African History Reports Example

Transatlantic slave trade is documented as one of the largest forced migration of people in history linking four continents. It took place from15th to 19th century (Clark, 2010). Millions of Africans were ruthlessly and forcibly taken from their homes and transported to go and work in mines and plantations of West Indies and America. Despite this trade having taken place many years ago, issues to do with slavery and racism are influencing much of the current debates in the United States. It is always believed that racism is just part of human nature i.e. humans beings have always hated one another based on the color of their skin or coming from another different nation.
According to UNESCO, slave trade was supported by racism in that the white people were viewed as the most developed and the blacks to be less developed (Clark, 2010). However, slave trade and slavery is known to have been in existence legally to almost every pre-modern world agricultural society (Hakim, 2012). There is evidence that European countries had a great interest in African slave trade by establishing many trade companies. It is also believed that slave trade resulted in Africa remaining underdeveloped economically while America and Europe developed rapidly due to presence of forced source of labor. This further attributed to creation of conditions for colonial conquest by the Europeans.
However, Karl Marx describes the processes that lead to modern racism. He establishes the relationship between slave trade, capitalism and racism. Marx clearly demonstrates that the transatlantic slave trade that lead to Africa losing its human resources when slaves were taken to Europe and America with other resources from Africa (Lance, 2010). This resulted in capitalist development, which in turn brought about difference in social relations thus bringing about racism against the blacks who happened to be Africans. From this explanation, it is therefore clear that slavery was not brought about by racism. Slavery existed much early than the issues of racism surface where people of low social class were enslaved by people of upper social in Europe, American and African. Thus, there is no connection between racism and slavery.

Works Cited

Lance Selfa. "The Roots of Racism." SocialistWorker.org. N.p., 2010. Web. 3 Apr. 2015. <http://socialistworker.org/2010/10/21/the-roots-of-racism>.
Clark, Andrew F. North Carolina Public Schools. N.p., 2010. Web. 3 Apr. 2015. <http://www.dpi.state.nc.us/docs/curriculum/socialstudies/rigorous-ap/world-history/slave-trade.pdf>.
Dr Hakim Adi. "BBC - History - British History in Depth: Africa and the Transatlantic Slave Trade." BBC - Homepage. N.p., 2012. Web. 3 Apr. 2015. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/abolition/africa_article_01.shtml>.