Chapter 20.3The Atlantic Slave Trade

Causes• The Americas– Need for cheap labor source: Sugar and Tobacco – Native Americans (original labor source) die from European

diseases• Why didn’t Africans die?

– Profitability of industries (sugar, tobacco, mining, coffee, cotton) is a “pull” factor

• Africa– Drought and famine in Africa results in selling of children and

adults into slavery– Warfare and enslavement: response to European demand– African merchants and rulers willing role to sell its people– Supply and demand (for products and labor)

Slavery in Africa• Slavery not a new concept• 7th century (600s) spread

of Islam increases slave trade– Across the Sahara, the Red

Sea and the Indian Ocean• Justification for– Muslim belief non-Muslim

prisoners can be bought and sold

• b/t 650 -1600 17 million Africans transported throughout Muslim land in North Africa

Slavery in Africa Cont…• African and Muslim Societies allow – Slaves’ rights and upward mobility

–Muslim slaves have positions of power and serve in military

– African slaves may marry into family of slave owner

Africa’s Role

• Euro traders wait at ports

• Local rulers and merchants capture Africans to sell

• Exchange humans for gold, guns, and goods

• Profits lure more rulers

Contributors to Slave Trade

• Portugal and Spain lead way

• Colonization of Americas kills off native population

• African’s Advantage over Native Americans:– Exposure to Euro’s diseases and animals

– Experienced farmers

– Escape less likely

– Skin color (you are a slave!)

Contributors by Volume

• England: – From 1690 to abolishment leading carrier

– 1.7 million to colonies in West Indies

– 400,000 to North American colonies

• Portugal: – 17th century more than 40% to Brazil

• French, Dutch, Spanish

• Danish least amount

Mapping the Contributors

Mapping the Volume

Triangular Trade• Triangular Trade crisscrossed northern and southern colonies,

West Indies, England, Europe, and Africa

• The first stage :

– Take manufactured goods from Europe to Africa: cloth, spirit, tobacco, beads, shells, metal goods, and guns.

– Guns were used to help expand empires and obtain more slaves. Goods were exchanged for African slaves.

• The second stage of the

– The Middle Passage involved shipping the slaves to the Americas.

• The third stage

– Involved returning to Europe with the products of the slave-labor: cotton, sugar, tobacco, molasses and rum.

Mapping the Trade

The Middle Passage• Humans are “cargo” on a slave ship

• Theory: majority of deaths occurred during the middle passage –

– Result of malnutrition and disease

• Survival Rate for the Middle Passage

– Estimated death rate of around 13%

– Lower than the mortality rate for seamen, officers and passengers on the same voyages

Population Shift• Result of the slave trade on colony populations:

– Five times as many Africans arrived in the Americas than Europeans.

• David Eltis 1893:

– By 1820: 8.4 million African immigrants to Americas

– 2.4 million Europeans

– Euro population however exceeds African’s by 11 million

– Sex ratios: more men then women

– Survival and reproduction of Africans dramatically lower

– Fertility rates low/mortality rates high

• Location, location, location

– Geography: most slaves settled in low-lying tropical areas

– General mortality rate in areas higher than temperate regions

Culture Survives

• Cultural heritage survives as way of coping

• Forms of Resistance– Slow work

– Escaping

– Revolts: Spanish, Brazilian, North American, and West Indies colonies

• Stone Rebellion– South Carolina 1739