The Atlantic Slave Trade From the 16th to 19th centuries, the transatlantic slave trade forcibly relocated 12–15 million Africans to the Americas—the largest forced migration in human history. Driven by European demand for labor on plantations producing sugar, tobacco, and cotton, enslaved people were captured in West and Central Africa, marched to coastal forts, and shipped under horrific conditions across the Middle Passage. Mortality rates were staggering; survivors faced brutal exploitation. This migration devastated African societies, fueling warfare and depopulation, while building colonial economies. Despite oppression, enslaved Africans preserved cultural elements—music, religion, cuisine—that profoundly shaped American cultures. Abolition came gradually: Britain in 1833, the U.S. in 1865. The legacy endures in systemic racism, economic disparities, and vibrant African diaspora communities. The slave trade was not just a migration but a crime against humanity that redefined race, labor, and identity in the modern world.
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