The Atlantic Slave Trade

I. Introduction

Slavery: is the ownership, buying & selling of human beings for the purpose of forced & unpaid labor

Slavery existed long before…

Maya & Aztecs (Meso-America) Sumerians & Babylonians (Mid-East) Egyptians Greeks & Romans Ottomans

African societies kept slaves for domestic purposes (power/wealth)• Europeans changed that

II. Why Africans?

600s: Islam spread into Af. (used slaves) Euro. empires in Amers. needed a labor force

• Native Amers. unaccustomed to hard agrarian labor; died of Euro. disease; escaped

W. Af. tribes had already begun to practice slavery (POWs)

Why Africans?

1) proved resistant to Euro. disease 2) were familiar w/tropical climate & accustomed

to agriculture/pastoralism 3) less-likely to escape (not familiar

w/surroundings) 4) could not blend in w/others (skin color)

1518: Spain & Portugal started shipping slaves across the Atlantic• 1650: 300,000 slaves in Spanish Amer.

• Soon after, British, Dutch, & French

1600s: Brazil dominated Euro. sugar market• >40% of Afs. brought to Amers. = Brazil

1690-1807: England dominated slave trade

III. The Triangular Trade

1450 – end of 19th Cent.: slaves were obtained along W. coast of Africa w/cooperation of W. African kings & merchants• POWs from tribal wars were sold first, then raiding

parties began

African kings received Euro. manufactured goods (textiles, brandy, horses, & GUNS) • Guns = strengthened African kingdoms

• Euros. built forts along W. Af. coast to hold captured slaves until slave ships arrived

• THIS EXPORT OF EURO. GOODS TO AF. WAS THE FIRST LEG OF TRIANGULAR TRADE

A. The Middle Passage

The transport of slaves from W. Af. to Amers. (2nd leg of Triangular Trade)• Journey = >4,000 miles, 5 – 12 weeks

• Ships carried 250 – 600 slaves (overcrowded)

• Conditions were appalling

• Ships smelled of urine, faeces, & vomit

• Slaves = $$$$$$$

A ship’s surgeon Causes of Death: dysentery, smallpox,

depression (suicide)• 20% lost at sea

“It was not atypical to see a massive school of sharks darting in & out of the wake of the ships filled w/human cargo plying the Atlantic. For miles they followed the battered & moldy vessels, waiting to attack the disease-ravaged black bodies that were periodically tossed into the ocean. If the Atlantic were to dry up, it would reveal a scattered pathway of human bones, African bones marking the various routes of the Middle Passage”

----Ship’s Surgeon

Third leg of Triangular Trade: the return to Europe w/produce from the slave-labor plantations (cotton, sugar, tobacco, rum, etc.)

12 million slaves left Africa while 10 million made it to Amer.

IV. Consequences of the Atlantic Slave Trade

1) Loss of the fittest members of Af. Societies• Families torn apart

2) Introduction of guns to Af. 3) Economic contributions to other countries 4) Agricultural/pastoral expertise 5) Diffusion of African culture 6) Af.-Amer. pops

• Mulattos