Editing Atlantic slave trade (section)

==16th, 17th, and 18th centuries==
[[File:Map of Meridian Line set under the Treaty of Tordesillas.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Map of Meridian Line set under the Treaty of Tordesillas]] [[File:The Slave Trade by Auguste Francois Biard.jpg|thumb|''The Slave Trade'' by [[Auguste François Biard]], 1840]]

The Atlantic slave trade is customarily divided into two eras, known as the first and second Atlantic systems. Slightly more than 3% of the enslaved people exported from Africa were traded between 1525 and 1600, and 16% in the 17th century.{{citation needed|date=March 2023}}

The first Atlantic system was the trade of enslaved Africans to, primarily, American colonies of the Portuguese and Spanish empires. Before the 1520s, slavers took Africans to [[Seville]] or the [[Canary Islands]] and then exported some of them from Spain to its colonies in Hispaniola and Puerto Rico, with 1 to 40 slaves per ship. These supplemented enslaved Native Americans. In 1518, the Spanish king gave permission for ships to go directly from Africa to the Caribbean colonies, and they started taking 200–300 per trip.<ref name="little">{{Cite web |last=Little |first=Becky |date=21 March 2019 |title=Details of Brutal First Slave Voyages Discovered |url=https://www.history.com/news/transatlantic-slave-first-ships-details |access-date=18 March 2023 |website=History.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210130071041/https://www.history.com/news/transatlantic-slave-first-ships-details |archive-date=30 January 2021}}</ref>{{Better source needed|date=June 2024}}

During the first Atlantic system, most of these slavers were Portuguese, giving them a near-monopoly. Decisive was the 1494 [[Treaty of Tordesillas]] which did not allow Spanish ships in African ports. Spain had to rely on Portuguese ships and sailors to bring slaves across the Atlantic. From 1525, slaves were transported directly from the Portuguese colony of [[Sao Tomé]] across the Atlantic to [[Hispaniola]].{{sfn|Borucki|Eltis|Wheat|2015|pp=446, 457, 460}}

A burial ground in [[Campeche City|Campeche]], Mexico, suggests enslaved Africans had been brought there not long after [[Hernán Cortés]] completed the subjugation of [[Aztecs|Aztec]] and [[Maya civilization|Mayan]] Mexico in 1519. The graveyard had been in use from approximately 1550 to the late 17th century.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.livescience.com/6986-skeletons-discovered-african-slaves-world.html |title=Skeletons Discovered: First African Slaves in New World |date=31 January 2006 |website=LiveScience.com |access-date=27 September 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230410155310/https://www.livescience.com/6986-skeletons-discovered-african-slaves-world.html |archive-date=10 April 2023}}</ref>

In 1562, [[John Hawkins (naval commander)|John Hawkins]] captured Africans in what is now Sierra Leone and took 300 people to sell in the Caribbean. In 1564, he repeated the process, this time using Queen Elizabeth's own ship, [[Jesus of Lübeck]], and numerous English voyages ensued.<ref name="od">{{Cite ODNB |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-12672 |title=Hawkins, Sir John (1532–1595), merchant and naval commander |year=2004 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/12672}}</ref>

Around 1560, the Portuguese began a regular slave trade to Brazil. From 1580 until 1640, Portugal was temporarily united with Spain in the [[Iberian Union]]. Most Portuguese contractors who obtained the [[Asiento de Negros|asiento]] between 1580 and 1640 were [[converso]]s.<ref>{{cite book |last=Israel |first=Jonathan |author-link=Jonathan Israel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oO_7EAAAQBAJ&pg=PA103 |title=Diasporas within the Diaspora. Jews, Crypto-Jews and the World Maritime Empires (1510–1740) |date=2002 |publisher=[[Brill Publishers|Brill]] |pages=103|isbn=978-90-04-50096-9 }}</ref> For Portuguese merchants, many of whom were "[[New Christians]]" or their descendants, the union of crowns presented commercial opportunities in the slave trade to Spanish America.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lockhart |last2=Schwartz |title=Early Latin America |pages=225 and 250}} {{full citation needed|date=June 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Arnold |last=Wiznitzer |title=The Jews of Colonial Brazil |location=New York |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |date=1960}}</ref>{{page needed|date=June 2024}}

[[File:Marché aux Negres by Johann Moritz Rugendas 2.jpg|thumb|A slave market in Brazil]]

Until the middle of the 17th century, Mexico was the largest single market for slaves in Spanish America.<ref name=rawley63>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UQcOo4csdzEC&pg=PA63 |title=The Transatlantic Slave Trade: A History |first1=James A. |last1=Rawley |first2=Stephen D. |last2=Behrendt |author2-link=Stephen D. Behrendt |date=December 2005 |page=63 |publisher=[[University of Nebraska Press]] |isbn=0-8032-0512-0 |access-date=13 August 2020 |archive-date=26 July 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240726155148/https://books.google.com/books?id=UQcOo4csdzEC&pg=PA63 |url-status=live}}</ref> While the Portuguese were directly involved in trading enslaved peoples to Brazil, the Spanish Empire relied on the [[Asiento de Negros]] system, awarding (Catholic) [[Republic of Genoa|Genoese]] merchant bankers the license to trade enslaved people from Africa to their colonies in [[Spanish America]]. [[Cartagena, Colombia|Cartagena]], [[Veracruz (city)|Veracruz]], [[Buenos Aires]], and [[Hispaniola]] received the majority of slave arrivals, mainly from [[Angola]].{{sfn|Borucki|Eltis|Wheat|2015|pp=437, 446}} This division of the slave trade between Spain and Portugal upset the British and the Dutch who invested in the [[British West Indies]] and [[Dutch Brazil]] producing sugar. After the Iberian Union fell apart, Spain prohibited Portugal from directly engaging in the slave trade as a carrier. According the [[Peace of Münster|Treaty of Münster]] the slave trade was opened for the traditional enemies of Spain, losing a large share of the trade to the Dutch, French, and English. For 150 years, Spanish transatlantic traffic was operating at trivial levels. In many years, not a single Spanish slave voyage set sail from Africa. Unlike all of their imperial competitors, the Spanish almost never delivered slaves to foreign territories. By contrast, the British, and the Dutch before them, sold slaves everywhere in the Americas.{{sfn|Borucki|Eltis|Wheat|2015|pp=453–454}}

