Video Lesson

Learning Competencies: After learning this lesson, you will be able to:

• evaluate the impact of the slave trade on Africa;
• examine how the slave trade affected African economy;
• criticize the crime against humanity committed during the slave trade;

Brainstorming Questions

• What do you understand about slavery, slave trade and enslavement?
• What do you know about the origins of Black people in America?

key terms and concepts

Slavery Inside Africa

African societies had indigenous forms of slavery and slave trade from ancient times to the early 20th century. Slaves were acquired through warfare, raiding, kidnapping, tribute, and pawning. They were transported to marketplaces by long-distance traders. Key trade routes included the Trans-Saharan route from West Africa to North Africa, the route from southwestern Ethiopia to Sudan and Egypt, and the path from central Africa to the Atlantic coast, notably impacting regions like the Kingdom of Bakongo and Ndongo.

Male and female slaves in traditional African societies were used as domestic servants in palaces, religious places and individual households. Besides, the acquisition of a greater number of slaves was a mark of prestige, power and status in African society. Female slaves could also become the wives and concubines of individuals, chiefs and kings. The price of female slaves was always higher than the price of male slaves.

Slave labor in Africa was utilized in various sectors: agriculture (farming, animal rearing, hunting, fishing), trade (porters, merchants, agents), and industries (gold mining, iron working, salt making, cloth weaving). Slaves also served in military roles (soldiers, bodyguards, camp followers) and administrative functions within royal palaces (musicians, heralds, translators, financiers).

In many African societies, slaves were often integrated into the kinship structures of their owners through adoption or marriage. This integration was common among groups such as the Tuareg, Bamba, Wolof, Mende, Bakongo, Lunda, Kerebe, Imbangala, and Sena. Slaves were often considered part of the family. In traditional African societies, slaves had notable rights and privileges. They could marry freely, were sometimes given land for personal farming, and could inherit property. Slaves were legally protected, with only the highest authorities having control over their lives. Many societies allowed for manumission or redemption, and slaves could achieve social and political mobility, including roles such as heads of households or village leaders.

In general, the treatment of slaves in pre-colonial African society depended on the owner, the family and the household in which the slave resided. On the whole, oral and written records show a picture of humane treatment of slaves. Observers remarked that slavery in Africa was very different from that of Europe, North America and the West Indies. Nevertheless, his/her status as slave was never entirely forgotten, regardless of the level of his/her social integration or social and political position.

The Indian Ocean and Mediterranean Slave Trade

Since ancient times, African slaves were exported through several trade routes before the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. The Trans-Saharan, Red Sea, and Indian Ocean slave trades predated and operated alongside the Trans-Atlantic trade. The Trans-Saharan trade, active from the 8th to late 16th centuries, involved the exchange of slaves and goods across the Sahara Desert between Mediterranean countries and sub-Saharan Africa, with North African Arabs and Berbers as key participants.

Major routes included one from Morocco to the Niger Delta and another from Tunisia to Lake Chad. This trade exchanged North African salt for gold and slaves from West Africa. The Trans-Atlantic slave trade later became a major factor in the rise of West African states and their involvement in the slave trade, while the Trans-Saharan trade declined after the 16th century but persisted in a reduced form.

The Red Sea slave trade was another trade with ancient origins. Slaves were taken from inland countries of the Red Sea such as the Ethiopian region and Nubia, and shipped to the Middle East and India. The export of Ethiopian slaves through the Red Sea developed significantly, particularly during the 19th century. Some of the slaves in this trade were also sold to North Africa. The Indian Ocean trade was one of the oldest trades in Africa. Slaves from the East African
coast were shipped either to the Middle East and India or to plantation islands in the Indian
Ocean for centuries. But this trade operated on a fairly small scale until the second half
of the 18th century. Slaves were mostly sent to Arabia and the Persian Gulf as household
servants, concubines, or plantation labourers.

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the Indian Ocean slave trade significantly increased due to heightened demand for East African slaves. This demand was driven by the opening of sugar and coffee plantations in Mauritius and Reunion by the French in the 1770s. Portuguese, Indian, Arab, and Swahili merchants supplied slaves to French plantation owners, with the Zambezi valley and Mozambican interior being primary sources. Following the expulsion of the Portuguese from East Africa at the end of the 17th century, Arab traders dominated the coastal trade. By the mid-19th century, the Sultans of Zanzibar extended their influence from Mogadishu to Mozambique and demanded slave labor for their plantations in Zanzibar and nearby islands.

The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade

The Trans-Atlantic slave trade began after Christopher Columbus’s discovery of America in 1492, lasting from the 16th to mid-19th centuries. European nations established large plantations and mining fields in the Americas, with Spain being the first to do so. As Native Americans were severely impacted by European diseases and violence, the survivors were forced into harsh labor conditions on European plantations and mining fields, leading to an increased demand for African slaves to work in these areas.

Because most Amerindians died of European borne diseases, harsh treatment or atrocious suppression of rebellion, severe shortage of free labour was created in the European plantations. The Europeans tried to solve the problem by enslaving white European criminals, political prisoners, and other unfortunate groups. However, the white slaves were small in number, unable to resist hardships and died of unfamiliar tropical diseases. At this critical point, Europeans began to look into Africa as a source of free labour for their plantations in the New World. African slaves were immune to most tropical diseases.

