How the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Operated

in this video we cover the lives of the people in the slave trade. from the enslaved Africans, to the crew members, to the traders.

Credits
- Research: Mrs Scope
- Audio: Seb. Soto
- Writing, voice over, and animation: Avery from History Scope

Social Media

Sources:
H. Thomas (1997) The Slave Trade. Weidenfeld&Nicolson. London
E. Williams (2021) Capitalism and Slavery. Penguin Random House. London
L. N. Moore (2021) Teaching Black History to White People. University of Texas Press. Austin
K. Manjapra (2022) Black Ghost of Empire (2022) Allen Lane. London
Google Map (for the part about the Western Sahara

[orboakin]

Another great video, friend. As a Nigerian, i appreciate seeing this kind of objective, well researched discourse on African history. Plus, i am so glad to see someone mention the role that Africans played in perpetuating the slave trade. So many people believe the false narrative that slavery never existed here in Africa and that only Europeans brought it, while ignoring the role of our African ancestors and Arabs had in the evil practice 😔 Thanks for helping to dispel that fallacy.

[IsaacFilipe-yc]

The fact that slave traders specificly hated the dutch is hilarious to me

[moredac]

In US public school, I remember learning a lot about the life of a slave and how horrendous it was. This is certainly very important to learn about, but we didn’t learn much more than that. I never had a clear idea about the economics, logistics, and political systems around slavery in the americas. For example, I had never really understood how an African became a slave; I had just assumed bands of Portuguese would bushwhack through the Congolese jungle and grab the first African they found. This video answered a lot of questions I didn’t know I had. Thank you for making it.

[brianguerino]

I am 100% certain that all comments here will be civil and have no political arguments or discourse whatsoever!

[moah]

While watching your video, I wanted to clarify a few points about European involvement in Africa. It's true that Britain didn't use Africa as a penal colony like it did with Australia, but this decision wasn't just about racism. The harsh realities of diseases like malaria and sleeping sickness made Africa’s interior extremely dangerous for Europeans, leading to high mortality rates. Hence Africa was known as "The White Man's grave". These diseases were a significant deterrent to early European exploration and settlement beyond the coasts, and you mentioned this briefly in your vid.

Because of these challenges, European powers largely confined their activities to coastal regions, where they established forts and trading posts. It wasn't until the 19th century, with the widespread use of quinine to combat malaria, that Europeans began to explore and colonize Africa's interior more aggressively. (I'm West African).

[SchoolVideosGoHere]

I'm only partway through, but thank you for adding such an informative video on the full span of the Transatlantic Slave trade and hints of its brutality. Especially now in a time where many people wish to think it away or minimize the scope.

Many hands were complicit in the sins done there across many races, countries, and languages. And the legacy of it and its after effects will never leave any of us until we face it head on.

[thorpeaaron]

One minor correction Eqiuano was an Igbo man from modern-day south-eastern Nigeria.

[mrme]

You lost me at the guy killing a tiger. Because tigers don't exist in Africa...

[benedekcsullog]

That tiger in Africa probably escaped from a local zoo

[sayjinpatlife]

I never heard about giving tobacco to dlaves to make them addicted.

[diegocorales]

I am used to learn alot about history but the level of detail of this video made me learn so much more about his horrific topic, thanks history scope for another awesome video!

[manolokonosko]

Fun Fact: It's still happening in African, Middle Eastern and Asian, particularly Muslim countries or areas.

[aperson]

I like your wording “least bad” instead of best. Very well done

[A_Generic_Channel]

thank you, i will use this for my next world history assignment

[justinhamilton]

can you explain where you got the 5% enslaved mortality figure from because everywhere I look it says 15%

[moderatetuber]

Quick shoutout to “the dark untold history the Arabs tried to hide” video.
I was born in Egypt raised into other Arabic nations in both Islamic studies and history classes throughout these nations and other the Arabs do actually acknowledge slavery as a bad and shameless act and even a sin at times. Racism is inescapable anywhere, there will always be that loud minority of narcissists who think they’re better than other fellow humans.
So the shout out was just to acknowledge the ignorance of that video and those who believe it.
Furthermore, most of the time slavery was an act of the nobles in the Arabic world and they would bribe sheiks to lie and straight up claim that it’s Halal (prohibited) to do such activities.

There’s even an Egyptian movie titled Antar and Abla released in 1945 talking about the oppression of a half black half Arab man who lived in Nanid (modern day Saudi Arabia) and was treated harshly because of his skin color and race. Quite progressive in comparison to Hollywood at the same time

[theMOCmaster]

I was taught in school that there were specific slave ships, I’m surprised to hear they were immediately repurposed for other trade

[hermanehrentraut]

How would you categorize slaves as a result of expulsion. Jews who were first expelled from Spain and later Portugal who would not convert to Catholicism but also could not leave the country because they could not afford to. The Jews who were trapped ended up being enslaved.

[thepedrothethethe]

You are truly one of the only youtubers that talks about controversial points in history, with a calm tone. I really like this type of not academically oriented videos

[anthonytillman]

2:05 All the reasons you listed for enslavement were the exact same reasons people found themselves enslaved in Roman society. 2, 000 years after the birth of the Roman Republic, humanity had made zero progress.