Guyana Digital Tent

History has documented that the Atlantic slave trade was responsible for forced migration of over 10 million people from sub-Saharan Africa who were shipped to the Americas. The 1750s were an important period to remember in the history of the Atlantic slave trade. This is because it was precisely during that time that two rival European countries, France and Britain, joined the notorious slave trade. This resulted in a large number of people being shipped out of Africa. Many factors such as the structure of the world economy, political, and social problems have been discussed as indicators of the extensive trade in African captives.  However, a review of the scholarship suggest that the need for labor forces on sugar plantations in the West Indies, coupled with the entry of the Dutch, English, and French into the slave trade market, marked a turning point to the huge number of Africans being enslaved.

​

So far, available documents point out that it was during the last fifty years of the slave trade that most enslaved people were shipped to the Americas. The Atlantic slave trade occurred partly due to greed and an extensive demand for cheap labor for sugar and rice plantations in the Americas and the Caribbean. It is believed that Dutch settlers who migrated from Tobago brought the first group of enslaved Africans to the coast of Guyana, from West Africa in ships owned by the West India Company.

 

​

​

​

​

​