The document summarizes the history of slavery in Latin America from ancient times through the establishment of the transatlantic slave trade. It describes how slavery existed in many ancient societies, the introduction of African slavery to support the growing plantation economies in Brazil and the Caribbean, and the development of the triangular trade route that transported enslaved Africans, goods from Europe, and raw materials between three continents for over 300 years.

1. 6th Grade Social Studies
Latin America

2. *Slavery has existed since ancient times.
*Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Persians, Indians,
and the Aztec captured enemies from battles
and kept them as slaves.
*Enslaved Aztec could buy or regain their
freedom in time.
*Africa traded people within the continent.
*Men captured in battles between warring
African tribes were taken as slaves rather than
being killed.
*The enslaved could either earn their freedom or
a family member could buy it.

3. *Slave trade in the 1500s was different.
*With the arrival of the Europeans, the demand for
slaves in the Americas increased significantly.
*While Pizarro was taking control of the Inca on
the West Coast, Portugal claimed, what is today,
Brazil.
*Spanish and Portuguese settlers moved into the
newly conquered lands.
*They planned to mine gold, silver, and create
sugarcane plantations.

4. *Millions died from disease brought by Europeans.
*More died from the violence of war.
*Natives were forced to farm or mine in harsh
conditions- many died.
*Many of the indigenous people retreated into the
mountains or jungles.
*Africans were preferred as laborers because they
were more immune to European diseases.
*African planters, if they ran away, did not blend
into local society.

5. *The Portuguese
population was too
small to provide a
large number of
colonists.
*The sugar plantations
required a large labor
force.
*Slaves filled this
demand. (both African Europeans and
Africans
& Native peoples) Meet to Trade

6. *Africans were brought by ship.
*Most died on the trip either due to starvation or
disease.
*Once Africans arrived in the New World, they were
forced to work on large plantations or in mines.
*Children born to a slave were also considered slaves
for their lifetime without a hope for freedom
*Africans had to deal with…
*Long working hours
*Poor housing
*Poor nutrition

7. *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.
*1530s--Portuguese began organizing
plantations in Brazil, and Brazil became the
world’s leading supplier of sugar.

8. *Growing sugarcane in the tropics required a
HUGE work source.
*Sugarcane was used to make sugar, molasses,
and rum.
*Portuguese crop growers extended the use of
slave labor to South America.
*Because of this, Brazil would eventually
become the wealthiest
of the sugar-producing
lands in the western
hemisphere.

9. • 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.

10. *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 British had
introduced slaves to North America.
*The plantation economies prospered because of
slave labor.
*Brazil imported more slaves than any other
country in the world.

11. Triangular Trade
Route

12. *The triangular trade demonstrates how people
were reduced to commodities to be sold.
*Goods such as metal, cloth, beads and guns
went from Europe to Africa, enslaved Africans
went to America and the Caribbean, and raw
products such as sugar, tobacco and cotton
came back to Europe.
*Ships full of gold, silver, and sugarcane made
regular trips to Spain and Portugal!

13. *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.

14. “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).

15. *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.
*African slaves had become vital to the
cultivation of sugar, tobacco, cotton, and rice
plantations.
*European demand for sugar began to increase=
plantations throughout Brazil and the Caribbean.
*Many plantations produced additional crops such
as indigo, rice, tobacco, and coffee.

16. *All were designed
to export
commercial crops
for profit.
*Relied almost
exclusively on
large amounts of
slave labor
supervised by
small numbers of
European or Euro- Brazilian sugar mill in
American the 1830s
managers.

17. *Cultural Diffusion:
*The slave trade spread ideas & goods
between cultures.
*Europeans brought new weapons to
Africa.
*Africans brought part of their culture
(music, traditions, food, language, etc.)
to the Americas.