Slavery has always been a common practice in Africa. African tribes traded slaves or prisoners of war between one another. The practice of Slavery was a major part of the African economy and customs of the people. The slaves were used and servants, concubines, soldiers, and ordinary laborers. The Islamic way of considering prisoners of war as personal possessions greatly influenced African slavery. Between 650 and 1600 millions of black Africans and white Muslims were traded across Africa. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries African rulers shipped in thousands of white women to show their wealth and rank. During the Renaissance the black slaves began importing into Europe. By the eighteenth century an estimated two hundred thousand
