La traite négrière atlantique

From the 15th to the middle of the 19th Centuries, the slave trade supplied the European colonies with a cost-free and totally servile labour force. The history of this trade, for long ignored, is starting to emerge. The mechanisms of the system were part of those of early capitalism in a global economy in which Africa and America became peripheries which were crucial for the amassing of a large part of Europe's wealth. While this aspect is starting to be well known, the African share in the slave trade has been relatively little studied. Rather than presenting the current state of knowledge, we have preferred a table of the different questions to be asked. The same goes for the great debate on the different abolitions, which poses the problem of the respective role of the slaves as actors in their own liberation (in particular the Maroons) and the influence of abolitionist movements, partly inspired by the Enlightenment.Deveau Jean-Pierre. La traite négrière atlantique. In: Dix-huitième Siècle, n°33, 2001. L'Atlantique, sous la direction de Marcel Dorigny . pp. 49-61