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The Transatlantic Slave Trade: 500 Years Later the Diaspora Still Suffers

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — The Transatlantic Slave Trade is not just Black history—it is American history, and Black Americans lived it.

Published

8 months ago

August 25, 2025

Stacy M. Brown

The Transatlantic Slave Trade is not just Black history—it is American history, and Black Americans lived it. Their ancestors were violently torn from their homes, forced into brutal labor, and stripped of basic humanity. That legacy of injustice echoes loudly in every aspect of our society—because the slave trade wasn’t just cruel, it was foundational. Yet today, that truth itself is under attack. President Donald Trump denounced the Smithsonian Institution as allegedly “out of control” for telling the unvarnished history of slavery—claiming museums focus too much on how bad slavery was and not enough on “brightness” or success, even as his administration reviews exhibits and threatens funding cuts to sanitize the narrative. He dismissed honest reflection as “woke,” arguing it undermines national pride. We are re-running this series, which we originally published in 2019, each day because confronting our painful past is urgent—and because critics who erase suffering do so to keep oppression alive.

By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

“Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.” — Muhammad Ali.

“We need to exert ourselves that much more and break out of the vicious cycle of dependence imposed on us by the financially powerful: those in command of immense market power and those who dare to fashion the world in their own image.” — Nelson Mandela.

The most enduring consequences of the migration for the migrants themselves and for the receiving communities were the development of racism and the corresponding emergence and sustenance of an African American community, with particular cultural manifestations, attitudes, and expressions. The legacy is reflected in music and art, with a significant influence on religion, cuisine, and language, according to Paul E. Lovejoy, a distinguished research professor and Canada Research Chair in African Diaspora History at York University in Toronto. “The cultural and religious impact of this African immigration shows that migrations involve more than people; they also involve the culture of those people,” Lovejoy said in a recent post about the creation of the African diaspora.

American culture is not European or African but its own form, created in a political and economic context of inequality and oppression in which diverse ethnic and cultural influences, both European and African – and in some contexts, Native American – can be discerned, Lovejoy said. “Undoubtedly, the transatlantic slave trade was the defining migration that shaped the African Diaspora. It did so through the people it forced to migrate, and especially the women who were to give birth to the children who formed the new African American population,” he said. These women included many who can be identified as Igbo or Ibibio, but almost none who were Yoruba, Fon, or Hausa.

Bantu women, from matrilineal societies, also constituted a considerable portion of the African immigrants, and it appears that females from Sierra Leone and other parts of the Upper Guinea Coast were also well represented, Lovejoy said. “These were the women who gave birth to African American culture and society,” he said. After many rang in 2019 with celebratory parties and gatherings, there were still others who solemnly recalled the beginning of the transatlantic slave trade that started 400 years ago – 500 years, depending upon the region. For Africans throughout the diaspora, their struggle not only traces back 400 or 500 years, but it continued and was underscored as recently as 135 years ago when the infamous Berlin Conference was held.

The conference led to the so-called “Scramble for Africa” by European powers, who successfully split the continent into 53 countries, assuring a division that remains today. “There isn’t a single thing that was more damaging to Africa than the Berlin Conference,” said African Union Ambassador Dr. Arikana Chihombori-Quao. “Africans weren’t even invited to the conference,” she said. At the conference, which took place over three months in Brazil beginning in February 1884 and attended by 13 European nations and the United States, ground rules were established to split Africa. “Africans still are suffering the consequences,” the ambassador said. Said John W. Ashe, the president of the United Nations General Assembly:

“The Transatlantic slave trade … for 400 years deprived Africa of its lifeblood for centuries and transformed the world forever.” There’s no question that legacies of the slave trade persist today in most of the countries Africans were taken to, said Ayo Sopitan, founder of Pendulum Technologies in Houston, Texas. “I have been thinking about how Africans and the diaspora need to get together – through proxies in the persons of recognized leaders – and have a conversation about the past, the role that African collaborators played, and how we can unite as a people. Then, and only then, will we be able to excel as a people,” Sopitan said.

