 Slavery became popular in Europe during the renaissance  Europeans opened trade routes with western Africa and took advantage of existing slave trading networks  In Africa, people became slaves through warfare, criminal behaviour and debt  However, African slaves were rarely subjected to brutality and back-breaking labour – in most cases, slaves were treated well and accepted as part of the family  The Europeans first took slaves to act as domestic servants for wealthy households

 Slavery becomes economically profitable when explorers began to build colonies in the new world  Exporting goods from the new world becomes a major source of profit  Plantation economies were devised to harvest Sugar Cane, Tobacco, Cotton and coffee  These “cash crops” were in high demand globally

 Europeans turn to African slaves as warfare and disease ravage local populations  In 1562, Great Britain begins purchasing slaves in Africa to export to colonies in the new world – salve trading grows exponentially from this point on  The Trans-Atlantic slave trade is the biggest forced movement of people in the worlds history  Historians estimate that 11 million people were exported from West and Central Africa between

 The majority of Slaves are taken from west Africa (present day Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast etc)  The demand for slaves was so high that slave traders resorted to kidnapping people  The Middle Passage was the journey from Africa to the New World  It was infamous because 20% of slaves died in route  The trip could last between 1 and 9 months  Slaves suffered through malnutrition, disease and physical torture  Slaves were kept below deck, shackled and sometimes placed in cages where they were forced to eat, sleep and perform bodily functions

 Slaves sent to the new world worked as “Domestics” or “Field Slaves”  Slaves were considered “Chattel”, and had the legal rights according to Farm animals  To set an example and discourage resistance, slaves would often be “Seasoned”  Seasoning meant subjecting slaves to horrific and brutal treatment in order to shock them into submission  Female slaves were most prized because of their ability to reproduce  The condition of slavery was passed on from mother to child

 Any form of resistance was met with extreme brutality  However, there are cases of slave uprisings throughout the new world  The most common form of fighting back was “Passive Resistance”  Slaves would break tools, sabotage crops and move as slow as possible  Some women went so far as to perform abortions or murder new born children to resist their masters  Slaves were often forced to whip each other – however slaves often developed techniques so that it appeared they were hurting the person without even making contact

 It is ironic that the height of slavery took place during the enlightenment  However, some religious groups and educated people saw slavery as evil and an abolition movement slowly grew throughout the old and new world  Slavery was outlawed in Canada in 1793, and the rest of the British Empire in 1833  Slavery lasted longest in the United States and was a major cause of the US Civil War  Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was written in 1863  However, the greatest reason for the decline of slavery was the industrial revolution, plantation economies were no longer very profitable in the 19 th century