Title: Atlantic Crossing
Headings: Atlantic Crossing
Atlantic Crossing
Slavery in Africa before the transatlantic trade
The influx of outside capital
The march to the coast
Coastal slave forts
From shore to ship
Across the Atlantic
The selling and the 'seasoning'
Preferences
First Hand Accounts
Slave Forts on the African coast
Capture and Enslavement

Content: That slavery existed in Africa prior to the late 15th century is a matter of fact, but European involvement would lead to what the historian Robin Blackburn has termed a 'degradation of slavery'. The influx of outside capital
The increase in African involvement in the trade from the 16th century onwards was caused by an influx of outside capital, the pre-existing trade being spurred on by the growing demand for Europe's goods: fabrics and utensils, guns and alcohol. Dahomey (now the nation of Benin) was one of the largest African kingdoms to arise between the 17th and 18th centuries. Its pre-eminence along the Volta estuary is directly attributable to its trade in slaves to transatlantic markets. By the second half of the 18th century, with 9,000 people being sold annually, slavery had become the kingdom's greatest source of revenue: in 1750, Tegebesu, the king of Dahomey, had an estimated yearly income of £250,000. A free-for-all among African traders to capture their neighbours and rivals for sale to Europeans was deliberately stimulated by European traders anchored offshore or in coastal stations with their wares. The march to the coast
Following their capture, the captives would be marched to the coast. The only reliable European account of the harsh reality of the slave caravans comes from the explorer Mungo Park writing in the 1790s.