European Influence On African Americans
Without contemplating the consequences for the Africans, the Europeans took advantage of African slaves due to the convenience of needing more labor workers and as additional export markets for the European manufacturers.
The Atlantic slave trade (1500-1866) was an enterprise that was entirely in the hands of the Europeans. It all started with sugar. At first the Europeans did not know much about sugar, so they had to rely on other things such as fruits and honey to make their bland diets a little better. Once the Europeans found out about the Arabian’s techniques for sugar production, they established sugar-producing plantations within the Mediterranean, which would require people to work at the plantations. The absence of wage workers left …show more content…
What was not desirable about them? Many were skilled in farming, immune to tropical diseases, they were not Christians, and they were already available in mass numbers. Even though taking all of the Africans from their home was beneficial to the Europeans, it was severely depopulating West Africa. The monarch Nzinga Mbemba, Affonso I, wrote letters to King Jao of Portugal addressing his concerns of his kingdom, Kongo. In one of the letters he presents, “The mentioned merchants are taking every day our natives, sons of the land and sons of the noblemen and vassals and our relatives,” So the King of Kongo is begging the King Jao to stop sending merchants to take his men because the depopulation was corrupting the country and believed that King Jao should not agree nor accept it as his duty. Later during the slave trade, when Europeans came to America, many of them got sick with disease which devastated local …show more content…
There were many consequences for the slaves and Africa during the Atlantic Slave Trade. Africa itself was becoming severely depopulated, unbalanced sex ratios since far more men were shipped off to the Americas. Now for the slaves themselves, it really just depended on where they were taken to depend how they were treated. Olaudah Equiano was a slave born in Nigeria. He had three masters, and some treated him better than the others. When he was sold to a widow and her son in Tinmuh, they treated him just like another family member but when he was kidnapped and carried onboard, well that’s another story. He did not have a pleasant experience on the ship, he said “I became so sick and low that I was not able to eat, nor had I the least desire to taste anything.” This is the way most people probably think of when they think of the journey of slaves. On the bottom of the ship, chained, and in close perimeters with the other slaves which usually caused sickness. Whenever he arrived to Barbados he said, “we were all pent up together like so many sheep in a fold, without regard to sex or age. There was a lot of dehumanizing treatment to the slaves during this time from the white people. European and Euro-Americans contributed to racial stereotypes. Ibn Khladum said, “black people were submissive to slavery, because Negroes…have attributes that are quite similar
The Atlantic slave trade (1500-1866) was an enterprise that was entirely in the hands of the Europeans. It all started with sugar. At first the Europeans did not know much about sugar, so they had to rely on other things such as fruits and honey to make their bland diets a little better. Once the Europeans found out about the Arabian’s techniques for sugar production, they established sugar-producing plantations within the Mediterranean, which would require people to work at the plantations. The absence of wage workers left …show more content…
What was not desirable about them? Many were skilled in farming, immune to tropical diseases, they were not Christians, and they were already available in mass numbers. Even though taking all of the Africans from their home was beneficial to the Europeans, it was severely depopulating West Africa. The monarch Nzinga Mbemba, Affonso I, wrote letters to King Jao of Portugal addressing his concerns of his kingdom, Kongo. In one of the letters he presents, “The mentioned merchants are taking every day our natives, sons of the land and sons of the noblemen and vassals and our relatives,” So the King of Kongo is begging the King Jao to stop sending merchants to take his men because the depopulation was corrupting the country and believed that King Jao should not agree nor accept it as his duty. Later during the slave trade, when Europeans came to America, many of them got sick with disease which devastated local …show more content…
There were many consequences for the slaves and Africa during the Atlantic Slave Trade. Africa itself was becoming severely depopulated, unbalanced sex ratios since far more men were shipped off to the Americas. Now for the slaves themselves, it really just depended on where they were taken to depend how they were treated. Olaudah Equiano was a slave born in Nigeria. He had three masters, and some treated him better than the others. When he was sold to a widow and her son in Tinmuh, they treated him just like another family member but when he was kidnapped and carried onboard, well that’s another story. He did not have a pleasant experience on the ship, he said “I became so sick and low that I was not able to eat, nor had I the least desire to taste anything.” This is the way most people probably think of when they think of the journey of slaves. On the bottom of the ship, chained, and in close perimeters with the other slaves which usually caused sickness. Whenever he arrived to Barbados he said, “we were all pent up together like so many sheep in a fold, without regard to sex or age. There was a lot of dehumanizing treatment to the slaves during this time from the white people. European and Euro-Americans contributed to racial stereotypes. Ibn Khladum said, “black people were submissive to slavery, because Negroes…have attributes that are quite similar