Report: The Business of Slave Trading and Its Historical Impact

This report provides a critical analysis of the transatlantic slave trade, focusing on the business aspects and historical context. The report explores the motivations of European powers, including the French, English, and Dutch, in participating in the slave trade and their impact on African communities and the development of new world settlements. The author examines the trade's structure, including the "triangle trade," and highlights the treaty agreements that facilitated the trade. The report also addresses the author's perspectives, including the reasons behind the slave trade and the impact on the enslaved. The analysis references the works of Swaminathan, providing insights into the origins and impacts of the transatlantic slave trade.

Running head: THE BUSINESS OF SLAVE TRADING 1
The business of slave trading
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THE BUSINESS OF SLAVE TRADING 2
Critical response
What is the main problem the author addresses?
From reading the article, I think it is termed as the business of slave trading; the author
addresses slavery and trade conducted in some parts of Africa by the French, English, and Dutch.
Based on what I have understood about the article, the author expounds more on how slaves
were captured from African countries and shipped to assist in the building of new world
settlements. The author further states how European countries signed treaties that allowed the
trading of the captured slaves (Swaminathan, pp.19). An example of such treaties is the "Treaty
of Tordesillas, which was an agreement between Portugal and Spain."
What is the author's purpose in writing this article?
According my understanding of the article, the principal author's aim in writing this
article is to try to explain how the slave trade was carried out by different European countries,
which included the French, Portuguese and Dutch among author. Besides that, the author tries to
explain how some Africans, and the Europeans, benefitted from this kind of trade. The author
attempts to bring the idea of slavery and how it impacted the life of Africans and some European
countries.
What is author's thesis?
In this article, the author is trying to prove why different European nations participated in
the slave trade. The author is also trying to bring out why European powers such as the English,
Dutch and French rushed to claim territories in America as well in joining their predecessors,
both the Spanish and the Portuguese, in the slave trade (Swaminathan, pp.17). This is the main
point and thematic concern of the author of this article. It is focused on various mechanisms used
by the European countries in carrying out their slave trade. The interaction between the powerful

THE BUSINESS OF SLAVE TRADING 3
countries such as Dutch, French, and English brought significant impact o matters concerning the
slave trade. One of the major concerns of the article is how suffering the trade was mainly to the
African.
What is the author's theoretical perspective?
In this article, the writer incorporates some of the theoretical perspectives. One of them is
the reason for the introduction of the slave trade by European territories in the African continent.
The author makes some statements behind this, stating that might have started due to the need to
sustain and build a European new world settlement.
The author's theoretical perspective, incorporated by the author, is the naming of this
slave trade as a triangle trade. According to (Swaminathan, pp.17), the author explains the reason
why this trade was referred to as the triangle trade by the use of the nature of movement made by
the European slave ships in shipping slaves, goods, and other products to Africa and the ports of
the new world. The author of the article offers a few expressions behind this, expressing may
have begun because of the need to continue and fabricate a European new world settlement. The
author's hypothetical viewpoint is also aligned with the slave exchange as a triangle exchange.

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Reference
Swaminathan, S. (1441-1808). The rise of the transatlantic slave trade and debating the slave
trade: Rhetoric of British national identity, (1), pp. 17–20.