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Slave trade m (1734) " traffic in slaves;
 : the buying and selling of blacks for profit prior to
the American Civil War".1

This is how Merriam-Webster¶s Collegiate Dictionary defines slave trading. An ambiguity about
this definition is that we do not know about the variations of slave trading. Also, by mentioning
the American Civil War in the explanation tends to suggest that slavery was an American affair
which is unquestionably false.

Slave trading has been existent much before the discovery of the new world. In fact, the world
has known about it before even the birth of Christ, 1492 years before the discovery of the New
World. Before the discovery of the Americas, forced labour wasn`t as profitable as it had once
been, thus creating a decrease in slaves. How little did the world know how much the
Christopher Columbus discovery in 1492 was about to change this as says Herbert Klein, author
of   m
   , ³...it was only the opening up of America to European colonization
that slave trading finally turned into a major economy.´2 The variant of slave trading that will be
focused on will be the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade.









 


 
 







  




 




  



 


  








 

 





  
  


  



 

 



 



 













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The Trans Atlantic slave trade started operation in the early 16th century and would stay status
quo for more than another 300 years. In that short period of world history, the Trans Atlantic



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slave trading, as noted in  


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  ³...involved the shipping
of 8-10 million blacks across the Atlantic.´3 The way the Trans Atlantic slave trade worked was
that there were 3 major stops: Europe, Africa and the New World (North America, South
America and the Caribbean).

For over 3 centuries, thousands upon thousands of slaves were put to forced labour with little, if
none, rights and horrific working conditions. Nonetheless, slavery would eventually come to
disappear in the 20th century. This essay will investigate the overall workings of the Trans
Atlantic slave trade.

The Trans Atlantic Slave Trade is a naval trading system that uses 3 main destinations to
complete a cycle. The first of three locations of the journey is Europe. This is the point in the
voyage where the ships were to be loaded with European trading goods destined to be bartered
for slaves. However, the actual trading of slaves is to come later in the voyage as is stated in the
book 
  m  


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   , ³...90 percent or more of
this trade was based in the Americas, not Europe.´4 Klein explains that due to a high entry cost
into the world slave trading and the lack of know how made slave trading difficult without being
state supported.5 The first countries to practice this slave trade were Portugal and Spain.
Eventually there would also be Dutch, English and French slavers (slavers are slave trading
ships). As slave traders got wealthier and wealthier, slave trading itself starting to morph into
more of a privately financed business compared to previously being a mostly state sponsored
industry.

Once the ships have set sail and left the European ports, they make their second stop of the
voyage in Africa. The reason for stopping in Africa was to pick up the slaves. At first the
Portuguese and Spaniards had used the Native Americans as slaves but the longevity of the

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slaves was quickly put into question as the Amerindian population was being decimated by
European diseases. In response to this, the Europeans decided to use African slaves as had been
done for generations before in their home countries.

As the ships sailed into African ports they still had the bartering goods from Europe as cargo.
These goods were traded to the African slave owners for their slaves, in turn making room in the
cargo holds to refill with slaves. However, some cargo was always kept for trading for products
in the New World.

The slaves who were bought became the property of the buyer; therefore the buyer becoming the
slave`s master. Without much reflection on the matter, it is easy to assume that the slaves were
captured as they were needed. This was not the case as states the book   m
  
as ³...most slaves spent a minimum six months to a year from capture until they boarded
European ships, with time waiting on the coast to board the ship alone being on average three
months.´6

The long oceanic voyage from Africa to the New World, known as the Middle Passage, usually
lasted between 4 to 8 weeks. Of course the location of the port of origin and that of the port of
arrival highly influenced the time necessary to cross. Klein describes ³...that the water crossing
on average took a month from Africa to Brazil and two months from the West African coast to
the Caribbean and North America.´7 This was the worst part of the voyage for the slaves because
of the incredible non sanitary living conditions that everybody aboard the ship was exposed to
along with all the diseases that could be contracted by having an excessively large amount of
prisoners in the brig. Falconbridge recalls one of his experiences aboard a slave ship that had just
set sail out of Africa towards the Americas with a full hold. He says: ³By purchasing so great a
number, the slaves were so crowded, that they were even obliged to lie one upon another. This
occasioned such a mortality among them, that, without meeting with unusual bad weather, or


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having a longer voyage than common, nearly one half of them died before the ship arrived in the
West-Indies.´8

The third destination is the so called New World where the slavers would anchor in Spanish,
Portuguese, English, French and Dutch colony ports in Latin America (Also known as South
America), the Caribbean and in North America. Most slaves were brought to Latin America
where the vast majority would spend their lives forcedly working in Brazil where Klein estimates
a total of 4 864 374 slaves had arrived by 1866. 9 The others were sold either in the Caribbean or
North America.

