How entrenched was slavery in Africa?
The trans-Saharan Arab slave trade was in place for at least 700 to 800 years before Europeans started their own slave trade. Europeans realized that the trade was going on in Africa and that they could profit from it, and thus they introduced the transatlantic slave trade. But prior to that, African society had already been profoundly influenced by slavery. It was part and parcel of the African value system. Had there been no moral crisis in that value system, no matter who said slavery was wrong, people would still have practiced it. How did that “moral crisis” come about? It was actually based on a simple but profound evangelical or Puritan idea: we are each made in the image of God. Evangelical religion seized on that idea, of human personhood founded on divine right, and then targeted the individual as the fundamental unit of society–not the collection but the individual. These individuals–emancipated slaves, ex-captives, repressed women–formed the cornerstone of the new commun