The second Atlantic system was the trade of enslaved Africans by mostly English, French, and Dutch traders and investors.<ref>P.C. Emmer, ''The Dutch in the Atlantic Economy, 1580–1880. Trade, Slavery and Emancipation'' (1998), p. 17.</ref> The main destinations of this phase were the Caribbean islands [[Curaçao]], Jamaica and [[Martinique]], as European nations built up economically slave-dependent colonies in the New World.<ref>{{cite book |last=Klein |first=Herbert S. |date=2010 |title=The Atlantic Slave Trade |edition=2nd |isbn= |pages=}}
</ref>{{page needed|date=July 2024}}{{sfn|Borucki|Eltis|Wheat|2015|p=443}} In 1672, the [[Royal Africa Company]] was founded. In 1674, the [[Dutch West India Company#New West India Company|New West India Company]] became deeper involved in slave trade.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/africa_caribbean/docs/account_rac.htm |title=The Royal African Company Trades for Commodities Along the West African Coast |website=[[The National Archives (United Kingdom)|The National Archives]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240615084958/https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/black-presence/ |archive-date=15 June 2024}}</ref> From 1677, the [[Compagnie du Sénégal]], used [[Gorée]] to [[House of Slaves|house the slaves]]. The Spanish proposed to get the slaves from [[Cape Verde]], located closer to the [[demarcation line]] between the Spanish and Portuguese empire, but this was against the WIC-charter".<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HGoyvMF7xw8C&pg=PA41 |title=The Dutch in the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1600–1815 |first=Johannes |last=Postma |date=3 January 2008 |page=40 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-0-521-04824-8}}</ref> The Royal African Company usually refused to deliver slaves to Spanish colonies, though they did sell them to all comers from their factories in [[Kingston, Jamaica]] and [[Bridgetown, Barbados]].{{sfn|Borucki|Eltis|Wheat|2015|p=451}} In 1682, Spain allowed governors from Havana, [[Porto Bello, Panama]], and [[Cartagena, Colombia]] to procure slaves from Jamaica.<ref name=rawley60>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UQcOo4csdzEC&pg=PA60 |title=The Transatlantic Slave Trade: A History |first1=James A. |last1=Rawley |first2=Stephen D. |last2=Behrendt |date=December 2005 |page=60 |publisher=[[University of Nebraska Press]] |isbn=0-8032-0512-0 |access-date=13 August 2020 |archive-date=26 July 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240726170703/https://books.google.com/books?id=UQcOo4csdzEC&pg=PA60#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live}}</ref>
[[File:Island of Gorée, Senegal.jpg|thumb|Island of Gorée, Senegal]]
[[File:William Hoare of Bath - Portrait of Ayuba Suleiman Diallo, (1701-1773).jpg|thumb|upright|''Portrait of [[Ayuba Suleiman Diallo]] (Job ben Solomon)'', painted by [[William Hoare]] in the 18th century]]

By the 1690s, the English were shipping the most slaves from West Africa.{{sfn|Hair|Law|1998|p=257}} By the 18th century, Portuguese Angola had become again one of the principal sources of the Atlantic slave trade.<ref>{{cite journal |title=The Atlantic Slave Trade from Angola: A Port-by-Port Estimate of Slaves Embarked, 1701–1867 |first=Daniel B. |last=Domingues da Silva |date=1 January 2013 |journal=The International Journal of African Historical Studies |volume=46 |issue=1 |pages=105–122 |jstor=24393098}}</ref> After the end of the [[War of the Spanish Succession]], as part of the provisions of the [[Treaty of Utrecht (1713)]], the Asiento was granted to the [[South Sea Company]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ehs.org.uk/ehs/conference2004/assets/paul.doc |title=The South Sea Company's slaving activities |first=Helen |last=Paul |website=Economic History Society |archive-url=https://archive.today/20121209151433/http://www.ehs.org.uk/ehs/conference2004/assets/paul.doc |archive-date=9 December 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Despite the [[South Sea Bubble]], the British maintained this position during the 18th century, becoming the biggest shippers of slaves across the Atlantic.{{sfn|Christopher|2006|p=6}}{{sfn|Meredith|2014|p=191}} It is estimated that more than half of the entire slave trade took place during the 18th century, with the Portuguese, British, and French being the main carriers of nine out of ten slaves abducted in Africa.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Cambridge World History of Slavery |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |first1=Keith |last1=Bradley |first2=Paul |last2=Cartledge |year=2011 |page=583 |isbn=978-0-521-84066-8}}</ref> At the time, slave trading was regarded as crucial to Europe's maritime economy, as noted by one English slave trader: "What a glorious and advantageous trade this is ... It is the hinge on which all the trade of this globe moves."<ref>{{cite news |title=Voyage of the Damned |date=21 October 2007 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/21/books/review/Hochschild-t.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090417104348/https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/21/books/review/Hochschild-t.html |archive-date=17 April 2009 |work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WV5iAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA148 |title=Dr H.'s Memoirs of his own Life time |year=1747 |access-date=18 March 2023 |archive-date=6 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230406155405/https://books.google.com/books?id=WV5iAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA148 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Meanwhile, it became a business for [[Privately held company#Privately owned enterprise|privately owned enterprises]], reducing international complications.<ref name=rawley63/> After 1790, by contrast, captains typically checked out slave prices in at least two of the major markets of Kingston, Havana, and [[Charleston, South Carolina]] (where prices by then were similar) before deciding where to sell.{{sfn|Borucki|Eltis|Wheat|2015|p=43?}} For the last sixteen years of the transatlantic slave trade, Spain was the only transatlantic slave-trading empire.{{sfn|Borucki|Eltis|Wheat|2015|p=457}}

Following the British [[Slave Trade Act 1807]] and [[Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves|U.S. bans]] on the African slave trade that same year, it declined, but the period thereafter still accounted for 28.5% of the total volume of the Atlantic slave trade.<ref>{{cite book |last=Lovejoy |first=Paul E. |chapter=The Volume of the Atlantic Slave Trade. A Synthesis |editor-last=Northrup |editor-first=David |title=The Atlantic Slave Trade |publisher=D.C. Heath and Company |date=1994 |page=}}</ref>{{page needed|date=July 2024}} Between 1810 and 1860, over 3.5 million slaves were transported, with 850,000 in the 1820s.{{sfn|Meredith|2014|p=193}}