Much like in Africa, the purchasing of slaves in the western world was done by the means of
bartering. The more common products traded for African slaves were sugar, rum, cotton, cocoa,
coffee and tobacco. These products, whilst being in demand in Europe and the climate starting in
the mid United States and southward are more or less ideal for growing them made perfect items
to be exchanged for slaves. The products received in return for slaves would be brought back to
Europe and sold here where the primary American (Latin and North America, Caribbean)
materials would be transformed into refined products.

The Trans Atlantic slave trade would prove to be a worthy economy as it would go on to last
over 300 years. However great amounts of slaves shipped from Africa, it is always impossible to
tell the exact number of slaves who died or went missing during this period of economical
growth, colonisation and forced labour. Nonetheless, what


 to deduct by analyzing
the information at hand is that no matter how cruel, inhumane and, sometimes grisly, slavery can
be, it laid the foundations for great modern civilisations of the western hemisphere.

The use of slavery in the United States, as in any other nation in the Americas, had
purposes which were common in any other European slave utilizing country during the 1700 and


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1800¶s. However, what differed from slavery in the United States in comparison to any other
society is how this saddening phenomenon came to such an abrupt and bloody end.

Slavery, having been implemented within the ³new world´ for over 3 centuries, had evolved to
become a sort of culture and tradition within the United States of America, more specifically in
the southern states that relied heavily upon the production of tobacco and cotton as a source of
income. However, with slavery slowly being abolished across the globe, tensions started to rise
within this glorious country.

The American Civil War would come to be known as the bloodiest war ever fought by the
United States, reaching an overall death toll of nearly 620 000 soldiers during the period of the
war10. Although there were many economic and political factors influencing the dark plunge into
war, the main reason why then American president Abraham Lincoln declared war was because
of slavery.

In 1861, 11 southern states that practiced slavery seceded from the United States of America and
created the Confederate States of America. These states were South Carolina, Mississippi,
Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina and
Virginia.11 With the secession of southern states willing to bear arms for the ³right´ of slavery
and an opposition of 20 northern states already having accepted emancipation of blacks and 5
³border´12 states joining the north, war within this patriotic area of North America was
imminent.

The battle of Fort Sumter in 1861, on the Atlantic coast near Charleston, South Carolina, would
be the first confrontation of the two opposing forces, the Confederate States of America and the
United States of America (also known as the Union), of a 4 year massacre where American after
American were slain by their own countrymen. At the end of the day, the confederation was
victorious in its first battle and Fort Sumter was under ³rebel´ control.13

Though claiming to be anti-slavery, the Union had yet to use afro-American troops by 1863 as
explains Sergeant Henry W. Tisdale in his personal diary. In his entry on January 31st, 1863,


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Henry explains how he was visiting the city of Washington and had the opportunity to sit in on
Congress. He explains that: ³The question under discussion was as to the expediency of putting
Negro troops into the field, their pay etc.´14, thus demonstrating the slowness of the Union in the
deployment of black soldiers.

In the 4 years of war that would follow the taking of this fort, well over 200 battles were
fought.15 No matter how important each and every battle is towards moral and military tactics for
both parties, none would surmount the importance of the battle of Gettysburg.

Gettysburg is a Pennsylvania town located roughly about 180 miles from Richmond Virginia16,
the capital of the Confederate States of America. It would host the battle that would go on to be
known by many historians as the turning point in the war not only due to its position and the
physical traits of the region but also because it would end what was the most successful
campaign in the history of the Confederate States of America.

General Robert Edward Lee, formerly colonel Robert E. Lee of the United States army, was one
of the highest ranking military officers of the confederate army. A Virginia native, Lee resigned
from the U.S. army17 in order to defend his maternal homeland that lay on the border of the
southern seceded states and those of the Union; with its ³Yankee´ neighbouring states being
Maryland, West Virginia and Kentucky.

The confederate Virginia campaign, led by none other than General Lee and his right hand
General Thomas ³Stonewall´ Jackson, lasted 3 days18 and saw nearly 45 000 casualties of war19
only to be halted by the crippling loss of the infamous battle of Gettysburg where the U.S. army
handed Lee his most notorious defeat. Lee, caring greatly about his troops had no choice but to
retreat due to the relentless Union attack, thus creating an insurmountable amount of casualties.



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By 1865, Lee had eventually relieved confederate president Jefferson Davis as commanding
officer of the confederate forces.20 The closure of the war was in sight when U.S. general
William Tecumseh Sherman reached the Atlantic coast via Georgia21, separating Lee¶s army
from the rest of the confederation. Forced to retreat to Richmond by Ulysses Simpson Grant,
then commanding officer of the entire United States Army, Lee¶s only remaining option was to
surrender. The war came to an end when Grant captured General Lee and the capital of the
Confederacy, Richmond.22

On the heels of the most horrific war in American history, Abraham Lincoln¶s vision of
abolishing slavery in the United States of America was finally realised with the creation of the
Thirteenth Amendment the 26th of December 1865. This document states that ³Neither slavery
nor involuntary servitude, ..., shall exist within the United States, or in any place subject to their
jurisdiction.´23

After approval of the Thirteenth Amendment, many southern states tried implementing ³black
codes´ (also known as slave codes). These of codes had always been in use to protect slaves
against overly abusive slave owners, however often disregarded. Due to new circumstances after
the war, the purpose of the black codes drafted by the southern states following the Thirteenth
Amendment was to try and preserve a type of slavery by controlling the labour of freed black
men.

