Systems of Forced Labor

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Systems of Forced Labor

• Aim How did systems of forced labor affect the
  world between 1450 1750?

From the title page to abolitionist Anthony
Benezets book Some Historical Account of
Guinea, London, 1788
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The Treaty of Tordesillas, 1494 The Popes
Line of Demarcation
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West and Central Africa, c. 1500
This map shows the Empire of Songhai (14641591),
the Kongo Kingdom (c. 14001700), and the major
kingdoms of the West African forest region.
This should look familiar, what do you remember
about the Songhai and Kongo empires?
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Songhay and Kongo Empires

• The Kingdoms of the Kongo and Mwene Mutapa

• The Songhay Kingdom

• Empire was formed under Sunni Ali (1464-1492),
  who extended rule over the entire middle Niger
  valley.
• He developed a system of provincial
  administration to secure the conquests.
• Sunni Alis successors were Muslim rulers with
  the title of askia by the mid-16th century their
  state dominated the central Sudan.
• Islamic and indigenous traditions combined.
• Men and women mixed freely women went unveiled.
• Songhay remained dominant until defeated by
  Moroccans in 1591.
• Muslim influence widely spread- even in regions
  without Islamic states.

• Flourished along the lower Congo River by the
  late 15th century.
• It was an agricultural society whose people were
  skilled in weaving, pottery making,
  blacksmithing, and carving.
• Division of labor women
• dominated crop cultivation and domestic tasks
  men cleared the forest, hunted, and traded.
• A hereditary central kingship ruled over local
  non-hereditary chiefs.
• By the 9th century began building royal stone
  courts (zimbabwe). Great Zimbabwe (peak 11th
  century)- Massive stone buildings and walls were
  constructed.
• Its ruler, the Mwene Mutapa, controlled a large
  territory reaching to the Indian Ocean. Zimbabwe
  dominated gold sources and trade with coastal
  ports of the Indian Ocean network.
• Decline of the Kongo Empire was due to rival
  factions. Decline of Great Zimbabwe is a mystery.

What are the "common elements" in African
societies?
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Slave Trade in the Congo
To what extent did slavery exist before European
contact?
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African Captives in Yokes
Define yokes. What type of slavery does this
painting represent?
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The Portuguese Influence

• Trace the stages in which the Portuguese
  contacted and gained entrance into Africa.
• Started off along the African coast
• established trading forts (factories) ex. El Mina
  
• Allowed trade with interior states
• Opened new markets
• Missionary efforts
• Southern movement.

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The Portuguese Influence (cont)
The Portuguese sailed down the west African coast
and reached the Cape of Good Hope in 1487
Describe Portuguese expansion using the map.
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The Portuguese Influence (cont)
They set up factories (forts/trading posts
staffed by merchants)
What other influences did the Portuguese have on
African empires?
Cape Coast Castle, West Africa
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The Portuguese Influence (cont)

• They had the consent of the local rulers
• Missionaries tried to convert Africans to
  Christianity
• Portuguese were impressed with Gold Coast and
  Ghana
• Portuguese figures appeared in African art
• Some slaves went to Portugal but by the 16th
  century most went to Brazil and Spanish America

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A Mutually Beneficial Arrangement
Ivory Pepper Animal skins Gold Slaves
Portuguese
Firearms
African Rulers
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The Middle Passage
According to this map, which European nations
participated in the Atlantic Slave Trade and
which countries received slaves? Which country
received the largest number of slaves?
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Slave Ship Plan
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Coffin Position Slave Ship Onboard a Slave
Ship Interior
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Onboard the Slave Ship
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Revolt Aboard a Slave Ship
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(No Transcript)
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African Captives Thrown Overboard
Sharks followed the slave ships across the
Atlantic! Give reasons why captains would throw
captives overboard.
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The Triangle Trade
Compare and contrast the Middle Passage with The
Triangle Trade.
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Notice of a Slave Auction Slave Auction
Slaves were brought from Africa for the newly
established plantations and the trade became
trans-oceanic.
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Slaves Working in a Brazilian Sugar Mill
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30 Lashes

• How did the slave trade affect the Africans in
  the New World ? the Kingdoms that they came from?

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Slavery in Africa

• Before European Contact
• Slaves were used mostly in a domestic capacity
• Illegal to enslave Muslims (it was done anyway by
  many Sudanic states)
• Enslavement of women for harems
• African rulers usually enslaved their neighbors,
  not their own people

• After European Contact
• Slaves were generally sent to work on plantations
  (i.e. sugar production)
• Men were more valuable as slaves (Indies Piece)
• African states expanded their power because they
  traded and got European guns, pushed into the
  interior of Africa to capture more slaves (Asante
  and Dahomey were powerful slaving states)

Q Discuss the changes and continuities of
slavery in Africa before and after European
contact.
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Olaudah Equiano (1745-1797)
1789 ? wrote and published, The Interesting
Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or
Gustavus Vassa the African.
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The African Slave Trade
The forced migration of over 15 million Africans
to the New World is one of the most significant
outcomes of both the Age of Exploration and the
Columbian Exchange that followed. (Kaplan)
Analyze the painting. How does this painting
interpret the slave experience during the 1450
1750 time period?
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Does slavery exist anywhere in the world today??
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An Unfortunate Continuity Today
MAURITANIA New anti-slavery law not enough for
real change, activists say
http//www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId73936
Slavery is now illegal in Mauritania
DAKAR, 24 August 2007
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Encomienda System
What was the encomienda system? How did it work?
Gold panning scene from Montserrat Manuscript
of Oviedo's General History (HM 177, Vol. I, f.
18v.) Book VI, Chapter VII on Deposits or
Miscellanies. Courtesy of the Henry E.
Huntington Library (San Marino, USA).
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Encomienda System Defined
A grant of authority over a population of
Amerindians in the Spanish colonies. It provided
the grant holder with a supple of cheap labor and
periodic payments of goods by the Amerindians.
It obliged the grant holder to Christianize the
Amerindians.
Use your own words to define the encomienda
system.
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How did this new Spanish Empire continue the
traditions of the older Reconquista?

• (How did they organize their vast empire?)
• Define Reconquista

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Cycle of Conquest Colonization
Explorers
Conquistadores
OfficialEuropeanColony!
Missionaries
PermanentSettlers
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Describe the various social classes that emerged
in colonial Spanish America?
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The Colonial Class System
Peninsulares
Creoles
Mestizos
Mulattos
Native Indians
Black Slaves
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Treasuresfrom the Americas!