===Triangular trade===
{{Main|Triangular trade}}

The first side of the triangle was the export of goods from Europe to Africa. A number of African kings and merchants took part in the trading of enslaved people from 1440 to about 1833. For each captive, the African rulers would receive a variety of goods from Europe. These included guns, ammunition, alcohol, [[Indigo dye#History|indigo dyed]] Indian textiles, and other factory-made goods.<ref>{{Cite web |date=27 June 2013 |title=Indian cotton textiles in the eighteenth-century Atlantic economy |url=https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/southasia/2013/06/27/indian-cotton-textiles-in-the-eighteenth-century-atlantic-economy/ |access-date=9 September 2020 |website=South Asia@LSE |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240225223959/https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/southasia/2013/06/27/indian-cotton-textiles-in-the-eighteenth-century-atlantic-economy/ |archive-date=25 February 2024}}</ref> The second leg of the triangle exported enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas and the Caribbean Islands. The third and final part of the triangle was the return of goods to Europe from the Americas. The goods were the products of [[slave plantation]]s and included cotton, sugar, tobacco, [[molasses]] and rum.<ref name=Inikori>{{cite book |title=The Atlantic Slave Trade: Effects on Economies, Societies and Peoples in Africa, the Americas, and Europe |first1=Joseph E. |last1=Inikori |first2=Stanley L. |last2=Engerman}}</ref> Sir [[John Hawkins (naval commander)|John Hawkins]], considered the pioneer of the English slave trade, was the first to run the triangular trade, making a profit at every stop.<ref>{{cite web |title=Who was John Hawkins? |url=https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/john-hawkins-admiral-privateer-slave-trader |website=[[Royal Museums Greenwich]] |access-date=16 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240507144456/https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/john-hawkins-admiral-privateer-slave-trader |archive-date=7 May 2024}}</ref>

===Labour and slavery===
[[File:BLAKE10.JPG|thumb|upright|A [[Wedgwood anti-slavery medallion]], produced in 1787 by [[Josiah Wedgwood]]]]

The Atlantic slave trade was the result of, among other things, [[labour shortage]], itself in turn created by the desire of European colonists to exploit New World land and resources for capital profits. [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native]] peoples were at first utilized as slave labour by Europeans until a large number died from overwork and [[Old World]] diseases.<ref>{{cite web |title=Smallpox Through History |url=http://encarta.msn.com/media_701508643/Smallpox_Through_History.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091029184350/http://encarta.msn.com/media_701508643/Smallpox_Through_History.html |archive-date=29 October 2009}}</ref> In the mid-16th century, the Spanish [[New Laws]], prohibited slavery of the Indigenous people. A labour shortage resulted. Alternative sources of labour, such as [[indentured servitude]], failed to provide a sufficient workforce. Many crops could not be sold for profit, or even grown, in Europe. Exporting crops and goods from the New World to Europe often proved to be more profitable than producing them on the European mainland. A vast amount of labour was needed to create and sustain plantations that required intensive labour to grow, harvest, and process prized tropical crops. Western Africa (part of which became known as "the [[Slave Coast of West Africa|Slave Coast]]"), Angola and nearby Kingdoms and later [[Central Africa]], became the source for enslaved people to meet the demand for labour.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.africafederation.net/Kongo_History.htm |title=History Kingdom of Kongo |website=www.africafederation.net |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240528152732/https://www.africafederation.net/Kongo_History.htm |archive-date=28 May 2024}}</ref>

The basic reason for the constant shortage of labour was that, with much cheap land available and many landowners searching for workers, free European immigrants were able to become landowners themselves relatively quickly, thus increasing the need for workers.<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Solow |editor-first=Barbara |date=1991 |title=Slavery and the Rise of the Atlantic System |location=Cambridge |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=}}</ref> Labour shortages were mainly met by the English, French and Portuguese with African slave labour.

[[File:Slaves embarked to America from 1450 until 1866 by country.jpg|thumb|400px|Slaves embarked to America from 1450 until 1866 by country]]

[[Thomas Jefferson]] attributed the use of slave labour in part to the climate, and the consequent idle leisure afforded by slave labour: "For in a warm climate, no man will labour for himself who can make another labour for him. This is so true, that of the proprietors of slaves a very small proportion indeed are ever seen to labour."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=JefVirg.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=18&division=div1 |title=''Notes on the State of Virginia'' Query 18. }}</ref> In a 2015 paper, economist Elena Esposito argued that the enslavement of Africans in colonial America was attributable to the fact that the American south was sufficiently warm and humid for malaria to thrive; the disease had debilitating effects on the European settlers. Conversely, many enslaved Africans were taken from regions of Africa which hosted particularly potent strains of the disease, so the Africans had already developed natural resistance to malaria. This, Esposito argued, resulted in higher malaria survival rates in the American south among enslaved Africans than among European labourers, making them a more profitable source of labour and encouraging their use.<ref>{{cite thesis |last=Esposito |first=Elena |url=http://eh.net/eha/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Esposito.pdf |title=Side Effects of Immunities: the African Slave Trade |type=Working Paper |date=2015 |publisher=[[Economic History Association]] |access-date=7 May 2019 |archive-date=12 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112014228/https://eh.net/eha/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Esposito.pdf}}</ref>

Historian David Eltis argues that Africans were enslaved because of cultural beliefs in Europe that prohibited the enslavement of cultural insiders, even if there was a source of labour that could be enslaved (such as convicts, prisoners of war and vagrants). Eltis argues that traditional beliefs existed in Europe against enslaving Christians (few Europeans not being Christian at the time) and those slaves that existed in Europe tended to be non-Christians and their immediate descendants (since a slave converting to Christianity did not guarantee emancipation) and thus by the 15th century Europeans as a whole came to be regarded as insiders.

Eltis argues that while all slave societies have demarked insiders and outsiders, Europeans took this process further by extending the status of insider to the entire European continent, rendering it unthinkable to enslave a European since this would require enslaving an insider. Conversely, Africans were viewed as outsiders and thus qualified for enslavement. While Europeans may have treated some types of labour, such as convict labour, with conditions similar to that of slaves, these labourers would not be regarded as chattel and their progeny could not inherit their subordinate status, thus not making them slaves in the eyes of Europeans. The status of chattel slavery was thus confined to non-Europeans, such as Africans.<ref>{{cite book |last=Eltis |first=David |title=The rise of African slavery in the Americas |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |date=2000 |pages=59–84, 224}}</ref>

For the British, slaves were no more than animals and could be treated as commodities, so situations like the [[Zong massacre]] occurred without any justice for the victims.<ref name="Rupprecht 14">{{Cite journal |title=Excessive Memories: Slavery, Insurance and Resistance |last=Rupprecht |first=Anita |date=Autumn 2007 |journal=History Workshop Journal |issue=64 |page=14 |jstor=25472933}}</ref>

