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: States and political factions that participated in the trade gained access to firearms and luxury goods that could be used to secure political support. States and communities not actively participating in the trade of enslaved people were increasingly at a disadvantage. The Mossi Kingdom is an example of a state that resisted the trade of enslaved people until the 1800s. Opposition to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade
The Mossi Kingdom was not the only African state or community to resist selling enslaved Africans to Europeans. The king of the Kongo, Afonso I, who had converted to Catholicism, tried to stop the sale of enslaved people to Portuguese enslavers and traders. 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.