Title: BBC - History - British History in depth: Africa and the Transatlantic Slave Trade
Headings: Africa and the Transatlantic Slave Trade
Africa and the Transatlantic Slave Trade
Beginnings
Enslavement and racism
West Africa before European intervention
African enslavers
African resistance
The African Diaspora
Find out more
Books
Links
About the author

Content: Some have argued that slavery was endemic at that time in Africa and that, therefore, a demand from Europe quickly led to the development of an organised trade. The European demand for captives became so great that they could only be acquired through initiating raiding and warfare
Others have queried the use of the term 'slave' when referring to servitude in African societies, arguing that many of those designated slaves by Europeans had definite rights, and could sometimes own property or rise to public office. Africans could become slaves as punishment for a crime, as payment for a family debt, or most commonly of all, by being captured as prisoners of war. With the arrival of European and American ships offering trading goods in exchange for people, Africans had an added incentive to enslave each other, often by kidnapping. There is no doubt that Europeans were not capable of venturing inland to capture the millions of people who were transported from Africa. In the areas where slavery was not practised, such as among the Xhosa people of southern Africa, European captains were unable to buy slaves. On the African side, the slave trade was generally the business of rulers or wealthy and powerful merchants, concerned with their own selfish or narrow interests, rather than those of the continent. At that time, there was no concept of being African. Identity and loyalty was based on kinship or membership of a specific kingdom or society, rather than to the African continent. Rich and powerful Africans were able to demand a variety of consumer articles and in some places even gold for captives, who may have been acquired through warfare or by other means, initially without massive disruption to African societies.