Slave Trade: The European Ports, West African Coasts (Essay Sample)

Slave Trade
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The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade took the following triangular route; the traders set out from the European ports towards the West African coasts. They bought people there with the exchange of goods and then loaded them to ships. The Middle Passage, which was the voyage from Africa across the Atlantic to the Americas, generally took six to eight weeks. Those who had survived the voyage were offloaded, sold and put to various jobs as slaves. These ships then returned to Europe with various goods from the Americas such as sugar, tobacco, cotton and coffee which had been produced by the slaves' labor. This triangle, which involved three continents was complete in that Europe provided capita, Africa provided labor and American land were used in the supplying a European market. Later, the colonists made direct tours from the Americas to the African coast, particularly from Brazil after 1800 (Hanel, 2008).
Robert Conrad depicted the first-hand experiences and accounts of the slave lives, giving a fuller picture regarding their position in the society and the interactions with their white masters. The story of Mahommah Gardo, a former slave from the Niger delta who was sold in Brazil to slavery is one of the accounts that are given from the perspective of a slave. The contention that slaves were not profitable in the urban areas was made implicit by Charles W. Ramsdell in his natural limit thesis. He argued that slavery was cumbersome and expensive and could only realize profits when it was applied in rich lands for cultivation. Recently, urban slavery has been revisited by Richard C. Wade in a book titled Slavery in the Cities. He argues that slavery in the cities declined because it was not compatible with the urban life. The urban environment would give the slaves more freedom and education and this contributed to the decline in slavery in the urban areas. Therefore, the root of decline in the urban slavery was the incompatibility of the slaves to the urban life.
The young girl slaves were to serve the mistress of the house; they helped with the household chores. The young slave boys served the young masters; Robert depicts them as “victims dedicated to the whims of the young master. They were his horse, his whipping boy...”(Eltis, 2004).
The negative effects that the slave trade had on Africa were immense. This spreads across the personal, family and communal levels. The deaths and economic destructions were startlingly high. The forced marches of the slaves took many lives. Also, there was profound change in the social and political arenas. Most of the communities tried to relocate far from the reach of the slavers' route. As such, the economic development was subverted and they focused on hiding and defense.
To the Americas, the slave trade saw increased large-scale production of agricultural produce. More sugar plantations in Haiti were established since the labor was readily available. Since sugar was very profitable, Haiti soon became the richest among all France's colonies. Soon, the French expanded and started growing coffee. This saw Haiti producing about 60% of the entire world's coffee and this made them very rich. Also, the demographics in the Americas changed; there were more black people in Haiti as compared to the white masters (Hanel, 2008).
Whereas slavery was oppression on the African people, many who termed it as evil could not deny the economic benefits that came with it. They relied on slavery; the cash crops like tobacco and rice were all dependent on slave labor. Many colonists, even those that were slave holders, hated slavery. George Washington, an owner of 100 slaves himself, denounced the act as “repugnant”. Jefferson termed it a “hideous blot.”
The first US national government started under the articles of confederation that were adopted in the year 1981. Slavery continued being a divisive issue. The del...