SLAVERY IN ARABIAN SOCIETIES

While Europeans targeted men in West Africa, the 'Arab' trade primarily harvested the women of East Africa to

serve as domestic slaves.

10 million Africans were taken during the Arab slave trade.

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The Atlantic Slave Trade

When?

•1450 - Spanish & Portuguese start slaving in Africa

•1865 - still smuggling slaves until the end of the Civil War (technically illegal in 1808)

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Why?

•1. Labor shortage (not enough workers)

•2. Ethnocentrism –(feelings of superiority)

•3. Greed

A Typical Slave Ship, at port in London’s East India docks – getting ready for the next slave run.A typical cargo included:

IRON BARS

COWRIE SHELLS

Middle Passage – route that slaves took from Africa, crossing the Atlantic to North or South America.

CHEAP MANUFACTURED GOODS

Trinkets – pots, pans, beads, shells, cloth

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TRIBAL CHIEFS EXCHANGE SLAVES , OR SLAVES ARE CAPTURED SECOND STAGE - THE

MIDDLE PASSAGESLAVE TRADERS THEN SOLD THE SLAVES TO PLANTATION OWNERS

THE ‘MIDDLE PASSAGE’ – THE JOURNEY ACROSS THE ATLANTIC..

THIRD STAGE – RAW MATERIALS SENT TO EUROPE

Profits from slave sales were used to buy

produce from the plantations eg. sugar,

tobacco, cotton, which were sold for

great profit in Europe.

SLAVES WERE USED ON PLANTATIONS, GROWING SUGAR, TOBACCO, COTTON.

Brazil

Caribbean Islands

Mexico

U.S.A.

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Number of people enslaved•30 million taken from their homes

•10 million die during capture phase

•10 million die during middle passage

•10 million survive to make it over the ocean

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Phases of the Slave Trade• Phase 1: Capture

•Most captured 50-100 miles inland

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Phases of the Slave Trade•Capture

Christiansborg Castle, Gold Coast, ca. 1750

Cape Coast Castle, Gold Coast, 1727

This engraving, entitled An African man being inspected for sale into slavery while a white man talks with African slave traders, appeared in the detailed account of a former slave ship captain and was published in 1854.

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Phases of the Slave Trade

Phase 2. The Middle Passage

•Journey over the Atlantic Ocean

•400-500 people in a boat with little air & much disease

Slaves being rowed to a newly arrived slaving ship off the Guinea coast – note the trading fort in the background.Cross-section of a slave embarkation canoe.

Boarding the ship and being chained and then being sent down to the slave decks.

Boarding the ship and being chained and then being sent down to the slave decks.

This model [right] and the charts were used by slave reformers at the end of the 18th century, to show how a Liverpool slave ship of 320 tons could carry 400 slaves. On one voyage the ship carried 609 slaves.

A successful slave voyage could expect a loss rate of 1 in 20 slaves. A bad run might suffer losses as high as 1 in 3, mainly due to disease.

The space between the deck shelves could vary from 72 cm.to 1 m.

• Africans were crowded and chained cruelly aboard slave ships.

"...the excessive heat was not the only thing that rendered their situation intolerable. The deck, that is the floor of their rooms, was so covered with the blood and mucus which had proceeded from them in consequence of the flux, that it resembled a slaughterhouse."

Taken from Alexander Falconbridge, a surgeon aboard slave ships and later the governor of a British colony for freed slaves in Sierra Leone.

Slaves were fed twice a day.

Male slaves were chained, women and children usually went unshackled.

Slaves were brought up on to the top deck to be‘exercised’ or ‘danced’ usually once a day. This was usually at the point of a whip. This was the most dangerous time for the ship’s crew when the slaves had an opportunity to rebel. A loaded cannon was always kept ready with a lighted match.

Heading for Jamaica in 1781, the ship Zong was nearing the end of its voyage. It had been twelve weeks since it had sailed from the west African coast with its cargo of 417 slaves. Water was running out. Then, compounding the problem, there was an outbreak of disease. The ship's captain, reasoning that the slaves were going to die anyway, made a decision. In order to reduce the owner's losses he would throw overboard the slaves thought to be too sick to recover. The voyage was insured, but the insurance would not pay for sick slaves or even those killed by illness. However, it would cover slaves lost through drowning.

The captain gave the order; 54 Africans were chained together, then thrown overboard. Another 78 were drowned over the next two days. By the time the ship had reached the Caribbean,132 persons had been murdered.

Diseased and rebellious slaves were often thrown overboard.

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Phases of the Slave Trade•3.“Seasoning”

•Brutal work camps, 4-5 months in Caribbean•Meant to train people to be slaves

Slaves

Plantation Owners

Auctioneer

Gavel

European port towns, such as, Bristol and Liverpool, largely grew up on the slave trade

New social habits like the drinking of tea and coffee, smoking tobacco and eating chocolate, were introduced into Europe.

Slave owners became immensely rich. One result of this personal wealth was the building of many impressive mansion houses

Rivalries began between European countries for control of the rich slave areas in the Americas’, Africa and Asia, this led to many colonial wars and the growth of empires