African Slave Trade Research Paper

Development of Modern Africa

Scared or Greedy: Incentives Surrounding the African Slave Trader The role Africans played in the Atlantic slave trade is a hotly debated topic by historians and intellectuals for a reason. Those Africans who participated in the Atlantic slave trade did so under many different influences and motivations. The reasons to partake in the slave trade differed from the particular class, culture, and geographic region of the African traders. Because the African continent is such a large and diverse area one can see how varied these prerogatives may be. Yet, it is a historical fact that African traders contributed to the Atlantic slave trade, at the very least, for their own protection from European firepower,
Long before millions of slaves were shipped across the Atlantic Ocean to work the plantations of the United States, sub Saharan African traders enslaved between five and seven thousand other Africans annually, and sold them to Northern Africans and Arabs in what was known as the Trans-Saharan slave trade (Gilbert/Reynolds 186-7). Also, African elite owned slaves as luxury items with no significant economic dependence on their labor (Gilbert/Reynolds 142). However, according to historian John Thornton, the acquisition of slaves in Africa during the 9th century, was to account for the scarce labor and the abundant land capable of harboring vital crops; if only planted (Gilbert/Reynolds 143). So even before Africans saw the potential threat of European firearms (or any firearms), they participated in selling other Africans as property. It is also important to note that once Europeans made contact with sub Saharan Africans, their relationship remained on peaceful terms before the Atlantic Slave trade; so no violent coercion from Europeans influenced African traders to sell slaves (Gilbert/Reynolds
Yet were these traders aware of the unimaginable suffering that awaited their human goods? Further, if they had been aware, did they abandon their lifestyle for more ethical ways of self sustainment? Kaba writes, “Unlike the investors, the insurers, the shipbuilders, the dealers, and especially the mariners from abroad, the local African providers had little knowledge of the whole Atlantic system” (8). This may true, yet there is an abundance of evidence supporting the fact that African slave traders were very aware of the conditions endured during the middle passage. The better question is, why would this information change the minds of the traders who voluntarily took part in a legitimate and common business venture at the time? It would not. A prime example can be found in The Two Princes of Calabar. Sparks writes how Little Ephraim and Ancona John finally reach their homeland of Calabar after experiencing seven years as slaves abroad, only for Little Ephraim to continue his previous lifestyle as a slave trader because of the business’s economic importance to Old Town (133-34). Other former slaves escaped or were set free to broadcast their dark experiences to the world with similar