It is thought that the Europeans had mastered this trick of dehumanizing and rebuilding slaves, but in reality it took place among the African captors. With the sudden rise of profitable slave trade, driven by the European need, enslaving enemies became less a consequence of war and more and more of a necessity and reason to start war with neighboring tribes. The Europeans had a need that only African betrayal of its natives could satisfy.
While the exact number of individuals who were enslaved and brought to the western hemisphere will be forever unknown, it has been studied where in Africa they originated from and estimates have been made based on how many people arrived. It is believed the first African slaves were shipped to the New World during the start of the 17th century and that the first slaves came from the Senegambia area and the Windward Coast. There were eight primary areas used by Europeans slave traders and Africans to obtain and import slave natives to the Western Hemisphere. As for the circulation of slaves from regions of activity to the New World, there were certain areas that produced far more enslaved Africans than others. Between the year 1650 and 1900, it is estimated that over 10.24 million enslaved Africans arrived in the Americas. Out of the eight primary places of slave purchase, the most popular place visited by Europeans was in the area of West Central Africa. Though this was the most popular place, the other seven areas of the continent were used as well, mainly by Spain and Portugal, due to the closeness to the countries and the easy access. The majority of slave ships starting from the year of 1670 embarked and took slaves from the area of the Slave Coast (Bight of Benin). The Slave Coast transformed due to a rapid development of trade in slaves which lasted until the conclusion of the slave trade in the nineteenth century. Gold Coast slave trades rose sharply in eighteenth century, but drastically decreased when Great Britain abolished slavery in 1808 and began rounds anti-slavery patrols alongside the coast.
