By 1,800 about half the population of Brazil had come from Africa. So had about half the population of Venezuela. So had a smaller but still large part of all the population of Trans-Atlantic republics, whether in North, Central or South Africa, or in the Caribbean islands. It was these men and women of African descent conquered the wilderness of the Americas, clearing and working in countless farms and plantations, founding and opening innumerable mines of iron or precious metals. Harsh and painful as it was, the overseas slave trade (like the not much less painful movement of millions of hungry and jobless men and women from Europe) laid the foundations of American republics. These Africans beyond the seas have their place in the story of Africa (the story of West Africa), for what they attempted and achieved was also a reflection of the strong and independent civilization from which they came. Consider, for example, the heroic and successful struggle for independence conducted by the slaves of the Caribbean land of St. Domingue. In 1789, at the moment of the French Revolution, this French colony in the Caribbean was probably the wealthiest colony in the world. Its tens of thousands of African slave-workers produced enormous quantities of sugar, whole European communities lived off the profits. When news of the Revolution in France reached St. Domingue, these slaves claimed their share in its ideals and benefits. They demanded their freedom. When denied this, they rose in revolt against their masters. In years of hard fighting against large armies sent by France, and afterwards against large armies sent by Britain, these men of St. Domingue won their freedom and founded the Republic of Haiti. Yet more than half these soldiers of freedom had made the 'middle passage' across the Atlantic. More than half, in other words, had been born in Africa, had spent their childhood in Africa, and had learned in Africa their respect for freedom; while nearly all the rest were the children of parents or grandparents born in Africa. And they were led by Africans: by men of genius and courage such as Boukman, the unforgettable Toussaint Louverture, and Dessalines. Raised by Toussaint and his Africans, the banner of freedom across the Atlantic was carried from people to people. Many threw off their bondage. Large numbers of men of African origin fought in the armies that made the United States what they are today. It was a general of African descent, Antonio Maceo, who led the military struggle for Cuban independence against Spain in 1868. Like other men of vision, Maceo had no time for racism, for the false idea that one race of men is better or worse than any other. Some of the whites of Cuba disagreed with him. They were Spanish settlers who thought that white was going to be better than black even in an independent Cuba. One day Maceo was approached by a Spanish Cuban who suggested that the regiments of independence army should be divided into whites and non-whites. Maceo made him a reply which became famous in Cuba. 'If you were not white', Maceo said to this man, 'I would have you shot on the spot. But I do not wish to be accused of being racialist as you are, and so I let you go, but with the warning that I shall not be so patient another time. The revolution has no color'. It could be inferred that the writer thinks that, in comparison with the movement of millions of hungry and jobless people from Europe, the overseas slave trade was ______