TRANS-ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE REVISITED

 Posted here on 3/12/2012.

Transatlantic slave trade

Marxist anti-Imperialist  Historian and writer Dr. Walter Rodney once a Lecturer at University College, Dar-es-salaam (Mlimani), begins his booklet West Africa and the Atlantic Slave-Trade with the following words:

 "It must always be remembered that the Atlantic slave-trade was an event in world history, involving three continents - Europe, Africa and America. The people who set out to seek slaves were Europeans coming from every country between Sweden in the north and Portugal in the south. The Portuguese arrived in West Africa shortly before the middle of the fifteenth century. Immediately, they started seizing the Africans and taking them to work as slaves in Europe, particularly in Portugal and Spain. But the most important developments took place in the sixteenth century, when Europeans capitalists realised that they could make enormous profits by using the labour of Africans to exploit the wealth of the Americas. As a result, Africans were taken to North America, Central America, South America and the Caribbean to provide slave-labour in gold and silver mines and on agricultural plantations growing crops of sugar, cotton and tobacco. This notorious commerce in human beings lasted altogether for more than four hundred years (400 years) since the Atlantic slave-trade did not come to end until the late 1870's."

"Much can be said about the way that the Atlantic slave-trade was organised in Europe, and about the vast profits made by countries such as England and France. A lot can also be said about the terrible journey from Africa to America across the Atlantic ocean. Africans were packed like sardines on the slave-ships, and consequently died in great numbers."

Also check his  compare and  contrast and an overview  analytical  argument  between Arab Slave Trade (East African Slave Trade)  and European Slave Trade (TransAtlantic Slave Trade) in his book How Europe Underdeveloped Africa.

Rodney, Walter., West African and the Atlantic Slave-Trade (Dar-es-salaam: The Historical Association of Tanzania, 1967)