LEARNING INTENTIONS

• Describe the different reasons that people became slaves

• Describe the organisation of the slave trade, including the role of slave factories in Africa

Millions of Africans became slaves in the Americas. However, how did they become slaves in the first place?

What was the role of Europeans and what part did Africans play?

When slavery first started, Europeans

would go into parts of Africa and simply kidnap people.

This worked for a long time although it required

a great deal of work. Europeans soon found a

simpler way.

African middlemen soon began to

capture and sell other Africans.

There were many reasons that one

African would sell another into slavery.

1. Many slaves were prisoners of war, sold by the winning side.

2. Other slaves were kidnapped by rival tribes.

3. Some Africans had broken the law and were sold as punishment.

4. Some Africans were sold to pay off a debt.

Africans who lived in villages near the coast

were an easy target for kidnappers, meaning many tribes moved to

inland Africa.

This meant that kidnapped Africans often faced a

long walk through miles of Africa to be taken back

to the coast.

The walk back to the coast could be extremely difficult

for the slaves, although kidnappers were sometimes

on horses.

Not only was it a long walk in extremely hot weather, but they were made to wear

chains to stop them running away. Many slaves

died on this journey.

After capture, Africans would usually be taken to slave factories, which

were found on the African coast.

These were locations (often forts) were slaves were held before being

sent on a ship to the Americas. They were run

by a factor.

Conditions in slave factories were very poor.

Slaves could be held there for months at a

time, and disease was very common.

In the 1770s, almost half of slaves in factories died

before transportation.

President

Obama at ‘Door

of no return’

on Goree Island,

Senegal (2013).

After being held in slave factories, Africans who survived were then sent

to the Americas on slave ships.

They would be taken to the boat – often in

chains – and put on-board the ship, never to

see their homeland again.