African Slave Trade

This week the discussion of class has been focused around the african slave trade. While I learned a lot from the assigned reading about the details of not only the atlantic slave trade, but also, the asian slave trade, trans-saharan slave trade, red sea slave trade, and east africa slave trade, I found myself overwhelmed with details.  It's hard for me to visualize all the areas they were talking about without having a map to go along with everything Collins described in the reading.  
Therefore, I went on a hunt to find a website that offered good details about the slave trade but also help visuals.  
I found a section the the IPTV website that I found very useful. The section I found was titled Africans in America, the Narrative section.  Check it out! 


What I liked most about this site was its organization.  There are key topic links that take you to different sections where more details are found.  There are helpful visuals including interactive maps. There are also historical documents linked to related topics.  Key words, places,events and ideas are listed on the side of the paragraphs in blue and are linked to another page that describes it further. While it is written at an easy comprehension level the site offers good information and details that I didn't recall from other readings.   
Under the section of Europeans Come to Western Africa I enjoyed reading about the Elmina Castle. I didn't recall from the reading that Portugal constructed the first permanent trading outpost south of the Sahara.  It was one of the largest sites and existed for a long time.  The narrative also reinforces ideas expressed in the chapter by Collins, like how African slavery was different from American slavery.  


I also really liked the section titled From Indentured Servitude to Racial Slavery.  I didn't realize that their were some people who came to American as free men and then later had that right revoked.  Reading the story of Anthony Johnson really put the information into context.  I think it's just unbelievable the way Africans were treated in the courts of law at this time period. I also can't believe the status of many Africans rested on the fact whether they were considered a follower of Christian religion in the native country or not. As a nation now we pride ourselves on allowing people religious freedom, yet that was not always the case.  I think it is very easy today to think of ourselves as a very understanding nation of all types of people and try to push slavery to the back of our minds. 
I found a video also off of this site titled Traces of the Trade.  I thought this video was good because it makes you think, where did I come from and what role did my ancestors play in the slave trade?