===African participation in the slave trade===
[[File:Marchands d'esclaves de Gorée-Jacques Grasset de Saint-Sauveur mg 8526.jpg|thumb|upright|Slave traders in [[Gorée]], Senegal, 18th century]]

African partners, including rulers, traders and military aristocrats, played a direct role in the slave trade. They sold slaves acquired from wars or through kidnapping to Europeans or their agents.<ref name="afbis">{{cite journal |url=http://www.afbis.com/analysis/slave.htm |title=Slave trade: a root of contemporary African Crisis |journal=Africa Economic Analysis |year=2000 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120502172215/http://www.afbis.com/analysis/slave.htm |archive-date=2 May 2012 |last=Obadina |first=Tunde}}</ref> Those sold into slavery were usually from a different ethnic group than those who captured them, whether enemies or just neighbors.<ref name="ldhi"/> These captive slaves were considered "other", not part of the people of the ethnic group or "tribe"; African kings were only interested in protecting their own ethnic group, but sometimes criminals would be sold to get rid of them.<ref name="afbis"/><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Foster |first1=Herbert |title=Partners or Captives in Commerce?: The Role of Africans in the Slave Trade |journal=Journal of Black Studies |date=1976 |volume=6 |issue=4 |pages=421–434 |doi=10.1177/002193477600600408 |jstor=2783771 |s2cid=145541392 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2783771 |access-date=17 January 2024 |archive-date=17 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240117152155/https://www.jstor.org/stable/2783771 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Most other slaves were obtained from kidnappings, or through raids that occurred at gunpoint through joint ventures with the Europeans.<ref name="afbis"/><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Foster |first1=Herbert |title=Partners or Captives in Commerce?: The Role of Africans in the Slave Trade |journal=Journal of Black Studies |date=1976 |volume=6 |issue=4 |pages=421–434 |doi=10.1177/002193477600600408 |jstor=2783771 |s2cid=145541392 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2783771 |access-date=17 January 2024 |archive-date=17 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240117152155/https://www.jstor.org/stable/2783771 |url-status=live}}</ref> The kingdom of Dahomey supplied war captives to European slave traders.<ref name=":0">{{cite journal |last1=Law |first1=Robin |title=Slave-Raiders and Middlemen, Monopolists and Free-Traders: The Supply of Slaves for the Atlantic Trade in Dahomey c. 1715-1850 |journal=The Journal of African History |date=1989 |volume=30 |issue=1 |pages=45–68 |doi=10.1017/S0021853700030875 |jstor=182694 |s2cid=165485173 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/182694 |access-date=23 January 2024}}</ref> Dahomey King [[Agaja]], who ruled from 1718 to 1740, took control of key trade routes for the Atlantic slave trade by conquering the neighbouring kingdoms of [[Allada]] in 1724 and [[Kingdom of Whydah|Whydah]] in 1727.<ref name=":0" /> A decrease in the slave trade in the area was observed after this conquest, however Agaja did create significant infrastructure for the slave trade and actively participated in it towards the end of his reign.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Falola|first1=Toyin|last2=Warnock|first2=Amanda|title=Encyclopedia of the Middle Passage|year=2007|publisher=Greenwood Press|location=Westport, CT|isbn=9780313334801|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UjRYKePKrB8C&q=Agaja|oclc=230753290|pages=129}}</ref>

According to Pernille Ipsen, author of ''Daughters of the Trade: Atlantic Slavers and Interracial Marriage on the Gold Coast,'' Africans from the Gold Coast (present-day Ghana) also participated in the slave trade through intermarriage, or ''[[cassare]]'' (taken from Italian, Spanish, or Portuguese), meaning 'to set up house'. It is derived from the Portuguese word {{lang|pt|'casar'}}, meaning 'to marry'. ''Cassare'' formed political and economic bonds between European and African slave traders. ''Cassare'' was a pre-European-contact practice used to integrate the "other" from a differing African tribe. Early on in the Atlantic slave trade, it was common for the powerful elite West African families to marry off their women to the European traders in alliance, bolstering their syndicate. The marriages were even performed using African customs, which Europeans did not object to, seeing how important the connections were.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ipsen |first1=Pernille |title=Daughters of the Trade: Atlantic Slavers and Interracial Marriage on the Gold Coast |date=2015 |publisher=[[University of Pennsylvania Press]] |isbn=978-0-8122-4673-5 |pages=1, 21, 31}}</ref>

===African awareness of the conditions of slavery in the Americas===
[[File:FORBES(1851) p1.133 SCENE AT SLAVE MARKET.jpg|thumb|A slave market in Dahomey]]

It is difficult to reconstruct and generalize how Africans residing in Africa understood the Atlantic slave trade, though there is evidence for some societies that African elites and slave traders had awareness of the conditions of the slaves who were transported to the Americas.<ref name="law">{{cite book |last1=Law |first1=Robin |title=Ouidah: the social history of a West African slaving 'port', 1727–1892 |date=2004 |publisher=Ohio University Press |location=Athens, Ohio |isbn=978-0-8214-1572-6 |pages=148–149}}</ref>{{sfn|Sparks|2014|p=243}} According to Robin Law, the royal elites of the kingdom of [[Dahomey]] must have had an "informed understanding" of the fates of the Africans they sold into slavery.<ref name="law"/> Dahomey sent diplomats to Brazil and Portugal who returned with information about their trips.<ref name="law"/> In addition, a few royal elites of Dahomey had experienced slavery for themselves in the Americas before returning to their homeland.<ref name="law"/> The only apparent moral issue that the kingdom had with slavery was the enslavement of fellow Dahomeyans, an offense punishable by death, rather than the institution of slavery itself.<ref name="law"/>

On the Gold Coast, it was common for slave-trading African rulers to encourage their children to learn about Europeans by sending them to sail on European ships, live inside European forts, or travel to Europe or America for an education.{{sfn|Sparks|2014|pp=186–197}} Diplomats also traveled to European capital cities. The elites even rescued fellow elites who were tricked into slavery in the Americas by sending demands to the Dutch and the British governments, who complied due to fears of reduced trade and physical harm to hostages.{{sfn|Sparks|2014|pp=186–197}} An example is the case of [[William Ansah Sessarakoo]], who was rescued from slavery in Barbados after being recognised by a visiting slave trader of the same Fante ethnic group, and later became a slave trader himself.<ref>{{cite web |title=William Ansah Sessarakoo, Slave Trader born |url=https://aaregistry.org/story/william-ansah-sessarakoo-merchant-born/ |website=African American Registry |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230712111920/https://aaregistry.org/story/william-ansah-sessarakoo-merchant-born/ |archive-date=12 July 2023}}</ref>

