African+Trade

==Slavery became popular as the Europeans started settling in the New World in the 16th century. The Europeans established cotton plantations, and African slaves were preferred as workers than the Native Americans because the majority of the Natives were infected with smallpox. The Portuguese traders responded to the Europeans’ demand and this eventually led to systematic African slavery. The expanded slave trading is known as the Atlantic slave trade.== ==Enslaved Africans were traded for rum, cloth, and guns. When it came to shipping the slaves, there were two types of packing: Loose packing and tight packing. Loose packing was when the ship carried a few slaves and most of them would survive the horrible journey to Europe. Tight packing was maximizing the number of slaves by cramming as many slaves possible. Tight packing was a more commonly used method. On each journey, about 20 percent of the shipped slaves died.== ==Before the growth of slave trade, slavery existed in both Europe and Africa. However, the traditional slaves in Africa differed very much from the slaves in Europe. In Africa, slaves were not treated as property; they were people captured in wars or people who had agreed to work due to economic reasons. They had defined duties, they could also earn their freedom. On the contrary, slaves in Europe were treated harshly and were severely beaten by their masters. There was no way a slave could be freed unless he or she secretly ran away.==