The document summarizes the history of slavery and the slave trade in the Americas from the 15th century onwards. It describes how Europeans enslaved Africans to work on plantations and mines in the Americas due to a decline in the indigenous population from disease and violence. The transatlantic slave trade peaked between 1650-1807, with millions of slaves transported and over 1 million dying during the journey. Slaves faced cruel treatment and resisted through revolts, escaping, and developing their own cultural traditions. Slavery was eventually abolished in the late 18th and 19th centuries through growing abolitionist movements and the American Civil War.

1. Empires of Slavery:
The Americas

2. Slave Trade
❖Slaves used by Europeans
came from Africa.
❖Why did they need to import
labour from so far away?
❖Demographic catastrophe hit
Native Americas after
Europeans arrived.

3. ❖Destruction, disease, cruelty
made indigenous population
was severely reduced.
❖Islands of Caribbean were
exterminated.
❖Slaves were often POWs or
convicted criminals.
Slave Trade

4. ❖Children inherited
status of slave (born
into it).
❖Portuguese
arrived on the west
coast of Africa in
15th
century, they
encountered slavery
and slave trade.
Slave Trade

5. ❖Three distinct trade routes.
❖Trans-Sahara route took slaves
from western and sub-Saharan
Africa across the desert to ports
on Mediterranean.
❖Timbuktu, slaves were
exchanged for luxury goods
(horses, spices, perfumes).
Slave Trade

6. 6

7. ❖Other slaves were shipped to the
Persian Gulf, Arabia, eastern
Mediterranean and India.
❖Slaves for the Red Sea route
came primarily from the valley of
the Nile and the Horn of Africa
and were taken to coastal towns
where they were sold.
Slave Trade

8. ❖Third route sent slaves taken
from East Africa across the
Indian Ocean.
❖2/3 of all slaves were women
who became domestic slaves
or concubines.
Slave Trade

9. 9

10. ❖In addition, large numbers of
Europeans were taken captive
and enslaved by North African
Muslims.
❖Between 1580 and 1680, about
850 000 Christians were taken as
slaves to Africa north of the
Sahara.
Slave Trade

11. ❖Most of these
people were
captured by
Muslim pirates
in the
Mediterranean.
Slave Trade

12. ❖Trans-Atlantic slave trade reached its
peak from 1650 to 1807.
❖British, French, and Dutch were
principle traders.
❖During the 18th century, British ships
carried half of all slaves.
❖Until 1710, main destinations in
Caribbean were Barbados and other
islands of Lesser Antilles.
Slave Trade

13. 13

14. ❖Rest of 1700s, destinations
included Jamaica and Saint
Domingue (Haiti).
❖North America was a relatively
minor destination – but slavery
important in Maryland and
Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia,
and Louisiana.
Slave Trade

15. ❖1807, Great Britain and United
States abolished slave trade, but
still carried out in Cuba and
Brazil.
❖These 2 destinations received
more than 3 million slaves during
this period (28% of the total!)
Slave Trade

17. ❖Slave trade was a business.
❖Places of origin were mainly
coastal regions, Angola and
Kingdom of Kongo (45%), and
Gold Coast (Ghana).
❖Often POWs – especially after
Kongo civil wars (1680-1740).
Slave Trade

18. ❖Many slaves from Kongo were
Christians, persecuted for
religious beliefs.
❖People in West Africa were also
enslaved for debt and crimes such
as murder, adultery, witchcraft,
kidnapping, and slave raiding.
Slave Trade

19. ❖Trans-Atlantic trade could not
have existed without co-
operation of Africans.
❖European merchants
established trading centres
mainly on African coast (not
inland).
Slave Trade

20. ❖Journey from Africa to
America was known as the
Middle Passage.
❖Crammed into slave ships
with little concern for welfare,
Africans died in large numbers
before reaching America.
Slave Trade

21. ❖Mortality rate between 10 and
20 percent (more than 1 million
people).
Slave Trade

22. Slavery in Americas
❖Not equally important in all
colonies.
❖North – largely accompanied
economic structures.
❖South (Brazil, Caribbean) –
foundation of social and
economic system.

