Prof. Macqueen
youvis1201
015slavetrade.pptxHistory 015
The Atlantic Slave Trade
Atlantic Slave Trade
1450 to 1640
Africa’s main trading partner become Europe
1640 to 1800-
Largest number of slaves
Africans lose control of the trade
Justification for viewing African slaves as a commodity-not human
Hametic myth—Christian theologians found an obscure Jewish text about the Children of Ham—son of Noah
According to this story—the Children of Ham were cursed by God and the sign of the curse is their Black skin—inferior human beings.
Therefore deserved to be slaves.
Africa in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade 1640 to 1800
Key questions:
How did the slave trade start?
Why did Africans participate?
Who benefited from the slave trade?
What were the effects on Africa?
What was the difference between the Atlantic Slave Trade and slavery in the Africa
Islamic Africa and the Islamic world?
Start of Slave Trade
End of W. African Empires
Less reliance on Islamic Trading network
Sea trade replaces
Trans Saharan Trade
From a trickle
At first the Portuguese
were trying to get gold.
From a trickle
Captured a few Africans living along the coast and brought them to Europe.
Early Slave Trade
From 1450 to 1500
35,000 slaves
annually exported
from Africa to Europe.
How did the slave trade start?
Without African support, it would have been impossible for the Europeans to get the number of slaves that they did.
How did the slave trade start?
Portuguese traded with local African leaders for people who were already slaves.
People captured
In war
First Sugar Plantations
The Portuguese began growing sugar with slave labor in the Cape Verde Islands
Beginning of the Slave Trade
Need for labor in sugar plantations
Signares
Along the coast Portuguese men had children with African women.
How did the slave trade start?
Since many of these societies were matrilineal at the time—
having a child with an African woman
allowed them an entrance
Into African society.
Early Slave Trade
The Mulatto women
became big time
slave traders in the
Senegambia
How did the slave trade start?
These women slave traders helped the Europeans understand the divisions among various Africans
Divide and conquer worked very well.
How did the slave trade start?
KEY POINT: Until colonialism (1900)—only Africans controlled the trade in the interior of Africa, but Europeans controlled the coasts of Africa
Slave Trade
The Europeans were able to cause economic problems like flooding the West African economies with cowries shells
Demand for Slaves
Sugar Production
A. Portuguese
started sugar
production
in Cape Verde
Demand for slaves
Sugar Plantations in Caribbean
In the early years
wiped out an entire
slave population every
4 years.
How did the slave trade start?
Without African support, it would have been impossible for the Europeans to get the number of slaves that they did.
Slave Trade
Why did Africans participate?
Why did Africans participate in the Slave Trade?
1. All Africans owed their loyalty to their lineage or their clan—
Slave Trade
2. No concept of
being an African
until they were
chained together
on a slave ship.
Why did Africans participate in the Slave Trade?
Once the slave trade was in full force—Africans often found that they either had to become slaves or slavers.
One Gun One Slave
The only way to stay out of the slave trade was to get European guns,
the only way to get guns was to sell slaves to Europeans
Slave Trade
Difficult choices between whether you and your relatives would be slaves or you capture slaves.
Who Benefitted from the Atlantic Slave Trade?
Europe
Made a great deal of money off the slave trade itself.
Free labor
Surplus made in producing sugar laid the basis for the rise of industrialization in Europe.
Who Benefitted from the Atlantic Slave Trade?
African slave traders
and a few elites
Some rulers broke
with tradition and
wanted lots of
luxury goods
(foreign items)
Who Benefitted from the Atlantic Slave Trade?
The Americas
Good music, dancing,
agricultural technology,
African culture
Walter Rodney
How Europe Underdeveloped Africa
What were the effects of the slave trade on Africa?
1. Depopulation
1650 1750 1850 1950
Africa 100 100 100 120
Europe 103 144 274 423
Asia 257 437 656 857
What were the effects of the slave trade on Africa?
Removed the most
productive and
reproductive members
of their societies
young women
and men 15-25
Warrior Cultures
Created warrior cultures
young men were trained in warfare instead of blacksmithing, art or farming
What were the effects of the slave trade on Africa?
Created an insecure environment
Couldn’t go work in the fields for fear of being caught
Effects on gender Status
Women lost much of their status because of the need for warriors
Effects on gender status
Increase in polygamy and brideprice since fewer men.
Effects on the arts, technology
The arts, technology and other aspects of culture were not as well developed as before the slave trade
What were the effects of the slave trade on Africa?
The Economy
Europeans monopolized trade in W. Africa since they had better boats along the coast.
Slave Trade
Exchange of Africans
for manufactured
goods from outside
the continent.
Africa in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade 1640 to 1800
imported manufactured goods
began to undermine
the manufacturing
capacities of many
African economies.
Indigo dying of cloth
Kano
What were the effects of the slave trade on Africa?
Once the slave trade got going in full force –Europeans were able to trade firearms to everyone and not have to act as middlemen.
Effects of slave trade
Slaving and raiding people for slaves produces nothing.
Effects of Slave Trade
Trading humans
only created a
demand for firearms
technology and all
technology was
produced in Europe
What were the effects of the slave trade on Africa?
Could not produce as usual when they needed worry about the slave trade.
African Slavery
Slavery in Africa meant being “kinless”.
Captives in war—what do you do with them?
People who were pawned for debt or injury.
Not based on race or even ethnicity (different lineage).
Slavery was not a permanent state
African Slavery
Was treated as part of the family and usually worked side by side with the rest of the family
Usually just household slavery
Women were desired more than men because of their knowledge of agriculture.
Islamic and African/Islamic Slavery
People captured in war
People purchased from around the known world
Primarily household slavery, army, bureaucracy—example Mohammed Ali, Albanian slave who became the first modern leader of Egypt.
Hausa Military slave
Hausa States
Mohammed Ali –Albanian slave
Islamic and African/Islamic Slavery
Slavery is not based on race
Slavery can end in one’s lifetime
Slaves were human and could not be killed or mistreated.
Desired women more than men since the majority of the slaves were household slaves
Eunuchs
Islamic and African/Islamic Slavery
Islam did not forbid slavery, but offered mediation of slavery
Forgiveness of certain sins by freeing a slave
If you free all your slaves in your will, you are in a better position on judgment day.
Islamic and African/Islamic Slavery
Slave women who give birth to a child whose Father is free—is
automatically free
and his/her
mother should be freed.
Atlantic Slave Trade
Primarily plantation in the early years
Slavery based on race
Slavery was suppose to be forever
If you have a drop of African blood—you are a slave!
Often the slave owner was a father of a slave’s child, but that child would still be a slave.
Gender in Atlantic Slave Trade
More men than women usually 2 to 1
Comparative Slavery
Humaness Racial Permanent Gender
African yes no no Fem
Islamic Yes no no Fem
Atlantic No yes yes Mal
El Mina Castle, Ghana
Slave cell
Slave Cell
Slave forts
Slave Sell Notice
Runaway Slave
