Nevertheless, if the low figure of ten million was accepted as a basis for evaluating the impact of slaving on Africa as a whole, the conclusions that could legitimately be drawn would confound those who attempt to make light of the experience of the rape of Africans from 1445 to 1870. The truth is that any figure of Africans imported into the Americas which is narrowly based on the surviving records is bound to be low, because there were so many people at the time who had a vested interest in smuggling slaves (and withholding data). In order to whitewash the European slave trade, they find it convenient to start by minimizing the numbers concerned. Because it is a low figure, it is already being used by European scholars who are apologists for the capitalist system and its long record of brutality in Europe and abroad. A recent study has suggested a figure of about ten million Africans landed alive in the Americas, the Atlantic islands, and Europe. This has long been an object of speculation, with estimates ranging from a few millions to over one hundred million. One of the uncertainties concerns the basic question of how many Africans were imported. Many things remain uncertain about the slave trade and its consequences for Africa, but the general picture of destructiveness can be shown to be the logical consequence of the manner of recruitment of captives in Africa.
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