What was so precious to the tribal leaders that they would sell their own people for it? It had to be more than sugar and nic-nacs.
2007-06-13 10:17:54 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities ➔ History
Cloth, food items and metal products, especially guns. If a tribal organization attacked another tribe and not only won the battle but also gained captives, those captives could be traded for guns, making the winning tribal unit even stronger and more powerful, to capture more slaves, land and power. It was all a cycle of power and control.
2007-06-13 10:20:41 · answer #1 · answered by John B 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Slaves weren't sold by their own leaders. They were sold by other tribes' leaders. Imagine a war over people's homes where you take captives. What would you do with them? You can't keep them locked up or tied up forever. You don't want them running around loose in groups because they try to hurt you. You could take some back and make slaves or wives out of them. (This was common among the Romans and certain Native American nations.) Or, you could sell them for whatever passed for money or for new technology--I seem to recall that guns were sometimes paid for slaves.
2007-06-13 17:24:51 · answer #2 · answered by Sarah C 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Rums (made in New England from Caribbean honey and sugar) and guns (made in Europe and later the U.S.) were the most popular items, though any manufactured goods could be bargained for. Cloth was also a really popular item, and hats and steel knives/swords/spearheads, but mostly it was guns and rum.
And it wasn't usually their own people they were selling: it was the people from other tribes they'd captured. This accomplished two purposes: it made the chief selling them rich (and his tribe) and it got rid of his enemies.
Remember that to a European a Mandinka and an Ibo looked alike and dressed alike and lived alike, but to the Mandinka's and Ibos (just to name two random tribes) there was TONS of difference, just as to an African a German and a Frenchman may look alike and act alike but to Germans and the French there were worlds of differences.
2007-06-13 17:27:00 · answer #3 · answered by Jonathan D 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Normally tribal leaders were not selling people from there own tribe but would raid other villages and sell the ones they captured from them.
2007-06-13 19:41:05 · answer #4 · answered by Belgariad 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Triangle trade right here
http://www.historyonthenet.com/Slave_Trade/triangulartrade.htm
2007-06-13 17:40:32 · answer #5 · answered by John G 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
ummm. . . money! or other slaves! or land! im not sure, try googling it.
2007-06-13 17:22:13 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