African Resistance and Complicity in the Atlantic Slave Trade
This paper examines the complex dynamics of African resistance and complicity during the Atlantic slave trade era, spanning roughly 1440 to the early 1800s. Drawing on works by Ehret, Lindsay, and Northrup, the paper explores how European powers — particularly the Portuguese — established strategic alliances with African kingdoms such as Benin and Kongo to facilitate the slave trade. It analyzes the political effects on kingdoms like Ndongo and Matamba, the devastating social impact on African communities and women, and the cultural transformations forced upon enslaved Africans transported to the Americas. The paper concludes by tracing early resistance movements that ultimately contributed to the eventual decline of the transatlantic slave trade.
- Introduction: Africa and the Atlantic World: European influence and the origins of Atlantic-era slave trade
- Nature of African Involvement in the Slave Trade: Key scholarly themes and African political-religious dynamics
- Complicity Within African Kingdoms: African kingdoms' roles in facilitating the slave trade
- Political Effects on African Kingdoms: Portuguese alliances and disruption of African state autonomy
- Impact on Societal Structure, Particularly Women: Coercion, displacement, and gendered dimensions of enslavement
- Cultural Effects and the Forging of New Identities: Acculturation and new identities formed among enslaved Africans
- Resistance to the Slave Trade: Growing resistance and the eventual decline of slave trade
✍️ How to write this paper — guide, tools & examples ▾
What makes this paper effective
- Draws on multiple scholarly sources (Ehret, Lindsay, Northrup) to present a multidimensional view of African agency — neither reducing Africans to passive victims nor ignoring the violence of European colonialism.
- Balances broad historical context (trade chronology, population statistics) with specific case studies (Kingdom of Kongo, Benin, Ndongo) to support its claims concretely.
- Addresses an often-overlooked angle — African political complicity — while still centering the human cost of the slave trade through sections on women and cultural displacement.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates effective use of secondary source synthesis: three distinct scholarly works are cited throughout to support separate but complementary arguments. Rather than leaning on a single authority, the author triangulates claims across Ehret's civilizational history, Lindsay's commodity-focused analysis, and Northrup's focus on African-European contact, lending the argument greater credibility and scope.
Structure breakdown
The paper follows a thematic structure moving from macro to micro: it opens with broad historical framing of the Atlantic era, narrows to specific forms of African involvement and political consequences, then examines the human and cultural toll on enslaved individuals. It closes with a forward-looking section on resistance, providing a sense of historical progression and resolution.
Introduction: Africa and the Atlantic World
It is impossible to understand or write about Africa's history without considering its relationship with continents like Europe and the Americas. Any discussion of the subject must concentrate on Africans' pivotal role in shaping world history (Lindsay, 2007). Europeans — including the English, Dutch, Portuguese, and French — contributed only superficially to shaping Africa's history during the Atlantic era's first two centuries, engaging primarily in merchandising and goods transportation between sea coasts. Only after 1640, in what is known as the Second Atlantic Era (1640–1800s), did Europeans begin demanding slaves and raw materials, commencing their cruel influence on the economic freedom of the continent.
Europeans effectively dominated particular communities on the continent through several layers of strategic partnerships with local populations, rather than through military strength alone. The gradual devaluation of African currency, achieved by introducing European currency in the form of copper coins, alongside the spread of Gatling guns and repeating rifles, paved the path for Europeans' subsequent domination over Africa (Ehret, 2002).
Europeans' transatlantic slave trade was the first time in human history that people were systematically utilized as ships' cargo, making it comparable to various worldwide commercial networks. Unlike other goods that facilitated cross-cultural communication and trade, slaves were actual human beings — vulnerable to distress and agony, and capable of resistance (Lindsay, 2007).
Nature of African Involvement in the Slave Trade
Researchers have addressed three key themes in their works on this topic (Lindsay, 2007):
1. The slave trade's African context;
2. Its history; and
3. The resultant changes in the meaning of race and racism.
African nations did not strictly separate politics from religion, and the conversion of kings had mixed motives: sincerity and pragmatic efficiency were compatible in both age-old African religious traditions and the Iberian Catholic Church. In the realms of commerce and diplomacy, African kings contributed significantly to forming and strengthening relationships with European colonialists, and were often led to believe they were receiving the better end of the bargain.
Northrup has concentrated on particular areas such as textiles, metals, guns, politics, inland trade, spirits, and tobacco in Sierra Leone, arguing that slavery served primarily to forge new African identities (Northrup, 2002). Meanwhile, Ehret, examining African civilizations up to 1800 AD, addresses the broad array of cultural, economic, social, and technological changes on the continent resulting from the slave trade (Ehret, 2002).
Complicity Within African Kingdoms
Commonly examined aspects of Africa's relations with North and South America and Europe include the cultural impact of Africans on colonial and modern America, as well as Africa's economic contributions — from initial trade relationships to the barbaric Second Atlantic Era slave trade. What is frequently overlooked in discussions of European colonialism is the fact that Portugal's rulers made significant efforts to honor and sustain their positive relationships with African states (Northrup, 2002).
The West African kingdom of Benin was among the first nations to support the slave trade, eagerly bartering its lower-class citizens for raw materials and goods. The Portuguese could readily purchase Benin's poor as slaves from time to time. However, state policy continually resisted allowing human trade to fully dictate its relationships with other parties (Ehret, 2002).
The Kingdom of Kongo and its surrounding regions showed interest in trading with Portuguese merchants in the second half of the fifteenth century, with religion serving as a primary motivation. The decentralized kingdom's rulers lacked a strong ideological foundation, and Catholicism's emphasis on saints appeared to offer them a novel class of spiritual authority that could be appropriated within the ruling class's religious sphere. The religious connection became even more appealing for Kongo's kings because Iberian Christianity legitimized the form of monarchy they sought — a centralized monarchy over a subordinated hierarchical aristocracy (Ehret, 2002).
References
Ehret, C. (2002). The Civilizations of Africa: A History to 1800. University of Virginia Press.
Lindsay, L. (2007). Captives as Commodities: The Transatlantic Slave Trade. Prentice Hall.
Northrup, D. (2002). Africa's Discovery of Europe: 1450–1850. Oxford University Press.
Create your account
Always verify citation format against your institution’s current style guide requirements.