Instead of foreign rulers enslaving Africans, people of their own race were enslaving each other. This was done in numerous ways. The …show more content…
In some cases, people would become enslaved when they were accused of a crime. Rather than having to endure a punishment for their actions, enslavement became the new repercussion. Leaders would often enslave their own as a form of tribute in order to protect their communities from being raided. This caused extreme levels of mistrust from the communities of the legal system and the government as a whole. The political and legal corruption that took place during the trans-Atlantic slave trade can be seen as one of the main reasons for African underdevelopment by today’s standards. Mistrust, aggression, and fragmentation that resulted from the trans-Atlantic slave trade led to the instability in Africa that hindered the continents ability to properly form states and governments that would benefit the