“I have sat at lectures by Henry Gates and learned about blacks in the Americas. The conclusion is that wherever we are, blacks are usually at the bottom of the totem pole. This does not have to continue,” he said. The transatlantic slave trade was an oceanic trade in African men, women, and children that lasted from the mid-sixteenth century until the 1860s. European traders loaded African captives at dozens of points on the African coast, from Senegambia to Angola and around the Cape to Mozambique.

The great majority of captives were collected from West and Central Africa and from Angola, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization – UNESCO. The trade was initiated by the Portuguese and Spanish, especially after the settlement of sugar plantations in the Americas, UNESCO officials noted in a 2018 web presentation titled “Slavery and Remembrance.”

European planters spread sugar, cultivated by enslaved Africans on plantations in Brazil, and later Barbados, throughout the Caribbean.

In time, planters sought to grow other profitable crops, such as tobacco, rice, coffee, cocoa, and cotton, with European indentured laborers as well as African and Indian slave laborers. Nearly 70 percent of all African laborers in the Americas worked on plantations that grew sugar cane and produced sugar, rum, molasses, and other byproducts for export to Europe, North America, and elsewhere in the Atlantic world, according to UNESCO. Before the first Africans arrived in British North America in 1619, more than half a million African captives had already been transported and enslaved in Brazil. By the end of the nineteenth century, that number had risen to more than 4 million. Northern European powers soon followed Portugal and Spain into the transatlantic slave trade.

The majority of African captives were carried by the Portuguese, Brazilians, the British, the French, and the Dutch. British slave traders alone transported 3.5 million Africans to the Americas, UNESCO reported. The transatlantic slave trade was complex and varied considerably over time and place, but it had far-reaching and lasting consequences for much of Europe, Africa, the Americas, and Asia. The profits gained by Americans and Europeans from the slave trade and slavery made possible the development of economic and political growth in major regions of the Americas and Europe. Europeans used various methods to organize the Atlantic trade.

Spain licensed (by Asiento agreements) other nations to supply its Spanish American and Caribbean colonies with African captives. France, the Netherlands, and England initially used monopoly companies. In time, the demand for African laborers in the Americas was met by more open trade, which allowed other merchants to engage in the trade with Africans. Thus, formidable private trading companies emerged, such as Britain’s Royal African Company (1660–1752) and the Dutch West India Company of the Netherlands (1602–1792), according to UNESCO.

The profits generated from the Atlantic trade economically and politically transformed Liverpool and Bristol in England, Nantes and Bordeaux in France, Lisbon in Portugal, Rio de Janeiro and Salvador de Bahia in Brazil, and Newport, Rhode Island, in the United States. Each port developed links to a wide hinterland for local and international goods in Asia and capital to sustain the trade in African captives. European merchants and ship captains – followed later by those from Brazil and North America – packed their sailing vessels with local goods and commodities from Asia to trade on the African coast.

Enslaved Africans, their often-violent capture and enslavement out of sight of the European general public, were exchanged for iron bars and textiles, luxury goods, cowrie shells, liquor, firearms, and other products that varied region by region over time. Much of the wealth generated by the transatlantic slave trade supported the creation of industries and institutions in modern North America and Europe. To an equal degree, profits from slave trading and slave-generated products funded the creation of fine art, decorative arts, and architecture that continues to inform aesthetics today, UNESCO officials said.

“European countries – Portuguese, English, French, and Spanish – are most complicit in the transatlantic slave trade. This pernicious form of slavery was driven by European capitalistic countries seeking to expand their nation-states and empires,” said Dr. Jonathan Chism, assistant professor of history and a fellow with the Center for Critical Race Studies at the University of Houston Downtown. The pain continues today. “The fact that slavery was underway for a century in South America before its introduction in North America is not widely taught nor commonly understood,” said Felicia Davis of the HBCU Green Fund.

“It is a powerful historical fact missing from our understanding of slavery, its magnitude, and global impact. Knowledge that slavery was underway for a century [before it began in North America] provides deep insight into how enslaved Africans adapted,” Davis said. “Far beyond the horrific seasoning description, clearly generations had been born into slavery long before introduction in North America. It deepens the understanding of how vast majorities could be oppressed in such an extreme manner for such a long period of time,” Davis said. “It is also a testament to the strength and drive among people of African descent to live free.”

