Slave Trade and Middle Passage

Background•Luxury goods like sugar, tobacco, and cotton were in high demand in newly-rich Europe

•Native American populations had died out due to smallpox

•Need new sources of labor

Basics• African societies =

empire building and needed weapons

• Traded captured Africans for guns at W. African coast

• European traders took them across the “Middle Passage” to colonial areas

Triangle Trade

Textiles, guns and

manufactured goods to Africa

Graph of slaves taken to Americas to grow luxury

crops

Middle Passage• Production of these new products called

for more laborers!

• Journey from Africa to America

• Below deck slaves packed tightly laborers!

• Journey from Africa to America

• Below deck slaves packed tightly

4 feet long

2 feet wide

Slave ShipSlave ShipSlave ShipSlave Ship

““Middle Passage”Middle Passage”

Middle Passage ConditionsPick 5

• Slaves while on board were burned with hot irons and put in cuffs.

• There was very little headroom.

• There were about 300 to 400 people packed in a tiny area.

• Not much room to breathe.

• Disease happened a lot.

• Food was nasty

• Some slaves tried to kill themselves by starving themselves but were then force fed.

African CaptivesAfrican CaptivesThrown OverboardThrown OverboardAfrican CaptivesAfrican Captives

Thrown OverboardThrown Overboard

Sharks followed the slave Sharks followed the slave ships!ships!

*1 in 5 (20%) did not survive the trip across the Atlantic Ocean

*10-24 million slaves brought to the New World

In The America’s• The slaves worked long hours

– Separated from family members.

• Most were treated very bad and beaten, but there were exceptions

• Some slaves were able to gain freedom but very few.

African Slaves Working In A

Brazilian Sugar Mill

Amistad Video Clip

Amistad_clip.flv

Slave Trade • Imagine one day you were tending your crops in

your African tribe, when all of the sudden leaders of your tribe start beating your family members and tied them up. You are so scared that you can’t move, but at least you are hidden from view, but the same is not true of your family. You see your mother, father and sister get taken away. You follow the group and see your family taken by men who look different and dress different than you. You see them load your family onto a large ship, all the while treating your family with no respect.

Task • You feel that it is your duty to warn others about what happened,

so others will not be trapped and separated from their families like you.

• Develop a drawing with a caption warning others about the foreigners.

• On the back describe:– The reason for African Slavery– The Middle Passage– Life in the America’s for African Slaves

One step further:

– Create a caption to warn others about hazards of today: (Examples of hazards: Child Abuse, Animal Cruelty, Pollution, Teen Suicide, Bullying)

– Example Caption For Teen Suicide: “You are never alone.”

Trans-Atlantic Slave Trans-Atlantic Slave TradeTrade

Trans-Atlantic Slave Trans-Atlantic Slave TradeTrade