23. ❖Slaves were property like other
goods according to European legal
systems (“goods and chattels”).
❖Could be sold; marriage and
parenthood among slaves had no
legal standing.
❖Children of slaves were also
slaves under English law.
Slavery in Americas

24. ❖Under French and Portuguese
law, the child of a slave mother
inherited the mother’s condition.
❖Enslaved women were
sometimes sexually assaulted by
whites, and they had no recourse
before the law.
Slavery in Americas

25. ❖The French had no comprehensive
set of laws governing the status and
treatment of slaves until 1685.
❖Louis XIV issued the “Black
Code,” which remained in force
until the French Revolution.
❖Here are some of the original
articles from 1723 revision:
The Code Noir

26. …we owe our care equally to all
the people who Divine Providence
has put under our obedience…
and [desire] to make them know
that, although they inhabit climates
infinitely removed from our own,
we are always with them…
The Code Noir

27. 1. All the slaves on our islands will be
baptized and instructed in the Roman,
Catholic and Apostolic religion…
4. We enjoin our subjects…to observe
Sundays and religious holidays by not
working nor making their slaves work on
said days…on pain of…punishment of
the masters and confiscation of any
slaves caught by officials at work…
The Code Noir

28. 5. We prohibit our white subjects of
either sex from marrying blacks, on pain
of…punishment and fine…
7. We very expressly prohibit priests
from performing marriage ceremonies
between slaves unless they have the
consent of their masters. We also
prohibit masters from coercing slaves to
marry against their will.
The Code Noir

29. 8. All children born from marriages
between slaves will be slaves…
9. We desire that when a male slave
marries a free black woman, all the
children will inherit the condition of
their mother and be free, and if the
father is free and the mother a slave,
the children will be slaves…
The Code Noir

30. 23. …In no circumstance may a slave
be made to testify for or against his/
her master…
26. The slave who strikes his master,
his mistress, the husband of his
mistress or their children, so as to
leave a bruise or draw blood, or on
the face, will be sentenced to death.
The Code Noir

31. 27. Verbal excesses committed by
slaves against free people will also be
punished by death.
42. We want to mention that when a
husband, wife and children who have
not yet reached puberty belong to a
single master, they may not be seized
and sold separately.
The Code Noir

32. ❖British colonies, slaves were not sole
source of labour.
❖Large number came as servants from
Britain, Ireland, and other European
countries (16th and 17th centuries).
❖Signed contract to work for specific
master (usually between 4 and 7 years).
❖At the end of the contract, they became
free and could acquire land of their own.
Slavery in Americas

33. ❖Slaves were always black,
indentured (contract) servants white.
❖Second half of 17th
century –
sharply defined rigid racial
distinctions.
❖Maryland and Virginia: interracial
marriage and sexual relations was a
crime.
Slavery in Americas

34. ❖Virginia passed a law allowing a
master to kill a slave while
administering punishment.
❖18th
century, colonies prohibited
masters from freeing slaves.
❖Property of slaves was confiscated
and masters were permitted to
mutilate disobedient slaves.
Slavery in Americas

35. ❖Characteristic economic unit
of most slave societies was
plantation.
Slavery in Americas

36. ❖Large land + large numbers of
slaves to produce crops for export to
Europe: tobacco, cotton, rice, and
coffee.
❖Most important plantation crop –
sugar.
❖Mining was also important in
some places.
Slavery in Americas

37. Slave Resistance
❖Began before they boarded
slave ships and continued
throughout journey to Americas.
❖Some Africans tried to jump
overboard, others went on
hunger strikes and were
tortured so they would eat.

38. Slave Resistance
❖According to Alexander Falconbridge,
the doctor on a British slaver:
❖Upon Negroes refusing to take
sustenance, I have seen coals of fire,
glowing hot, put on a shovel and placed so
near there lips as to scorch and burn them.
And this has been accompanied by threats
of forcing them to swallow the coals if they
any longer persisted in refusing to eat.”

