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Origins of Slavery in the United States

The Need for Cheap Labor •  In order for Sugar, tobacco, and cotton

plantations to be profitable, they required a large supply of workers

•  Europeans had planned on using the Native Americans as cheap labor but most of them died due to disease, mistreatment and warfare

•  Europeans soon looked to Africa to fix the problem

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What is Slavery? •  The treatment of humans as property and

denying them basic human rights is called slavery

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Slaves from Africa •  Slavery had existed in Africa for centuries •  Some Muslim rulers in Africa justified

enslavement with the belief that non-Muslim prisoners of war could be bought and sold as slaves

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Slaves from Africa •  Four advantages:

1.  Africans had been exposed to European diseases and had some immunity

2.  Africans had experience in farming

3.  Africans were less likely to escape because they did not know their way around the new land

4.  The Africans’ skin color made it easy to tell who wasn’t

The Atlantic Slave Trade •  The buying and selling of Africans for work

in the Americas became known as the Atlantic Slave Trade

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The Atlantic Slave Trade •  The journey from Africa to the Americas was

known as the Middle Passage – Conditions were cramped, filthy, and deadly – As much as 20% of slaves died due to disease,

starvation, physical abuse, and suicide

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The Triangular Trade System •  Africans transported to the

Americas were part of a transatlantic trading network called the triangular trade system 1.  Europeans transported

manufactured goods to the west coast of Africa in exchange for slaves

2.  Africans were then transported across the Atlantic and sold in the Americas

3.  European merchants bought raw materials produced by slaves to take back to Europe

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