I was reading this: "African captors kidnapped their countrymen and brought them to slave factories on the west coast of Africa. The journey was long and it is estimated that of 20 million slaves, half did not make it to the coast."
Not to dismiss the fact that many African Kings did sell their own people,but how exactly were they able to keep this up for more than 300 years without facing opposition from others,contiuing tradition,etc. It is said that those who disagreed with the kings (a majority of the population, no matter what tribe) were sold or killed.To say that
all West Africans had traded their people would be a fallacy,why, because if
all of them did then were did the rest (the people who did not survive,and were unaccounted for)of the
people come from?(estimated in the tens of millions again).Did you know that
slavery in Europe of Africans did not begin with the Trans(sub)-atlantic but with the Sub-Saharan trade.It has been noted (but seldomly talked about) that many Arabs did kidnap Africans after killing the adults, converting the children to Islam,and making them believe that it was their duty to be a slave? Did you know that many Arabs sold these Africans to Europeans long before the Moors invaded Spain and the Industrial Revolution? Some "historians" think that the Industrial Revolution would not have been possible if it wasn't for the Africans whom were enslaved.
Here is a small chart of the
Survivors of the ocean trek.
Slave exports from Africa
Period Volume Percent
1450-1600 367,000 3.1
1601-1700 1,868,000 16.0
1701-1800 6,133,000 52.4
1801-1900 3,330,000 28.5
Total 11,698,000 100.0
Okay,now these are
estimates into how many were arriving at the shores of the West. It is noted that is it was not for the slave labor,captitalism would not have existed.
It has been estimated that between thirty and sixty million Africans were subjected to this horrendous triangular trade system and that only one third-if that-of those people survived.(
http://www.juneteenth.com/middlep.htm)
Taken that quote serioulsly.How
exactly were the African kings able to acquire so many people over
such a long period of time?
Callous indifference or outright brutal characterizations of Africans are embedded in the language of the Western World. It is a language so infused with direct and indirect racism that it would be difficult, if not impossible, using this language in my book, to project anything black as positive..(
http://www.juneteenth.com/middlep.htm)
False and negative views of Africa and Africans were used to justify the Transatlantic Slave Trade and colonisation. However, in reality, the Ancient civilisations of Egypt, Ghana and Mali among others – some of which grew over 5000 years ago – made enormous discoveries in science, medicine, astronomy, mathematics, philosophy, and architecture long before they were known in Europe. Africans had crossed oceans by the time Europeans made their first journey to Africa and some of the European visitors to Africa recognised that societies were just as advanced or more so, than their own.
In truth, contributions from Africans and the African continent to the shaping of the modern world are enormous and denied only because of the development of Eurocentric and racist views.
http://www.antislavery.org/breakingthesilence/main/01/index.shtml
In American Holocaust (1992), David Stannard estimates that some 30 to 60 million Africans died being enslaved. He claims a 50% mortality rate among new slaves while being gathered and stored in Africa, a 10% mortality among the survivors while crossing the ocean, and another 50% mortality rate in the first "seasoning" phase of slave labor. Overall, he estimates a 75-80% mortality rate in transit.
In Slavery A World History, Milton Meltzer estimates that 10 million slaves arrived in the Americas. This would be the residue after 12.5% of those shipped out from Africa died on the ocean, 4-5% died while waiting in harbor, and 33% died during the first year of seasoning.
In "The Atlantic Slave Trade and the Holocaust" (Is the Holocaust Unique, A. Greebaum, ed., 1996), Seymour Drescher estimates that 21M were enslaved, 1700-1850, of which 7M remained in slavery inside Africa. 4M died "as a direct result of enslavement". Of the 12M shipped to America, 15%, or 2M more, died in the Middle Passage and seasoning year.
Jan Rogozinski, A Brief History of the Caribbean (1994): "[A]s many as eight million Africans may have died in order to bring four million slaves to the Caribbean islands."
In The Slave Trade, Hugh Thomas estimates that 13M left African ports, and 11,328,000 arrived. Here are a few other numbers from Thomas:
No year-by-year stats, but by piecing together scattered decade stats, I figure that 5M slaves were shipped in the 18th Century.
Shipboard mortality among slaves:
Mercado in 1569 estimated an average shipboard mortality of 20%
Brazilian historians: 15-20% in 16th C; 10% in 19th C.
English trade:
1680s: 24%
early 18th C: 10%
1780s: 5.65%
Hugh Thomas: 9% reasonable est. for 18th C.
19th C
Cliffe: 35%
House of Commons: 9.1%
Thomson: 9%
Hotham: 5%
In the chapter on African population in the Atlas of World Population History (1978), Colin McEvedy estimates that 9.5 million African slaves were imported into the Americas between 1500 and 1880. He also suggests a 15% mortality rate on the ocean.
Rummel estimates a total death toll of 17,267,000 African slaves (1451-1870)
Among slaves going to Orient: 2,400,000 dead
Among slaves staying in Africa: 1,200,000 dead
Among slaves going to New World: 13,667,000 dead
Fredric Wertham claims that 150,000,000 Africans died of the slave trade.
My Estimate:
Looking at all the scholarship on the subject, it looks like, at the very least, 35% of those enslaved in Africa died before they were ever put to work in America. On the other hand, at least 20% of them survived. Between these extreme possibilites (35-80%), the most likely mortality rate is 62%.
In terms of absolute numbers, the lowest possible (and only barely possible at that) death toll we can put on the trans-Atlantic slave trade is 6 million. If we assume the absolute worst, a death toll as high as 60 million is at the very edge of possibility; however, the likeliest(according to me) number of deaths would fall somewhere from 15 to 20 million.
http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstatv.htm
Lets do the math.
30-60 million people enslaved over 350 years.(thos whom survived)
(pick
any number between 30 and 60 million,for now I will use 40.)
Divide 40 million by 375(years) you may get 106,666 people(taken every year).Divide that number (106666) by 365 (days in a year) and you will get 292 people taken(
sold or not)
a day.
Finally ,add on that number(292) to the estimated number of Africans being sold, kidnapped, and killed by(400, for example) the Arabs and the slaves
already in Europe before Columbus(estimated to be in the 1,000ths), and the people whom were killed or fought to the death against other Africans and Europeans and you will get a 1692.
Now it seems that more people were killed a year(and/or died as a result of sickness,suicide,etc) than kidnapped, slavery seems to be the byproduct of an attempted genocide of Africans by the Arabs and many Europeans alike.
One such method of war was
divide and conquer which is exactly how the Europeans convinced the African kings to sell some of their people,and help the European traders kill all the rest.
What do you guys think?
