Holt African American History Chapter 2


Section 1 Slavery Becomes a System

Section 2 The Middle Passage

Section 3 Africans in the Americas

The Atlantic Slave Trade


Reading Focus

• What was slavery like in ancient times?

• How did the arrival of Europeans in Africa affect the slave

trade?

• Why were Europeans eager for slaves from Africa?

Main Idea

Slavery, which had been practiced around the world for

thousands of years, has a long history in Africa.

Section 1: Slavery Becomes a System


Building Background

Africa’s great wealth eventually attracted the attention

of other civilizations around the world. Soon there was

a growing demand for trade with the empires of gold-

rich West Africa. Among the leaders of this new trade

were Europeans, who found another valuable trade

good in Africa—slaves.


The Institution of Slavery

Slavery’s Origins

• Practice did not start with

Europeans; common since

ancient times

• Slaves used for manual

labor—physical work done

by hand

• Slaves vital form of cheap

labor; tended crops, built

temples, worked on farms, in

mines and on construction

projects

Other Functions

• Skilled workers—musicians,

weavers, carpenters

• Muslim rulers trained slaves

as professional soldiers

• In ancient Rome, educated

slaves served as teachers

• Others featured in theaters

and gladiator competitions


The Treatment of Slaves

• Slaves considered property of owners in all societies; their

treatment varied greatly

– In Africa children born to slaves kept with families

– In China owners were free to sell children of slaves, separating families

– Some cultures regulated treatment of slaves • Laws protecting them from cruelty

• In ancient Athens, striking a slave was against the law

• Slavery not based on race

– Slaves from wide variety of backgrounds and cultures

– Most slaves captured in war; others sold as punishment for crimes

– Some born to slave parents or sold as payment of debt

– Considered as property of owner to be resold or given away


Freeing Slaves

• In ancient times, not uncommon for slaves to be freed

• Act of manumission practiced around the world

• Freeing slave considered honorable act

Examples

• Muslim holy book, the Qur’an, promotes idea of

manumitting (freeing) slaves

• Slaves freed after years of dedicated service; Roman

wills show slaves granted freedom upon owner’s death

Manumission


Draw Conclusions

Why might many ancient societies have practiced

slavery?

Reading Check

Answer(s):

To have a cheap source of manual labor;

to humiliate enemies conquered in war


Slavery in Africa

• Institution existed for many

centuries

• Practiced by small kingdoms

and great empires

Muslims

• First entered Africa in 600s

• Expanded African slave trade;

captured or purchased Africans

from local rulers

• Traded all over Muslim world

Examples

• Kanem and Bornu in Central

Africa raided nearby lands

• Egyptians and Nubians in North

Africa looked to south for slaves

Sign of Wealth

• Served as household servants,

agricultural workers; crew

members, pearl divers

• 18 million slaves exchanged

from AD 650 to 1905

Africa and the Slave Trade


European Contact with Africa

• Muslim merchants traded slaves throughout Asia and Africa, not Europe

– After collapse of Roman Empire (AD 476) Europeans isolated

– By 1100s countries of Europe ready to enter world trade again

• Period of great discovery during 1400s and 1500s – Interest in trade and adventure led to exploration

– Reasons included

• adventure and fame

• spread of Christianity

• hope of wealth from trade

– Trade expeditions launched; lure of spices, jewels, and silks

– Africa was target for exploration


Prince Henry the Navigator

• Portugal took early lead from his efforts; Henry gathered Europe’s

best sailors, astronomers, mapmakers

• Sent them off into Atlantic; convinced could get to Asia via Africa

• West African gold could finance future explorations

• Established trade in gold dust, salt; turned to valuable slave trade

Great African kingdoms

• Europeans heard stories of great wealth; tales of West African gold

• Mali’s legendary Mansa Musa

• European access blocked by strong Muslim kingdoms in North Africa

• By 1400s Portugal determined to find way to reach gold-rich Africa


Recall

Why were European explorers initially interested in

Africa?

