Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade: Analysis

African societies during the era of the slave trade were as affected, if not more affected, by this trade in human beings than the countries that initiated the trade or employed slaves in their production systems were. One of the critical questions of historical debate is whether African societies were primarily victims of the European dominated slave trade or voluntary collaborators in this trade. Walter Rodney (1999) takes the position that African societies were victims of the European led slave trade and were only marginally responsible for participating in this trade. Conversely, John Thornton (1999) takes the position that Africans were not under any direct commercial or economic pressure to deal in slaves and while they accepted slavery as natural in the context of their own societies, they participated in the European slave trade for a variety of reasons, including the desire to rid a tribe of dissidents or threats to the ruling elites, warfare, or the desire for economic prosperity.

Rodney (1999) notes that from an African viewpoint it is important to determine whether the reputation of a given tribe or locality was sufficiently decisive to influence the shape of the slave trade. He seeks to determine whether some African tribal peoples were viewed as more or less valuable as slaves or more or less suitable for foreign enslavement. He recognizes that African wars were a major source of potential slaves turned over by Africans to Europeans and states that s

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ccess to new weapons and technologies through their interactions with Europeans that helped them to maintain their sovereignty. Thornton (1999, p. 80) asserted that "Europeans possessed no means, either economic or military, to compel African leaders to sell slaves." The argument, therefore, centers around the issue of why Africans participated in the slave trade and if this participation was compelled or voluntary. Rodney (1999), while acknowledging that Africans owned slaves and viewed the institution as having value, says that they generally participated in the practice of slavery in a defensive manner either with respect to fear of Europeans or a need to prevent dissent or warfare in their own territory. Thornton (1999) disagrees and his opinion is that African societies voluntarily participated in the slave trade and were instrumental in advancing it resonates more clearly. Both analysts make it clear that during the fifteenth through eighteenth centuries, African political turmoil and internecine warfare in which various tribal groups struggled for supremacy was endemic. Both also acknowledge that African societies of this era accepted slavery as a matter of fact, a point also made by Lovejoy (1989), who takes th

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