[[Fenda Lawrence]] was a slave trader from [[the Gambia]] who lived and traded in [[Georgia (U.S. State)|Georgia]] and [[South Carolina]] as a free person.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Akyeampong |first1=Emmanuel Kwaku |last2=Gates |first2=Henry Louis Jr. |title=Dictionary of African Biography |date=2012 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=New York |isbn=978-0-19-538207-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=39JMAgAAQBAJ&q=Fenda+Lawrence&pg=RA2-PA475 |access-date=10 August 2022 |archive-date=26 July 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240726160701/https://books.google.com/books?id=39JMAgAAQBAJ&q=Fenda+Lawrence&pg=RA2-PA475#v=snippet&q=Fenda%20Lawrence&f=false |url-status=live}}</ref>

A common assumption by Africans who were unaware of the true purpose of the Atlantic slave trade was that the Europeans were cannibals who planned on cooking and eating their captives.{{sfn|Thornton|1998|p=316}} This rumour was a common source of significant distress for enslaved Africans.{{sfn|Thornton|1998|p=316}}

===African opposition to the slave trade===
[[File:Boukary Koutou's Mossi cavalry returning with captives from a raid, Ouagadougou.jpg|thumb|[[Wobgho|Boukary Koutou]]'s [[Mossi people|Mossi]] cavalry returning with captives from a raid, [[Ouagadougou]]-]]

Sometimes trading between Europeans and African leaders was not equal. For example, Europeans influenced Africans to provide more slaves by forming military alliances with warring African societies to instigate more fighting which would provide more war captives to the African rulers to trade as slaves for European consumer goods. Also, Europeans shifted the location of disembarkation points for trade along the African coast to follow military conflicts in West-Central Africa. In areas of Africa where slavery was not prevalent, European slave traders worked and negotiated with African rulers on their terms for trade, and African rulers refused to supply European demands. Africans and Europeans profited from the slave trade; however, African populations, the social, political, and military changes to African societies suffered greatly. For example, [[Mossi Kingdoms]] resisted the Atlantic slave trade and refused to participate in the selling of African people. However, as time progressed more European slave traders entered into West Africa and were having more influence in African nations and the Mossi became involved in slave trading in the 1800s.<ref name="ldhi">{{cite web |title=African Participation and Resistance to the Trade |url=https://ldhi.library.cofc.edu/exhibits/show/africanpassageslowcountryadapt/introductionatlanticworld/african_participation_and_resi |website=Lowcountry History Digitial Initiative |publisher=Lowcountry Digital Library at the College of Charleston |access-date=17 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240620105658/http://ldhi.library.cofc.edu/exhibits/show/africanpassageslowcountryadapt/introductionatlanticworld/african_participation_and_resi |archive-date=20 June 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The history of the transatlantic slave trade |url=https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/history-transatlantic-slave-trade |website=[[Royal Museums Greenwich]] |access-date=17 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240518095928/https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/history-transatlantic-slave-trade |archive-date=18 May 2024}}</ref>

[[File:Burning of a Village in Africa, and Capture of its Inhabitants (p.12, February 1859, XVI) - Copy.jpg|thumb|Burning of a Village in Africa, and Capture of its Inhabitants. To escape slave raids some Africans escaped into swamp regions or to other areas.]]

Although many African nations participated and profited from the Atlantic slave trade, many African nations also resisted such as the [[Jola people|Djola]] and [[Balanta people|Balanta]].<ref>{{cite web |title=The fight: African resistance |url=http://revealinghistories.org.uk/who-resisted-and-campaigned-for-abolition/articles/the-fight-african-resistance.html |website=Revealing Histories Remembering Slavery |access-date=18 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240118205542/http://revealinghistories.org.uk/who-resisted-and-campaigned-for-abolition/articles/the-fight-african-resistance.html |archive-date=18 January 2024}}</ref> Some African nations organized into military resistance movements and fought African slave raiders and European slave traders entering their villages. For example, the [[Akan people|Akan]], Etsi, Fetu, Eguafo, [[Agona]], and Asebu people organized into the [[Fante people|Fante]] coalition and fought African and European slave raiders and protected themselves from capture and enslavement.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Shumway |first1=Rebecca |title=The Fante and the Transatlantic Slave Trade |journal=[[The American Historical Review]] |date=2014 |volume=119 |issue=5 |pages=1826–1827 |doi=10.1093/ahr/119.5.1826 |url=https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article-abstract/119/5/1826/44831?redirectedFrom=fulltext |access-date=19 January 2024 |archive-date=19 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240119194218/https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article-abstract/119/5/1826/44831?redirectedFrom=fulltext |url-status=live}}</ref> Chief Tomba was born in 1700 and his adopted father was a general from the Jalonke-speaking people who fought against the slave trade. Tomba became ruler of the [[Baga people]] in present-day [[Guinea-Bissau|Guinea Bissau]] in West Africa and made alliances with nearby African villages against African and European slave traders. His efforts were unsuccessful: Tomba was captured by African traders and sold into slavery.<ref>{{cite web |title=Slavery and the Natural World, People and the Slave Trade |url=https://www.nhm.ac.uk/resources-www/legacy/slavery-files/chapter-2-people-and-slavery.pdf |website=[[Natural History Museum, London|Natural History Museum]] |access-date=19 January 2024 |ref=Information about Chief Tomba is on page 19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240330215328/https://www.nhm.ac.uk/resources-www/legacy/slavery-files/chapter-2-people-and-slavery.pdf |archive-date=30 March 2024}}</ref>