Up Next: UN Observes International Remembrance of Slave Trade

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The hidden risks of poor water management in residential properties

Poor water management in residential properties can result in structural damage, health risks, and long-term financial strain. Water is the most important resource for any country, and having access to clean drinking water should be a right that needs to be preserved. Unfortunately, we are noticing a trend in the US right now where poor water […]

Published

3 days ago

April 17, 2026

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Poor water management in residential properties can result in structural damage, health risks, and long-term financial strain.

Water is the most important resource for any country, and having access to clean drinking water should be a right that needs to be preserved. Unfortunately, we are noticing a trend in the US right now where poor water management in residential properties is becoming more common.

It’s not even just access to water that gets affected when residential water management isn’t made a priority. It can result in issues with major leaks and flooding events, which affect the health and safety of residents.

Gradual Structural Damage

The worst thing about flooding or water leaks is the gradual structural damage that real estate investors have to deal with. Water can seep into materials like:

Wood
Drywall
Concrete

It can do so over time, drop by drop, and eventually cause significant damage to these structures.

A slow leak behind a wall or under a floor may go unnoticed for months, gradually compromising the integrity of the structure. Over time, this can lead to:

Warped floors
Cracked foundations
Weakened support beams

If you aren’t interested in spending hundreds or thousands of dollars to repair your residential properties, then it’s important to focus on water management in your annual plan.

Mold and Indoor Air Quality Issues

Excess moisture creates the perfect growing environment for mold. Within 24 to 48 hours, mold can start developing in damp conditions, and it often does so in hidden places like:

Behind walls
Under carpets
Poorly ventilated areas

Mold is a health hazard, especially for the very young and very old, and those who have a compromised immune system. Indoor air quality starts degrading very fast when mold growth happens, which can result in allergies, asthma, and other respiratory conditions.

Addressing mold problems can be both complicated and expensive, often requiring professional remediation to fully eliminate the issue.

Increased Utility Costs

If you notice that your utility bills have gone up in recent weeks or months, without any corresponding difference in tenants or temperature, it could be due to a water leak. Malfunctioning fixtures can also cause an increase in utility costs.

Even small, continuous leaks can add up to substantial water loss, making regular inspections and maintenance essential. That’s why paying attention to water management is so crucial for any real estate investor.

Foundation and Drainage Problems

Proper drainage is crucial to protecting a home’s foundation. Water needs to be directed away from the property, and if not done so, then it can accumulate around the base of a structure. This can lead to soil erosion, foundation cracks, and even basement flooding.

Clogged gutters, improper grading, and inadequate drainage systems are common contributors to these issues. All of these have to be addressed to prevent long-term damage to your foundation and prevent expensive repair bills that eat away at your budget.

Professional eavestrough installers are necessary to ensure rainwater stays away from your foundation and moves away from the property properly.

Pest Infestations

No homeowner or investor wants pests in their residential properties. It’s not good for the health of the residents, nor is it good for the reputation of the properties in attracting future tenants.

Moist environments often attract pests such as:

Termites
Rodents
Insects

Standing water or damp areas provide ideal conditions for these unwanted guests to thrive.

Once pests are established in your property, they will start causing further damage by eating away at certain structures. To get rid of them requires expensive pest control services and takes time.

Insurance and Financial Implications

Even though insurance does cover certain types of water damage, it doesn’t cover all forms of water damage, and thus, you might end up paying out of pocket in certain cases.

Damage resulting from neglect or lack of maintenance is often excluded from coverage. That’s why it’s so important to apply water management strategies to all of your residential properties.

If you wish to sell your property later, then it’s important to be very cognizant of water damage, as buyers will conduct inspections that could alert them to such water damage and prevent your home from selling in the future.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Are Some Preventive Measures for Water Management?

There are many home safety tips you can follow to ensure your home stays safe from water damage.

Regularly inspecting plumbing systems, cleaning gutters, and ensuring proper drainage can help identify problems early. Installing moisture detectors, maintaining appliances, and addressing leaks promptly are also effective strategies.

