Monday, March 16, 2020

Misfortunate Monday: The Atlantic Slave Trade

    Hello everybody and welcome back to another edition of Nations Made Fun! I'll be your host, Mr. Nations, your tour guide to the massive world we all call home! Today on Misfortunate Monday, we'll be taking a look at the Atlantic Slave Trade, the route on which slaves were transported. Well, what are you waiting for? Let's dive straight into it!

     The Atlantic Slave Trade involved the transportation of slaves mainly to the Americas. The slave trade existed from the 16th to the 19th century and the vast majority of those who were enslaved and transported in the transatlantic slave trade were those from Central and West Africa, who had been sold by others to Western European slave traders, who brought them to the Americas. The South Atlantic and Caribbean economies were particularly dependent on labor for the production of sugarcane and other commodities. 

     Approximately 1.2–2.4 million dying during the voyage and millions more died in camps in the Caribbean after arrival to the New World. Millions of slaves also died as a result of slave raids, wars and during transport to the coast for sale to European slave traders. Near the beginning of the 19th century, various governments acted to ban the trade, although illegal smuggling still occurred. In the early 21st century, several governments issued apologies for the transatlantic slave trade.

     Fast Facts:
  • Most of the jobs that slaves were assigned to included working on coffee, tobacco, cocoa, sugar, and cotton plantations.
  • Brazil is where most of the transported slaves ended up.
  • Many think that slavery is completely abolished, but it is thought that there are more slaves today than there were before the Civil War.

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