Strahinja Radakovic, Swanton 10-C

`The

Transatlantic Slave Trade

he transatlantic slave trade is the enslaving of African

people, which were then transported to Europe, where they were
sold to people as slaves, and workers. This trade began in the mid15th century when Portugals interest in Africa became less for the
goods that they offered, but instead for the slaves that could be
taken. The way that the Europeans did this is by sending large
ships, made more spacious to carry more slaves, to Africa, where
they would enslave as many people as they could. On occasion,
the African government would be in on the trade, and would help
Europeans get more slaves. while some of the slaves stayed in
Europe, many of them were later transported to the Americas.
There they would make the slaves work, since there wasnt enough
work force there. The Africans would make many goods that were
valued highly in Europe, and that the settlers did not want to make.
Soon after Portugal started taking advantage of slaves, many other
countries did as well since they found it very profitable. At the end
of the transatlantic slave trade, Britain was the biggest slave
trafficking country in the world. Many of the slaves were introduced
to diseases that didnt affect them previously. Even if the slaves
survived the diseases, they would be very malnourished. These
slaves would then make products that the Europeans wanted, such
as beaver hats, coats, etc. These slaves would usually have the
worst of working conditions, and would work overtime for minimum
to no pay at all. What really made slavery as controversial as it is it
that the slaves would be forced to leave their families and loved
ones, and then forced to work. If the slaves would disobey they
could be severely punished, and if the casualties suffered through
the voyages werent enough, the slaves would sometimes be
beaten to death for not working. They were treated inhumanely,
and were really oppressed. The transatlantic slave trade hit its
peak in the mid 18th century when over 80,000 slaves would cross
the Atlantic annually just to be enslaved for the rest of their lives.
The start of the end of the transatlantic slave trade was in 1772
when William Murray, the 1st earl of Mansfield declared that every
African to come to Britain would be free. Not too long after that
Thomas Jefferson made the state of Virginia the first state to ban
the import of slaves. Many places in Europe and North America
started prohibiting slavery. This really started to show when the
three fifths compromise went into motion. What the three fifths
compromise did was make it so that slaves could vote, and even
though their votes were only counted for three fifths of the normal
votes, they got a chance to influence government. Even though

Strahinja Radakovic, Swanton 10-C

many people believe that slavery has decreased drastically, in
reality it has not decreased that much. Many countries still enslave
people, and a lot of workers in Chinese factories are slaves. One of
the most recent cases of slavery is the Islamic State of Iraq and
Syria (ISIS) enslaving people, and later filming their beheadings to
blackmail countries into giving them money and power.