You can also hire a water damage specialist and have them take a look at your home to ensure nothing untoward is going on, especially if you notice a major change in your utility bills.

How Does Water Damage Interior Spaces?

Water damage can occur without the home dwellers noticing it. In some cases, the water damage to interior spaces is very apparent, as when the ceilings start sagging or the walls and ceilings develop water stains.

You might also notice the floors rotting or warping.

In addition to structural concerns, water damage can ruin personal belongings such as:

Furniture
Electronics
Important documents

The emotional and financial cost of replacing these items can be significant.

Nothing good comes out of water damage, but it’s highly preventable if you only take the steps mentioned above. Do not become lazy or complacent in this situation. It could be the difference between saving hundreds of dollars in water damage bills and not.

Protect Yourself From the Risks of Water Damage

Not everyone places such a priority on water management, and that’s a shame. It’s truly when you are dealing with water damage that you regret this decision.

Residential water management can save you hundreds or even thousands of dollars in bills in the future. It’s worth the time and resources you place upon it.

By staying vigilant and adopting proactive maintenance habits, homeowners can protect their properties and protect their investment from degrading into a money-sucking pile of stones.

Please check out related articles on our website for more interesting articles on a wide variety of subjects.

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Black Micro-Schools Deserve Recognition: NABML Creates National Standards and Resources

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE: Black families are the fastest-growing demographic in alternative education. Discover how the National Association of Black Micro School Leaders is providing educators with resources, training, and certification to launch thriving microschools.

Published

4 days ago

April 16, 2026

Oakland Post

by Dawn Montgomery
BlackPressUSA Contributor

Public school advocates and politicians typically spearhead the attack on microschools, focusing on their perceived “lack of oversight and public accountability.” Yet Black families are the fastest-growing demographic in alternative education. This shift is driven by the recognition that traditional public education cannot change quickly enough to serve its children’s needs. The National Association of Black Micro-School Leaders is an organization working to counter this narrative and fill a critical gap. Nicole Stewart, the founder, told The Carolinian that “Black families are the fastest-growing group in alternative education, but Black microschool founders have had no national home, no unified voice, no shared resources, and no collective power.”

Nicole Stewart, a former educator with nearly 20 years of experience in public education, retired to start her education consulting company and later opened her own school. That experience led her to discover microschools. Stewart advocates for a balance between joy and rigor in education, designing learning experiences that honor identity, strength, and purpose. She understands that microschools can be tailored to address the specific needs of the families and communities they serve.

The oversight criticism is legitimate. This concern is precisely why NABML is establishing the national benchmark for community-led education. NABML’s certification is that seal of approval, signaling to families, funders, and policymakers that a school is not merely functioning but is outstanding. Additionally, the organization emphasizes the importance of legal structures, fiscal stewardship frameworks, and community involvement as foundational to sustainability and accountability.

NABML realizes this vision via four main support systems:

Community Design Day: NABML facilitates a process in which the neighborhood tells us what its children deserve. You get to explore new learning approaches and define educational priorities for your community. A community task force is then formed to implement these ideas, and NABML supports you along the way. This creates a space where you can be a part of the process as a founding member of a microschool.

Founders Launch Lab: This professional development experience equips Black microschool founders and educational leaders with the training, operational, and strategic skills to launch and sustain thriving schools. Participants gain the business acumen and pedagogical frameworks necessary to navigate the transition from traditional educator roles to entrepreneurial school leaders.

Membership (The Vault): Members gain instant, 24/7 access to proprietary legal templates, student handbook builders, fiscal stewardship frameworks, and zoning blueprints designed specifically for the microschool model. They also join a curated community of mission-aligned founders through monthly “Brilliance Circles” and a private digital forum. Membership unlocks the NABML Fund, a curated capital pool designed specifically for the network, removing a major barrier to school launch and sustainability.

Certification: This is the seal of approval that tells families, funders, and policymakers that your school isn’t just operating; it is also excelling. NABML is currently developing the national benchmark for community-led education, making sure that certified schools meet rigorous standards for student outcomes, community engagement, and fiscal responsibility.

Whether you’re a parent seeking educational alternatives, an educator ready to launch a microschool, or a policymaker committed to expanding equitable education options, NABML invites you to be part of this transformation.

