Slavery in Africa and the Slave Trades from Africa

Africa’s slave trade to the Islamic world began centuries before the Atlantic slave trade and lasted somewhat longer, in some places into the twentieth Century. The African slaves challenged slavery by rebelling-most successfully in Saint Domingue. Slavery in Islamic Africa and the slave trade between Africa and Islamic communities abroad present a potentially rich topic for historians seeking to compare systems of slavery and slave trades. For Europe, some believe that African slaves-whether as workers or commodities to be bought and sold—aided the transformation to industrial capitalism. The Atlantic slave trade reached into the bodies of African societies and African peoples, transforming and sometimes destroying them. The cultural norms supposedly underlying household slavery in the Islamic world not only differed from one Muslim society to another but also may have changed through time. In both Atlantic and Islamic Africa, the transformation of slavery reached its height just before colonial conquest.

Duke Scholars

Author Janet J. Ewald History