Chapter 8 of History Alive!

Dilemmas The southern colonies had enslaved Africans

(Africans who worked on the plantations)

At one point, West Africans had to make a TOUGH decision: Should they trade their own people for European guns and other goods?

What do you think you would do?

Middle PassageThis was the voyage that the enslaved Africans

had to be on across the Atlantic Ocean.

Once they arrived in North America, they has to respond to their new life as slaves.

West Africa in 1500’sWest Africa was just south

of the Sahara Desert

Many cultures lived in West Africa

Most were farmers, miners, craftspeople or traders

Camels would take gold and ivory from West Africa to the Sahara Desert and trade for salt, cloth and other goods

FamilySociety was based on family in

West Africa

Parents, grandparents and children all lived in the same village, worked together and shared crops

Worshipped spirits of their ancestors

Common tradition was storytelling

Although villages were all different, all Africans lived in freedom…until the Slave Trade

Slaves

Europeans traders arrived and saw that some people were not as “free” as others (servants, workers, convicted felons)

Europeans called these people “slaves.”

European traders introduced a new kind of slavery…

They had started plantations growing sugar and tobacco, and needed large numbers of workers.

Slaves continued…So…European traders would bring cloth, rum,

tobacco, guns and other goods in exchange for slaves.

Many AFRICANS even became wealthy by capturing and trading slaves

This type of trade changed life in West AfricaHow do you think?

Horrible Trading Process1st: chained together and marched hundreds of

miles to the coast (many along the way)

2nd: Marked with branding irons and loaded on slave ship towards North America

Voyage was known as the “Middle Passage” because it was the 2nd stage of the slave trade

(1st stage was march to the coast and 3rd stage was the movement from the port to the American Plantations)

Middle passage took 5-12 weeks, or longer.

Routes (Triangular Trade)

Middle Passage Trauma Little exercise

Chained together at ankle and wrist

Little space to sit up or stand

Packed so close they could barely move

Covered in cores from lying on the rough floorboards

Smell and heat was unbearable

Lice, fleas and rats

Sharks followed ships from feeding on the dead when thrown overboard

Between 10-15 million endured this voyage, and between 10-20% died during the voyage

The Middle PassageMany Africans on the slave

ship had never seen white people and reacted in different waysRefuse to eat Jump overboard (crew would

jump overboard and bring them back)

Revolt against crewSaver their strength to

survive the voyage

Arrival in AmericaSome were sold at “scrambles” where the price

was the same for each slave

Some were sold at auctions where buyers bid against each other

1st year on plantation was known as “breaking in” or “seasoning” periodGiven new name and shouted at by an “overseer”

in a language they didn’t even understand

Most slaves worked in the fields 16+ hours a day

Often lived in cabin with 8 or more people with a dirt floor

Reaction to New Life on Plantation

Some tried to run away

Some resisted work (played “dumb”)

Hang themselves

Many worked hard and did what they were told to do