Atlantic Slave Trade: Cruelty in the 16th-19th Centuries - Research Paper

Introduction

The Atlantic Slave Trade, also called the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, was a form of slavery that took place between the 16th and 19th centuries (Abbott p.1). The Atlantic Slave Trade involved capturing African men and women from Northern, Western, and Central Africa and selling them to the North, Central, and South American colonies. Some of the countries that participated in the trade included Spain, France, England, Holland, and Portugal. The slaves received harsh treatment from their owners. They were forced to work on plantations and make commodities that the owners would later sell. This paper discusses the dynamics of the Atlantic Slave Trade.

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The Atlantic Slave Trade was one of the largest trans-oceanic migrations in history. Klein (p.75) affirmed that the Atlantic Slave Trade was one of the most multifaceted economic businesses in the pre-industrial sphere. The author added that trade stimulated the transportation of goods and people to Europe and America. The Portuguese, Americans, and Europeans used state control in the form of taxation, subsidization, and monopoly contracts to facilitate the slave trade (Klein p.76). For Spain, silver and gold mined by Indians paid for the trade (Klein p.76). The author stated that all slave trades required some use of monopoly companies to provide slaves to the American colonies that did not have the money required to import slaves (p.76). From the 15th through the 16th century, the Portuguese held a monopoly position in Africa facilitating the trade of slaves (p.76). Most of the Portuguese share of slaves came from the North Atlantic (Domingues p.118). The main port for transporting the slaves to American colonies was Luanda, Angola (Klein p.76). By the 17th century, the Portuguese were transporting 3000 to 4000 slaves per year to the Spanish and American colonies (p.77). Klein (p.77) mentioned that for the colonies, Gold and Ivory were their primary concern and slaves acted as their secondary concern. According to the author, it was only after 1700 that slaves became the most dominant part of the trade (p.77). As seen, Portugal maintained its monopoly in the port of Angola and transported more slaves compared to the other countries.

Both men and women were sold as slaves. Abbott (p.1) stated that between the 16th and 19th centuries, the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade brought twelve million enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean. In America, one of the towns where many slaves were taken to work was Middletown. According to McWilliams (p.1), in the 17th and 18th centuries, two vessels sailed into Middletown city with slaves from different parts of Africa. Immediately after their arrival, many houses in the city grabbed slaves to work on their farms to plant potatoes, onions, and harvest oats (McWilliams). Abbott (p.1) added that the largest number of slaves went to the South American parts of Brazil and the West Indies while a smaller number of slaves went to America (Abbott p.1). The slaves were kidnapped from their countries, treated harshly, and treated like property (Abbott p.1). During the journey across the Atlantic Ocean, over two million captives died (Abbott p.1).

In 1621, the Dutch attempted to challenge the Portuguese monopoly. Klein (p.77) mentioned that colonies like French and British attempted to remove the monopoly but failed. In their rebellion against Spain, Dutch managed to challenge the Portuguese towards the end of the 16th century (p.77). In 1621, Dutch established a West India Company, which spent efforts to overthrow the Portuguese resources (p.77). By 1623, the company had already captured 2336 slaves from Iberian ships and sold them to America (p.77). In an attempt to make their presence in the slave trade, Dutch was committed to taking over control of American colonies from the Portuguese even though their attempts failed (p.77). Dutch achieved its first success in 1637 where it seized Elmina and the Gold Coast as they eliminated the Portuguese from the region (p.77). By 1640, the coastal forts in Angola belonged to the Dutch making it the most dominant slave trader in Africa (p.77). In 1644, the number of slaves transported to American colonies increased to 6000 per year with most of them coming from the lower Guinea Coast and half of them from the Loango-Angola region (p.78). In the 1660s, Dutch established many companies and forts for the trade as 350,000 slaves were now sold to English colonies per year (p.81).

Abbott (p.1) indicated that in 1807, England and the United States outlawed the importation of slaves through slave trading. However, in the United States, the slave trade did not end completely until the American Civil War. Klein (p.188) stated that the British attempted to force major European slaving countries to stop the slave trade in Africa in 1808. In the last quarter of the18th century, Europeans began to attack the trade and terminated their participation in every European and American colony (p.188).

Domingues (p.118) indicated that in 1815, Britain and Portugal signed a treaty to prohibit the slave trade in the North of the Equator. In 1817, Britain signed the same treaty with Spain (Domingues p.118). The authors added that due to the treaty, Portuguese and Spain increased their activities along the coast of West Central Africa. As the authors added, the British policies to suppress the trade encouraged Portuguese and Spanish vessels to embark on slaves in the Northern ports of Luanda. French and British traders had control of the Northern Luanda ports but as they withdrew from the trade, Portugal and Spain took control (p.118). even after the Brazilian Independence in 1822, Brazil merchants continued with their business but avoided the Luanda Port to prevent the Portuguese from confiscating their vessels (p.118). during the first half of the 19th century, the slave trade was still at its peak (118). In 1826, the Anglo-Brazilian treaty deemed the slave trade illegal in 1830 (p.118). Before authorities would enforce the law, the slave numbers shipped from Angola doubled (p.119). (p.120) affirmed that in 1850, Brazil abolished the trade permanently. In the mid-nineteenth century, principal markets in America closed their ports that facilitated the trade. The closing of the ports marked the end of the Atlantic Slave Trade.

Middletown has connections to the Atlantic Slave Trade. On September 27th, 2019, Middletown acknowledged its history of the trans-Atlantic Slave Trade by conducting the Middle Passage Ceremony. McWilliams (p.1) asserted that in the 17th and 18th centuries, salves were brought to Middletown to work in plantations. According to Middletown's Municipal historian Deborah Shapiro, the goal of the ceremony was to create a just society and create a sense of community healing. (McWilliams p.1). The author stated that the ceremony commemorated 16 West-African nations where people were captured and sold as slaves.

Conclusion

Overall, the Atlantic Slave Trade was an economic activity, which lasted 400 years. Without a doubt, the trade laid the foundation of modern-day capitalism. The Atlantic Slave Trade had an immense impact on the economic development of the parts of Africa where slaves were taken. Today, the estimated magnitudes of the effects of the trade in the parts of Africa where the trade took place is still evident. The four centuries of the Atlantic Slave Trade are the reason for Africa's current underdevelopment.

Works Cited

Abbott, Franky. "The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade." 2015. Accessible at https://dp.la/primarysource-sets/the-transatlantic-slave-trade

Da Silva, Daniel B. Domingues. "The Atlantic Slave Trade from Angola: A Port-by-Port Estimate of Slaves Embarked, 1701-1867." The International Journal of African Historical Studies, vol. 46, no. 1, pp. 105-122. 2013.

Klein, Herbert. The Atlantic Slave Trade. 2nd Edition. New York: Cambridge University Press. 2010. Press.

McWilliams, Kathleen. "Middletown will acknowledge its history with the trans-Atlantic slave trade with a ceremony on Saturday." Hartford Courant. 2019. Retrieved from https://www.courant.com/community/middletown/hc-news-middletown-middle-passage--20190925-rru5isqm35hq7nocjwvvx2k7ei-story.html