Essay On African Americans In The 16th Century

During the 16th century to the 19th century, there were a lot of slave trade going on in the Americas and Europe. Some of the Africans were captured while other Africans were bought from local African or African-European dealers. They would be shipped in a big boat packed and would be sent to America. But the question here is “Why were Africans more enslaved than any other races?” It could have been Asians or Latinos who were enslaved but why was it that Africans were enslaved? Some of the reasons were that Africans were cheap and abundant, and they were more immune to diseases than other races. In the beginning of 16th century, America had tropical lands where climate and soil offered great potential for commercial agriculture. Europeans wanted to take advantage of the …show more content…
The reason why they couldn’t bring European peasant was because “European governments or private businesses had no moral or legal authority to enslave fellow Europeans in large numbers and ship them to America” (Dunn and Mitchell, 531). This meant that Africans were easier to bring for slavery, because there were no regulations or international law about bringing Africans to the America. Even though the Africans didn’t want to work in distant America, they were forced by African elites with power and wealth. Another reason why Africans were enslaved was because of cheap labor and abundance. Europeans were expensive and difficult to bring to America. Native Americans labors were not abundant. Those reasons led to a use of Africans. Also it was easier to trade with the local African or African-European dealers. A lot of Africans were captured in battles or kidnapped. Some of them were sold as slavery due to debt or punishment. “In fact, more Africans than Europeans went to America on a yearly basis from the mid-1500s to the 1830s” (Dunn and Mitchell,