The movement of Africans across the Atlantic to the Americas was the largest forced migration in world history. This brutal chapter in American history began with the Portuguese in the fifteenth century and did not end in the US until 1807. It is estimated that in the four centuries of slave trading, slave ships transported upwards of 10 million Africans to the Americas. Slave trade was by no means limited to the Portuguese though. All the nations of Western Europe participated in trade including the Dutch, Holland and even the English. The actual capturing of the slaves was left up to the Africans themselves though. As one African sold into slavery said, “I must own to the shame of my own countrymen.” Most Africans were enslaved though warfare in which armi

es would take hundreds of prisoners. Another method was smaller raids at nightfall, as well as kidnapping. When plantations expanded to the Americas in the eighteenth century, the demand for slaves increased, and the raids extended deeper into the inner parts of Africa. While the slave trade made Europe and America stronger, it made Africa weaker.

It was to be that slavery was an institution of the South. The only question was how were the slaves to survive? Would there be a sense of community within them? In 1860, the slave population had grown to more than 4 million because of natural increase, or births. Fictive kinship was replaced with real families and a sense of humanity was brought about in their lives. Even though the children of slaves were destined to themselves be slaves, African-American slaves were not completely dependent on their masters. They had a place of their own, they were allotted food, however they were also encouraged to garden and hunt for food, which was something the slaves cherished.

Most of the Africans transported to North America arrived during the eighteenth century. During this time period there was a rapidly growing population of “country-born” slaves whose only sense of family and community was that of their fellow slaves. One of the first devices enslaved Africans used to humanize the world of slavery was fictive kinship. In this way, unrelated persons held the family terms of “auntie” or “uncle” for older men and women, and “brother” and “sister”

Some topics in this essay:
North America, Carolina Georgia, Holland English, , Upper South, Gabriel’s Rebellion, Atlantic Americas, North Slavery, Surely American, Europe America, north america, eighteenth century, slave trade, south carolina georgia, sense family, american history, carolina georgia, slave owners, freed slaves, slave population, southern life,