African manufacturing suffered because so many people were taken in the slave trade that there were not enough laborers left. The availability of large numbers of enslaved workers kept production costs low for African manufacturers. The need to produce weapons to fight back against European slave traders spurred the development of the firearms industry in Africa. The exchange of European textiles for enslaved people harmed African cloth producers, who could not compete on quantity or price.

African manufacturing suffered because so many people were taken in the slave trade that there were not enough laborers left.