The Transatlantic Slave Trade
Introduction
Slavery is the act of denying a person basic human rights such as freedom and autonomy and viewing people as property as opposed to human beings. Slavery was a common practice for centuries among civilizations; The first account of slavery can be linked to ancient Mesopotamia; it was usually used as a form of punishment for war criminals or for individuals with different beliefs and never placed onto one specific race. The form of slavery that we are more familiar with today, chattel slavery didn't come until the 15th century when Europeans were migrating and settling in America.
The Transatlantic slave trade was the cruelest system in America’s history due to the dehumanization of Africans where millions were forced onto ships, forced to travel across the ocean in inhumane conditions, and displaced from their families in an unfamiliar country. The transatlantic slave trade fueled economic growth and prosperity for America through exploitation and stamped a lasting impact on the inequalities that Black people face today.
Colonialism
When European colonists came to America, in hopes to claim the land for their country, they found Indigenous people who already settled and had a way of living. As more and more Europeans migrated to America colonists needed more land for settlers and workers to grow their crops, colonists used violence and military force to push indigenous people into forced labor. However, millions of Indigenous people died due to diseases carried over from Europe, inhumane work conditions, famine and war. Colonists then turned to Africa who used slavery as a form of punishment for laborers who could work their fields free of cost. However, in Africa chattel slavery, where a person could be held captive for the entirety of their life and viewed as property was not a common practice. People were eventually able to gain their freedom and not have to look back. This unfortunately would not be the case for the enslaved once they were brought to America.
The Triangle Trade
The triangular trade was the exchange of goods between three continents: Europe, Africa, and the Americas. In the year 1440, Portugal was the first to transport enslaved people from Africa to Europe. By the year 1530, other European nations entered the trade, evolving the system. Ships left European ports with manufactured goods such as textiles, weapons, and alcohol, trading them in Africa for enslaved people who were captured and forced onto tightly packed ships and transported across the Atlantic Ocean in inhumane conditions to America, where they were sold and forced to work on plantations that produced tobacco, cotton, and sugar. The raw materials produced on these plantations were then shipped to Europe, completing the triangular trade cycle.
The Middle Passage Conditions
Most enslaved people were taken from the coast of West Africa. The Europeans were not only taking people who were already enslaved in Africa, but they were raiding villages and kidnapping freed people, separating them from their families, culture, religion, and identity. 12.5 million Africans were kidnapped and trafficked through the Transatlantic Slave Trade; only 10.7 million survived the horrific voyage.
For most people held in captivity, the experience of the Transatlantic Slave Trade could last anywhere from a few weeks to years. While waiting to board the ships that would take them across the Atlantic, Africans were forced into barracoons, slave pens, and dungeons within prison castles. Before being able to board the ships, they had to undergo a series of sadistic and invasive examinations.
Men, women, and children were stripped naked to be poked, prodded, and molested to see if they were equipped for labor and procreation. The ships could stay docked for months until the kidnappers had enough human cargo that would be profitable for enslavers back across the Atlantic. By the year 1820, eighty percent of America's population was kidnapped Africans, who greatly outnumbered the percentage of European immigrants.
An exhibit at EJI’s Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Alabama, features more than 200 sculptures by Ghanaian sculptor Kwame Akoto-Bamfo memorializing those who died during the Middle Passage.
The image above is an illustration of the Brookes, a British ship used to traffic enslaved Africans.
Life In The Unfamiliar Country
Once the slave ships reached America, the slaveholders held auctions to profit from the voyage. Many families were separated, with no way to see or contact each other again. The majority of the enslaved people who survived the Middle Passage worked on sugar plantations, which were known for their harsh environments. Slaveholders would use the gang-labor tactic, where a large number of enslaved people would work the fields all together, usually for hours throughout the day, rarely getting any breaks. Women and children were not exempt from these jobs or harsh labor conditions. Many enslaved women were subject to rape and sexual harassment; they were unable to tell their masters no, or something even worse could happen to them. Enslaved people faced cruel and unusual punishments usual beatings or even death.
Slave holders provided an okay amount of resources to keep the enslaved people alive. They were usually allowed one meal a day if they were lucky. They were given cloth to make clothes, sometimes not enough for everyone in the household, so it was sometimes just enough, barely to keep them covered. This could be a major issue during the cold winter months. They were expected to make do with what little they had. Slaveholders often banned people from practicing their religion and speaking their native languages, completely stripping them of their identities and what they knew. They were even banned from learning how to read or write, anyone caught trying to teach them could be punished by death. This harsh and cruel system lasted for centuries, and many people spent their entire lives being enslaved and died without knowing what freedom was. The importation of enslaved people from Africa became illegal on January 1, 1808. However, enslaved people still had decades to go until they were granted freedom across America.
The End To The Beginning
Slavery was abolished on December 6, 1865, when the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified, making slavery illegal under the United States Constitution. However, this was far from the end of the mistreatment and hardships of Black people in the United States, and even around the world due to the normalization of slavery and human trafficking of African people. When slavery ended in America, Whites were angry and felt hatred towards Black people because they were unable to make money off of them and because they felt as if they deserved to be enslaved and that they did not deserve to live side by side with them. White people made it difficult for newly freed people to get jobs and go to school. During the Reconstruction era, they made Jim Crow laws and segregation to limit African Americans' amount of freedom. Eventually, these rules and laws were deemed unconstitutional. However, the damage that chattel slavery brought was already done, and we still see it today in our Judicial, housing, and schooling systems. The Transatlantic slave trade has done irreparable damage to the African American community due to the fact that this is what the country's economy was built upon, and was one of the most cruel and gruesome systems of American History. When talking about American history and how this country came to be, it is difficult not to mention slavery and the events that took place in West Africa.
