Happy Block Day! Going over the African Slave Trade

today Friday- Columbian Exchange- Sugar and

Chocolate

Please get out your warm ups to start class

Turn to the second page of your warm-up You will find a poem titled, “Pity for Poor Africans

(1788)William Cowper”

Please answer these questions as you read it: Stanza One: How does Cowper feel about

slavery initially? Stanza Two: Why does Cowper choose to be

quiet about his opinions on the slave trade? Stanza Three: What does Cowper call blacks?

Why? Stanza Four: Does Cowper convince you to end

slavery, or keep it going?

I am shock'd at the purchase of slaves,And fear those who buy them and sell them are knaves;What I hear of their hardships, their tortures, and groansIs almost enough to draw pity from stones.

I pity them greatly, but I must be mum,For how could we do without sugar and rum?Especially sugar, so needful we see?What? give up our desserts, our coffee, and tea!

Besides, if we do, the French, Dutch, and Danes,Will heartily thank us, no doubt, for our pains;If we do not buy the poor creatures, they will,And tortures and groans will be multiplied still.

If foreigners also would give up the trade,Much more on behalf of your wish might be said;But while they get riches by purchasing blacks,Please tell me why they may not give up snacks?

About the African Slave Trade????

To understand the motives for using slaves as labor

To analyze the results of the Middle passage had on African population and culture

To evaluate the influence of the triangle trade

BIG QUESTION: Why did slavery even start????

Written by historian Kenneth Pomeranz in his book “Economic Culture of Drugs”

“The fact is that historically, goods considered drugs, that is, products ingested, smoked, sniffed or drunk to produce an altered state of being, have been central to exchange and production…

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• Written by historian Kenneth Pomeranz in his book “Economic Culture of Drugs”

“In the seventeenth century affluent people all over the world began to drink, smoke and eat exotic plants that came from long distances. Coffee, tea, cocoa, tobacco and sugar all became popular at roughly the same time… Before long, most the drug foods were being produced in new, distant parts of the world that Europeans had colonized… Colonial empires were built on the foundation of drug trades”

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African slavery began during the 7th century with the rise of Islam.

Slavery was justified with the belief that non-Muslim prisoners of war could be bought and sold as slaves.

Between 650 and 1600, 4.8 million Africans (mostly prisoners and criminals) were bought and sold as slaves.

Later it became anyone they could capture.

The first explorers were the Portuguese during the 1400s.

At first, the Portuguese were more interested in finding gold, but that changed with the colonization of the Americas.

European colonists forced the Native Americans to work in mines and plantations.

As the Natives began dying from disease and warfare, the Europeans became desperate for workers.

Native American populations were decimated.

More than 1/3 of the total Native American population died from smallpox, measles or other European disease.

Europeans used the tribal chiefs first Give them prisoners of

war Paid them $$$ Traded tobacco and

alcohol/rum for slaves Europeans often

stayed there to oversee the slave trade

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Many Africans had already been exposed to European disease and built up immunity to them.

Africans had experience in farming.

Africans had no familiar tribes in which to hide so they were less likely to escape.

Major Slave Trade Destinations

Red Sea – 6%Trans-Sahara – 19%East Africa &Indian Ocean – 6%Trans-Atlantic – 69%

Shaded areas show regionsmost slaves come from

50%

33%

12%

5%

CaribbeanBrazilCentral, South AmericaNorth America

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http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/Slaves_in_chains_(grayscale).png

Middle passage under horrific conditions 4-6 week voyage Mortality initially high, often over

50%, eventually declined to 5% Total slave traffic, 15th-18th c.: 12 million Approximately 3-4 million killed before

arrival27

0

10000

20000

30000

40000

50000

60000

16th c. 17th c. 18th c.

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Europeans crammed as many slaves as they could fit into the slave ships.

Africans were whipped and beaten by merchants.

Diseases swept through the vessel. The smell of blood, sweat, and

excrement filled the vessel. Captives were surrounded by vomit

and human waste.

An 11 yr old African sold into slavery made this voyage known as the Middle Passage. “…with the loathsome

of the stench, and crying together, I became so sick and low that I was not able to eat…”

Many Africans died aboard the slave ships from disease or cruel treatment from merchants.

Many committed suicide by jumping into the ocean, rather than be enslaved.

20% of Africans aboard each slave ships died during the brutal trip to the Americas.

The voyage typically lasted 3-4 months. Many times, there would be more than 600

slaves on the ship.

Open up your Warm Ups Turn to document 1 & document 2 Read these two documents and answer the

questions that follow You will be making a journal later as a

project at the end of class, so read carefully. You have about 15-20 minutes. We will discuss this after

1. Traders left from Europe with a ship loaded with goods to Africa. 2. Traders exchanged these goods for captured Africans. 3. Africans were then transported across the Atlantic Ocean and sold in the West Indies.

– Merchants bought sugar, coffee, and tobacco to sell in Europe.

Merchants carried rum and other goods from the New England colonies to Africa. They exchanged merchandise for Africans. The traders took the slaves to the West Indies and sold them for sugar and molasses. Then they sold these goods to rum producers in New England.

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Salvador (Savior), Bahia, Brazil was the first place to establish a slave market.

The actual slave trading went on underneath this market.

You can visit the actual slave market today in the center of Salvador in an area called ‘Pelourinho’ (which means whipping post)

The actual slave ships, called ‘slavers’ entered in tunnels and canals to these slave trading markets.

After slave trading became illegal, many slaves were secretly smuggled in through these tunnels beneath the city.

Slaves worked in mines, fields, or as domestic servants.

Worked long days on little food and suffered whippings and beatings.

Slavery was a lifelong condition as well as a hereditary one.

Total African population expands due to importation of American crops

Yet millions of captured Africans removed from society, deplete regional populations

Distorted sex ratios result 2/3 of slaves male, 14-35

years of age

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Warfare increases Slaves for guns = leaders increase exports

to maintain control of European firearms Political authority in Africa becomes tied to

slave raiding

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• Caribbean, South America: African population unable to maintain numbers because of:– Malaria, yellow fever– Brutal working conditions, sanitation,

nutrition– Gender imbalance

• Constant importation of slaves

• North America: less disease, more normal sex ratio– Slave families encouraged as prices rise in

18th century65

Diaspora is a Greek term that literally

means “scattering”.

You have just read an excerpt from Olaudah Equiano. In it Olaudah Equiano vividly recounts the shock and isolation he felt during the Middle Passage to Barbados and his fear that the European slavers would eat him.

He told his story for several reasons. Many people tried to defend slavery by saying black people were suited for heavy work.

They said slaves were well treated and that since they could read and write, they did not need to be free.

Equiano wanted to show these arguments for the lies that they were.

YOUR TASK: Create a journal from a perspective of a slave experiencing the Middle Passage. You should include:

Information about who you are (Create your own character), where you are coming from, and where you think you are going. (Be sure to include an accurate date)

How were you captured (Look at the notes)? What were you traded for (Use an example from triangular trade)?

What are the conditions on the ship (Give at least 4 specific details)?

Look to the future- What do you fear about the future? What have you heard about life in the New World? Did you leave any family behind? Are you going to revolt?

2 paragraphs AT LEAST (5 sentences each-total 10 sentences!)

This is a chance to be creative, but your journal should also be filled with FACTS!!!

Your journal should be written in the format of a journal and should be FINAL COPY QUALITY (This means no crossed out words or major spelling and grammar mistakes.) It should be at least one page handwritten. It may be typed.

The journal will be due on Tuesday, December 11th