[[Kimpa Vita|Donna Beatriz Kimpa Vita]] in [[Kongo people|Kongo]] and Senegalese leader Abd al-Qadir, advocated resistance against the forced exportation of Africans.<ref>{{cite web |title=Africa and the Transatlantic Slave Trade |url=https://www.slps.org/cms/lib/MO01001157/Centricity/Domain/9446/BBC%20-%20History%20-%20British%20History%20in%20depth_%20Africa%20and%20the%20Transatlantic%20Slave%20Trade.pdf |website=St. Louis Public Schools |access-date=20 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240330215334/https://www.slps.org/cms/lib/MO01001157/Centricity/Domain/9446/BBC%20-%20History%20-%20British%20History%20in%20depth_%20Africa%20and%20the%20Transatlantic%20Slave%20Trade.pdf |archive-date=30 March 2024}}</ref> In the 1770s, leader Abdul Kader Khan opposed the Atlantic slave trade through [[Futa Tooro|Futa Toro]], present-day [[Senegal]]. Abdul Kader Khan and Futa Toro nation resisted French slave traders and colonizers who wanted to enslave Africans and Muslims from Futa Toro.<ref>{{cite web |title=African-American Passages: Black Lives in the 19th Century |url=https://www.loc.gov/podcasts/african-american-passages/transcripts/AAPassages-Podcast_Episode2_transcription.pdf |website=Library of Congress |access-date=19 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240119200351/https://www.loc.gov/podcasts/african-american-passages/transcripts/AAPassages-Podcast_Episode2_transcription.pdf |archive-date=19 January 2024}}</ref> Other forms of resistance against the Atlantic slave trade by African nations was migrating to different areas in West Africa such as swamps and lake regions to escape slave raids. In West Africa, [[Efik people|Efik]] slave dealers participated in slave dealing as a form of protection against enslavement.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Diouf Anne |first1=Sylviane |title=Fighting the Slave Trade West African Strategies |date=2003 |publisher=[[Ohio University Press]] |isbn=9780821415160 |pages=42–45, 102–105 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n0lI5c9trSAC&q=resistance}}</ref> African resistance movements were carried out in every phase of the slave trade to resisting marches to the slave holding stations, resistance at the slave coast, and resistance on slave ships.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wilsey |first1=Adam |title=A Study of West African Slave Resistance from the Seventeenth to Nineteenth Centuries |journal=History in the Making |date=2008 |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=77–91 |url=https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1222&context=history-in-the-making |access-date=18 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240726155146/https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1222&context=history-in-the-making |archive-date=26 July 2024 |url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Amistad revolt.jpg|thumb|On July 1, 1839, enslaved [[Mende people|Mende]] people aboard the [[La Amistad|Amistad]] revolted and took control of the ship. This incident led to a [[United States v. The Amistad|Supreme Court case in 1841]].<ref>{{cite web |title=The Amistad Case, 1839 |url=https://history.state.gov/milestones/1830-1860/amistad |website=Department of the State United States America |access-date=28 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240313173650/https://history.state.gov/milestones/1830-1860/amistad |archive-date=13 March 2024}}</ref>]]

For example, aboard the slave ship Clare, the enslaved Africans revolted and drove the crew from the vessel and took control of the ship and liberated themselves and landed near [[Cape Coast Castle]] in present-day [[Ghana]] in 1729. On other slave ships enslaved Africans sunk ships, killed the crew, and set fire to ships with explosives. Slave traders and white crewmembers prepared and prevented possible rebellions by loading women, men, and children separately inside slave ships because enslaved children used loose pieces of wood, tools, and any objects they found and passed them to the men to free themselves and fight the crew. According to historical research from the records of slave ship captains, between 1698 and 1807, there were 353 acts of insurrection aboard slave ships. The majority of the rebellions by the Africans were defeated. [[Igbo people|Igbo]] slaves on ships committed suicide by jumping overboard as an act of resistance to enslavement. To prevent further suicides, white crewmen placed nets around slave ships to catch enslaved persons that jumped overboard. White captains and crewmen invested in firearms, [[swivel gun]]s, and ordered ship crews to watch slaves to prevent or prepare for possible slave revolts.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Richardson |first1=David |title=Shipboard Revolts, African Authority, and the Atlantic Slave Trade |journal=The William and Mary Quarterly |date=2001 |volume=58 |issue=1 |pages=72–73 |doi=10.2307/2674419 |jstor=2674419 |pmid=18634185 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2674419 |access-date=29 April 2024 |archive-date=29 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240429191919/https://www.jstor.org/stable/2674419 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Resistance and Rebellion |url=https://understandingslavery.com/themes/resistance-and-rebellion/#:~:text=In%20the%2019th%20century%2C%20slave,theme%20of%20Resistance%20and%20Rebellion. |website=Understanding Slavery Initiative |access-date=21 January 2025}}</ref>

[[John Newton]] was a captain of slave ships and recorded in his personal journal how Africans mutinied on ships, and some were successful in overtaking the crew.<ref>{{cite web |title=Slave Ship Mutinies |url=https://slaveryandremembrance.org/articles/article/?id=A0035 |website=Colonial Williamsburg Foundation |publisher=United Nations, Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization |access-date=27 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240522021426/http://slaveryandremembrance.org/articles/article/?id=A0035 |archive-date=22 May 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Forbes |first1=Ella |title=African Resistance to Enslavement: The Nature and the Evidentiary Record |journal=[[Journal of Black Studies]] |date=1992 |volume=23 |issue=1 |pages=44–46 |doi=10.1177/002193479202300104 |jstor=2784672 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2784672 |access-date=27 February 2024 |archive-date=27 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240227191041/https://www.jstor.org/stable/2784672 |url-status=live}}</ref> For example, in 1730 the slave ship ''Little George'' departed from the [[Guinea (region)|Guinea Coast]] in route to [[Rhode Island]] with a cargo of ninety-six enslaved Africans. A few of the slaves slipped out of their iron chains and killed three of the watchmen on deck and imprisoned the captain and the rest of the crew. The Africans received a promise of freedom in a deal made with the captain and his crew. Africans reclaimed the ship and sailed it back to Africa's shore. The captain and crew failed in their attempt to re-enslave the Africans.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bly |first1=Antonio |title=Crossing the Lake of Fire: Slave Resistance during the Middle Passage, 1720-1842 |journal=The Journal of Negro History |date=1998 |volume=83 |issue=3 |page=184 |doi=10.2307/2649014 |jstor=2649014 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2649014 |access-date=28 February 2024 |archive-date=28 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240228160713/https://www.jstor.org/stable/2649014 |url-status=live}}</ref>

According to research by historian Jane Landers, more rebellions on slave ships occurred when there were large numbers of African women aboard.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Wills |first1=Matthew |title=Two Women of the African Slave Resistance |url=https://daily.jstor.org/the-women-of-the-african-slave-resistance/ |website=JSTOR Daily |publisher=JSTOR |access-date=21 January 2025}}</ref>

