5. Why Africans?
• No written language , many languages
• Native Americans dying off
• Some degree of disease resistance
• No muskets and gunpowder
• Africans participated in trade by
enslaving others, selling debtors and
criminals, and kidnapping
• Skilled workers
– Knew how to extract precious ore
from mines
– Familiar with soils and crops
6. How to Get Slaves?
• TRADE!
– Africans traded slaves for
manufactured goods like clothe, silk,
guns, pots, and copper
• African Kingdoms (Ashanti)
gained wealth and power from the
trade
– States sold POW (method of
deportation)
– Participated to defend themselves
• African “entrepreneurs” Middle
7. Capture
• The original capture of slaves was almost
always violent.
• As European demand grew, African chieftains
organized raiding parties to seize
individuals from neighboring societies.
• Others launched wars specifically for the
purpose of capturing slaves.
8.
9. • What does this picture tell you?
– Europeans did not penetrate the African
interior
March to the Coast
12. What role did geography play
in the
Triangle of Trade?
13. Portuguese Slave Trade
• The Portuguese
population was
too small to
provide a large
number of
colonists.
• The sugar
plantations
required a
large labor
force.
• Slaves filled
Europeans and
Africans
Meet to Trade
14.
15. Slave Trade and Sugar
• Portuguese crop
growers
extended the
use of slave
labor to South
America.
• Because of
this, Brazil
would
eventually
become the
wealthiest of
the sugar-
17. Plantations
• After crossing the Atlantic, most
African slaves went to
plantations in the tropical or
subtropical regions of the
western hemisphere.
• The first was established by the
Spanish on Hispaniola in 1516.
• Originally the predominant crop
was sugar. In addition to sugar,
plantations produced crops like
tobacco, indigo, and cotton.
• In the 1530s Portuguese began
organizing plantations in Brazil,
18. Plantations
• All were
designed to
export
commercial
crops for
profit.
• Relied
almost
exclusively
on large
amounts of
slave labor
supervised
by small
numbers of
Brazilian sugar mill in
the 1830s
19. As the major European powers of Portugal, Britain,
France, and the Netherlands looked for ways to
exploit the fertile lands of the New World, they
looked to Africa for a steady supply of labor. Soon,
African slaves had become absolutely vital to the
cultivation of sugar, tobacco, cotton, and rice
plantations.
As European demand for sugar began to increase,
plantations began to
spring up throughout Brazil and the Caribbean. Sugar
cultivation created a huge demand for slave labor
20. Justification
• Slavery made development of
the New World profitable
• Native American slaves died of
diseases, escaped easily
• African tribes
needed weapons
and supplies
from Europe
21. Slavery Expands
• In 1518, the first shipment of
slaves went directly from West
Africa to the Caribbean where the
slaves worked on sugar
plantations.
• By the 1520s, the Spanish had
introduced slaves to Mexico,
Peru, and Central America where
they worked as farmers and
miners.
• By the early 17th
century, the
35. Europeans began
the Atlantic
slave trade in
the 1500s. Their
colonies in the
Americas needed
labor to work on
large
plantations.
European traders
sold enslaved
Africans to
colonists.
Families were
split up, and
many people
died. By the
time the slave
trade ended in
IMPACT ON WEST AFRICA
36. Impact of Slave Trade on the America
ltural Diffusion –
--The slave trade spread ideas
and goods between cultures (cultural diffusion).
--Europeans brought new weapons to Africa.
--Africans brought part of their culture (like mu
food, traditions, Language) to the Americas.
Editor's Notes
Slavery was a normal part of Africa’s history dating back before the Pharaohs of Egypt. Remember Moses leading the Jews out of slavery?
Slavery was a natural part of African society
In West Africa, the system of slavery resembled European feudalism
Slaves were used to increase production and population of a region = more power
Seen more as a resource, rather than a trade commodity
Generally, slaves were well treated
While low in hierarchy, active contributor to kingdom or community
Some held high positions with significant responsibility
Accepted by and lived with non-slaves in family settings
Portugal began exploring and trading along the African coast hundreds of years before Columbus sailed to the Americas.
Picture: Cape Coast Castle, W. Africa
Recognition Network: Use of color and bold text to emphasis main ideas.
“Africans became enslaved mainly through four ways:
first, criminals sold by the chiefs as punishment;
secondly, free Africans obtained from raids by African and a few European gangs;
thirdly, domestic slaves resold, and
fourthly; prisoners of war."
(Adu Boahen (University of Ghana).
Illustrations use to show the Brutality of chaining Africans together and marching them to the slave holding cells on the coast—Affective b/c it seeks to evoke an emotional response within students.
This was a slave holding fort.
Africans on the West Coast because the destination of the slaves was in the West. Had the European powers built colonies in Asia or Australia that needed slave labor, the slaves would have come from the East Coast region.
Triangular Trade
The triangular trade demonstrates how people were reduced to commodities to be sold. Goods such as metal, cloth, beads and guns went from Britain to Africa, enslaved Africans went to America and the Caribbean, and raw products such as sugar, tobacco and cotton came back to Britain.
Show the picture of the sugar nippers.
One of the reasons the trade lasted for so long was because it was incredibly profitable. The British appeared to have an insatiable appetite for luxury goods from the Caribbean, especially sugar and this demand fuelled supply.
Before the twentieth century, sugar came in cones from which chunks would be nipped off and used to sweeten the bitter taste of coffee, chocolate and tea. What people consumed in one part of the world altered forever the lives of those from other parts of the world.
Brazilians still speak Portuguese not Spanish.
With the arrival of the Europeans the demand for slaves in the Americas increased significantly.
As disease reduced the native populations in Spanish conquered territories, the Spanish began relying on imported slaves from Africa.
The British colonies in North America received only 4% of the total slaves from Africa. Brazil and the West Indies- received about 80% combined.
Why is the population of African Americans higher in the US than it is these other places?
European products (cloth, firearms) were sent to the coast of Africa for slaves
Slaves were carried to the Americas (Middle Passage)
Sugar, Tobacco, and other goods were than carried to Europe
European products (cloth, firearms) were sent to the coast of Africa for slaves to begin the triangle trade again
Slaves were taken from the holding forts, Chained together in pairs with leg-irons and carried to the ships. Once aboard they were branded with a red-hot iron, like cattle, to show who owned them and their clothes removed.
Chained in darkness and filth, seasickness and disease were rife. The heat in the hold could be over 30°c and the slaves would have no access to toilets or washing facilities. So foul was the smell of slave ships that other vessels took care to steer well away from them. In such conditions disease spread, and many slaves died.
Many slave captains were notorious for their cruelty. The actual voyage could take from 6 weeks to three months. It has been estimated that between 9-11 million people were taken from Africa by European traders and landed alive on the other side of the Atlantic. But 1½ million Africans are buried in the Atlantic Ocean between Africa and the Americas. It was reported that schools of sharks would follow the ships waiting for their next meal.
Chained in darkness and filth, seasickness and disease were rife. The heat in the hold could be over 30°c and the slaves would have no access to toilets or washing facilities. So foul was the smell of slave ships that other vessels took care to steer well away from them. In such conditions disease spread, and many slaves died.
The slave owners wanted big men that could work hard. The ship captains kept bringing them what they wanted. What effect did this have on African Society, culture, and economy?
Wall street gets its name from the fact that it was here where slaves were put on the block to be sold. Neighboring businesses did not approve of the slave trade convinced the city to build a wall around the street so passerby's would not have to witness what was happening.
