DBQ ESSAY

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The Atlantic Slave Trade
Beginning of the 15th and 16th centuries, Europeans began to explore in the Atlantic Coast of Africa. They were mainly lured into the excessive trade in gold, spices and other goods without knowing about slaves in Africa. Nonetheless, Europeans had no success of taking over these African states to achieve all of these goods but later they did take over various regions in other areas. Africans seems to be willing to sell as many as 11 million people to the Atlantic slave trade to the Europeans. Thus, this makes them the first people to have slaves not the Europeans that forced them into this trade. Furthermore, at the start the Africans seems to have full control of the slave trade, but the Europeans came in and slowly dominated the trade without the Africans knowing. Later on, the trade was overturned and everything went back orderly.

In 1732, John Barbot wrote in his writing (Collection of Voyages) that “African canoes carrying slaves on board of ships at Manfroe. Also shows European trading vessels and slave ships in the background and various forts.”(Source 1) This stated that Africans were the ones who started the whole thing and the Europeans didn’t really get into the idea since they were mainly there for gold and silvers. Thus, Africans were the ones who regulated this slave trade during this period. In 1786-1787, Europeans began the “Capture and Coffle of Enslaved Africans, Angola, 1786-87” (Source 10) Europeans began to enslaved Africans to work on the plantations and Africa’s superiority began to decrease. Also, Curtin Phillip D. in The Atlantic Slave Trade; a Census. London: University of Wisconsin Press,1969, “… the transformation of...

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... The Economic History Review, by Behrendt, Stephen D. David Eltis, David Richardson that stated, “…second impact of Africans that goes beyond violence on slave ships followed from the natural Africans assumption of equal status in the trading relationship…came in the wake of holding Europeans…”(Source 9). The result of considering the equal status between the Africans and the Europeans from Africa’s point of view was the Atlantic slave trade which millions of African people’s live had been jeopardized and their fate had been seal to work in the fields for the rest of their lives.
In conclusion, during the 15th and 16th centuries Europeans visited the Atlantic Coast in the African states to observe for gold and silvers. They took advantage of the Africans to get their desires when the Africans acknowledged them to be equal which drove into Africa’s downfall.

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