SLAVERY IN EUROPE

Slavery is a situation where an individual claims he or she possesses rights to own other individuals as property. It is either an economic or a legal system. Slaves were involved in a series of buying and selling like goods. In Europe, slave trade functioned from the years 1500 to the 1800.[1] The continent practiced diverse practices of slavery. Many Africans lost their lives in the process. Slavery trade, low price labor and human trafficking form the historical background of slavery in Europe.  This research paper focuses on expounding on the effects that these three factors have made on slavery and the changes that have occurred over time.

Slave trade discusses the intercontinental swapping patterns established in the 17^th century. Cargo ships would dock in the west coast of Africa from Europe. The ships would contain manufactured goods to sell them in Africa. Actually, the products were for the purposes of barter trade. African traders exchanged their fellow African brothers and sisters for the manufactured goods of the Europeans. The craft extended over a long period, as they would take months to clear the stock they had. Business was easy for the merchants since the African intermediaries did almost all the work for them. Raids were carried out at various African communities with the aim of kidnapping the fledgling and vigorous youths and be subdued to slavery. The settlements were far-flung from the west coast.

After the Europeans were full of slaves in their ships, they sailed off to the middle passage. This disreputable channel would lead them to the Caribbean.  Slaves were closely crammed together. They had little or no space at all to even breathe in fresh air. They stayed in the ship’s clench for the unabridged voyage.  There were no toilets. It was a fetid state of affairs. Before the expedition ended, the traders handled many lifeless bodies due to the filthy conditions in the hold.

The transatlantic course, which was the concluding leg of the journey, saw many European ships returning home with consignments of luxury items, rum, sugar and tobacco. Four hundred and eighty thousand is the number of personalities incarcerated by the Europeans. Most of them were for slogging in the Americans and Caribbean smallholding. European countries colonized a large part of the American continent. The agricultural estates yielded either tobacco or sugar.

There was a significant increase in the number of punters in the British frugality. It became clear that slavery was aiding in building up the country’s economic market. Individuals began advocating for the abolition of suppression in the eighteenth century. They faced resistance from the West Indian atrium. “Abolitionist” refers to those who electioneered for the eradication of subdual trade. It turned out to be a tag of war between the West Indian lobby and the abolitionists. They both invented ways of justifying their cause of action and stand. Some slaves retaliated especially those in St Domingue, under the French colony.[2] They apprehended the island and it later named as the Republic of Haiti. The intimidated individuals around the Caribbean area hardly resisted.

Africans mostly referred to trafficking of slaves from Africa to Europe as “Maafa”. The word means “great disaster” in Swahili. Between the 15^th and 19^th century, the transatlantic slave trade forced the immigration of about 15 million African souls from Africa to the west.[3] In this era, however, human trafficking is a grievous crime against an individual and against humanity in general. The colonization of Africans by the Europeans resulted in the deaths of uncountable persons being ferried, ferociousconveyance of millions of Africans, incarceration of Africans as slaves and the exposure of the filthy conditions the individualsfaced while in the ship.

In the 18^th century, the British stood out andranked as the world’s leading slave-swapping powers. In the century, the conveyance of at least three million Africans occurred. The distribution of slaves also included British’s economic rivals that are the Spanish and the French. Europeans were thirsty of obtaining slaves because they wanted to construct their colonies in America. They were to work as manual laborers to the Europeans. Almost all of the Africans were smuggled to Brazil and the subjugated placed in the Caribbean, the United States and the central and south America.

The Europeans loved the fact that they were to obtain free labor from their “prisoners”. The abducted Africans had no idea of where they were headed therefore their only option was to comply with the Europeans. They worked the whole day with little or no food at all when being exposed to the hard manual activities they engaged in. The Europeans, in this sense, made a mean move and were willing separate these innocent individuals from their families, heritage and culture in order to satisfy their needs.

Enchained trade was at times known as “Triangular Trade” since it involved three trips: Europe to Africa, Africa to America and from the America to Europe. African intermediaries made it possible for the Europeans to take so many souls from their free African world to a world of bondage. African kingdoms ensured that their people experienced peace but some deviant individuals who were selfish and did not want to experience peace.

