Why Did Blacks Sell Millions of Blacks into Slavery in Africa?

Question

The vast majority of people who became slaves were captured and sold by other blacks.

What was the thinking behind this "willingness"?

Did you learn this in history class? Why or why not?

Answer 1

It was an evil plot to infiltrate the US with loyal spies who would listen and report back on the weaknesses of the country so that those weaknesses could be exploited for gain and a hundred years later or so the government could be overthrown.

You likely believe that don't you? Yikes!

Answer 2

Yes, I learned this in history class. In elementary school.

The Africans of the time did not see it as selling their own people. It was simple economics. The people were already slaves, captured from neighboring tribes. The same principle applies to the Japanese forcing young Korean women into sexual slavery as "comfort women". Externally they may appear similar -- epicanthal folds, light/yellowish skin, straight black hair, typical Asiatic phenotype -- but it's not seen as the Japanese enslaving their own people, is it?

It's in our history. Asians have enslaved Asians, Whites have enslaved Whites, Blacks have enslaved Blacks, Slavs have enslaved Slavs, Semites have enslaved Semites. The circumstance you put forth is no more "loaded" than these other instances.

Answer 3

Of course. The idea that a small group of white westerners (even with guns) could subdue an entire continent is absurd. The vast majority of those Africans sold into slavery were rounded up by their fellow Africans and sold on. As for them selling "their own kind" it depends how you define your terms. One tribe sold another. They regarded themselves as different in much the same way as, for instance, Englishmen and Frenchmen regard themselves as different. And don't forget the Arabs. Whilst Afircans were being sold to white slavers in west Africa, Arab slavers were up to the same sort of thing in the east - particularly at Dar Es Salaam.

Answer 4

There was no “selling their own people into slavery” to explain. Africans were many different people before and during the Atlantic slave trade, and remain different people today.

Even the term “Africa” was originally the name of a Roman province along the Mediterranean. The Romans referred to Africans generally as Libyans, and the Greeks referred to non-Egyptians in Africa as Ethiopians. (All of them – having met some to whom the term might apply.) They did not have a concept of “Africa” we would recognize.

Neither did the African slave traders, who were initially realizing great profits off of something they had been doing for much less money. Part of the reason is that slavery for many Africans before the trans-Atlantic trade was often temporary, rarely lethal, and not generally like the slavery practiced across the Atlantic.

I’ve written about this recently in another post (link in sources):

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Furthermore, the slave trade fed into other trade routes and conflicts, often generating self0sustaining conditions for awhile. The Oracle of Chukwu in the Niger Delta produced captives who were available for enslavement, and the slave trade generally encouraged wars, which produced more captives for selling into the slave trade, often for guns or steel to make into weapons.

I learned this while studying in graduate school.

Answer 5

Actually, Africans at the time had no use for money as we know it. However, they were interested in European goods that they could not manufacture for themselves. For instance, if a given tribe could not smelt metal, then owning a metal knife (a common-place item in Europe) would be the equivalent of us owning a Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost today.

As one person pointed out, slavery had been a legitmate trade for millenia, if not millions of years. It was a good way of subjugating and/or eliminating captives from rival tribes or civilisations.

Answer 6

I suppose one must realize that although we might look at 17th-18th century Africa, or maybe even now, as a big piece of land that has a lot of black people in it, there is more than that. I suppose that back then, there were certain ethinic groups that had more power than others and hey, they liked gold, so of course they would sell the 'subordinate' groups away for money. They probably thought it was great since they were killing them for free before. Now they get money. That's my opinion.

Answer 7

The history of slavery goes back thousands of years and involves all races of people and happens even today in some parts of the world.

God save us from ourselves...

Answer 8

Yes, I learned this in a very old History book from the South. There are even photo's showing how the Black would capture the less fortunate Black . Very good question .

Answer 9

The problem is that "Roots" didn't depict slavery this way - it was all the complete fault of the evil white man. To many americans "learned" this "history" from TV.

Answer 10

Common practice was to enslave captives or sell them into slavery and whites have also enslaved millions of other white people over the course of history for similar reasons...for example the Romans...it was a business