The Impact of the Transatlantic Slave Trade on Ghana: A Violent Legacy

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The Impact of the Transatlantic Slave Trade on Ghana: A Violent Legacy This class was filled with riveting topics that all had positive and negative impacts on Africa. As in most of the world, slavery, or involuntary human servitude, was practiced across Africa from prehistoric times to the modern era (Wright, 2000). The transatlantic slave trade was beneficial for the Elite Africans that sold the slaves to the Western Europeans because their economy predominantly depended on it. However, this trade left a mark on Africans that no one will ever be able to erase. For many Africans, just remembering that their ancestors were once slaves to another human, is something humiliating and shameful. In this paper I ask, how did slavery begin in Ghana? What impact did it have on Ghana? How badly is Ghana underdeveloped due to this enslavement that took place? Lovejoy, Northrup, and Rodney argue that the transatlantic slave trade did in fact contribute to the underdevelopment of Africa. I support their arguments and believe the trade didn’t exactly “destroy” Ghana, but it did affect it by not letting the country improve faster, although eventually Ghana was able to depart from that “underdeveloped” category. The transatlantic slave trade occurred throughout the entire continent of Africa and was divided into two eras, the first and the second Atlantic systems. The first Atlantic system was the slave trade of Africans to Portuguese and Spanish territories. The second Atlantic system which made up most of the transatlantic slave trade is the one I will focus on. This second Atlantic system, was characterized by the shipment of Africans from countries such as Senegal, Gambia, Ghana, Angola, and the Democratic Republic of Congo to the ... ... middle of paper ... ...trade.php>. Lovejoy, Paul E. Transformations in Slavery: A History of Slavery in Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1983. Print. "Ghana." Economy: Population, GDP, Inflation, Business, Trade, FDI, Corruption. Index of Economic Freedom, n.d. Web. 08 Apr. 2014. . "Ghana." The U.S. Government's Global Hunger and Food Security Initiative. Feed the Future, n.d. Web. 08 Apr. 2014. . "Africa Before Transatlantic Slavery: The Abolition of Slavery Project." Africa Before Transatlantic Slavery: The Abolition of Slavery Project. E2BN, 2009. Web. 08 Apr. 2014. . PEABODY, SUE. "Slavery and the Slave Trade." Europe, 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Apr. 2014 .

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