===European participation in the slave trade===
Europeans provided the market for slaves, rarely traveling beyond the coast or entering the African interior, due to fear of [[Tropical disease|disease]] and native resistance.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.britannica.com/blackhistory/article-24159 |title=Historical survey > The international slave trade. |website=[[Encyclopedia Britannica]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120302231358/http://www.britannica.com/blackhistory/article-24159 |archive-date=2 March 2012}}</ref> They typically resided in fortresses on the coasts, where they waited for Africans to provide them captured slaves from the interior in exchange for goods. Cases of European merchants kidnapping free Africans into slavery often resulted in fierce retaliation from Africans, who could momentarily stop trade and even capture or kill Europeans.{{sfn|Sparks|2014|p=46}} Europeans who desired safe and uninterrupted trade aimed to prevent kidnapping incidents, and the British passed the "Acts of Parliament for Regulating the Slave Trade" in 1750 which outlawed the abduction of free Africans by "fraud, force, or violence".{{sfn|Sparks|2014|p=46}} According to a source from the Lowcountry Digital Library at the [[College of Charleston]], "When Portuguese, and later their European competitors, found that peaceful commercial relations alone did not generate enough enslaved Africans to fill the growing demands of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, they formed military alliances with certain African groups against their enemies. This encouraged more extensive warfare to produce captives for trading."<ref>{{cite web |title=The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade |url=https://ldhi.library.cofc.edu/exhibits/show/africanpassageslowcountryadapt/introductionatlanticworld/trans_atlantic_slave_trade |website=Lowcountry Digitial History Initiative |publisher=Lowcountry Digital Library at the College of Charleston |access-date=12 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240627115650/https://ldhi.library.cofc.edu/exhibits/show/africanpassageslowcountryadapt/introductionatlanticworld/trans_atlantic_slave_trade |archive-date=27 June 2024}}</ref>

[[File:The inspection and sale of a slave.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|A slave being inspected]]

In 1778, [[Thomas Kitchin]] estimated that Europeans were bringing an estimated 52,000 slaves to the Caribbean yearly, with the French bringing the most Africans to the [[French West Indies]] (13,000 out of the yearly estimate).<ref name=Kitchin1>{{cite book |last=Kitchin |first=Thomas |title=The Present State of the West-Indies: Containing an Accurate Description of What Parts Are Possessed by the Several Powers in Europe |year=1778 |publisher=R. Baldwin |location=London |page=21 |url=http://www.wdl.org/en/item/4397/view/1/21/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240511184618/https://www.loc.gov/item/02008613 |archive-date=11 May 2024}}</ref> The Atlantic slave trade peaked in the last two decades of the 18th century,{{sfn|Thornton|1998|p=304}} during and following the [[Kongo Civil War]].{{sfn|Thornton|1998|p=305}} Wars among tiny states along the Niger River's [[Igbo people|Igbo]]-inhabited region and the accompanying banditry also spiked in this period.{{sfn|Thornton|1998|p=310}} Another reason for surplus supply of enslaved people was major warfare conducted by expanding states, such as the [[kingdom of Dahomey]],{{sfn|Thornton|1998|p=311}} the [[Oyo Empire]], and the [[Ashanti Empire]].{{sfn|Thornton|1998|p=122}}

===Slavery in Africa and the New World contrasted===
{{Further|Slavery in Africa}}

Forms of slavery varied both in Africa and in the New World. In general, slavery in Africa was not heritable—that is, the children of slaves were free—while in the Americas, children of slave mothers were considered born into slavery. This was connected to another distinction: slavery in West Africa was not reserved for racial or religious minorities, as it was in European colonies, although the case was otherwise in places such as [[African slave trade#Slavery in Somalia|Somalia]], where [[Bantu people|Bantus]] were taken as slaves for the ethnic [[Somali people|Somalis]].<ref>{{cite book |first=Howard |last=Winant |author-link=Howard Winant |date=2001 |title=The World is a Ghetto: Race and Democracy Since World War II |publisher=[[Basic Books]] |page=58}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Catherine Lowe |last=Besteman |title=Unraveling Somalia: Race, Class, and the Legacy of Slavery |publisher=[[University of Pennsylvania Press]] |date=1999 |pages=83–84}}</ref>

The treatment of slaves in Africa was more variable than in the Americas. At one extreme, the kings of Dahomey routinely slaughtered slaves in hundreds or thousands in sacrificial rituals, and slaves as human sacrifices were also known in [[Cameroon]].<ref>{{cite book |first=Kevin |last=Shillington |date=2005 |title=Encyclopedia of African History |publisher=[[CRC Press]] |volume=1 |pages=333–334}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Nicolas |last=Argenti |date=2007 |title=The Intestines of the State: Youth, Violence and Belated Histories in the Cameroon Grassfields |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |page=42}}</ref> On the other hand, slaves in other places were often treated as part of the family, "adopted children", with significant rights including the right to marry without their masters' permission.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.accessgambia.com/information/slave-treatment-rights-privileges.html |title=Rights & Treatment of Slaves |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101223234940/http://accessgambia.com/information/slave-treatment-rights-privileges.html |archive-date=23 December 2010 |website=Gambia Information Site}}</ref> Scottish explorer [[Mungo Park (explorer)|Mungo Park]] wrote:

{{blockquote|The slaves in Africa, I suppose, are nearly in the proportion of three to one to the freemen. They claim no reward for their services except food and clothing, and are treated with kindness or severity, according to the good or bad disposition of their masters ... The slaves which are thus brought from the interior may be divided into two distinct classes—first, such as were slaves from their birth, having been born of enslaved mothers; secondly, such as were born free, but who afterwards, by whatever means, became slaves. Those of the first description are by far the most numerous ...<ref>{{cite book |first=Mungo |last=Park |author-link=Mungo Park (explorer) |title=Travels in the Interior of Africa |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5305 |volume=II |chapter=XXII – War and Slavery |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240324133100/https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5305 |archive-date=24 March 2024}}</ref>}}

According to an article in [[PBS]], there were many differences between African slavery and European slavery in the [[Americas]]: "It is important to distinguish between European slavery and African slavery. In most cases, slavery systems in Africa were more like [[indentured servitude]] in that the slaves retained some rights and children born to slaves were generally born free. The slaves could be released from servitude and join a family clan. In contrast, European slaves were chattel, or property, who were stripped of their rights. The cycle of slavery was perpetual; children of slaves would, by default, also be slaves."<ref name="pbs.org">{{cite web |title=Confronting the Legacy of the African Slave Trade |url=https://www.pbs.org/wonders/Episodes/Epi3/slave_2.htm |website=PBS |access-date=15 August 2024}}</ref>

