Slavery

1
Slavery

• The Atlantic System

2
Sub-Sahara Africa

• Starting in the 1400s the west coast of Africa
  came under the influence of European explorers
• First the Portuguese and later the Spanish,
  British, French and Dutch seized cities, built
  fortresses, and established permanent colonies
• Europeans began to exploit the natural resources
  of Africa such as gold, spices, ivory either
  through trade or force

3
Sub-Sahara Africa

• Soon Europeans found the need for a new natural
  resource in the New World
• With the plantation system and the need for labor
  which the Native Americans were unwilling to
  fulfill the Portuguese and later the other
  European nations found a need for slaves

4
West and Central Africa

• Quickly the number of slaves and slave ship
  increased from Africa to the New World
• At first European nations only took slaves from
  the coastal areas because they were unable to
  gain entrance into the interiors of Africa
• By the mid-1800s Europeans were able to explore
  and colonize the interior regions of Africa

5
Songhai

• Askia Mohammed

6
Songhai

• As the Kingdom of Mali began to decline a new
  Askia Mohammed a skilled general who expanded the
  boundaries of Songhai while also promoting the
  arts and culture of the Songhai Kingdom
• Songhai reached its height between 1500 to 1590

7
Kingdom of the Kongo

• Another large and rich kingdom was that of the
  Kongo in west central Africa
• The people of the Kongo were skilled in working
  with wood, copper and iron
• There was a division of labor within this
  cultural kingdom

8
Kingdom of the Kongo

• In the late 1400s the Portuguese come into
  contact with the Kongo
• Christian missionaries convert the kingdom when
  they are able to convert Nzinga Mvemba the ruler
  of the Kongo
• Both Portugal and the Kongo exchanged ambassadors
  and at first dealt with each other on an equal
  basis.

9
Kingdom of the Kongo

• Soon however Portugals need for slaves caused
  the Portuguese to enslave the people of the Kongo
• Mvemba and the people of the Kongo attempted to
  stop the slave trade and drive the Portuguese out
  of the Kongo
• The attempt to push out the Portuguese was not
  successful-Portugal had established a strong
  dominance over
• Trade in the Kongo
• Portugal had better technology to overcome the
  Kongo and its people

10
The Gold Coast

• Cooperation with the Slave Trade
• During the 1400s many African nations were
  formed through trade with Europeans
• Many West African nations emerge
• Oyo
• Benin
• Dahomey
• Kongo
• Asante (Ashanti)

11
The Gold Coast

• Cooperation with the Slave Trade
• Many of these new nations were warring with other
  older or emerging nations
• Due to this warring nature prisoners of war were
  often sold into European slave markets
  established along the West African coast
• Africans were selling Africans into slavery

12
The Gold Coast

• Asante
• Established in 1680 by Osei Tutu
• Became a strong African nation because of its
  sale of gold and slaves in return for guns and
  gunpowder from European nations
• Because of this West Africa became known as the
  Gold Coast
• Asante was one of the few places that had
  abundant mineral and agricultural resources

13
African Slave Trade

• Once slaves and the prospect for slaves dried up
  on the coast West Africans began warring against
  Central African nations
• Europeans desire for slaves lead to constant
  warfare between African nations to obtain more
  slaves

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Reasons for the Slave Trade

• 1. The need for labor intensive work on the
  plantations
• Planting, harvesting sugar
• At first sugar plantations off the coast of
  Africa, Sao Tome and later Brazil and the
  Caribbean caused the need for labor to become
  more intense

15
Reasons for the Slave Trade

• 2. Native American were not well suited to be
  slaves
• The Catholic Church objected to native Americans
  being used as slaves
• The native Americans were not well suited for the
  hard labor of slavery
• Native Americans did not have knowledge of
  different activities like mining, agricultural
  work or sugar cultivation like Africans

16
The Atlantic Slave Trade

• In 1518 the first recorded shipment of slaves
  was brought by the Portuguese from Africa to the
  New World
• In the 1400s about 1,000 slaves a year were
  brought from Africa to the New World
• In the 1500s about 2,000 slaves a year were
  brought to the New World

17
The Atlantic Slave Trade

• During the 16th and 17th Century the need for
  slaves dramatically increased
• 37 of all slaves brought to the New World went
  to Brazil
• 15 went to Spanish America
• By the 17th Century other European nations
  settled in the New World also needed slaves
• 41 of slaves went to non-Spanish colonies