Reading Check

Answer(s):

To search for a sea route around Africa to

Asia and to gain gold to finance future

operations


Portuguese soon learned great wealth to be found in selling African

captives as slaves in European markets. With European settlement of

the Americas in 1500s, demand for labor skyrocketed.

Africans and Europeans Trade for Slaves

Portuguese trade

• Among first in

Europe to take part

• First large-scale

shipment of slaves

arrived in Portugal

in 1444

• Triggered

increased interest

Cheap labor

• Planters islands in

Atlantic eager for

cheap labor

• Wealthy Europeans

sought slaves as

domestic servants

• 50,000 African slaves

in Europe by 1500

Methods changed

• No longer content

to raid villages;

turned to trade with

local African rulers

• Horses, cloth, or

grain for prisoners

of war; established

treaties with kings


Europeans Send Slaves to the Americas

Importation of slaves to Americas minor, but profitable enterprise

• 1400s no great European demand for cheap manual labor

– But Spain, Portugal, and others expanded into the Americas

– Demand for slave labor soared

• Christopher Columbus

– Voyages of 1492 set off wave of European colonization

– Explorers attracted to wealth of resources in “New World”

– Riches to be found in gold, silver; crops of sugarcane, tobacco

– Mines and plantations (huge farms) established

• Required enormous amount of labor

– Needed to collect and process raw materials

– Initially used Native Americans as forced labor


Native peoples

• Growing resistance to enslavement

• Rapidly decreasing native populations

• Europeans forced to look elsewhere

Atlantic slave trade

• 1502 first black slaves imported to the Caribbean Americas by Portuguese

• First in small numbers, but growing demand led to active trade

• System of slaves from Africa to the Americas known as Atlantic slave trade

Solution

• Look to African slaves—unlike Native Americans, African slaves resistant to

European diseases and could not successfully hide after escaping

• Familiar with farming methods; already worked as reliable laborers in Europe

Resistance


Explain

Why did Europeans look to African slaves as a

source of labor in the New World?

Reading Check

Answer(s):

African slaves were less likely to

successfully escape; were immune to

European diseases; were familiar with

farming methods and had proven to be

reliable laborers


Reading Focus

• What role did the slave trade play in the triangular trade?

• What difficulties did captives face on the Middle Passage?

• What were some of the results of the slave trade?

Main Idea

African slaves were transported by the millions to the Americas.

Section 2: The Middle Passage


Building Background

The transatlantic slave trade was a key part of an

active international trade between the Old World and

the New World. Key to this trade system was the traffic

of African slaves across the Atlantic Ocean—a tragic

journey known as the Middle Passage.


Spanish colonies

• Small numbers of African slaves to Americas in 1500s

• Spread of mines and plantations led to growing demand for slave labor

• Hispaniola and Cuba in the Caribbean; Portugal’s Brazil in South America

• Atlantic slave trade integral part of international trade system by end of

1500s

Other European powers

• Portugal and Spain joined by England, France, and the Netherlands by mid-

1600s

• Used slaves to work on plantations in Americas

• By mid-1700s British merchants dominated Atlantic slave trade

• Imported estimated 2.5 million slaves to Americas between 1701 and 1800

Triangular Trade


Traffic of Slaves

Complex system

• Trade complicated between

Old World and New World

• Trade routes formed

triangular pattern across

Atlantic

• Triangular trade featured

exchange of goods between

Europe, Africa, and the

Americas

Different routes

• Europeans exchanged

manufactured goods (guns

and alcohol) for African

slaves

• Slaves transported along

Middle Passage to locations

in the Americas

• Merchants traded slaves for

raw materials (sugar,

molasses, lumber) which

were taken back to Europe


Identify

What was the triangular trade?

