The Trans Atlantic Slave Trade - 2208 Words

In 1969 Philip Curtin described the historiography of the Atlantic slave trade as a â€Å"Numbers Game.† Curtin found that historians conceptualized the commodification of human beings through quantification. A year earlier in 1968, Frederick George Kay claimed in The Shameful Trade that fifty million Africans were exported into slavery in foreign lands. Twenty years later, Paul Lovejoy offered a summary of the field. He argued â€Å"that known scale of the slave trade was on the order of 11,863,000† Africans were exported into bondage. Then ten years later, in 1999, the work of David Eltis, Stephen D. Behrendt, and Herbert S. Klein was published as The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade: A Database on CD-ROM. This work built upon the work of other historians who have largely dealt with the issue of the Atlantic Slave Trade by counting and quantifying human suffering. This database slowly grew and now includes documentation â€Å"on more than 35,000 slave voyages that forci bly embarked over 12 million Africans for transport to the Americas between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries.† This database has made it easier to quantify the Atlantic slave trade. Historians now could use the power of a computer to understand the sheer number of transportations. With the publication of this database it seemed likely that historians would continue the â€Å"numbers game† and get to the heart of the Atlantic slave trade. However, recent work on the Atlantic slave trade has gone in a different direction.Show MoreRelatedThe Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade679 Words   |  3 PagesThe Trans-Atlantic slave occurred during the early sixteenth century and lasted until the beginning of the all the way to nineteenth century. It was during this time when the beginning of the Black Diaspora would begin to manifest itself with the exportation of millions of the African populace to the Americas. These African people were forced and taken from their respective cou ntries in a horrific manner. The result, these people became the slaves of newly forming colonies in North America. The trekRead MoreTrans Atlantic Slave Trade1892 Words   |  8 Pagesquite prosperous before the coming of the Europeans. Since the time of the slave trade many theories point out that Africa is the cradle of civilization, it is the birth place of the human race. We should never believe the Eurocentric view that Africa was a dark continent inhabited by uncivilized savages pretending to be humans. False and negative views of Africa and Africans were used to justify the Transatlantic Slave Trade and colonization. However, in reality, the Ancient civilizations of EgyptRead MoreThe Trans Atlantic Slave Trade895 Words   |  4 PagesThe history of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade is more readily accessible and popular, as opposed to the history of the Viking slavers. Painter points out that the Vikings were hardly viewed in popular culture as the preeminent slavers they really were, while Dublin was the slave market capitol of the world from the 11th through the 15th centuries. Whites living in the current day British Isles through France and Scandinavia were all subject to slave raids by Vikings for hundreds of years with someRead MoreThe Trans Atlantic Slave Trade2824 Words   |  12 PagesProblem For nearly five centuries – from the 15th century at the onset of the trans-Atlantic slave trade up to the 1950s when African states began to win the struggle for independence, Africa was exploited as a continent. The natural as well as the human resources were taken with no returns. This great pillage led to a complete halt of trade in Africa. Trade implies an exchange, yet the human resources were taken as slaves and the former colonial masters took the natural and mineral resources withoutRead MoreEssay on Trans Atlantic Slave Trade1105 Words   |  5 PagesMarch 7, 2006 Trans Atlantic Slave Trade Slavery originated from Africa after the Bantu migrations spread agricultural to all parts of the continent. Africans would buy slaves to enlarge their families and have more power. Also, they would buy slaves in order to sell them to make a profit. It then spread out from Africa to Portugal and was said, it is estimated that during the four and a half centuries of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, Portugal was responsible for transportingRead MoreTrans-Atlantic Slave Trade‚Äà ¹1359 Words   |  6 Pagesâ€Å"Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade† The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade was one of the most horrific things to happen to any group of people closely relating to the Jewish Holocaust. The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade was actually often referred to as the â€Å"Holocaust of Enslavement† which was basically the incarceration and imprisonment of people not for committing criminal offenses but to be put to work for others. The â€Å"Areas that were involved in the European slave trade eventually prospered.† (Aca Demon) TheseRead MoreSlavery And The Trans Atlantic Slave Trade866 Words   |  4 Pagesis worse than the Trans-Atlantic slave trade in the sense that no one is exempt from slavery and trafficking, and that the people who are put through this suffering are forced to do vile things, especially because today’s society is completely ignorant to the fact that this issue still exists. Slavery and human trafficking still happens to occur under the radar, and can very well be happening right next door. Slave ry is worse now because back when the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade (TAST) was thrivingRead MoreImpact Of Trans Atlantic Slave Trade On African Societies1314 Words   |  6 Pagesthe Atlantic slave trade, providing humans in exchange for other goods. During that 300 years, some twelve million Africans were transported to the Americas. This mass, forced migration had many consequences for Africa, in many aspects of its history. In World History classes—both high school and college— these consequences for Africa are usually omitted, and a more Eurocentric view of the Atlantic slave trade dominates. Because of this, many are not aware of the impacts of the slave trade on AfricanRead MoreThe Role of the Africans and Europeans in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade1850 Words   |  8 PagesDid Africans participate in the Atlantic Slave Trade as equal partners, or were they the victims of European power and greed? The Trans Atlantic Slave Trade (TAST) was the selling of and transportation of slaves from African lands across the Atlantic to lands such as Brazil, Spanish Empire, British, French, Dutch and Danish West Indies, the British North America and US, along with Europe. It is estimated that as many as 13 million slaves left African ports (although only 11 million arrived toRead MoreTrans-Atlantic Slave Trade vs. Human Trafficking Essay2144 Words   |  9 Pages2011 Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade VS. Human Trafficking Although slavery may have legally ended in 1865 with the end of the Civil War, it continues to be a problem worldwide today. â€Å"The UN International Labor Organization (ILO) calculates the minimum number of people in forced labor at 12.3 million, while research by Free the Slaves, a non-governmental organization (NGO) based in the United Sates, puts the number at 27 million.† Even so, there are many similarities between the Trans-Atlantic slave