what lay behind the horror of the slave trade?

by saimapathan (student)

What lay behind the horror of the slave trade?

In order to understand what lay behind the horror of the slave trade you first need to know how the slave trade worked firstly the slave trade was a cruel and bad thing to do it worked when one of the European boat went to the Atlantic ocean they would go to the small villages from Africa such as Ghana and the Europeans would take guns, cloth and alcohol to Africa, trade it for some Africans to be their slaves secondly the European would take the slaves to America finally the Europeans would take back raw materials such as cotton, sugar, tobacco and coffee. There were people involved directly and indirectly.

Firstly the slave trade stared of in Europe, there were many people involved in Britain for example there were people involved directly in Britain such as merchants they were involved because they wanted to bring back sugar to Britain but they needed a ship they did this to earn a profit. Captains and crews of a ship were involved directly because they would sail their ship tot the Atlantic Ocean and the captain would navigate and the crew would do what the captain says they did this to earn wages and have a job so they can do something.

their were people involved indirectly such as people who make the slave sips such as spinners, weavers, dyers, blacksmiths, wood workers, rope makers and flag makers these people were involved because they made the boat for captains and crew to buy it the boat makers did this so they could earn money and a living. Another kind of people involved indirectly is people from all over Britain who went to ports such as Liverpool to service other people like captains/crews these other people like shopkeepers are involved because they would move their shops to Liverpool or other ports like Liverpool to service people like captains and crews and sell them stuff like beer they did this to earn wages and the people who brought stuff from the shop keepers, they would have to pay for what ever they brought from the small businesses. People from all over Britain making good were involved indirectly they are involved because bits of England like Sheffield make swords and knifes, to sell to people in Africa so they could get black slaves, they are involved because they gives their goods to Africa to get black slaves, these are the kind of people who were involved from all over Britain directly and indirectly. As a result of all the people who were directly of indirectly involved ports like Liverpool grew bigger for example “in the 1700 the population was 5,000, by 1800 the population was 80,000” because of the slave trade the population grew a lot.

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Secondly their were people who were involved in the slave trade from Africa for example their were people who were at the coast of Africa such as white traders they would trade their goods such as guns, cloth and alcohol for slaves the traders would trade the manufactured goods to the African traders they are involved because they represent the merchants and they were also earn money. Another kind of people who were directly involved were the African traders they were involved because they capture Africans from other small villages and from the raids, they would also give the Africans they have captured from wars they would also have to march the Africans they brought with them they did this for the good they got and for a profit. Another kind of people involved were white sailors they were involved because they would check, brand and whip the Africans to the small boats before going onto the big boats, they did this because they want to earn a living and money they were employed by the merchants, their were people involved from the inland such as kings and chiefs they were involved because they trades slaves for guns, cloth and alcohol they got the slaves from wars they did with other part of Africa they did this because some chiefs and kings want their part of Africa to be rich and powerful, some of the chiefs of Africa did it to defend their part of Africa. Finally there were ordinary people involved they were involved because they were captured their were alto of skilled people who were captured some of the small parts of Africa lost its most skill full people because of this the their were less farmers to grow food, less blacksmith to make things out of metal, less wise women’s to give advise and less wood workers to make stuff out of woods this shows because they were captured all the African the skills were lost and nothing was left. Because of all the trading of guns there were more wars in Africa then ever before, also because of all the wars and raids that has happened the land that were disserted became waste land and millions of people had died from the wars or were killed from raids.

Finally their were people who were involved in the slave trade from the Americas for example native Americans were involved because the Europeans took over their hunting land they had no animals to hunt and eat for food they fought back but then the Europeans then used black Africans on their plantation and some of the native Americans worked on their plantations. Another kind of people involved were the slaves on the plantations they were involved because 60% of field hands were women. Children would start to work at the age of three. their were gang leaders they would have a bit more respect then the other slaves the elderly people will do less work. They would work for 16 hours a day they would do the work they were told to do and they could buy their freedoms at time. House slaves were involved because they would have to do work like serving the foods and if you ran away you would get a terrible punishment they had to do the work that they were told to do and they would have to put up with their masters or mistresses mood swings, finally another kind of people involved were white people in the plantation the mater of the slaves would be on the plantation some times the over seer would whip the black Africans who did not ho the job they were told to do and the overseer would look over the slaves on a horse so he can have a proper view to see what the slaves were doing and if they were doing their job this shows that the overseer would be paid for doing his job, the masters of the plantation owners needed the slaves to work on his/hers plantation and the owner of the plantation owner would get money from selling all of his grown crops. Because of the slave trade some of the Native Americans died from the diseases the Europeans brought back, starvation because the Europeans took over their hunting land and the Native Americans died from fighting back for their hunting grounds.

In addition by saying this is that what lay behind the horrors of the slave trade it was very miserable and disappointing. No one should have been treated the way the black African slaves were treated. And if the triangular slave trade did not happen then we would not have had the industrial revolution and if it wasn’t for the black African slaves who did not grow tobacco cotton or sugar for us we would not have had it from this day on but they should not have been treated any differently to the Europeans who brought the slaves.

Saiemha Pathan