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Slavery was widespread in West Africa before the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Individuals enslaved slaves from another group when African empires, countries, or kinship groupings fought for various economic and political reasons. To extend their family or nation, influence and transmit spiritual views, or engage in commerce for economic benefit, rulers of slaveholding cultures might use their captives as prisoners of war for labor demands. Elites of West Africa’s slaveholding civilizations depended on their kinship networks, which comprised family members and slaves, to help safeguard and maintain their wealth and social status, even to the extent of enslaving their descendants (Sebro, 2017).

Slavery harmed local communities and contributed to the long-term decline of West Africa’s economy. Increased impacts on monarchs, kingdoms, and society were a result of this growth in influence. The potential of Africa to develop economically and maintain its social and political stability was radically impeded by the slave trade ( Gerbner, 2018). Slaves were to provide cheap labor to the African societies.

In Africa, a slave was a prisoner of war or someone who owed money or had other legal problems. Americans viewed slaves because most of them were slave children, and very few people were new slaves as their imports were often limited.

Reference

Sebro, L. (2017) ‘The 1733 Slave Revolt on the Island of St. John: Continuity and Change From Africa to the Americas’, in Naum, M., Nordin, J. M. (eds) Scandinavian Colonialism and the Rise of Modernity: Small Time Agents in a Global Arena. New York: Springer, pp. 261-74.

Gerbner, K. (2018) Christian Slavery: Conversion and Race in the Protestant Atlantic World.Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press