For over 400
years, between the middle of the 15th century to the end of the 19th,
over 11,000,000 slaves were brought to the New World from Africa by Europeans.
Some estimates put that figure well over 20,000,000. Over 4,000,000 of those slaves were
taken to Brazil.
Conquering
European nations, despite having strong technology, political infrastructure,
and economic strength, lacked the raw, working manpower to sufficiently develop
the American colonial lands. Natives not killed by the Europeans themselves
were being decimated by new diseases for which they had no immunities. As a
result, Europeans turned to Africa to populate their labour force. Africans
were resistant to tropical disease, and were familiar with the work of
maintaining domesticated plants and animals.
Although some
slaves were captured in raids (most often by the Portuguese, the most active
European nation in the early slave trade and the last to abolish slavery), most
were taken from willing African kings, who in return received goods like
horses, brandy, textiles, and guns. These weapons were crucial for expansion by
these kings across the African continent, and the acquisition of more slaves.
With their colony workforce in place, Europeans were able to successfully
acquire goods from the Americas, including sugar, cotton, and tobacco.
Thus, slavery
was an integral part of what is known as the era’s triangular trade. Working
backwards, one leg of the triangle was the exportation of slaves from Africa to
the Americas. Another leg was the exportation of goods from Europeans to
African kings in return for slave labour. The remaining leg was the exportation
of slave-produced good sent from the Americas to Europe.
References / Further Reading:
The Slave Trade, by Hugh Thomas
Transformations in Slavery : A History of Slavery in Africa, by Paul E. Lovejoy
African Voices of the Atlantic Slave Trade: Beyond the Silence and the Shame, by Anne C. Bailey
Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America, by Ira Berlin
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