The Atlantic Slave Trade

The Atlantic slave trade was a time where it became popular to capture, use, transport, buy, and, sell slaves, most of whom came from West Africa and were shipped to Europe. The first to ever do this were the Portuguese, they would capture them and transport them to the New World, where there they would work them very hard and they would likely die, as a result. The slaves usually worked in the fields and planted crops such as cotton, coffee, sugar, and tobacco. There are two eras of the Atlantic slave trade, the first Atlantic system and the second Atlantic system. The first system was when the Portuguese traders would capture the slaves and take them to their colonies, it lasted from 1502 until 1580. The second Atlantic system contained the capture of the rest of the slaves from the time of 1580 all the way to the 19^th century. By this time many countries were into trading slaves such as the Dutch, French, and English, however, most slaves at this time were taken to the Caribbean islands. Traders would usually use what is known as the Triangular Trade Route, they would ship resources to Africa from Europe, next slaves were taken to the colonies in the New World and lastly the produce that the slaves worked for would be transported back to Europe. During this time roughly 10,000,000 slaves were taken and had their lives destroyed, very rarely one might escape or extremely rarely buy their freedom. Sometimes Africans would enslave European captains and force them to do labor. England was the biggest trader of slaves, but over time it stopped doing it, but the New World continued a while longer. Eventually, people began to oppose the slave trade idea and it led to a war and the freedom of the African slaves in America.