Ready to start or support a microschool? Visit https://nabml.org/ to learn more, access resources, or join the Founders Launch Lab.

Want to invest in Black educational futures? Make a donation at https://secure.qgiv.com/for/naobml/ to support founders in building schools that serve their communities.

Every microschool launched is a community transformed. Every founder supported is a generation of Black children empowered to thrive.

Oakland Post

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IN MEMORIAM: Rest in Power — Minnesota Loses a True Warrior in Yusef Mgeni

MINNESOTA SPOKESMAN RECORDER — Yusef Mgeni, a brilliant historian, community organizer, former St. Paul educator and fierce advocate for Black people, died on April 7, 2026, leaving behind a legacy that will echo through generations of Black Minnesota history and community building.

Published

5 days ago

April 15, 2026

admin

By MSR News Online

Minnesota and the world lost a powerful voice and a true warrior on April 7, 2026. Yusef Mgeni is gone, but his legacy will echo for generations.

Yusef was a brilliant historian, a community organizer, a former St. Paul educator, and a fierce advocate for Black people. He carried with him an extraordinary archive of speeches, books, articles, and photographs documenting the work of countless Black scholars and leaders. His knowledge was not just deep. It was generational. Talk to him about any subject concerning Black history, and he would give you a dissertation.

His roots in this community ran deeper than most people knew. Yusef was the grandnephew of Fredrick McGhee, the pioneering 20th-century civil rights activist and attorney who made his mark in St. Paul at the turn of the century. That lineage was not lost on Yusef. He carried it forward with pride and purpose, spending decades making sure the stories of Black Minnesotans were told, preserved, and passed on.

As a journalist, Yusef called NAACP leaders and community figures to identify the issues that mattered most to Black people and wrote about them in local newspapers. He was a contributor to the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, a platform he understood and respected deeply. As a former St. Paul NAACP vice president, he remained active and engaged well into his retirement, answering emails and voicemails for residents who were at their wits’ end, helping them navigate evictions, legal challenges, and systemic barriers.

“Generally, they contact us when they are at their wits’ end,” he once said. “They are going to get evicted; their car is getting repossessed. We assist in navigating the system.”

His work was always about access. Under his leadership and alongside other NAACP leaders, the St. Paul chapter helped establish a landmark covenant between the police and the St. Paul community in 2001, a model that contributed to dramatically lower excessive-force costs than in Minneapolis in the decade that followed.

Yusef was also a passionate champion of ethnic studies in Minnesota’s schools, understanding that education rooted in Black and Brown history was not a supplement to American history but central to it.

“Ethnic studies is also American history,” he said. “The fact that the legislature and the MDE have both endorsed ethnic studies requirements in schools is a real plus for giving people the opportunity to explore and learn more about American history, and more importantly, to see themselves reflected in that learning.”

In the 1970s and ’80s, Yusef worked alongside Mrs. Clarissa Walker at the Sabathani Community Center, where they poured their energy into uplifting and empowering the community. Their work helped shape the cultural and political landscape of South Minneapolis during a critical era. They were part of a generation that built institutions, nurtured young people, and fought for justice with unwavering commitment.

Yusef also played a key role in the early development of KMOJ Radio, helping to establish a platform that amplified Black voices long before it was common or convenient. His activism extended through education, the St. Paul NAACP, the Million Man March, and the Urban Coalition, always rooted in a deep and abiding love for his people.

He was also an interviewee in the Rondo neighborhood oral history project preserved by the Minnesota Historical Society, ensuring that the voices and stories of that community would never be lost.

Not long ago, a colleague was blessed to sit with Yusef at his home, where he reflected on his life and his legacy. He talked about his work in education, his activism, and his years of service to the community. But what stood out just as much was how he spoke about his family and his people, with warmth, with pride, and with purpose.

Today, we honor him not only for what he accomplished but for the spirit with which he did it.

A scholar. A builder. A warrior. A keeper of our stories.

Thank you, Yusef, for everything you gave and everything you sacrificed on behalf of Black people. Your legacy stands tall, and our community is better because of you.

Rest in Power, Yusef Mgeni.