African Slave Trade

Essential Question

• How did African

slavery influence

the development

of the Americas?

Columbian Exchange• Many things were traded

back and forth between

Europe and the Americas.

• Europeans brought Sugar

Cane to the Caribbean

– Sugar Cane is originally

from Asia

– They found that Sugar

Cane grew very well in the

Caribbean and in Brazil.

Question 1: Why do you think

Europeans wanted sugar

so bad?

Columbian Exchange• Sugar cane required

massive amounts of labor.

• At first, Europeans tried to enslave the natives.

– This didn’t work

Question 2: Why do you think it didn’t work?

• Most natives had already died of diseases and those that were left didn’t make good slaves.

– They died very easily or would run away

Columbian Exchange

• Europeans needed to find a large, cheap source of labor

Question 3: Where do you think they found it?

• Africans were captured from Western Africa and brought to Brazil and the Caribbean to work on these large plantations.– Africans could survive a lot

longer under slave conditions than Natives.

• Many Africans would die on the voyage, so they

had to cram as many in as possible.

La Amistad

Triangular Trade• Before African slavery

began, the Columbian

Exchange was limited

to Europe and the

Americas.

Triangular Trade

• After the African

Slave Trade was

introduced, a third

continent took part in

the Columbian

Exchange; Africa.

• This trade between

the three continents

was referred to as

Triangular Trade.

Triangular Trade

Effects of Slavery in Latin America

• Slavery made the colonies of Latin America dependent on the plantation system.

• In order for this system to work, slaves had to continually be brought from Africa to replace the ones who had died.

• As a result, the population of Africa began to decrease.

• This mistreatment

caused many Africans

to be upset by this

mistreatment and

lead revolts.

Effects of Slavery in Latin America

• Also, African slaves replaced many of the populations in some places.

– EX: Haiti and Jamaica’s native populations were almost entirely replaced by Africans

– If you go to Haiti today, most citizens are of African descent.

Haitian Foreign Ministers

Effects of African Slavery

• Also, many Africans intermarried with Europeans in the Caribbean– People who were ½

African and ½ European were called Mulatto

– Many Mulatto people still live in Latin America today

– Cuban people are Mulatto

Conclusion

• African slavery was used to keep the plantation system going in the Americas.

• The Slave Trade caused the population of Africa to decrease.

• Due to this horrible mistreatment, many slaves led revolts and some even earned their freedom.

• The influence of the slave trade can still be seen in Latin America’s culture today.

Major Ethnic Groups

• Mestizos - People of mixed Native

American and Spanish descent

–Make up a large portion of the

populations of Mexico, Central

America, Chile, Paraguay.

–Mestizo culture is mostly Spanish

Catholic along with some Native

American traditions.

• Mulattos -

Mixed African

and European

ancestry.

–Cuban

people are

Mulatto

• Indegenas –

Native American

ancestry.

–Majority of the

population in

Bolivia, Peru,

and

Guatemala.

• Some places in Latin America have

people with all European ancestry.

–Ex: 75% of Costa Rica’s population

is all European descent.

Question 4: What do you think

caused there to be such a mixture

of cultures in Latin America?