18
The Atlantic Slave Trade

• Southern Colonies of British North America were
  slaves were used to grow crops such as tobacco
  and cotton accounted for 5 of the slaves

19
The Atlantic Slave Trade

• In the 1600s more than 1 million slaves were
  transported from Africa
• In the 1700s at the peak of the slave trade 6
  million slaves were transported to the New World

20
The Middle Passage

• Most slaves were captives or prisoners of war
• Often times slaves were separated from their
  families, mixed with other tribes, spoke
  different languages or practiced different
  customs

21
The Middle Passage

• At the ports of West African countries slaves
  were loaded onto ships destine for the New World
• This passage to the New World was known as the
  Middle Passage
• Slave ships were build and loaded to carry as
  many slaves as possible to ensure greater profits

22
The Middle Passage

• Slaves were chained together and then chained to
  the boat lying on their backs
• Hundreds of other slaves were also be chained to
  the boat
• Shackled in darkness and filth, seasickness and
  disease were rife. The heat in the hold could be
  over 90 degrees and the slaves would have no
  access to toilets or washing facilities.
• So foul was the smell of slave ships that other
  vessels took care to steer well away from them.

23
The Middle Passage

• Once at sea, the slaves were brought up out of
  their steamy dungeon each morning.
• The men's' leg-irons were linked to a chain
  running down the centre of the ship's deck to
  prevent them jumping overboard. On some ships
  they were made to dance for exercise.
• The slaves would receive their meal, usually a
  kind of porridge made from maize or millet. A
  second meal might be provided in the afternoon,
  usually the same as the first. While on deck a
  good captain had the slaves washed down with warm
  vinegar and scrubbed.  Some did not bother and in
  rough weather the slaves would not be allowed out
  at all.

24
The Middle Passage

• In such conditions disease spread, and many
  slaves died. It was not rare for hundreds to die
  in an epidemic occasionally every African on
  board was dead by the time the ship entered
  Caribbean waters.
• Their bodies would be thrown overboard.
• The average voyage could last 6 week to 3 months

25
The Middle Passage

• It has been estimated that between 9-11 million
  people were taken from Africa by European traders
  and landed alive on the other side of the
  Atlantic.
• But as the average loss was 1/8 of all slaves it
  can be estimated that a further 1½ million
  Africans are buried in the Atlantic Ocean between
  Africa and the Americas.

26
The Triangle Trade

• At the end of the voyage came the sale of  the
  cargo.
• Africans were inspected for physical faults and
  auctioned like meat in a meat-market.
• Families were split up forever and life as a
  plantation slave would begin.

27
The Triangle Trade

• Meanwhile, the captains totted up the profits and
  the crew began cleaning out the ship to take on a
  cargo of colonial produce, which had to be
  carried in better conditions than the slaves had
  endured. As soon as the ship was ready and
  loaded, the final part of the Trade Triangle

28
The Return Passage

• Having loaded the ships with sugar, tobacco and
  rum paid for from the proceeds of the sale of
  slaves, the captains would try to set sail for
  England on the final part of their triangular
  voyage before the Hurricane season began in
  mid-July.

29
The Return Passage

• A ship that sank, or was wrecked near the English
  coast, could mean disaster for a single owner.
  This was the reason most merchant ventures shared
  the risk, and therefore the profit, by investing
  jointly in the trade.
• This was a business venture and profit was to be
  made off the sale of slaves and the return of
  goods

30
The World Economy

• Slavery was a crucial element in European
  economic life
• By the 1800s every major nation had made a
  profit off the sale or use of slaves
• This was evident by the reluctance of nations to
  make slavery illegal
• The Triangle trade of slaves for goods and later
  the exchange of European finished goods
  (metalware, cotton textiles, processed alcohol
  gin and rum and fire arms) made the slave trade
  possible and profitable

31
The World Economy
Europe
Finished Goods
New World
Finished Goods
Raw Materials
Africa
African Slaves
New World
32
World Economy

• In America the slaves would be traded for raw
  materials
• Furs, tobacco, raw cotton, sugar and silver
• The raw materials would then be transported back
  to Europe and turned into finished goods
• In Africa finished European goods would be
  exchanged for
• Gold, ivory, timber and slaves

33
World Economy

• It was the ruthless expansion of Europeans into
  Africa and the exploitation of African goods
  including people (slaves) that accounted for the
  growth and expansion of European wealth from the
  1400s to the 1800s.