Negative Effects of Slavery
People make decisions daily, and these decisions are likely to result in either positive or negative outcomes. The issue of slavery was a decision by one person to enslave the other and was practiced many years ago. Slavery resulted in both bad and good consequences on the societies that engaged in it, consequences that would impact society in different ways. The Slave trade involved African and the Whites, with the largest and best-known slave trade being the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade, which began in the 15th century and involved the shipping of slaves from African regions to various European colonies in the world. Other slave trades included; Trans Saharan trade that involved taking slaves from the Saharan desert region and shipped to various North American parts. The Red Sea and the Indian Ocean were the other forms of slave trades that involved Africans being shipped by Whites.
The negativity started even from how slaves were captured from the African countries because it involved raids, warfare, and kidnapping. The capture had detrimental effects on the physical and mental health of the slaves. Numerous examples of slave trading severely affect legal institutions, resulting in the weakening of states, and fragmentation of political and social organizations has also been reported. Slave trades negatively impacted the economic development of African countries. African states were at the same level of development before the start of slavery, but due to the slave trade, these states were deprived of the ready labor that would facilitate economic growth. The Slave trade targeted the young and energetic individuals that would be crucial in spurring economic growth. Valuable resources found in African soils were also extracted by the European during slavery leaving the Africans with little or nothing to support economic growth (Nunn & Puga, 2012). The resources extracted included Gold, Diamond, Oil, and other valuable mineral resources.
In some western countries in Africa, the slave trade was carried out in the form of barter trade where European gave out firearms to acquires slaves, firearms that would later lead to political instability in several countries of West Africa. Like Asante and Dahomey, some states expanded at the expense of other states. other kingdoms and the states that adopted them were destroyed, and their populations were absorbed by rival kingdoms (Whatley & Gillezeau, 2011). Many Africans were removed from their lands, cities, and several villages were depopulated. Africans were also killed or remained enslaved during the slave trade. Once captured as slaves, Africans would be marched to the coast, which often involved long journeys of weeks and months, shackled together. At the coast, they would be imprisoned in large stones or other smaller wooden rooms. The long journey towards the coast negatively impacted the bodies of the slaves, while being locked in the smaller wooden compound impacted the mental health of the slaves negatively.
Most of the population sold the European nation consisted of main men and a few women. Women had limited skills as farmers, and therefore, Europeans were not interested in acquiring their services. The society was left violated and disorganized after the slave trade, and know it was women’s responsibility to rebuild it. Until, today, the people in West Africa are suffering deeply compared to the communities that promoted slave trades against them (Dalton &Leung, 2014). Several reparations movements have been developed; they seek to acknowledge the different horrors that slaves in West Africa were subjected to. The reparation movements also demand compensation for Africans from the European countries.
Slavery is the chief cause of the racial discrimination that is witnessed today in various societies. It is the slave trade that diluted the relationship between Blacks and Whites. During the slave trade, Black was subjected to inhuman treatment and meant to work in Whites’ farm, and the salaries were peanuts, and in most cases, they lacked the basic needs. Slavery took away the freedom of many Africans, and thus why many Africans in European countries are unable to access justice and freedom; they are denied by the whites who believe they do not deserve either of the two. Through the slave trade, a conflict developed between the North and South. The North strongly opposed the slave trade, unlike the south; the North opposed the slave trade because they believed in equality of all races and dislike discrimination based on skin color. The North opposed the slave trade by banning the slave trade from all its international trade systems. Instead, the south encouraged slaved trade by domesticating it. The south supported the slave trade with everything, even to going to war with the North.
Wars and raids in African countries became more attractive with the onset of the slave trade. Captives were created from the war, who were later used as slaves for beneficial purposes. The main reason for having wars was not only to get captives but the temptation of having war increased. Some African kingdoms were also destabilized due to growth in the demand for slaves. The government that existed and most of which were based on kingdoms were destroyed. New kingdoms were established where raiding slaves became the new normal (Nunn &Wantchekon, 2011). Frequent slave raids churned up boundaries between various ethnic groups. Various societies in Africa were destroyed by the slave trade, with a study done by Slave voyages databases in 2014 suggesting that Atlantic slave trade displaced more than 12 million people from Africa. Unfortunately, this figure does not include those who were killed in the capture and transportation of slaves. It can be estimated that thousands of slaves lost their life during the whole process. Late 17th century, the demand for slaves grew rapidly; slaves were particularly required to work in sugar plantations; the demand escalated until Europeans decided to acquire slaves through slaves and warfare. Large areas of African societies were devastated and disintegrated. Depopulation also occurred because Europeans brought deadly diseases such as syphilis, tuberculosis, typhus, and smallpox. These diseases also killed thousands of Africans because they had a cure for them.
In conclusion, the negative effects of slave trades varied from one African region to the other. Some African nations were involved wholly in the slave trade with European nations, while other regions may have chosen to trade commodities rather than slaves. Other regions also chose to engage in partial and brief sales of slave trades. Generally, a society engaged in the slave trade did by carrying out raids as these were attractive and profitable compared to capturing their pieces of land (Levin, Lin, Xie, 2017). Therefore, the negative effect of slavery is subjected that cannot be generalized but need to be viewed differently in various regions. It is also important to note that the British were the key players of slavery that involved African regions. The development of slavery was also fueled by a shortage of labor, religious factors, and Europeans’ failure to find alternative labor.
References
Dalton, John T., and Tin Cheuk Leung. “Why is polygyny more prevalent in Western Africa? An African slave trade perspective.” Economic Development and Cultural Change 62.4 (2014): 599-632.
Levine, Ross, Chen Lin, and Wensi Xie. The origins of financial development: How the African slave trade continues to influence modern finance. No. w23800. National Bureau of Economic Research, 2017.
Nunn, Nathan, and Leonard Wantchekon. “The slave trade and the origins of mistrust in Africa.” American Economic Review 101.7 (2011): 3221-52.
Nunn, Nathan, and Diego Puga. “Ruggedness: The blessing of bad geography in Africa.” Review of Economics and Statistics 94.1 (2012): 20-36.
Whatley, Warren, and Rob Gillezeau. “The impact of the transatlantic slave trade on ethnic stratification in Africa.” American Economic Review 101.3 (2011): 571-76.