In response to the implemented black codes in the southern states, U.S. Congress ratified another
amendment in 1868 with hopes of finally abolishing slavery across the nation, this being the
Fourteenth Amendment. This amendment excluded the black codes adopted by each state by
stating that ³[any person] born or naturalized in the United States, and subject the jurisdiction
thereof, are citizens of the United States.´24 This turns slavery into a federal matter, drastically
limiting the power held by individual states concerning forced labour. It also protects those still
enslaved by giving power to the federal government to intervene if states were to ³deprive any



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person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.´25 Another anti-slavery clause of
the Fourteenth Amendment is the allowance for black males over the age of 21 to vote, however,
the amendment did not force states to give freedmen this right, it simply encouraged it.

However, Congress did not stop here as it ratified the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870. Picking up
where the Fourteenth Amendment left off by giving black males the right to vote federally. It
also solidified Congress¶ position towards slavery by banning unequal treatment of citizens
because of ³race, color, or previous condition of servitude´26, further spreading the reach of the
power of Congress in regards to equal rights and treatment for every American.

However great these amendments were for the progression of society in the United States,
several southern states still did not agree with the laws being imposed upon them and instead of
physically restricting the rights for African-American citizens, which was now illegal, certain
southern states turned to making very difficult, sometimes impossible, for the afro-Americans to
get these rights by passing laws that, depending on the state, restricted the freedmen rights to
vote and made segregation legal. The evolution of theses sets of laws would later bring upon
another sombre period for African-American citizens in the southern states named the
segregation.

Christopher Columbus¶ discovery of the new world brought upon the founding and development
of several new nations, some of which are still developing in modern day. However, unlike
European countries where man developed his own land, these new nations in the Caribbean and
North and South America would be built with the use of a foreign labour force created by,
slaves. Forcedly deported from their homeland by European slave traders and sent on a
dangerous and un-sanitary cross ocean voyage to the Americas where they sold and would have
no choice but to endure strenuous labour from dusk until dawn in colonies, slaves are those
responsible for the countries we now have. The end of this practice would differ greatly between
nations, some ending peacefully, others by rebellion or war, the United States would need to be
the victim of a 4 year bloodbath in order to abolish its slaving traditions. Nonetheless, even
without much participation on the slaves¶ behalf, it is human empathy for what is right that
would prevail and eventually slavery would be nothing than a past where mans actions were


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artificial and shameful. However, this would not end the race conflict in the United States for
some of those who once believed in slavery have turned to another abusive criticism towards
their fellow African-American countrymen and started to believe in racial discrimination and
segregation.

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"Battle of Gettysburg." 

 

m
m . Web. 09 Mar. 2011.

<http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/gettysburg/getty4.aspx>.

"Casualties In The Civil War."   

 m

    . Web. 09 Mar. 2011.

<http://www.civilwarhome.com/casualties.htm>.

"Civil War Alphabetic List of American Battles."  

 m

 


 
m
  

 

. Web. 09 Mar. 2011. <http://americancivilwar.com/statepic/alpha.html>.

Curto, José C. and Soulodre-La France, Renée. 

  m  

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m


m    . Africa World Press, Inc., 2005

Edwards, Bernard. ! "  

    
. South Yorkshire: Pen & Sword Books
Ltd, 2007

Falconbridge, Alexander. m m 
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PRESS INC., 1973

$  
. Web. 09 Mar. 2011. <http://maps.google.ca/maps?hl=en&tab=wl>.

 


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!%&%'!('  . Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, Inc.,
1997

 


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!%&%'!('  # Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, Inc.,
1997

Klein, Herbert S.   m

   . New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010

"Map of the Union and Confederate States."  ')m # Web. 09 Mar. 2011.

<http://www.wtv-zone.com/civilwar/map.html>.
 
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m . Springfield: Merriam-Webster Incorporated, 2009

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"Pennsylvania Battle Gettysburg American Civil War."  

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. Web. 09 Mar. 2011. <http://americancivilwar.com/statepic/pa/pa002.html>.

Postma, Johannes Menne.  &

m  m
   -.//*-0-1. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1990

Tisdale, Sgt. Henry W. "Civil War Diary 1862-1865." Web. 09 Mar. 2011.

<http://www.civilwardiary.net/diary1863.htm>.

"U.S. Civil War 1861-1865."  

  . Web. 09 Mar. 2011.
<http://www.historyplace.com/civilwar/>.

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