The impact on Africa and the Caribbean

• The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade removed millions of young men and women from their homes, leaving children without one or both parents and families without many members who worked hard to provide for their members.
• During slave raids, land, homes, and crops were destroyed, sometimes forcing people to move from their villages and the destruction of food crops often resulted in starvation.
• Many African leaders became corrupt and sold their people into slavery, resulting in tribal wars, starvation, and death.
• Some African states such as Benin became corrupt and extremely powerful.
• The importation of European manufactured goods, including guns and textiles, hampered the growth of traditional West African industries, especially the textile industry.
• The racial makeup of the Caribbean changed from being predominantly white to being predominantly black due to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.
• A system of social stratification developed in the Caribbean, with whites dominating the upper levels of slave society while the enslaved blacks were at the bottom of society.
• In the middle of the social stratification system in the Caribbean were the freed mulattoes and freed blacks.
• Slave laws were put in place to control the slaves, defining them as chattel/moveable property with no rights.
• A monoculture economy developed in the Caribbean as sugar became the region’s main export crop.
• A new hybrid group developed in the Caribbean when black enslaved females bore children for planters and other whites, which is called a mulatto.