Essay | The Roles of Africans in the Trans-atlantic Trade

It is not inaccurate to claim that the African slave trade can be considered as the first and main reason Africa, in particular West Africa, was integrated into the world economy. Throughout the entire of the recorded history of Africa, Africans have been captured and sold as slaves within their own continent, across the Atlantic and in the East.

The Trans Atlantic slave trade lasted three hundred years, resulting in enforced emigration of more than ten million Africans. The European demand for African slaves in exchange to manufactured goods was an attractive deal of economical profit for the African merchants who led slave caravans to the European trading ports by the coast, proving the statement "Every man has his price" to be accurate.

The Africans did not play a passive role in the slave trade. The role they played creates an argument on whether or not the introduction...
(read more)