A Short History of the Slave Trade in Nigeria

 

Unknown to us, most Africans, especially West Africans are affected by what's called Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome.

Until first, the Trans-Saharan slave traffic, then the Trans-Atlantic slave traffic, the exchange of humans was "Benign".

The Arab slave traffic started within the 8th century AD very likely because Islam prohibits Muslims from enslaving one another.

While the Arabs' slaves could adopt Islam and their kids a minimum of wouldn't be slaves, in Europe/America it had been different.

In 1517, a Catholic Bishop, Bartolome de las Casas, wrote and suggested the utilization of slaves from Africa, because consistent with him, Africans were stronger, less likely to rebel, and most significantly, shared an equivalent disease as Europeans, so were unlikely to fall sick and die.

Bishop de las Casas's suggestion was well-received, so off some people visited to get them some slaves, and in fact, they saw some Delta youths willing to sell them a consignment.

They all took the answer that the Portuguese had taken, go get us some African slaves.

As Masters of the Universe then, it had been only natural that Britain came to dominate the slave traffic for the subsequent 300 years.

How exactly, did the British move the slave traffic from something done by rabble renegades, to a serious economic activity?

Much of the blame for the expansion of the slave traffic into a serious industry is attributed to a Briton named John Hawkins.

Ships would sail from Britain with guns, mirrors, and alcohol; these ships would attend the world referred to as the Slave Coast, today's Niger Delta, and would anchor off the coast; the crew would row ashore, where they'd be met by natives who'd take their weapons and drinks in exchange for slaves; the slavers would then take this unfortunate slave cargo on a very memorable trip across the Atlantic, to the New World where, the slaves would be exchanged for sugar, cotton, and cash.

Given the demand for alcohol and weapons in Africa, slaves within the Americas, produced in Europe, this was truly profitable.

At first, the people that got to the slavers were victims of wars, or raids, or during a few pathetic cases, efulefu.

As the demand for slave labor increased, that demand fuelled wars and more raids specifically to satisfy the commerce.

Of course, the demand for more slave labor was fuelled by the demand for more sugar and cotton in Europe.

So let's now skip forward a couple of centuries, and a young Brit called Wilberforce led an anti-slave traffic movement, successfully.

We must note that when British legislated to ban the slave traffic, the French, Spanish Portuguese, and Americans weren't thrilled.

When the Brits banned the slave traffic in 1807, the Ashante King wrote to the King of England to ask why he would do such a thing.

There were some status attempts to flout Britain's ban of the slave traffic, such an 1840's Amistad Affair, but most failed.

What we'll now check out is simply HOW the slave traffic affects us today.

The immediate and most cited effect of the slave traffic is that it robbed us of many of our greatest and brightest.