Commerce in People:The Atlantic Slave Trade

By: Mike Zrust

Origins of Slave Trade

• Mediterranean and Indian ocean basin

• Portuguese mariners

• West and East Africa

Why use slaves from Africa?

• Religious justifications

• Plantation economies

• Disease

• Substantial numbers

Acquiring Slaves

• Early efforts by the Portuguese

• Exploiting African rivalries

• Use of trade and bargaining

African Slaves

Where they came from

• West Africa

• Mauritania in the north

• Angola In the south

• Moved inland with time

Where they went

• Brazil

• The Caribbean

• North America

• Europe

The Journey Across the Atlantic

• High mortality rate

• Suicide

• Terrible conditions

• Rebellions

• Mutiny on a slave ship video- Roots

Impact of Slave Trade in Africa

• Slowing of Africa’s growth

• Economic stagnation

• Labor demands for women

• Small-scale kinship societies

Response by African Kingdoms to Slavery

Kingdom of Benin

• Present-day Nigeria

• Avoided deep involvement

• Restricted slavery from 1516-1700’s

• Focused on exports to Europeans

Kingdom of Dahomey

• Also Present-day Nigeria

• Annual slave raids

• Conducted slave trade till the early nineteenth century

Economic Globalization- Then and Now

• Global circulation of goods

• International currency

• Production for the world market

• Growing economic role of the West

• Private enterprise

Documents

• 14.3 The Slave Trade and the Kingdom of Kongo (Pg. 705)

• 14.4 The Slave Trade and the Kingdom of Asante