History Of The Atlantic Slave Trade

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Atlantic Slave Trade (also referred to as the Triangular trade) became very popular among the America's, Great Britain, and West Africa. It originally” began with just goods such as spices, cattle, etc... But then slaves were introduced and soon after became a major part of the whole operation. “Slavery is as old as civilization itself” (unknown). Although it is not as old as humanity thanks to our hunting and gathering foremothers. The numbers involved in the atlantic slave trade are truly staggering. From 1500 to 80 C.E. somewhere between ten and 12 million slaves were forcibly moved from Africa to the Americas.

“The Atlantic Slave Trade, over a period of three centuries, brought more than 10 million enslaved Africans to the shores of the Americas” (AAS 31). Then about 15% of those people died from the journey. Those who didn't die became property, bought and sold like any commodity. Where Africans came from and went to changed over time, but in all 48% of the slaves went to the Caribbean and 41% to Brazil. Although few people recognize that only about 5% of slaves were imported to the Americas out of the total. It is also worth noting that by the time Europeans started importing the Africans into the Americas, Europe had a long history of trading

This quote is a reflection of what many of the bright minds of Britain during the beginning of the slave trade believed. But beyond this, many people agreed that the Africans should be enslaved anyways because of the color of their skin. Throughout history, we see countless times, that Europeans (including basically anybody of the Caucasian variety) have a deep sense of pride as soon as they encounter anybody with a different colored skin or anybody that didn’t share the same culture as