Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade – SS1 Nigerian History Lesson Note (Third Term)

The trans-Atlantic slave trade was the forced shipment of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to work on plantations and in mines in the Americas.

Key facts at a glance

• Beginning: the Portuguese started the trade in 1441.
• Organisers: European trading companies, with help from coastal African middlemen.
• Abolition: Britain made the trade illegal in 1807.

Behavioural objectives

By the end of the lesson, students should be able to:

1. Describe how people became slaves in West Africa before the trans-Atlantic trade.
2. Explain how the trans-Atlantic slave trade began.
3. Describe how the slave trade was organised.
4. State the negative effects and the indirect benefits of the slave trade on Nigerian societies.
5. Give the reasons the slave trade was abolished and the steps taken to end it.

How did slavery exist in Africa before the trans-Atlantic trade?

Slavery existed in Africa long before Europeans arrived, and people became slaves in several ways.

Ways people became slaves in West Africa

• Punishment: people were enslaved for serious crimes.
• War captives: people were captured in wars between different groups.
• Debt and famine: people were sold to pay debts or to survive hard times.
• Kidnapping: slave raiders seized people and sold them.
• Birth: children born to parents who were already slaves became slaves.

How did traditional slavery differ from the trans-Atlantic trade?

Traditional slavery was a local system in which slaves worked in households, on farms or as soldiers.

The trans-Atlantic trade was a much larger and harsher system that shipped people overseas for profit.

How did the trans-Atlantic slave trade begin?

The trans-Atlantic slave trade began with the Portuguese in 1441, and it grew because Europeans needed cheap labour in the Americas.

Start of the trade

• 1441: a Portuguese explorer, Antão Gonçalves, took 10 Africans to Portugal as slaves.
• Growth: the trade grew from a small beginning into the largest forced migration in history.

Reasons for the growth of the trade

• The “New World”: the arrival of Europeans in the Americas created a huge demand for workers.
• Cheap labour: plantations and mines in the Americas needed many workers at low cost.
• Survival: Europeans found that Africans survived harsh conditions better than Native Americans.
• Belief about work: Europeans believed they could make Africans work harder than European workers.

How did the slave trade work?

The slave trade was organised between European companies, coastal African middlemen and buyers in the Americas.

Who took part in the trade?

• European trading companies: firms such as the Royal African Company controlled the European side.
• Coastal African middlemen: they got captives from inland areas through raids, wars or trade.
• Slave ships: ships were built with cramped spaces to hold as many people as possible.
• Buyers in the Americas: plantation owners bought the survivors at slave markets.

What was the Middle Passage?

The Middle Passage was the sea journey that carried enslaved Africans across the Atlantic to the Americas.

• Captives were packed tightly in the ships.
• Conditions were terrible, and many died on the way.

What was the triangular trade?

The triangular trade was the three-way trade between Europe, West Africa and the Americas.

1. European ships carried manufactured goods such as guns, cloth and beads to the West African coast.
2. Coastal middlemen sold captives to the European traders at coastal ports.
3. The ships carried the enslaved Africans across the Atlantic (the Middle Passage).
4. Survivors were sold at slave markets in the Americas.
5. The ships returned to Europe with goods made by slave labour, such as sugar, cotton and tobacco.

This trade made enormous profits for European traders.

What were the effects of the slave trade on Nigerian societies?

The slave trade had harmful effects on Nigerian societies, and a few benefits came indirectly.

What were the negative effects of the slave trade?

• Fear and insecurity: communities were raided for slaves.
• Population loss: millions of young, healthy people were taken away.
• Weak states: some states, such as the Oyo Empire, became too dependent on slave trading and were weakened.
• Decline of crafts: traditional crafts and industries declined as skilled people were captured.
• Poor farming: farmers were taken, and people feared to work in fields far from protection.
• Dangerous weapons: more powerful weapons made local conflicts deadlier.
• Corrupt justice: innocent people were condemned to slavery for profit.
• Mistrust: neighbouring communities came to distrust one another, and some of this mistrust remains today.

What benefits came indirectly from the slave trade?

• Wealth for rulers: some coastal middlemen and rulers, such as Alaafin Abiodun of Oyo, gained wealth and power.
• Rich Niger Delta states: Bonny, Kalabari and Okrika grew wealthy through the trade.
• Ports: harbours such as Lagos and Calabar developed and later helped other trade.
• New food crops: maize, cassava and sweet potatoes came from the Americas.
• Missionaries: Christian missionaries eventually came to fight slavery and brought education.

• Note: these benefits never justified the terrible human cost of slavery.

Why was the slave trade abolished?

The slave trade was abolished because of moral, political and economic changes in Europe.

Moral and humanitarian reasons

• Religious groups: Quakers and others argued that slavery was against Christian values.
• New ideas: European ideas about human rights and freedom made slavery seem backward.
• Freed slaves’ accounts: Olaudah Equiano and others wrote powerful accounts of slavery’s horrors.

Economic and political reasons

• Loss of colonies: Britain lost its American colonies and no longer benefited from their slave economies.
• Industrial Revolution: it created new economic systems that did not need slave labour.
• Markets for goods: Europeans wanted to sell manufactured goods to Africans.
• Free labour: economic theories suggested that free labour was more productive than forced labour.

How was the slave trade ended?

The slave trade was ended in steps, beginning with Britain’s ban in 1807.

1. Britain made the slave trade illegal in 1807.
2. The British navy patrolled the Atlantic to capture slave ships.
3. Other European countries gradually banned the trade.
4. The United States banned the importing of slaves, though slavery continued there.
5. “Legitimate trade” in palm oil, timber and other goods replaced slave trading.
6. Former slave ports became centres for new types of commerce.
7. Freetown in Sierra Leone became a home for freed slaves.
8. Missionaries increased their work in West Africa.

• Limit of the ban: illegal slave trading continued for decades.

Did abolition end slavery?

No, abolishing the slave trade did not immediately end slavery itself.

• Many enslaved people stayed in captivity in the Americas.
• Domestic slavery continued in Africa.
• Full emancipation took many more decades.
• The legacy of the trade can still be felt in Nigeria and across the African diaspora.

Evaluation

1. List four ways in which people became slaves in West Africa.
2. Why did Europeans need workers in the Americas?
3. Describe the role of coastal African middlemen in the slave trade.
4. What was the Middle Passage?
5. State four reasons the slave trade was abolished.

Assignment

1. Explain the origin of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and state four of its effects on Nigerian peoples.