Slavery in Africa

European - African Pre-Slavery Trade

European Background

• Portuguese started African slave trade in 1441

• First Africans in Hispanola in 1505 • 1450-1850 ~12 million Africans

sent to Americas

Why Africans?• No written language , many languages• Native Americans dying off Some degree of disease

resistance• No muskets and gunpowder• Africans participated in trade by enslaving others, selling

debtors and criminals, and kidnapping

• Skilled workers – Knew how to extract precious ore from mines– Familiar with soils and crops

• Not familiar with the land—making escape less likely

How to Get Slaves?

• TRADE! – Africans traded slaves for manufactured goods

like cloth, silk, guns, pots, and copper

• African Kingdoms (Asanti) gained wealth and power from the trade– States sold POW (method of deportation)– Participated to defend themselves

• African “entrepreneurs” Middle Men– Kidnapping

Capture• The original capture of slaves was almost always

violent.• As European demand grew, African chieftains

organized raiding parties to seize individuals from neighboring societies.

• Others launched wars specifically for the purpose of capturing slaves.

• What does this picture tell you?– Europeans did not penetrate the African interior– Guns

March to the Coast

Slave Trade in the CongoSlave Trade in the Congo

Cape Coast Castle, W. Africa

Cape Coast Castle, W. Africa

What role did geography play in the

Triangle of Trade?

What role did geography play in the

Triangle of Trade?

Portuguese Slave Trade

• The Portuguese population was too small to provide a large number of colonists.

• The sugar plantations required a large labor force.

• Slaves filled this demand.

Europeans and Africans

Meet to Trade

Slave Trade and Sugar

• Portuguese crop growers extended the use of slave labor to South America.

• Because of this, Brazil would eventually become the wealthiest of the sugar-producing lands in the western hemisphere.

European Slave Trade

Plantations

• After crossing the Atlantic, most African slaves went to plantations in the tropical or subtropical regions of the western hemisphere.

• The first was established by the Spanish on Hispaniola in 1516.

• Originally the predominant crop was sugar. In addition to sugar, plantations produced crops like tobacco, indigo, and cotton.

• In the 1530s Portuguese began organizing plantations in Brazil, and Brazil became the world’s leading supplier of sugar.

Plantations• All were

designed to export commercial crops for profit.

• Relied almost exclusively on large amounts of slave labor supervised by small numbers of European or Euro-American managers.

Brazilian sugar mill in the 1830s

As the major European powers of Portugal, Britain, France, and the Netherlands looked for ways to exploit the fertile lands of the New World, they looked to Africa for a steady supply of labor. Soon, African slaves had become absolutely vital to the cultivation of sugar, tobacco, cotton, and rice plantations.

As European demand for sugar began to increase, plantations began tospring up throughout Brazil and the Caribbean. Sugar cultivation created a huge demand for slave labor from Africa. Many plantations produced additional crops such as indigo, rice, tobacco, and coffee.

Justification• Slavery made development of the

New World profitable • Native American slaves died of

diseases, escaped easily • African tribes

needed weapons and supplies from Europe

Slavery Expands

• In 1518, the first shipment of slaves went directly from West Africa to the Caribbean where the slaves worked on sugar plantations.

• By the 1520s, the Spanish had introduced slaves to Mexico, Peru, and Central America where they worked as farmers and miners.

• By the early 17th century, the British had introduced slaves to North America.

“Black” Gold for Sale!“Black” Gold for Sale!

Triangular Trade

Exportation• Trip called the

Middle Passage• 5000 miles, 3 wks.

to 3 mos.• 20-25% died• Strip Africans’ self

respect and self identity

The Middle Passage

Unimaginable Suffering

Slave Master BrandsSlave Master Brands

The Middle Passage

The Middle Passage

Correcting Misconceptions

Africans sold their brothers and sisters into slavery

There was no one African identity

Africa is a BIG place—many different ethnic groups

Inspection and SaleInspection and Sale

First Slave AuctionNew Amsterdam (Dutch New York

City - 17c)

First Slave AuctionNew Amsterdam (Dutch New York

City - 17c)

Europeans began the Atlantic slave trade in the 1500s. Their colonies in the Americas needed labor to work on large plantations. European traders sold enslaved Africans to colonists. Families were split up, and many people died. By the time the slave trade ended in the 1800s, millions of Africans had been taken from their homes.

IMPACT ON WEST AFRICA

Impact of Slave Trade on the Americas

•Cultural Diffusion – --The slave trade spread ideas

and goods between cultures (cultural diffusion). --Europeans brought new weapons to Africa. --Africans brought part of their culture (like music food, traditions, Language) to the Americas.