How Did Slavery Affect The African Americans

The Atlantic slave trade is considered to be the largest and most revolting forced migration of human beings to ever be recorded. The migrations, which totaled approximately twelve to fifteen million Africans, sailed across the Atlantic to work in fields, mines, and many other places between the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries. Slavery around this time was not uncommon, therefore not looked down upon by most societies. This took away the moral disadvantage of slavery, and looked towards the potential opportunities. The people in Europe could rarely receive a profit from European-grown crops. With the newly acquirable land in the New World, they needed a large work force. The Africans were also very cheap to buy and move. This proved to be useful because the Native Americans and Indentured servants were not considered to be “good workers.”
Weather and climate have a very large impact on what can be grown in certain areas.
For this reason, Europe could not always produce a large amount of products at one time. With the settling of the “New World,” things changed quite drastically. Certain crops could be grown much easier in particular areas, such as cotton, tobacco, and sugar in what is today known as the “Deep South.” There were also mines that could be tapped, wood to be cut, and ships to be built in the New World. Europeans wanted to exploit this new land for their own gains, but in order to make a profit off of these crops and textiles; they would need a very large workforce. One of the main ways the Europeans received more workers was by what was called indentured servitude, which allowed young European males to have the possibility of making a new life for themselves in new lands. However, indentured servitude was not very successful because it did not provide enough people to work the
lands. The Atlantic slave trade’s main purpose was to move as many workers as possible from one side of the Atlantic to the other, in which they did just that. The amount of people that were easily taken into slavery made it the perfect opportunity for countries to obtain a large, productive workforce. In the beginning, the Native people of the Americas were used as workers, but never met the standard of what the Europeans were looking for. Many died from overworking, and they fell to many diseases that they had never come in contact with before. The new land that was acquired in North America was becoming useless because they did not have enough people to manage it. The answer to this problem was the African peoples from the slave trade. They were incredibly cheap, and sadly, they were not even looked upon as people. Instead, they were viewed at as cargo and would be forced to leave their homes and everything they possessed behind. They were taken to the Americas to be bought and immediately put to work. One thing that is overlooked quite often is how strong the Africans really were. For example, the boat ride from West Africa to the Americas was not a short or easy trip. However, more seamen died than the actual slaves. The Africans were prepared for the harsh conditions and could work well in them, unlike the Native Americans or even the Europeans themselves. The process of sending people to the New World developed quickly, and compared to the number of indentured servants and Natives being used for labor, African slaves proved to be far more efficient. The Europeans started sending hundreds of Africans on the boat at a time, and the Africans slowly started to be treated worse. What would be known today as basic human rights were all but stripped away; women and children were working the fields and helping to produce substantial harvests, which made the Atlantic slave trade more valuable since there were even more people to work the lands. The Atlantic slave trade was not only started because of the advancements of other countries such as Portugal into Africa, but also by Africans themselves. Since slavery had been around eons before the slave trade had begun, it was not unknown for countries to conquer and enslave native peoples. In fact many of the slaves that were traded across the Atlantic were sold to Europeans from African tribe leaders. There was a very large difference between the slavery in Africa and the slavery in the New World. African slavery is more easily identified to European serfdom, African slaves could marry, and they had most of their basic human rights. However, in the Americas they were not allowed to be taught to read or write, and they had terrible living conditions. These were all situations that the Africans were not used to, and caused an awful amount of deaths. The Atlantic slave trade was a historical event that influenced the entire world. The slave trade helped establish North America economically by providing a substantial workforce for the plantations, which in turn provided more produce and textiles for the European peoples. Overall the main reason the Atlantic slave trade was established, was because of the need for a massive workforce. The slave trade made it efficient and cheap to receive workers. In the end, the Atlantic slave trade was a very successful business endeavor for the Europeans, and the beginning of a very rough and treacherous road for the Africans.