African Slave Trade, Vol. 0 Book

In 1969, Philip D. Curtin estimated that the 9.5 million Africans were brought to the Americas in the Atlantic slave trade. Drawing from a wide range of sources, Davidson revises Curtin's seminal estimation and suggests that number is closer to 50 million people involved in every step of the way: those who worked in the New World's sugar and tobacco plantations, those who died during the Middle Passage and those who died in Africa due to the slave trade. Davidson argues that the transatlantic slave trade paved the way for the current economic system of exporting primary African products (read oil, cocoa, slaves) for finished Western products.

For some reason at school and university we seem to be taught African history as only consisting of the colonial and post-colonial period. The slave era lased three times longer than the colonial era. not to mention West Africa's rich pre-colonial history. If you care about the history of the world then read this book.