African American Immigration

The Beginnings

Forced Immigration

• Africans immigration = forced immigration

• Slave trade started in 1510 by the Portuguese under licenses issued by Ferdinand and Spanish

• Originated as Portuguese attempted to bypass Muslim North Africans by sailing around the West Coast

Forced Immigration…

• Later the slave trade was dominated by Dutch and English

• African immigration started with a few people captured in small #s

• Eventually slaves were traded with kingdom leaders in larger numbers

Where they came from

• European interests were mainly on the West Coast of Africa

“Senegambia”

• They wanted gold ‘Gold Coast”= Ghana

The Transatlantic Slave Trade• 1st phase- First hundred years characterized by

small #’s of slaves transported to Europe and surrounding islands and heavily in the Spanish colonies

-many carried to Hispaniola for sugar and gold

The Transatlantic Slave Trade

• 2nd phase- 1650-1807, most intense phase of the trade, impacted the United States

• Carried to the U.S for rice, indigo, tobacco, and cotton

• Carried to other locations in Americas for cocoa, sugar, mining, and coffee

The Transatlantic Slave Trade

• 3rd Phase-1807-1860’s started when the slave trade was banned in Britain and U.S.

• However, numbers did not decline until 1840’s

• Slaves taken mainly to Caribbean and South America

• Small #’s smuggled into the U.S (the Amistad)

Middle Passage• Part of the triangular trade=from

Africa to America• Over 30k voyages documented • Voyages lasted 1-3 months• Only supposed to transfer 350

people but most carried over 800• Approx. 450,000 slaves

transported to U.S (5% of slaves traded)

Middle Passage’s significance to Africans

-many people were branded and naked throughout the voyage

-personal identity denied

-required to lay down entire trip

-deck hands forced them to dance

-Many attempted to starve themselves but were force fed

-Usually 20% died during the voyage from disease, thrown overboard

-Many established relationships with the people they were on the ship with ( batiments- French, sippi- Suriname)