Title: Roles played by leaders of African societies in continuing the trade - Implications of the slave trade for African societies - Higher History Revision - BBC Bitesize
Headings: Roles played by leaders of African societies in continuing the trade
Higher
Implications of the slave trade for African societies
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Roles played by leaders of African societies in continuing the trade
Kings and warlords
Middlemen, traders and merchants
Labourers and subsistence farmers
Implications of the Atlantic Slave Trade for Africa

Content: The impact of the trade was to increase individual fortunes in the short run. But through competition with each others, rulers could have their powers reduced or eliminated as well as strengthened. In the long run, the scale of the Atlantic trade caused instability and collapse in many African states. Middlemen, traders and merchants
The kings and warlords needed points of sale, and Europeans needed access to sources of slaves. Some African slave sellers became extremely wealthy from the expansion of the slave trade networks. A group of ‘merchant princes’ developed in response to the European reliance on African intermediaries. These were often the sons of Afro-European parents, and commanded large bands of armed men. The slave trade was incredibly labour-intensive. Thousands found employment as porters, interpreters, guards, soldiers and peddlers. Labourers and subsistence farmers
The proportion of African villagers actively involved in the slave trade was small.