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
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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 Atlantic slave trade was felt across all levels of African societies. But its effects were different for different groups: Kings, elites and warlords
Middlemen, traders and merchants
Labourers and subsistence farmers
Kings and warlords
African slave sellers grew wealthy by selling captives to European traders on the coast. They were able to deal on equal terms with European traders. 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. At that time, there was no concept of being African – identity and loyalty were based on kinship or membership of a specific kingdom or society, rather than to the African continent. States based on slavery grew in power and influence. For example the Kingdom of Dahomey became one of the most prosperous nations: total receipts from slave exports were an estimated £250,000 per year by 1750. African rulers largely maintained and dictated the control and supply of captives to the Atlantic slave trade.