Africa and the Atlantic Slave Trade

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how history has traditionally taught students that the Atlantic slave trade was about the capture and torture of African people by Europeans and Americans over a 400-year period. The involvement of the African people in the sale of their own citizens to slave traders has only been explored in the last few decades. The paper further discusses how this is perhaps due to the fact that the realization that a nation would sell its own people in exchange for goods is almost unfathomable; yet, it is a realistic fact of the Atlantic slave trade. The reasons behind Africa's involvement in this manner include economics, fear and a struggle for power. Although some historians contend that these reasons expressed monumental concerns of the rulers of Africa, it is also apparent that not all rulers of the regions believed that selling their citizens was a just course for the nation.

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