Prof. Macqueen
youvis1201
earlyslavetrade015.pptxHistory 015
The Early Atlantic Slave Trade
The New World Order
From Columbus to Castro
Columbus was searching for India
Indigenous peoples today are “Indians”
Still a medieval crusader—God, Christian God, deserved all the riches of the New World
Demanded and got permission to be Admiral and Viceroy over all lands he discovered—
As an Italian—it infuriated the Spanish nobility
Columbus
German Professor of geography named America, “AMERICA” after the Florentine adventurer Amerigo Vesucci
Vesucci
Arrived in New World 1499, but his writings were widely distributed.
From Columbus to Castro
According to Columbus—much gold in the Caribbean Islands.
End not beginning of gold in this region
Silver in Peru was to be the important metal
Potosi Silver Mine
17th century drawing of Potosi
Potosi Silver Mines
Sugar
Sugar
In 1493 on Columbus’ second voyage he brought sugar cane to the Caribbean
By 1518 Hispaniola was growing a great deal of sugar cane.
Sugar
Sugar production was capital intensive
Herds of cattle to feed slaves
Wood for carts—large investments and large profits
Early Funding Sugar Plantation
Capital was scarce in 16th century Spain
Wealth from the Indies went to pay for wars
Few commercial loans since the Catholic church forbid profit from loans.
State began to subsidize the industry
Sugar Plantations
Sugar Production in the Caribbean
Three Main elements of Sugar production in the Caribbean.
1. centralizing factories
2. World markets and the competition between various producers of sugar
Export sugar, import food—started to affect local food production and set up patterns for the future
Labor in the Americas
First the Spanish conquistadors fell on their knees and then they fell on the aborigines.
BUT the biggest issue was that of Labor
Spanish Slavery
Las Siete Paridas—Slavery was an integral part of the Spanish Economy
Free men, slaves and freedmen
3 types of slaves In Spain
1. Prisoners of war as enemies of the Catholic faith
2. Children of slaves
3. Freedmen who had voluntarily surrendered their freedom
Spanish slaves were expensive
Spanish Slaves
Rights of slaves
1. could not kill him
2. could not ill treat him to the point of suffering
3. Slaves could obtain marriage and manumission against the will of the owner
Indian Slaves in Spain
Columbus and Slavery
Columbus wanted to establish slavery in the Americas
Wrote in his journal that the Indigenous peoples would be good servants and intelligent
Brought a few “Indians” back to Spain—he brought both men and women, because he believed the failure to get Africans to work for them was because there were no African women.
Columbus and slavery
Columbus justified the enslavement of the Carib Indians because they were a wild people fit for any work
While the Indians were needed for labor, the Pope decided that the Spanish had a duty to treat them well and convert them to Christianity
Carib Indians-drawing 1600
Encomienda
Encomienda system—Spanish Feudalism
Severely affected the Indian population on the Caribbean islands for example on St Crouix.
1492—300,000 1514—14,000
1508—60,000 1548--500
1512-20,000
Get labor out of Indians and convert them to Christianity
Spanish version of the “white man’s burden.”
Indians rebelled in large numbers against the Spanish.
Indians rebel
Indian leader in Hispaniola, Hatuey
While Hatuey was burning at the stake, a Franciscan friar exhorted him to take pity upon his soul and not expose it to eternal damnation. Hatuey asked whether any Spaniards were in Paradise. The friar replied that only the good ones. Hatuey said: The best are good for nothing and I will not go where there is a chance of meeting one of them.
Hatuey burning
Las Casas
Las Casas, a Catholic priest preached again the encomiendas and was appointed by the Spanish government as the “Protector of Indians.” He then declared war on the encomiendas.
Protector of the Indians
Las Casas
Because of La Casas a 1537 a papal bull defined and proclaimed that “Indians or any other people discovered by Catholics must in no way be deprived of their liberty or possessions and enslaved. And if enslaved—their slavery was now null and void. Of course this did not apply to Africans
Las Casas & King of Spain
Pizzaro and other colonials were outraged by the new laws. Pizarro said, I had come to take their gold not to civilise them.”
La Casas refused to sacrifice the welfare of the Indians to the greed of the Spaniards
But Las Casas consented to sacrifice the African to the preservation of the Indians.
At first used convict white labor to settle the colonies and fight against the indigenous populations.
The Spanish crown forbade using “Moors”, Jews or anyone not a Christian as slaves.
In 1501 Spain only used converted African slaves—Kingdom of Kongo
African slaves
In 1511 La Casas approached the King of Spain with the idea that the labor of one “Negro” was more valuable than that of four Indians.
The sugar planters and the Indians came to terms –Save the Indigenous peoples and enslave the Africans.
Every 4 years they wiped out an entire slave population and until slaves became more expensive—too overworked to reproduce.
African Slaves
Transformed the history of the Caribbean Islands.
History of Hispanola written in the early 1600’s stated :
There are so many Blacks in this island, as a result of the sugar factories, that the land seems an effigy or an image of Ethiopia itself.
1492—1,130,000 Indians
1518—11,000
Africa
The Major empires of the Hausa, Mali, Songhai in the Western Savanna regions of Africa had lost much of their power. Because:
the circumvention of the continent
the discovery of gold in Brazil and silver in Peru.
Slave Coast, European Map
Slave Trade Routes
Slave Routes
Slave Caravan
Africa
The Senegambia had a new trading partner—The Portuguese.
Trading gold and slaves
Senegambia
Africa
Both Benin and the Yoruba were more interested in trading cloth than slaves
Kingdom of the Kongo—
The Kongo did not have strong religious beliefs tied to political leadership
Therefore when the Portuguese arrived with Catholicism, they were able to make converts. The saints were like spirits and ancestors.
But rather than supplanting the older religion of the Kongo—it became a further element.
Kingdom of Kongo
The Kingdom of the Kongo
17th Century of Kingdom of Kongo
Kongo Virgin Mary
Drawing from Kingdom of Kongo
Ivory Kongo Art
Music of the Kongo
