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The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade

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Responsible for the forced transportation of around 15 to 20 million African slaves in just over four centuries, the Trans-Atlantic slave trade was a brutal and inhumane economic enterprise. Commencing in the early 1500’s, the country of Portugal effectively made the decision to start travelling to Africa in order to kidnap African citizens living on the West Coast. Next, other powerful Regions/Continents such as America, the Caribbean and Europe then began to also take advantage of this venerable state of Africa. It was a time where whites were considered superior because of their ‘pure’ skin tone but also a time where there were extreme labour shortages, making the black slaves appealing to the wealthy. The slaves were predominantly given the gruelling work on rice fields, Tabaco plantations, sugar plantations, cotton plantations and so on. Appalled by the evident cruelty of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and slavery itself, people of different races, gender and economic status united to fight for the rights of those in captivity, thus forming the abolition movement.

Once fully developed, the ‘triangular slave trade’ functioned by three main systems. To start, specially converted cargo ships would leave Western Europe ports and set off to Africa where they would exchange high demand merchandise (e.g. guns, weapons and iron) for the men, women and children who were then objectified as slaves. These slaves would be loaded by the hundreds onto slave ships and taken across

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