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6 - The slave trade and the African diaspora

from Part Two - Trade, Exchange, and Production

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2015

Jerry H. Bentley
Affiliation:
University of Hawaii, Manoa
Sanjay Subrahmanyam
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
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Summary

The diaspora of African people to the Americas as a result of the trans-atlantic slave trade was the largest forced migration in history, in terms of both the length of time and the numbers of people involved. New insight into the ways African culture moved from Africa to the Americas comes from Ira Berlin's research on the role of 'Atlantic Creoles' in the formation of African American culture. When major wars were ongoing, most would have been military captives, in periods of political instability or loss of order, banditry might be more important and in periods of peace and stability perhaps judicial enslavement would lead the group. Transatlantic voyages, in fact all long seaborne voyages, were difficult and dangerous, even for free people going from Europe to America, but there was really no maritime experience quite like the Middle Passage.

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