The Slave Trade

The Portuguese exploration of Africa led to the expansion of the slave trade. Slavery had always been endemic to Africa, with enslaved people being taken off to often serve in the Arab world, but the numbers were relatively small. The Portuguese first traded for a small number of slaves who they returned to Portugal to be domestic servants. AS the colonization of the Americas began, the need for slavery increased rapidly. The Spanish started the cultivation of sugar cane in the Caribbean islands, and as the local population became decimated, they began importing African slaves to replace them. Slavery soon spread to North America as well. In the 16th century, approximately 275,000 Africans were sent as slaves to the Americas; in the seventeenth century, the number grew to over 1 million, and in the eighteenth century to nearly six million.