Compare and contrast the oriental and occidental slave trades.

Slavery has existed in some form or other for a very long time. Some of the largest incidents in slavery
involve the oriental and occidental slave trades. These trades took slaves from Africa to far off lands
and forced them to work for their masters. The oriental and occidental slave trades have some things in
common, but the occidental trade became far worse and extensive.

The oriental slave trade refers to trading of slaves taken from Africa in Islamic areas of the
Mediterranean and southern parts of Asia. These slaves were largely taken from Sudan and the Horn of
Africa and were generally females. Many women and, to a lesser extent, male workers were imported
regularly, though not any more excessively than anywhere else in the world at the time. Slaves were
taken to islands and lands ruled by the Islamic people. The oriental slave trade did not venture too far
into Africa but stayed along the eastern coast of the continent. The Islamic traders took fewer slaves
from African than they did from Central Asia and eastern Europe. Christians were also using slaves
from these areas at the same time. These slaves were low in number compared to the occidental trade,
which needed high numbers of workers for their profitable plantations.

The occidental slave trade was the trading of slaves from Africa throughout Europe and later, the
Americas. The European settlers in South America initially used the natives for their labor needs, but as
the diseases they brought with them began to take a toll on the native population, they needed a new
source of slaves. The Europeans then turned to the slave trade in Africa. This slave trade grew to far
surpass the oriental trade and penetrated much deeper into continental Africa. The plantations in the
Americas demanded young men for workers, so the male population began to drop. African tribes
began to participate in the trade as well, and the number of available slaves to be sold grew steadily,
while the price remained consistent. The slave trading negatively affected many areas of Africa,
destroying tribes and creating strife between them.

In the case of both oriental and occidental slaving, slaves were denied basic rights, and were considered
property of their owners. They both forced slaves to work and serve, and often cut family bonds. In
occidental slaving, the slaves were treated far worse. They were completely devoid of rights, even
having no rights to their own bodies and children. They were not considered people, but merely objects
and material possessions of their owners. Both the oriental and occidental slave trades were detrimental
to life in Africa, but the occidental was much worse in terms of the numbers it claimed and devastation
it caused to African civilization.