The African Slave Trade
by When the Europeans started expanding, some Africans saw it as a profitable opportunity and began to sell their fellow Africans into what was later called the slave trade.
In southeast Asia, demand for slaves was very high. They wanted the slaves to be used as domestic servants. The demand was high because everyone could use a domestic servant. Another use for slaves was manual labor, and with the discovery of the Americas, more slaves were needed to work on plantations to harvest mainly sugar cane and cotton. The slaves going to the Americas were part of what was known as the “triangular trade.” This “triangular trade” consisted of three areas: Europe, Africa and America.
All this trading of people actually had a downside as well. Some of the effects on Africa were: Africa was starting to become depopulated, tragic effects on the slaves and their families, increasing warfare and the deprivation of the strongest Africans in their communities. Although they did not know it at the time, the Africans trading their brothers were actually hurting themselves as a people.
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