their will. They
justified the taking of slaves by arguing that they were providing an
opportunity for Africans to become Christians.The removal of slaves from
Africa was considered as grateful because this was totally approved by the Christian Church.
2. In the late 15th century, Europeans (Spanish and Portuguese first) began to explore, invade and settle the territory
in the Americas. With their superior weapons they easily defeated the local people, which they called "Indians". The European
colonists tried to enslave the Indians for hard physical labour, but with the poor conditions and diseases like smallpox that
the Europeans brought in, there were soon not many of them left.
3. The idea of African slave trade came from the Arabian and Persian slave trade along East Africa which Portuguese sailors
came into contact during the 15th century.
4. West Africans themselves used to enslave prisoners of war. It was a common phenomenon among many peoples on all of the
continents, which created a trade between African chiefs of tribes and Europeans.
5.They then started bartering these captive slaves for guns, brandy and other goods that were only produced outside of Africa,
and this gave rise to an increasing demand for capturing ever more Africans for the sole purpose of selling them into slavery
to white Europeans.
6.African slaves were preferred by plantation owners because they were more accessible on a Geographical point of view.
7.Africans made better slave labourers than the Indians of the West Indies and North America because they came from a much
more advanced type of society and were often skilled artisans.
8. There was already slavery in Africa before the African trade but not the mass slavery introduced by Europeans.
People captured other Men as prisoners of war,of other tribes, so it was more common to have African slaves than slaves
from another country.
9.Not understanding African society, Europeans usually thought the worst and treated African customs with contempt.
Slavery reinforced this attitude because the Europeens thought that they deserved it more than others. It was lucky for
them, because the Africans were good slave
http://www.headleypark.bristol.sch.uk/slavery/background/whyafricanslaves.htm
Delainah F. / Philemon L./ Lara T.
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