While, especially at the beginning, some slaves were taken by force, most of the African slaves acquired by the Europeans were obtained in the course of a peaceful and regular bargaining process.
When the Portuguese arrived in West Africa, they found a thriving economy which had already developed its own bustling trading centers.

Before long, a vigorous trade opened up between the Portuguese and the West Africans.

Slaves were only one of a great variety of exports, and guns were only one of a large variety of imports.

One of the ways in which the slave trade came to cripple the West African economy was that slaves became almost the exclusive African export.

The more the Africans sought to fulfill the Europeans' thirst for slaves, the more they needed guns with which to procure slaves, and to protect themselves from being captured and sold into slavery.