A SHORT HISTORY OF THE SLAVE TRADE
We visited ILE DE GORÉE today, a small island 20 minutes off the coast of Dakar, Senegal. It was here in the mid-15th century that Portuguese explorers first landed, built a fortress and also the Maison des Esclaves (Slave Houses), where human "cargo" was to be housed before being transported to the Americas.
SLAVERY HAD ALREADY EXISTED IN WEST AFRICA FOR MANY CENTURIES, and expanded in significant part with the rise of Islam, which prohibited the enslavement of Muslims. The Portuguese contributed greatly to the trade, taking slaves to work on the large sugar plantations that had been established in Portuguese settlements on the other side of the Atlantic (including in present-day Brazil) between 1575 and 1600.
By the 17th and 18th centuries, other European nations (particularly England, Spain, France and Holland) had established colonies in the Americas, and were growing sugar, tobacco, cotton and other crops. Huge profits could be made from these commodities, and the demand for slaves to work the plantations was insatiable.
In most cases, European traders encouraged Africans on the coast to attack neighboring tribes and take captives. These were brought to the coastal slaving stations and exchanged for European goods such as cloth and guns, enabling more neighbors to be invaded and more slaves to be captured. A TRIANGULAR TRANS-ANTLANTIC TRADE ROUTE developed - the slaves were loaded onto ships and transported to the Americas; the raw materials they produced were transported to Europe; and finished goods were transported from Europe to Africa once again to be exchanged for slaves and to keep the whole system moving. The demand for slaves was maintained because conditions in the plantations were so bad that life expectancy after arriving in the Americas was often no more than a few years.
Exact figures are impossible to come by, but it is estimated that from the end of the 15th century until around 1900 (when the slave trade was abolished) as many as 20 million Africans were captured. Between 25 percent and 50 percent of this number died, mostly while being transported. WRITTEN ACCOUNTS OF THE TIME describe hundreds of slaves packed tightly between decks so low there was only room to lie down. Food or water was often not provided and the feces or vomit from those above fell through the planking onto those lying below. It is not surprising that only around 10 million actually arrived in the Americas. These figures are hotly debated by historians and sometimes obscure the main issue, which is that whatever the actual numbers, the slave trade was undeniably cruel and inhuman.
Slave exports from Africa on the Trans-Atlantic route:
1450-1500 81,000
1500-1600 328,000
1601-1700 1,348,000
1701-1800 6,090,000
1801-1900 3,466,000
Total 11,232,000
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