The Atlantic Slave Trade

• The Atlantic Slave Trade started in the 15th century by European powers, primarily the Portuguese.
• This trade led to significant loss of life, destruction of families, and long-term demographic and cultural trauma in Africa.
• Europeans sought cheap labor for plantations, while some African leaders aimed to expand influence and acquire goods.

Preconditions and Enabling Factors

• The Portuguese established fortified trading posts along the West and Central African coasts after 1444, including Elmina Castle in Ghana.
• These zones facilitated religious exchanges and rivalries between Christians and Muslims.
• European demand changed the nature, scale, and cruelty of existing slavery in Africa.

Qualitative Differences Between African and Atlantic Slavery

• Slavery in Africa was often non-hereditary, allowing slaves to own property, marry, and gain freedom.
• Atlantic slavery was hereditary, lifelong, race-based, and involved brutal labor, physical abuse, and total loss of autonomy.
• Atlantic slavery focused on commodifying human beings, leading to severe dehumanization.

Narratives and Testimonies – Olaudah Equiano

• Olaudah Equiano was kidnapped at age 11 from Igbo land (Nigeria) and sold to European slave traders.
• Equiano was shocked by the Europeans' appearance, the ship conditions, and the fear of cannibalism during the Middle Passage.
• Equiano's narrative offered a firsthand look at slavery and served as abolitionist propaganda in Britain.

Brutality and Mortality

• Middle Passage conditions included overcrowding, poor hygiene, disease, and starvation.
• Many captives died before reaching the Americas due to the inhumane conditions on slave ships.
• Enslaved Africans experienced shock, cultural alienation, and resisted through suicide, starvation, or revolt.

Key Themes and Concepts

• Africans were treated as property and economic units in the commodification process.
• Physical punishment, sexual abuse, and psychological torture were daily realities of slavery.
• Suicide, revolt, and refusal to eat were responses to enslavement.
• Europeans used Christianity to justify slavery, claiming to "save souls."
• The trade became systematized, with ships built to carry hundreds of humans in horrific conditions.

Summary

• The Portuguese initiated the transatlantic slave trade, followed by other European powers.
• The transatlantic slave trade involved the systematic capture, transport, and exploitation of millions of Africans.
• The trade began in the 15th century, peaked in the 17th–18th centuries, and continued until the 19th century.
• Africans were transported from West and Central Africa to the Americas (Caribbean, Brazil, North America).
• The trade was driven by European demand for cheap labor on plantations.
• Africans were obtained through kidnapping, warfare, sale by African elites, and European shipping infrastructure.