Reformation of the Institution of traditional African slavery Objectives: 1. To identify the changes made to traditional African slavery 2. Explain the impact of Economic Slavery on the traditional African society  The implementation of the African Slave trade in 1502, completed transformed the concept of traditional slavery into an economic process that served to provide cheap labour for developing plantations. At this time, the value of Africans changed from human life to a commodity with a trade worth the equivalence of glass, whiskey or guns.  Guns became one of the most desired forms of barter for slaves, and Europeans could use the trade of weapons to encourage one African Village to wage war on another in order to acquire slaves.

 African rulers often allowed greed to guide the decisions to wage war and would lead attacks on smaller villages simply to acquire prisoners of war.  Not only did kingdoms become wealthy with the exotic trade items, but the king would gain a substantial income from the taxes of the trade as well.  The impact of this new form of slavery was far reaching than could have been anticipated. The majority of the persons taken in the slave raids were young strong men.

 Through the removal of the young men in the villages the following resulted:  Skilled Craftsmen: There was a loss of skilled craftsmen in areas like weaving and ironwork. This impact was made easily unnoticed due to the vast importation of cheap cookware and European cloths.  Leaders: With many men being removed from the villages, women were forced to take leadership roles to fill the gaps in family life and politics.  Imbalanced population: The most obvious impact of the loss of the men was the imbalance in the population, as family were left without husbands and father, and society without, male companionship for many females.

 Identify the efforts of Europeans to encourage the acquisition of slaves?  How would many Kings respond to the desire to trade more slaves?  Identify and describe three societal impacts of the vast slave trade in West Africa.  Why were the interests of the Dutch and Portuguese in the Slave Trade delayed?