The Portuguese were the first Europeans to transport African slaves across the Atlantic, with the first such shipment occurring in 1532. After the 1630s, the slave trade volume increased as the Dutch, French, British, and Danes joined the competition with the Portuguese, driven by the expansion of sugar plantations in Brazil and the Caribbean. By the 18th century, Britain emerged as the largest exporter of African slaves.

The Trans-Atlantic slave trade passed through three distinct phases. The first phase, which lasted from the 15th to the last quarter of the 16th century, was commonly called the piratic slave trade. The slave hunters and dealers were individual merchants, adventurers, navigators, or sea robbers with no European government involvement or support. The trade in slaves was low as Europeans were still more interested in gold.

The second phase, which lasted from the 1580s to the second half of the 17th century, is referred to as the monopolistic slave trade. The trade was entirely conducted by monopolistic slave trading companies. These companies were chartered by their respective European governments and were assisted by regular armed forces. They penetrated deep into African territories in order to hunt down Africans in large numbers or purchase war captives from African chiefs and families as slaves. The Kingdom of Kongo in the Angolan coast line and the “Slave Coast” in what is now the western coast of Nigeria were the major sources of slaves. Slave merchants and chartered companies made enormous profits from the trade in
African slaves. Able bodied slaves purchased for 100 to 200 francs in Africa were sold for 1000-2000 francs in the New World.

The second phase of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, known as the triangular trade, involved a three-continent network. European merchants brought goods like clothes and firearms to Africa in exchange for slaves. They then transported these slaves to the Americas, where they traded them for products like sugar and rum. These products were shipped back to Europe, where they were sold at high prices, contributing to Western Europe’s wealth and industrialization starting in the 18th century.

The third phase, called the free trade, began in the late 17th century and saw the consolidation and expansion of the slave trade. In 1689, British law allowed anyone in the British Empire to participate in the slave trade, leading to a surge in individual traders. This increased competition among companies and individual traders in the slave trade.

African slaves endured extreme violence and hardship from their capture to their journey across the Atlantic, known as the Middle Passage. They were hunted, chained, and forced to the coast, often burdened with ivory. During the Middle Passage, up to one-sixth of them might have died, with their bodies discarded at sea. Upon reaching the Americas, slaves faced relentless, grueling work from dawn to dusk, often in chains, with their owners providing only minimal necessities to keep them alive and working.

The Abolition of the Slave Trade

Africans resisted their enslavement, and revolted in the middle passage as well as at the plantation sites in the New World. Some African ruling elite and West African abolitionists abroad also resisted the atrocious enslavement of their people. But African resistance was poorly organized, and rebellions were often atrociously suppressed.

As the Abolitionist Movement grew in Europe, the Trans-Atlantic slave trade began to decline. By the late 18th century, increasing European concern over the trade’s immorality and brutality led religious, humanitarian, and Enlightenment figures to pressure governments for abolition. Despite this, European governments initially ignored the abolitionists’ demands.

Economic factors played a key role in the abolition of the slave trade. With the Industrial Revolution, plantation production and the slave trade became unprofitable. European countries began outlawing the trade: Denmark in 1803, Britain in 1807, the United States in 1808, Sweden in 1813, the Netherlands in 1814, and France in 1818. Britain, in particular, took significant action by patrolling the Atlantic to enforce anti-slave trade laws. British economic interests shifted from the slave trade to seeking cheap labor, raw materials, and new markets for industrial products. This led to a decline in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade by the mid-19th century, impacting Africa’s manpower and its use in mining fields.

This does not mean, however, that slavery was totally abandoned in Africa. In addition to domestic slavery, African slaves were exported to Arabia, North Africa and the Far East until the early 20th century. It took time for colonial powers to ban slavery within their respective African colonies. The indigenous system of slavery was abolished in the Gold Coast (now Ghana) in 1874 and in Ashante and others in 1908 by the British in 1874. In Ethiopia slavery and slave trade continued until the coming of the Italians in 1935.

The Effects of Slave Trade on Africa

The trans-Atlantic slave trade was the largest and best-documented of the slave trades, with nearly 18 million slaves shipped between 1500 and 1900. Of this total, approximately 12 million were transported across the Atlantic from Africa, including the Atlantic coasts and Mozambique.

The African slave trade had profound consequences, including the extermination of some peoples, expulsion from ancestral lands, family dislocation, and economic destruction. The Atlantic trade particularly devastated small ethnic groups and caused political instability in societies like the Yoruba and Wolof. Some regions, like most of present-day South Africa, were not involved in the trade. Economically, the slave trade drained Africa’s productive potential, disrupted agriculture, and hindered local self-sufficiency.

The trans-Atlantic slave trade contributed to the rise of powerful Guinea states such as Dahomey, Ashante, and Oyo, which benefited economically from their involvement. Some African chiefs participated in the trade, leading to the emergence of new merchant classes. The constant conflict and defensive wars against European slave traders strengthened African fighting spirit, led to tribal confederations, and improved military organization.