39. ❖There were also frequent attempts
to take over the slave ships (possibly
affecting up to 10% of all ships).
❖Hundreds of slave revolts from
17th
– 19th
centuries.
❖Only the revolt in Saint Domingue
(Haiti) in 1791 succeeded in
abolishing slavery entirely.
Slave Resistance

40. ❖Escaping was common.
❖Usually fled to Canada where
slavery was not legal or remote
locations where owners would
not follow.
❖Most effective resistance was
conducted on a daily basis.
Slave Resistance

41. ❖Slaves would work slowly, steal
or destroy property, commit
physical violence against whites.
❖Vast majority of rebels and
runaways were males.
❖Females rebelled by doing
domestic duties poorly, fake
illness, poison owners.
Slave Resistance

42. ❖Most successful form of
resistance was creation of own
culture.
❖Includes music, language, and
religion, all based on African forms.
❖Legacy has done much to enrich
and define the cultures in the
Americas and the Caribbean.
Slave Resistance

43. ❖Example: African religion
Voodoo, practised primarily in
French colony of Saint
Domingue, Cuba, and Brazil.
❖Name comes from Vodun,
the religion practiced in
Ouidah and Allada (Benin).
Slave Resistance

44. 44

45. ❖Voodoo gods could be invoked for
protection and vengeance.
❖Gods could communicate with the
believer through possession.
❖Voodoo hymns were entirely in
African languages.
❖French authorities banned Voodoo.
Slave Resistance

46. Abolitionism
❖During late 18
th
century movement
brought together Blacks and whites to
demand abolition of the institution.
❖Move to abolish slavery assumed
dimensions of a religious and political
crusade, first in Britain, then other
countries.
❖Quakers and evangelical Protestants
argued against the evils of slavery.

47. ❖1807, United States and Britain
abolished slave trade.
❖British abolished slavery in their
possessions in 1833.
❖Underground Railroad developed
as a result of civil unrest that
spirited fugitives to Canada.
Abolitionism

48. ❖Between 1776 and 1823, all the
colonies on the mainland of the
Americas, south of the current
US-Canadian border, became
independent nations.
❖US abolished slavery in 1863,
Cuba in 1886, and Brazil in 1888.
End of Slavery in Americas

49. ❖After 1840s, Cuba remained an
extremely important market for
Spanish-manufactured goods.
❖Spanish government passed the
Moret Law (1870), which granted
conditional freedom to the children
of slaves born after it came into
effect.
End of Slavery in Americas

50. ❖Slavery was recognized in the
Constitution of the United States for
the purpose of taxation and
representation.
❖Extension of slavery became a major
issue in domestic politics during the
1840s and 1850s and slavery was a
major cause of the Civil War
(1861-1865).
End of Slavery in Americas

51. ❖President Abraham Lincoln was
concerned with keeping the union
together:
❖“A house divided against itself
cannot stand…I believe this
government cannot endure,
permanently half slave and half
free.”
End of Slavery in Americas

52. ❖It was during the Civil War that
Lincoln issued the Emancipation
Proclamation (1863).
❖Two years later, Congress
passed the Thirteenth
Amendment to the Constitution
abolishing slavery entirely :)
End of Slavery in Americas

53. ❖Wherever slavery had
existed, its elimination raised
a crucial question: What would
replace slave labour?
❖In the US South, agricultural
labour continued to be
provided by former slaves.
After Slavery

54. ❖They were legally free, but
failure to provide them with
an adequate economic
compensation after
emancipation left them open
to being caught in
sharecropping.
After Slavery

55. ❖Under this system, African Americans
rented land from white landowners and
paid them a share of the crop (usually half).
❖Many fell quickly into debt, which they
couldn’t repay, and they were forced to
remain on the land.
❖Plantation owners found a new supply of
labour in immigrants from southern
Europe.
After Slavery