Either being captured ,committed a crime ,lived in poverty and had nothing to live up to.
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Africans became slaves through capture in raids and warfare, as well as through trade networks established by European colonizers and African chiefs. Additionally, some Africans were enslaved as punishment for crimes or as payment for debts within their own societies.
African slavery was initially fueled by the demand for labor in European colonies in the Americas. European powers actively engaged in the transatlantic slave trade, capturing Africans from their homelands and transporting them as slaves to work on plantations and in mines. Some African societies participated in the enslavement of rival communities, selling captives to European slave traders. These societies often engaged in warfare and used captured individuals as a form of currency or to strengthen their own labor force. European traders also relied on African intermediaries and African slave traders who captured and sold enslaved Africans to them. These African intermediaries profited from the slave trade and facilitated the capture and transportation of slaves to European slave traders.
Africans were captured and sold into slavery primarily for economic gain, as the transatlantic slave trade was driven by European demand for labor in the Americas. European colonizers and traders saw Africans as a cheap and easily accessible source of labor to work on plantations and in mines. Racial prejudice and a perception of Africans as less human also played a significant role in justifying and perpetuating the slave trade.
The three legs of the Triangular Trade in Africa were: The first leg involved European merchants traveling to Africa to trade goods such as textiles, weapons, and alcohol in exchange for slaves. The second leg involved the transportation of enslaved Africans to the Americas (mainly the Caribbean and North America) on the infamous Middle Passage. The final leg involved the return voyage to Europe with valuable products like sugar, cotton, and tobacco produced by enslaved Africans on plantations in the Americas.
Brutal physical punishments such as whipping, branding, and mutilation were common forms of discipline. Insufficient food and poor living conditions resulted in malnutrition and disease among enslaved Africans. Families were often separated through sale, causing emotional trauma and disrupting social bonds.
Slaves sometimes ate manure out of desperation when they were not given sufficient food to eat. Manure, though not nutritious, may have provided some form of sustenance when they were deprived of adequate food by their oppressors.