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Figure 3: South African History Online, 2023. History of slavery and early colonisation in South Africa. (South African History Online, 2023).
Europe was not the only country that started colonies in America. Spain, Portugal and France also made colonies within South America, as well as the West Indies. They also made plantations on which they grew sugar cane, rice and coffee (Bottaro, et al. 2013).
All these different plantations was a lot of work to uphold, and a lot of workers was necessary to do the job, therefore the best and cheapest labourers were African slaves (Bottaro, et al. 2013).
As learned in previous units, Portugal was the first country to buy slaves, and started the transatlantic slave trade. This led to other countries, such as Europe to follow suite. Millions of slaves were bought, and taken to Africa to work on the plantations in the Americas. These slave trades were made from the 15th century until the 19th century (Bottaro, at al. 2013).
Figure 4: Britannica, 2025. Captive Africans being transferred to ships along the Slave Coast for the transatlantic slave trade, c. 1880. (Britannica, 2025).
Learner activity 2:
Listen to the song above, look at the pictures and consider content dealt with. Then answer the following questions in groups:
Why do you think did other countries also start buying slaves?
Why did the colonies need to much workers? How did the large number of worker benefit them?
Who were used as these workers on the plantations, and why specifically them?
Do you think the conditions of working on the plantations were humane?
How long did the transatlantic slave trade continue?
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