Reading Check

Answer(s):

A trade system in which goods and

slaves were exchanged between Europe,

Africa, and the Americas


Middle Passage

• Most profitable leg of triangular

trade; slaves transported from

Africa to the Americas

• Millions were captured and

enslaved; sent to Americas

Trading posts

• Obtained slaves from local

middlemen at coastal trading

posts, who got slaves from local

rulers in African interior

• Rulers received various goods

Capture

• Search began on West African

coast; majority of slaves

shipped from there

• European slave traders did not

capture slaves directly

Enslavement

• After exchange captives

chained and marched to trading

posts like Gorée Island and

Elmina; there they waited to be

chosen for shipment

The Journey to the Americas


Olaudah Equiano

• Needing good laborers, slave traders examined captives to find healthy men and women

• Strong, young men in high demand

– One African, Olaudah Equiano, sold into slavery at age eleven

– He later wrote about his capture and life as a slave

• Slavers

– After selection, branded and shackled captives transferred aboard slave ships, called slavers

– They faced the horrors of the Middle Passage


Once aboard slave ships, African captives faced a frightening and

difficult trip to the Americas.

The Middle Passage

Voyage details

• Took three to six weeks to

complete; in crowded conditions

packed below ship’s deck

• More slaves transported meant

more profit for ship captains

• Chained together, little room to

move; unsanitary conditions

• Disease and malnutrition

common; many did not survive

Attempts to escape

• For some death preferable to

slavery; jumped overboard or

refused to eat

• Captives fought for freedom;

many accounts of uprisings on

slave ships

• Some successes, but most

uprisings failed; slaves subdued

and placed back in captivity


Describe

What were conditions like on the Middle Passage?

Reading Check

Answer(s):

Captives faced crowded, unsanitary

conditions, with little food, exercise, or

fresh air.


Impact on Africa

• Human cost great

• 10 million to 12 million Africans

shipped to the Americas

• More died on forced marches,

on board ships, or resisting

Impact on the Americas

• Slaves played vital role in

settlement of many areas,

especially Brazil, the Caribbean

• Filled labor needs and helped

strengthen colonial economies

African kingdoms

• Entire communities devastated

• Wars common among rival

kingdoms to win captives

• Economically dependent on

European goods

African diaspora

• Another result was spread of

African culture and traditions

• Scattering of Africans called

African diaspora

• Music, art, and religion spread

Effects of the Slave Trade


Summarize

How were African kingdoms affected by the

Atlantic slave trade?

Reading Check

Answer(s):

Kingdoms were hurt by loss of their

people, by warfare to capture slaves, and

by economic dependence on European

goods.


Reading Focus

• What different jobs did African slaves perform in the New

World?

• What role did Africans play in settling the Americas?

Main Idea

After arriving in the New World, blacks made many contributions

to the settlement of the Americas.

Section 3: Africans in the Americas


Building Background

For slaves who survived the treacherous journey

known as the Middle Passage, the difficulties were far

from over. As they arrived in the New World, they were

often sold to the highest bidder. Thousands of miles

away from their homelands, they were forced to start

new lives as slaves.


The Caribbean

• Primary destination with Spanish, English, and French colonies

• Huge plantations were set up for cash crops, agricultural products produced

primarily for profit, to be sold in Europe

• Crops included tobacco, cotton, and some sugar cane

• In 1640s large-scale sugar industry introduced with dramatic changes

• Sugar plantations required huge labor supply for planting, harvesting, and

processing; more and more slaves brought into islands

• From 6,000 slaves in 1640s, by 1682 number was 46,000

• Final total of four million slaves brought to Caribbean

Slavery in the Americas

With no native labor force and hoping to take advantage of the rich

natural resources of the Americas, Europeans needed slave labor.


Caribbean slaves

Most on plantations

• Demanding and dangerous

work; 10 to 18 hours a day

• Overseers employed to

manage and direct the work;

relied on violence

• Other difficulties with

exhaustion, disease, and lack

of food, medical care

• Planters imported slaves in

greater numbers from 1600s–

1700s

Great numbers, resistance

• Slaves outnumbered colonists

on many islands

• Harsh laws implemented;

