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Atlantic World Slave Trade

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The Atlantic World slave trade gave birth to an Atlantic world of people, goods, and cultures that spread, collided, and melded together to lay the foundations for much of our modern world. The Atlantic slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly from Africa to the Americas, and then their sale there. The 18th century was the great period of importation of slaves from Africa throughout the whole new world and most of the slaves brought to Colonial North America came in the18th century. Roughly 280,000 slaves are brought from Africa to the North American colonies between 1700 and 1770. More than three times as many Africans had boarded ships for the New World than Europeans. This fact that highlights the importance of African contributions to everyday life and culture in the early Americas. The slave trade was a vital part of world commerce. All the European countries in the New World used slave labor and battle for control of this profitable trade. Except for the king of Benin, most African rulers took part in the slave trade. The slave trade was concentrated in western Africa, greatly disrupting its society and economy.
Prior to the Atlantic slave trade the African civilization was just as advanced in its own way as that of Europe. Africa was home to hundreds of vibrant, dynamic cultures populating all parts of the vast continent. Africa had over 100 million people and they used tools and were farmers. Africa had large cities

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