The Transatlantic slave trade, which stretched from the the 16th through 19th centuries, was responsible for tearing families apart and economies in west Africa while serving as the engine of the transatlantic economy for both Europe and the Americas. This trade route resulted in the biggest deportation in history (~12.5 million Africans), underpinned the 18th century world economy, and was one of the earliest examples of globalization.

 

Prior to the 16th century, slave transportation was scarce and only increased with rising demands in plantation and sugar farms across the Americas and the caribbeans. The slave trade “connected the economies of” the Americas, Europe, and Africa. Ships would travel from Europe to Africa with merchandise to trade in exchange for slaves. The most common merchadises were gunpowder, textiles, and pearls. From Africa, the ships would head to the Americas in what is commonly known as the Middle Passage. The ships would be overcrowded and unsanitary and about 15 to 25% percent of the enslaved Africans would die on their journey to the Americas. Conditions were so bad that ship captains would have each enslaved person come on the deck for about an hour each day because of the extremely poor breathing conditions they were detained in on the lower decks. After reaching the Americas, the enslaved Africans would be sold all across the western hemisphere. The crops produced by the enslaved Africans in the Americas would then be used for trade with the Europeans.  

 

The slave trade may have benefited the economy of Europeans and the Americas but it severely declined the economy of west Africa. The merchandise warlords and tribes received in exchange for captives “promoted an atmosphere of lawlessness and violence”. Since the Europeans often took young men and women, they left the elderly to work on the farms in West Africa, resulting in decreased agricultural efficiency and overall  negative effects on their economies.

 

Since the Atlantic slave trade involved the transport of enslaved people of west African origin; this meant that a lot of those held in bondage were Muslims, scholars estimate anywhere from 15-30 percent. Enslaved African Muslims were a part of a unique narrative, as their beliefs and commitment to Islam were challenged by the intolerant Christian world they were brought to. Although enslaved African Muslims would at times pseudo-convert into christianity in order to avoid maltreatment and even at times if their literate in Arabic use it to gain more social liberty; they still firmly believed in their original faith. A great example of this is the life of Omar Ibn Said who was an enslaved African from Senegal that was in bondage in North Carolina, and has left his stories of his past in his autobiographies he had written in Arabic.  

 

The Transatlantic slave trade resulted in the mass displacement of Africans into the Americas. Not only did the slave trade subjugate enslaved Africans to inhumane and unlivable conditions, but it also severely hindered west African economies. A crucial part of the slave trade was the erasure of the religious and cultural identities of enslaved Africans by forcing onto them new names and converting or coercing them into Christianity; despite this we see many enslaved African Muslims only pseudo-converted or in other words only converted outwardly but were still grounded in their original faith.

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Sources

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Transatlantic Slave Trade, Social and Human Sciences

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Transatlantic Slave Trade by Thomas Lewis, Encyclopaedia Britannica

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Library of Congress, Omar Ibn Said

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