Slave vocation was rewarding since there was practice of both transnational and native dominates trade. After the abolition of this illicit trading, West Africa was first to be affected. This opened doors for this trade to spread its wings to the east of Africa. Stopping this trade proved a difficult task since there was a huge separation gap amongst the Africans since they spoke different languages. Unity among them was an uphill task for them because it was hard to understand each other’s language. 

African leaders had very little respect for human life. This created a loophole for the invasion of the Americans and West Indies.[4] For instance, most leaders, if disrespected by their subjects, he or she would order his or her combatants to execute their subjects, seize their belongings and attack the whole area. The greed of the coastal traders and          the area chiefs elongated the trade off period of swapping slaves and goods. They were always willing and ready to participate in the vice. European nations were not ready to let go of the vice since they largely depended on the raw materials of the products worked on by the subjugated individuals.

The enormous profit margins accrued from these exchanges blinded both the African intermediaries. Rustling of slaves happened in forbidden areas too. Portugal and Spain refused to merge with the British in order to abolish enthralled trade since they were not yet industrialized. Apart from slave vocation, the Europeans had only agriculture as their substitute. The British needed the help of other countries in the eradication of slavery because it was very costly to recompense slave proprietors alone and Arabs were controlling major areas.

The eradication of slave trade ensured East Africa’s partition where the British had taken over. The Germans colonized Tanganyika while Britain took over Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. The destruction of slave employment led to loss of individuality among the Swahilis and Arabs. It also contributed to correspondingly lucrative business to both African and European traders. The invasion of Christian missionaries augmented and they placed emphasis on armistice and tractability. The sultan empire disintegrated. The power that the sultan possessed both economically and politically loosened. His empire powdered. Manyema independent state in Zaire gave rise to Tippu-Tip, a leader who sold ivory to Belgians. After the signing of the frère treaty between Bantle Frere and Sultan Bargash, the slave arcades in Zanzibar experienced closure.[5] Many individuals abandoned Islam and practiced Christianity. Finally, Africans salvaged their forte and reverence, and selling them off as products was not an option.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, slavery influenced negatively to both the African and European minds. Their greed took better part of them. Slavery is the main reason as to why there are African-Americans and even Europeans in the European countries. After the eradication of slavery, Africa stood out as an independent continent. Africans have educated themselves and they are at par with the other continents. There is mutual respect and acknowledgement since Africans lead themselves too.

Bibliography

Gebrewold-Tochalo, Belachew. 2007. Africa and Fortress Europe threats and opportunities. Aldershot, Hampshire, England: Ashgate.

Jensen, Niklas Thode. 2012. For the health of the enslaved: slaves, medicine and power in the Danish West Indies, 1803-1848. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, University of Copenhagen.

Olajide, Olayanju. 2013. Complete concise history of the slave trade. [S.l.]: Author house.

Quirk, Joel. 2011. The anti-slavery project from the slave trade to human trafficking. University of Pennsylvania Press: Philadelphia.

Roth, Venla. 2012. Defining human trafficking and identifying its victims: a study on the impact and future challenges of international, European and Finnish legal responses to prostitution-related trafficking in human beings. Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers.

Worger, William H., Nancy L. Clark, and Edward A. Alpers. 2010. Africa and the West: a documentary history. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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[1] Gebrewold-Tochalo, Belachew. 2007. Africa and Fortress Europe threats and opportunities. Aldershot, Hampshire, England: Ashgate

[2] Jensen, Niklas Thode. 2012. For the health of the enslaved: slaves, medicine and power in the Danish West Indies, 1803-1848. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, University of Copenhagen.

[3] Olajide, Olayanju. 2013. Complete concise history of the slave trade. [S.l.]: Author house.

[4] Quirk, Joel. 2011. The anti-slavery project from the slave trade to human trafficking. University of Pennsylvania Press: Philadelphia.

[5] Worger, William H., Nancy L. Clark, and Edward A. Alpers. 2010. Africa and the West: a documentary history. Oxford: Oxford University Press.