When and how did the African-Americans (blacks) started to become slaves?

Answer 1

Slavery has been around since the beginning of the human race. It began to take on the dark skinned racism elements that we are so familiar with around the 1200 to 1400's. For hundreds of years there were white european slaves being held by muslims, and by christians all over the world.

Answer 2

Man's inhumanity towards man has existed since the beginning of time. Tribal fighting has existed since man arrived into the consciousness of society. I am widely traveled and I have never come across any people who did not think of themselves as better then anyone who was / is deemed as different. Within Africa, African tribes would attack other tribes, the victors took as booty, the spoils, land, chattels, and captives, who were enslaved or later sold on for money or baubles. Around 400 years ago, merchants started shipping various commodities world wide, sadly for these slaves they became a commodity, their existence was and is a disgrace but the people involved saw them as no more than some thing to buy, sell or utilise. It was not personal, it was business. Today, unbelievably there is more slavery than ever before, it is just hidden, unseen few know or do much unilaterally about it. Over 80% of all cocoa plantations are worked by slaves, does the world boycott chocolate, the hell it does it drives the prices down ensuring the plantation owners could not pay their workers even if they wanted to. Sex slaves ??? All of this is happening TODAY.

Answer 3

The settlers tried to enslave the Indians but the Indian culture did not contain the concept of slavery and the Indians refused to be slaves, so they had to look elsewhere for slaves.

Africa on the other hand already had slavery, and slaves were easy to come by. The slavers only had to dock their ships and the Africans would bring slaves to the ships to choose from. The slaves along that coast were usually captives, the result of wars taking place at the time.

According to the History Channel, the captives that were royalty were ransomed back to their families, while the captives that normally would have been killed as worthless, were sometimes instead sold to the slave ships.

Answer 4

It's a terrible thing that happened to those who became slaves and their families. But it was not the white people who started it. Slavery existed long before the whites came to Africa. And to a certain extend, it still exists in parts of Africa and in Asia. Sex slaves were used during WW II also, not just by the Germans.

Slave trade made things worse, for the inhumane conditons on board of the ships and in the fields. And that began with the Spanish, the Dutch and the Portuguese sailing the seas in search for new land and merchandise. About 500 years ago.

Answer 5

From the fifteenth to the nineteenth century, European people looked to Africa as a source of labor for maassive plantations that they established in the western hemisphere. In exchange for slaves African peoples received European manufactured products-most notably further recruits for the slave trade. Only in the early nineteenth century did the Atlantic slave trade come to an end. During the course of the century, most states abolished the institution of slaver itself.

The Portuguese were the first to embark upon the slave trade starting around 1562. The practice of slavery grew to exponential proportions from 1646 up until 1790. A prime area for slaves was on the west coast of Africa called the Sudan. This area was ruled by three major empires Ghana (790-1240), Mali (1240-1600), and Songhai (670-1591). Other smaller nations were also canvassed by slavers along the west coast; they included among them: Benin, Dahomey, and Ashanti. The peoples inhabiting those African nations were known for their skills in agriculture, farming, and mining. The Africans of Ghana were well known for smelting iron ore, and the Benins were famous for their cast bronze art works. African tribal wars produced captives which became a bartering resource in the European slave market. Other slaves were kidnapped by white and black hunters. The main sources of barter used by the Europeans to secure African slaves were glass beads, whiskey, ivory, and guns.

The rising demand for sugar, coffee, cotton, and tobacco created a greater demand for slaves by other slave trading countries. Spain, France, the Dutch, and English were in competition for the cheap labor needed to work their colonial plantation system producing those lucrative goods. The slave trade was so profitable that, by 1672, the Royal African Company chartered by Charles II of England superseded the other traders and became the richest shipper of human slaves to the mainland of the Americas. The slaves were so valuable to the open market - they were eventually called "Black Gold."

Answer 6

The Middle Easterns were first to enslave Africans long before Christ. The Europeans picked up on it when they came to Northern Africa to trade with Muslims and it was sanctioned by the Pope thus beginning the modern slave trade before it ended in 1865.

Answer 7

You were correct in referring to African Americans properly however putting "blacks" in parenthesis was not necessary since it does not apply. We are not BLACKS. We are African Americans. And slavery was brought about by the Europeans and proliferated by southerners to work the various plantations and other areas. They thought it cheaper than paying wages to Caucasian workers and felt Africans were better suited to the hot climate and work required. This information is available in your local library and online if you are doing a report on this history.

Answer 8

Rich black kings used them as slaves and would capture them and sell them to ship merchants headed for America. One ship wrecked in the Carri bean, that is where the black cribs came from. And well is it all history. Also they brought their culture with them such as voodoo, and lots of other things. There love for orange and other bright gawky colors, the way they talk their food, they way they loOK at sex and feel it is ok to have a 100 different partners, each with 6 kids apiece, their cars everything. Their culture is very different from ours, if you don't believe me take a hard look the next time you see one. I am from Texas and there are plenty there.

Answer 9

Simply put, when higher ranking Africans began to sale lower ranking Africans to Spanish and European explorers. It was not the Spaniards and Europeans who started it. Huge misconception there.

Answer 10

Slavery had been practiced in African long before they were sold to Europeans so I'm going to guess at least a couple of thousand years?