Origin of the trans-Atlantic tradeThe exact date when the first slave was captured and sold was 1441 AD. Young Portuguese sailor named Ahtam Goncalvez captured a man and a woman on the Western Sahara coast whom he presented to Prince Henry the Navigator, the Portuguese king, thus setting off a chain of reaction in the trade.The Portuguese ventured into the gold coast in search of gold in 1471. They built a fort at Elmina in 1482.The Portuguese then established trading contacts with the king of Congo who even accepted Christianity and Portuguese culture. (He baptized his son Afonso Bemba Nzinga) By 1500AD, the Portuguese established sugar plantations in the island of Sao Tome near modern Gambia.
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