This document discusses the history of slavery in Africa and the development of the transatlantic slave trade. It describes how slavery existed in many parts of Africa prior to European arrival, often as a result of warfare. It then outlines the three stages of the European slave trade between Africa and the Americas from the 15th to 19th centuries. Stage one involved the Portuguese beginning to export slaves from West Africa. Stage two saw massive growth in the slave trade as European demand increased due to the rise of plantation economies in the Americas. Millions of African slaves were transported during this period. Stage three included the abolition of the slave trade in the early 1800s due to growing opposition in places like Britain.

2. Indentured Servitude

3. Chattel Slavery

4. I. Slavery in Africa before European Arrival
A. Characteristics
1. Slavery in all parts of Africa
2. spoils of war
3. servants/laborers
4. lived w/owner
5. status symbol

5. I. Slavery in Africa before European Arrival
B. Early Export Slave Trade
1. Arab/Muslim slave trade to Middle East
2. well-developed routes & markets
3. N. & E. Africa

6. Arab Slave Trade in East Africa

7. I. Slavery in Africa before European Arrival
C. Political Fragmentation
1. Lack of unity or large-scale power
What does this
mean for the
Europeans?

8. II. Stages in European/Atlantic Slave Trade
A. Stage 1: (Origin) 1441-1500
1. Portuguese 1st to export slaves (W. Africa)
2. domestic servitude in Europe
3. Africans have advantage in early trade
4. Gold & ivory still main exports

9. Early Portuguese contact
and trading posts in West Africa

10. B. Stage 2: (Expansion/Peak) 1500-1770s
1. European demand increases
a. Amerindians = ineffective labor source
- low #s
- increasing rights (Cath. Priests)
b. Growth of plantation economy
c. Price of slaves increases

11. Slave ship on “Middle Passage”

12. 
Slave ship on “Middle Passage”

13. 2. Africans promote increases
a. Civil wars =
- demand for guns
- more captives
- loss of African trade advantage
Why?

14. 3. African slave-trading kingdoms
a. Most powerful = Congo & Asante
b. Empowered by European trading posts
- cycle of guns for slaves
What was the cycle of growing power for the Asante and Congo kingdoms?

15. Typical European trading
post in West Africa

16. 4. Results
a. 10 mill. slaves exported; mainly from W. Africa
b. Slave exports far surpassed gold & ivory
c. 90% went to Caribbean & Brazil
d. New Imports – corn + potatoes; offset pop. loss

18. Slave Trade 1521-1773
Destination Number of slaves
Brazil 3,646,800
British West Indies 1,665,000
French West Indies 1,600,200
Spanish America 1,552,000 (702,000 to Cuba alone)
Dutch West Indies 500,000
North America 399,000
Danish West Indies 28,000
Total 9,391,000
http://abolition.nypl.org/maps/

19. 4. Results
e. Maroon Societies (escaped slaves) emerged
throughout Americas.
- communities formed in isolated regions
- developed unique cultures (see reading)

20. 4. Results
f. Omani-European Rivalry for E. African/Indian
Ocean trade. (see reading)

21. Omani-European
Rivalry

22. C. Stage 3: (Decline) 1800s
1. Age of Enlightenment (1750s-1800)
a. Concepts of human rights & freedoms

23. C. Stage 3: (Decline) 1800s
2. Role of Great Britain
a. Led abolition movement
b. Slave trade outlawed- early 1800s
British navy firing on slave ship

24. C. Stage 3: (Decline) 1800s
3. Industrial Age
- reduced need for slave labor
- paid labor better than free
What are some benefits to a
paid labor source?

25. This was a world of sailing ships, large ocean-going dhows, and smaller coasting vessels. The monsoon wind system still facilitated and constrained maritime
trade in the Indian Ocean basin, just as it had for two millennia. British and French commerce and naval power had displaced that of the Portuguese (who
remained in Goa, India however). After the Omanis expelled the Portuguese from Muscat in 1650, they helped the Swahili towns of East Africa in their struggle
to extricate themselves from the Portuguese yoke. For Arab and Indian traders, Portugal's decline was the return to older patterns of trade. In the western
Indian Ocean basin, these patterns favored Oman because Muscat was well-placed to dominate the Persian Gulf. Trade with India increased steadily, Omani
merchants prospered, and Oman emerged as a key player in the Indian Ocean trade. This created considerable anxiety among the system's European players,
and the British treaty with Oman in 1799 reflects this anxiety. The British, of course, wanted to protect their interests in India.
Mercantile rivalry between Britain and France, played out globally in the eighteenth century, and provides a larger context for relations among Europeans,
Indians, Arabs, and Africans in the Indian Ocean system. In the decades after 1760, France was losing out to Britain, specifically in India. The French then
turned their attention to the French East India Company's islands off the coast of Madagascar where they had developed sugar plantations in the 1740s with
slaves obtained from Madagascar. When these plantations, as well as the French plantations in the French West Indies, required more labor, the French went
looking for slaves on the East African coast.
When French traders came to Kilwa seeking slaves, they gave a major boost to Kilwa's slave export trade. The ruler of Oman wanted to tax this trade, so he
tried to exert more control over Kilwa. Also, Omani prosperity had generated a greater demand for slaves in Oman itself, where slaves worked on date
plantations, crewed ships, and served as domestics.
This expansion of maritime trade on the East Coast was centered on Kilwa from the 1770s to 1790s, but it initiated a process that came to full fruition in
Zanzibar in the first half of the nineteenth century. In the 1780s, Zanzibar was the only part of the East Coast loyal to Oman, but Omani traders recognized its
potential. Another critical enabling factor was the Industrial Revolution in the West. British textile mills were already producing cheap cloth for export to
overseas markets. European prosperity would soon create a desire for luxury goods that included an almost insatiable demand for ivory. Thus, several factors
that would shape eastern Africa's integration into the world economy during the nineteenth century were in place by the turn of the century.
The Omani-European Rivalry in the Indian Ocean: Competition over trade routes
1. How did Oman’s location benefit their Middle Eastern trade? And
more broadly, Indian Ocean trade?
1. Why were the Omanis so concerned with having a presence on the
Swahili coast?
2. Oman’s early influence increased with the weakening of which
European power?
3. Which Swahili state benefitted from the French slave trade?
4. Which island off the Swahili coast became the Omani economic
center?
5. Which European nation increased its power & influence in the Indian
Ocean during this period?
6. Which luxury item drove economic activity in East Africa?