Nigeria's Gold & Slave Trade

The Portuguese were the first to encounter the Yoruba people of present day Nigeria. They began trade with pepper in the 15^th century. [1] The slave trade came later.  Gold was traded before slaves were traded. The Europeans did not have the power at that time to overcome African states before the late 19^th century. The gold remained in the power of the Africans. So, the European traded for gold in West Africa.  Agreements were made between African and the European elites for gold. Gold trading forts and stone castles were established because of rivalries for African gold. The Europeans called this region the gold coast. During the late 17^th century the value of European goods traded for African people surpassed the value of goods exchanged for gold. As time passed these gold forts became slave forts.[2]

Cape Coast Castle on Gold Coast In  West Africa Image Image [1]

Through the 16th and 19th century millions of African were transported to the Americas. From the 1520s to the 1860s an estimate of eleven to 12 million African men, women, and children were forced onto European ships for a life of slavery in the Americas. Many Africans were captured in the interior of Africa but many died before reaching the coast. An estimate of 9 to 10 million Africans survived the sailing across the Atlantic. [3]

Transatlantic Slave Trade Image [2]

Spanish explorers arrived in the Americas and enslaved the Native American people in their search for riches. The depopulation of the Native Americans by malnutrition, disease and Spanish brutality led the Spanish to seek alternatives. The Spanish contracted with Portuguese for African laborers to be brought to Spanish territory in the New World. The first transatlantic slaves were brought from West Africa on Portuguese ships in the 1520s to the Caribbean Island of Hispaniola, known as Haiti and the Dominican Republic today. Until the 1600s most African slaves worked in the mines of Peru and Mexico. BY the 1620s African labor surpassed Indian labor on the sugar plantations in Brazil. The three largest slave colonies in America by the mid-1700s were Brazil, Jamaica and, Saint Domingo. Brazil had the largest of all colonies. At one time historians believed that African captains traded slaves for cheap trinkets. But recent research showed that Africans demanded a large variety of goods from European merchants for African slaves, especially textiles. Over time the European’s goods increased as the price of slaves increased.[4]

Caribbean Slave Trade Image [3]

The slave trade caused the political, economic and social elements to deteriorate in some West African states. The Oyo state in W. Nigeria collapsed during the slave trade era. Oyo was a Yoruba state, a main supplier of slaves in the 17th century Atlantic slave trade. Other West African states rose to prominence, such as the Asante’s. The amounts of gold mined in Asante is legendary. The development on the western hemisphere where the slaves were taken prospered.[5]

[1] "Nigeria History." Lonely Planet. n.d. http://www.lonelyplanet.com/nigeria/history (accessed February 19, 2016).

[2] Behrendt, Stephen. "Transatlantic Slave Trade." Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience, Second Edition, edited by Ed. Kwame Anthony Appiah., edited by and Henry Louis Gates Jr... Oxford African American Studies Center, http://www.oxfordaasc.com/article/opr/t0002/e3861 (accessed Fri Feb 19 09:29:35 EST 2016).

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[5] Reader, John. A Biography of the Continent of Africa. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1997.

 Images:

[1] Ley, Dave. "Description: Cape Coast Castle (a Slave trading castle). Taken from atop the walls looking towards the main building in the castle * Date: Fall, 2003 * Photographer: Dave Ley Category:Ghana Category:Cape Coast [[Category:Sla." Wikimedia. 13 2005, JULY. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cape_coast_castle_II.JPG (accessed February 19, 2016).

[2] ''pt:''' Imagens mostrando como transportar escravos em um navio negreiro *'''en:''' Images showing how to transport slaves in a ship Fonte (source): Notices of Brazil, Walsh, 1831 ." Wikimedlia. January 21, 2006. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/NavioNegreiro.gif (accessed February 19, 2016).

  

 [3] "African slavery in the caribbean image ." Yahoo Search. n.d. https://images.search.yahoo.com/images/view;_ylt=AwrB8pjiSsdWgB0An1EunIlQ;_ylu=X3oDMTIzZmE3aW0xBHNlYwNzcgRzbGsDaW1nBG9pZANlZmIwNWJjNGJiMmRmYWNiOTEzY2Y1ZThhMGQ0MWRjYgRncG9zAzEwBGl0A2Jpbmc-?.origin=&back=https%3A%2F%2Fimages.search.yahoo.com%2Fyhs%2Fsearch% (accessed FEbruary 19, 2016).