Chapter One
The Beginning
The first slave ships set sail from Europe around 1450, more than 500 years ago. They sailed to Africa from the country of Portugal. At the time, Portugal was one of the wealthiest, most powerful nations in Europe. Even so, it did not have enough farm workers. Portuguese slave traders captured Africans and brought them back to Europe.
Soon, other Europeans, as well as Arab slave traders from North Africa, became active in the slave trade. They took people from central Africa to sell not only in Europe but also in Eastern lands such as Arabia and India. Beginning in 1619, slave traders shipped Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to the New World. Once there, the enslaved Africans were sold like livestock. They were forced to work on farms, clean houses, or do anything else their masters wanted. They worked long hours for no pay. If they refused to work, they could be beaten or killed.
European slave traders made a huge profit by selling human beings into bondage. The slave ships sailed south from Europe toward West Africa. Some Africans were blacksmiths or miners. Others were farmers, priests, and politicians. They were leaders and warriors, parents and children. Millions of African people were torn from their families, their homes, their land, and their goods to be sold as property.
Although slavery ended almost 150 years ago, learning about it today helps us understand the racism and prejudice that still exist. We can be inspired by the courage of those who endured slavery and those who fought to end it. We can better appreciate the United States’ struggle to hold true to its values of freedom
and equality.
Africa is the second largest continent on Earth. It features two of the world’s largest deserts, endless plains, and miles of rain forest. Africa’s people are as diverse as their land. They speak hundreds of different languages. Tribes and clans often have very different religious traditions and customs. When slave traders first arrived, Africans had a difficult time banding together to fight back because their languages and customs often were
so different.
Once captured, most Africans remained slaves their entire lives. Their children were born into slavery as well. Soon after slavery reached North America, lawmakers made it illegal for slaves to learn to read. Although many enslaved Africans had lifelong partners and families, they could not legally marry.
At the time, most Europeans believed that Africans were savages who lacked intelligence and needed whites to guide them. This was how the Europeans justified slavery. History tells a different story about African cultures. Many Africans lived in large, wealthy kingdoms such as Ghana, Mali, and Songhai.
Unfortunately, the slave trade changed the entire region. European slave traders captured thousands of Africa’s strongest, most capable people. The captives were shipped to the other side of the world, year after year, for hundreds of years.
Why did Europeans create such a brutal trade? In the 1490s and early 1500s, European explorers sailed across the Atlantic looking for a faster, cheaper way to the Asian lands of India and China. Instead, the explorers found the continents known today as North and South America.
Europeans claimed the vast lands of this New World, which was already home to millions of Native Americans. As the Europeans took the land from the Native Americans, they needed cheap labor to grow crops, build towns, and provide goods and services. First, they tried enslaving Native Americans. However, many Native Americans were hunters more than farmers. They were not well suited to the work. A vast number died from inhumane treatment or from diseases the Europeans brought with them. Those who survived knew the land well enough to escape, and sometimes they could fight back.
When enslaving Native Americans proved unsuccessful, the Europeans brought in African slaves. Many of the new slaves had been farmers in Africa and were used to the work. They already had been exposed to many of the diseases the Europeans brought from the Old World. And African slaves were less likely to escape because they did not know the lands of their new home. They had nowhere to go.