punishments included whipping,

burning, hanging

• Some resisted; maroons were

runaway slaves that escaped to

isolated areas in Jamaica, Haiti,

and Cuba

• Slave revolts usually failed, but

1791 revolt in Saint-Domingue

caused end to slavery there


Mainland Latin America

Labor demand

• Other key destination for African slaves was Spanish and Portuguese

colonies in mainland Latin America; received 45 percent of all slaves

imported to Americas

• Need for slaves in Mexico, Peru, and Brazil to work mines, ranches, and

plantations

• Brazil had sugar plantations in 1540s; gold discovered in 1690s

• African slaves worked variety of jobs on sugar, coffee, and cacao

plantations; labored in Peruvian copper and silver mines; were cattle

ranchers, loggers, and fishers

• In large urban districts worked as domestic workers, merchants, and

skilled workers


Protection of slaves

• In Mexico, Central and South

America protective laws passed

• Spanish legal code granted

right to marry; discouraged

breaking up slave families

Difficult lives

• Despite laws, slaves often

overworked and mistreated

• Many ran away

• Often hid in mountains and

forests; developed Maroon

communities

Other protections

• Catholic Church encouraged

owners to free their slaves

• Slaves free to learn reading and

writing

• Could purchase freedom

Slavery laws

Escaped slaves

• Established town near

Veracruz in 1608

• In 1630 established Republic of

Palmares in Brazil; Maroon

town lasted for 67 years


Colonists in North America imported far fewer slaves. Historians

estimate 600,000 or so of those transported went to North America.

British North America

• Group of 20 slaves sold in

Jamestown, Virginia in 1619

• As Christians not lifelong slaves;

earned freedom after number of

years of service

• British colonies relied on

indentured servants

• Worked in exchange for passage

• Black and white servants signed

on as indentured servants

• Served as plantation labor,

domestic servants, and skilled

workers

• Demand for slaves was low as

result of existing indenture system

• In 1640 only 150 slaves in Virginia

Growing need for permanent labor force changed level of satisfaction

with temporary labor gained from indenture system.


Dissatisfaction with indenture

• Workers left jobs after period of service ended; employers had to find

and train new workers; indentured servants ran away and were hard

to find

– By late 1600s number of available European workers declined

– Shortage forced other labor supply; slaves were imported

• Increased number of slaves in North America

– Laws passed to regulate

– 1641 slavery legalized in Massachusetts; by 1700s slavery firmly

established in all British colonies

– New laws established for slaves to serve for life, children enslaved too

– Legal codes set restrictions on slaves; could carry no weapons, could not

travel without permission of owner

• Basis for American slavery began with these laws


Contrast

How did slavery in British North America differ from

other regions?

Reading Check

Answer(s):

Far fewer slaves were imported;

temporary labor was originally more

common than slavery.


Africans Help Settle the Americas

In addition to providing vital labor, Africans explored and settled new

territories and contributed to the region’s culture.

Exploration

• No doubt of role of Africans in

New World expeditions

• Black slaves came with Balboa in

1513; Cortés had African slaves

as crew to Mexico in 1519

• Black crew member planted and

harvested first wheat crop in

Americas

• Estevanico crossed southwest

Conquest and Settlement

• West African slave Juan Valiente

served as conquistador; awarded

estate ands slaves of his own

• Du Sable, a Haitian native,

founded permanent settlement in

area of Chicago; free blacks

helped settle Louisiana, Virginia,

North Carolina

• 1600s slaves developed profitable

rice crops in South Carolina


African Culture in the Americas • Africans played crucial role in development of American culture

– Slaves continued to practice their African traditions and customs

– Over time traditions blended with European and native culture to create

unique culture of Americas

• Influence on music and food

– Brazilian capoeira, a blend of dance and martial arts, from Angolan slaves

– African musical instruments included the marimba, the banjo, and various

types of drums

– African foods include New Orleans Creole, a blend of African, Caribbean,

and European cooking

• Influence on religion and language

– Slaves blended African religious beliefs with Christian ones

– Mixed languages as shown in Haiti and Louisiana

• Great cultural diversity of Americas was the result


Explain

How did Africans help explore and settle the

Americas?

Reading Check

Answer(s):

They took part in early expeditions and

battles, helped explore unknown

territories, settled permanent

communities, and spread African culture

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