Man's Inhumanity To Man

The system of slave trade in Africa began in the sixteenth century originating from the coastal tropical regions of East and West Africa towards the Central part of Africa.
A slave is a person who is the legal property of another and is forced to obey them and work excessively hard. Slave trade is the procuring, transporting and selling of these human beings now known as slaves.

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries there were specifically three different types of slaves which were domestic slaves which were women forced to work and often lived in the houses of the slave owner, hard labour slaves who were strong and healthy men who worked in plantations and mines, and breeder slaves who were women used for experiments sexually or generally called sex slaves.

The slave trade began with the Portuguese who sort to have an interest in a much more readily commodity, which were slaves, leaving the fabled deposits of gold in Africa.
Later on, the external slave trade evolved according to certain reasons acclaimed by the Europeans.

There was the growth of mercantile capitalism in Europe which refers to the earliest phase in development of capitalism as an economic and social system.
This stimulated a mass trade in slaves because for capitalism to be attained on a large scale there was the need of cheap labour which could be acquired from Africa and Asia, Europeans believed that Africans had greater power, were resistant to diseases and could work under hard conditions.

Some Europeans wanted to expand their empires but there was the need for a work force and this could be obtained from Africa because Africans were believed to be excellent workers. Industrialisation began in Britain because of its involvements in slave trade which generated a lot of capital.
Senegambia, a state in West Africa, between the years 1300 and 1900, close to one-third of its population was enslaved. Britain had the worst trade which was believed to have amounted to 2,5 million slaves.

Most European countries had quite small populations and yet needed to improve their industries. The growth of plantation economies also caused slavery in Africa. Slaves were obtained in order for them to work on early plantations in Europe such as cotton and sugar plantations.

Competition in industry and agriculture arose in European countries and there was a need to maximise profits, by so doing, more slaves were brought in to Europe increasing the rate of at which slaves were being sold. Apparently, the slave trade was not initiated by Europeans, slavery was not new to Africa.
According to some African traditions like in Senegambia, they believed that dead kings needed slaves to accompany them to heaven.

There was always a rich pool of war captives in inner and inter-tribal conflicts, these were sold into slavery, as well as political enemies to reduce their increasing population. African chiefs sold criminals and wanted elements within their societies like witches, wizards and murderers into slavery as a way of punishing them.

The slave trade led to the rise of philanthropists who believed that slave trade was against the will of God. It was abolished in Britain in 1772, it still continued but was further abolished in 1823. It was realised that it was more profitable to trade with humans than to trade in humans. The slave trade killed African traditional institutions and disrupted some cultures.
Slave raids created insecurity. It generated misery and created wars that implied regional integration which dropped orderly progression. Slavery was not a unique phenomenon to Africans, it was a crime against humanity by man against fellow man.