In the Americas, slaves were denied the right to marry freely and masters did not generally accept them as equal members of the family. New World slaves were considered the property of their owners, and slaves convicted of revolt or murder were executed.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/negroplot/plotchronology.html |title=The Negro Plot Trials: A Chronology |website=[[University of Missouri–Kansas City]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100722115800/http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/negroplot/plotchronology.html |archive-date=22 July 2010}}</ref>

===Slave market regions and participation===
[[File:Africa slave Regions.svg|thumb|upright=1.2|Major slave trading regions of Africa, 15th–19th centuries]]

Europeans would buy and ship slaves to the Western Hemisphere from markets across West Africa. The number of enslaved people sold to the New World varied throughout the slave trade. As for the distribution of slaves from regions of activity, certain areas produced far more enslaved people than others. Between 1650 and 1900, 10.2&nbsp;million enslaved Africans arrived in the Americas from the following regions in the following proportions:{{sfn|Lovejoy|2000|pp=}}{{page needed|date=July 2024}}
* [[Senegambia (geography)|Senegambia]] ([[Senegal]] and [[the Gambia]]): 4.8%
* [[Upper Guinea]] ([[Guinea-Bissau]], [[Guinea]] and [[Sierra Leone]]): 4.1%
* [[Pepper Coast|Windward Coast]] ([[Liberia]] and [[Ivory Coast]]): 1.8%
* [[Gold Coast (British colony)|Gold Coast]] ([[Ghana]] and east of [[Ivory Coast]]): 10.4%
* [[Bight of Benin]] ([[Togo]], [[Benin]] and [[Nigeria]] west of the Niger Delta): 20.2%
* [[Bight of Biafra]] ([[Nigeria]] east of the [[Niger Delta]], [[Cameroon]], [[Equatorial Guinea]] and [[Gabon]]): 14.6%
* West Central Africa ([[Republic of Congo|Republic of the Congo]], [[Democratic Republic of Congo|Democratic Republic of the Congo]] and [[Angola]]): 39.4%
* Southeastern Africa ([[Mozambique]] and [[Madagascar]]): 4.7%

Although the slave trade was largely global, there was considerable intracontinental slave trade in which 8 million people were enslaved within the African continent.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |title=The Atlantic Slave Trade: Effects on Economies, Societies and Peoples in Africa, the Americas, and Europe |last=Inikori |first=Joseph |publisher=[[Duke University Press]] |year=1992 |page=120}}</ref> Of those who did move out of Africa, 8 million were forced out of Eastern Africa to be sent to Asia.<ref name=":2" />

===African kingdoms of the era===
There were over 173 city-states and kingdoms in the African regions affected by the slave trade between 1502 and 1853, when Brazil became the last Atlantic import nation to outlaw the slave trade. Of those 173, no fewer than 68 could be deemed nation-states with political and military infrastructures that enabled them to dominate their neighbours. Nearly every present-day nation had a pre-colonial predecessor, sometimes an [[African empires|African empire]] with which European traders had to barter.

====Ethnic groups====
The different ethnic groups brought to the Americas closely correspond to the regions of heaviest activity in the slave trade. Over 45 distinct ethnic groups were taken to the Americas during the trade. Of the 45, the ten most prominent, according to slave documentation of the era and modern genealogical studies are listed below.<ref name="Hall">{{cite book |last1=Hall |first1=Gwendolyn Midlo |author1-link=Gwendolyn Midlo Hall |title=Slavery and African Ethnicities in the Americas |url=http://uncpress.unc.edu/browse/book_detail?title_id=742 |access-date=24 January 2011 |year=2007 |publisher=[[University of North Carolina Press]] |isbn=978-0-8078-5862-2 |page={{page needed|date=January 2011}} |archive-date=18 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170118132059/http://uncpress.unc.edu/browse/book_detail?title_id=742}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Zakharia |first1=Fouad |last2=Basu |first2=Analabha |last3=Absher |first3=Devin |last4=Assimes |first4=Themistocles L. |last5=Go |first5=Alan S. |last6=Hlatky |first6=Mark A. |last7=Iribarren |first7=Carlos |last8=Knowles |first8=Joshua W. |last9=Li |first9=Jun |last10=Narasimhan |first10=Balasubramanian |last11=Sidney |first11=Steven |last12=Southwick |first12=Audrey |last13=Myers |first13=Richard M. |last14=Quertermous |first14=Thomas |last15=Risch |first15=Neil |date=22 December 2009 |title=Characterizing the admixed African ancestry of African Americans |journal=[[Genome Biology]] |volume=10 |issue=12 |pages=R141 |doi=10.1186/gb-2009-10-12-r141 |issn=1474-760X |pmc=2812948 |pmid=20025784 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Veeramah |first1=Krishna R. |last2=Connell |first2=Bruce A. |last3=Pour |first3=Naser Ansari |last4=Powell |first4=Adam |last5=Plaster |first5=Christopher A. |last6=Zeitlyn |first6=David |last7=Mendell |first7=Nancy R. |last8=Weale |first8=Michael E. |last9=Bradman |first9=Neil |last10=Thomas |first10=Mark G. |date=31 March 2010 |title=Little genetic differentiation as assessed by uniparental markers in the presence of substantial language variation in peoples of the Cross River region of Nigeria |journal=[[BMC Evolutionary Biology]] |volume=10 |issue=1 |page=92 |doi=10.1186/1471-2148-10-92 |issn=1471-2148 |pmc=2867817 |pmid=20356404 |bibcode=2010BMCEE..10...92V |doi-access=free}}</ref>
# The [[Kongo people|BaKongo]] of the [[Democratic Republic of Congo]], the [[Republic of the Congo]] and [[Angola]]
# The [[Mandé peoples|Mandé]] of Upper [[Guinea]]
# The [[Gbe languages|Gbe]] speakers of [[Togo]], [[Ghana]], and [[Benin]] ([[Fon people|Fon]], [[Ewe people|Ewe]], [[Adja people|Adja]], Mina)
# The [[Akan people|Akan]] of Ghana and [[Ivory Coast]]
# The [[Wolof people|Wolof]] of [[Senegal]] and [[the Gambia]]
# The [[The Igbo in the Atlantic slave trade|Igbo]] of southeastern [[Nigeria]]
# The [[Ambundu]] of [[Angola]]
# The [[Yoruba people|Yoruba]] of southwestern [[Nigeria]] and [[Benin]]
# The [[Tikar people|Tikar]] and [[Bamileke people|Bamileke]] of [[Cameroon]]
# The [[Makua people|Makua]] of [[Mozambique]]