Final answer:
African merchants were heavily involved in the Atlantic Slave Trade, controlling the supply of slaves and gaining wealth by trading enslaved individuals for European goods and imposing taxes on these transactions.
Step-by-step explanation:
The African merchants played a crucial role in the development of the Atlantic Slave Trade. European traders were vastly outnumbered by West Africans and had to negotiate with African chieftains for the right to trade slaves. African political and economic elites were significantly involved in capturing, transporting, and selling Africans to Europeans on the coast.
They amassed wealth by trading enslaved people for European goods such as textiles, alcohol, guns, tobacco, and food, and even imposed taxes on these transactions. Furthermore, the need to supply the slave trade stimulated large-scale raids between different African groups and kingdoms to meet the ever-increasing demand.
Given this information, option (a) is the most accurate: African merchants dominated the slave trade and acquired significant wealth through their involvement. They were integral to the establishment and sustainability of the trade by controlling the supply of slaves to European traders along the coast and by setting up the economic transactions that facilitated it.