Title: A History of African Traders of Enslaved People
Headings: African Traders of Enslaved People
African Traders of Enslaved People
Motivations for Enslavement
A Self-Replicating Cycle
Opposition to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade
Enslavement as a Part of Life
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Content: He lacked the power, however, to police the whole of his territory, and traders as well as nobles engaged in the trans-Atlantic trade of enslaved Africans to gain wealth and power. Alfonso tried writing to the Portuguese king asking him to stop Portuguese traders from engaging in the practice, but his plea was ignored. The Benin Empire offers a very different example. Benin sold enslaved people to Europeans when it was expanding and fighting many wars, which produced prisoners of war. Once the state stabilized, it stopped trading enslaved people until it started to decline in the 1700s. During this period of increasing instability, the state resumed participation in the trade of enslaved people. Enslavement as a Part of Life
It might be tempting to assume that African traders of enslaved people did not know how bad European plantation enslavement was, but they weren't naive. Not all traders would have known about the horrors of the Middle Passage or of what lives awaited enslaved Africans, but others at least had an idea. They simply didn't care. There are always going to be people willing to ruthlessly exploit others in the quest for money and power, but the story of the trade of enslaved Africans by Africans goes much further than a few bad people.