Finalized Research Question

How did the slave trade affect the societies of the coastal African kingdoms of Ashanti, Dahomey, Kongo, and Akwamu?

This final question evolved from, first, my realization that my first question was much too broad.  It would be very difficult to answer, since I included all the different aspects (economic, cultural, societal, etc.) and all the kingdoms.  I also realized that it was not contact with the Europeans that caused changes in the African kingdoms, it was the profits they could gain from becoming slave trading states that changed their ideologies.

Our textbook will provide a little bit of information for all the kingdoms I chose. The book The Atlantic Slave Trade: Affects on Economies, Societies, and Peoples in Africa, the Americas, and Europe also seems to have a large amount of information on the particular topic I chose.  The Slave Voyages website also contains a wealth of information useful for any question on this topic, especially the maps of major areas of Africa that were involved in the slave trade and the major areas of embarkation of slaves in Africa.  These maps show the areas where the kingdoms I chose resided as being major traders of slaves.

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Possible Research Questions

1. How did contact with Europeans affect the coastal African kingdoms such as Kongo, Ashanti, Angola, etc. (socially, economically, etc.)?

The effects detailed in the readings were very great, and all showed shifts in culture and ideologies (such as the increased maritime experience gained by the West African peoples, where before they had generally avoided the open ocean).  Exploration of this topic would prove interesting for many reasons, including the aforementioned example.

2. How did varying religious and cultural ideologies among the different African kingdoms affect slave trading?

The Atlantic History source details several rather interesting conclusions on different kingdoms slave trading policies, along with connections to the proportion of slaves those regions shipped across to the Americas, as a direct relation to these varying ideologies.

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