Slave Trade in Africa; How it all started and went.
Hello steemians, Happy New Week. Sure we've been doing great.
I want to share with us my little research on slavery in Africa, especially in West Africa.
How it started and what happened during the slave trade period.
How many of our forefathers suffered from colonial slave masters.
The slave trade began in the year 1445 by the constitution. The right was given by the Vatican to explore the west coast of Africa, initially in search of golds and ivory and probably to propagate Christianity.
But when they arrived, few Africans were taken to Lisbon to serve as a prove to show that they have crossed from the Northern Africa to the West African coast.
But when they arrived in Lisbon, they realized that the Africans are strong and can easily adjust and adapt to climatic conditions, than the red Indians used before. That was where the idea of trans-Atlantic slave trade started.
Earlier before then, Red Indians were used for slavery, until they discovered the strength in Africans and saw that they could work more than the Red Indians.
Then, Africans were taken for slavery in exchange of some items. They give the slave merchant items in exchange for people who have been captured for slavery in their destinations.
It is also known as Atlantic Triangular Trade
Slave trade started in the year 1445 and officially abolished in the year 1807, but despite the ban on it, it continued illegally until 1888 before it was finally aborted.
As seen from the above picture, chains, mouth muzzles were used to hold humans captive all through their life from capture till death.
Slaves were transported from Africa to where they will be used. Once a merchant for slave trade captures humans, he has a housing for them, he holds them till they their buyers from foreign countries come to exchange them for whatever item they negotiated and agreed on.
This slaves were transported from one place to the other, and were fed poorly during the transportation.
There were houses built by the colonial masters then, this houses the original safe used by the colonial masters of the house before they left.
There were severe and ruthless punishment for slaves who tried to escape, many led to their death.
Slaves who tried to run away were bitten by some special types of trained dogs, to death. These dogs pursued slaves who tries to escape and goes straight for their throat, bite them till they die.
Slaves were divided into field slaves and domestic slaves.
#Field #slaves:
Field are those slaves who worked for their masters on the field, and were fed with little meals, and particular time.
#Domestic #slaves:
Domestic slaves were slaves, who served their masters in the masters houses, and did domestic works, and some were able to learn how to read and write. These slaves were the fortunate/lucky slaves, cause; they still enjoyed some privileges than the field slaves.
Slaves were kept in wait for the buyers in a room known as ‘Baracoon’.
A ship surgeon inspects every slave his ship wants to purchase.
The fit slaves are separated aside from the unfit slaves to be stamped or branded on their body, having the initials of the slave dealer on their body, to ensure that slaves are not mixed when they get to their various destinations.
This is known as ‘The Makrons’.
Slave dealers made slaves adapt to their new environment, with the sole aim of getting the best result/effort out of the slaves.
Also slaves were been auctioned for sale.
At some point of this slavery, people fought for the abolition of slaves.
For instance as a woman who rescued 300 slaves without a single of them dying.
Thanks for stopping by to read, stay tuned and anticipate a continuation of it, where I will talk more on how it went in Nigeria and the slave merchant in Nigeria then.
I took the pictures on my trip to the slave trade museum.
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