AFRICA

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AFRICA the AFRICANS in the AGE of the ATLANTIC
SLAVE TRADEChapter 21
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Statistical ExerciseTable 21.1 Slave Exports
from Africa, 1500-1900 (page 481)

• 1. What different slave trades existed? (think
  geographically about the origins of slaves
  their destinations)
• 2. Which region exported the largest number of
  slaves?
• 3. When were the most slaves exported?
• 4. Between 1800-1900, why would the number of
  slaves crossing the Atlantic decline?

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Statistical ExerciseTable 21.2 Destinations of
African Slaves (page 482)

• 1. What regions received the most slaves? The
  least?
• 2. Why would the Caribbean Brazil need such
  large numbers?
• 3. In British North America, what colonies would
  have received slaves?
• 4. Today, where would African influences and
  cultures be the greatest? Why?

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Atlantic Slave Trade
Portuguese start pattern for contacts
El Mina fort (factory) that received gold from
interior
most forts established with approval of African
authorities - desired trading benefits
Afro-Portuguese traders (lancados) helped work
interior
missionary work Benin Kongo
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ravages of slave trade meant limited success for
missionaries
Africans tried to fit European concepts (useful
ones) into existing beliefs
Europeans saw Africans as pagan savages - should
adopt Christianity civilized behavior
Portuguese travel south - Angola -
Mozambique - few permanent settlements
other Europeans follow - slavery principle focus
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Expansion
1450-1850 12 million Africans shipped across
Atlantic
volume increases from 1500s-1700s - 80 in
1700s - Brazil gets 40 - high mortality, low
fertility - positive growth rate only in U.S.
south
other slave trades existed under Muslim control
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Demographic Patterns
Saharan slave trade-women to Islamic world
Atlantic trade-young men for Americas - west
central Africa population down ½ of what it could
have been
women children not exported skewed balance of
sexes
American crops helped recover population
control over trade reflected European situation
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Portuguese, Dutch, English, French
each establish forts for receiving
Indies piece
Europeans dealt with tropical diseases, local
rulers, strange currency
slaves come by way of warfare, purchase,
indigenous traders
Dahomey royal monopoly
profitable?
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profits key element for rise of capitalism
industrial revolution
economic importance hard to determine link to
plantations mining in Americas
contribute to Atlantic capitalism make African
economies dependent on European trade link to
world economy
Atlantic trade transforms African patterns of
slavery
Africans had many types of servitude
slaves important way for individuals to gain
wealth status
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treatment could be good or bad
Atlantic trade opens new opportunities for
expansion intensification of slavery - among
African societies
enslavement of women
Europeans could tap into existing structures -
assisted by African rulers
African politics
wars elevate importance of military - promote
slave trade
European presence on coast changes location of
African power
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States
Asante between coast Hausa/Mande trading
regions
gain access to firearms centralize
expand - control gold slaves
1700 Dutch deal with Asante
dominant until 1820s
Benin ruler controls trade with Europeans -
slaves not a primary commodity
Dahomey emerge in 17th century - 1720s access
to firearms leads to autocratic regime - based
on trading slaves
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too much emphasis on slave trade obscures
creative processes growth of divine authority of
rulers - parallels absolutism in Europe
arts, crafts, weaving wood ivory sculptures
East Africa Swahili trading towns - commerce
for Middle East
interior Uganda, Kenya - monarchies in
Bunyoro buganda
northern savanna Islamization -links with
external slave trade
Sudan Muslim reform movements
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West African interior Islamization by 1840s
South Africa
cultural social changes
level of local slave labor increases ag
manufacturing
Bantu speakers populated eastern
portion Indigenous in the west
Bantu agriculture, herding, iron, copper, trade
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Bantu chiefs ruled by popular support
competition for land political instability
Cape Town Dutch colony - settlers have large
estates - slaves
wars against indigenous in west - 1760s Boers
meet Bantu
British gain control 1815 - try to limit
Afrikaner expansion - much fighting b/t
Afrikaner Africans - some Afrikaner migrate to
form new states
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Mfecane Zulu
Shaka gains authority 1818 - military based on
lineage age
center of strong political military organization
rise of Zulu Nguni chiefdoms beginning of
mfecane (wars)
Afrikaners hold their lands - firepower
defeated peoples flee -create new states
British defeat Zulus in 1870s
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African Diaspora
slaves become important segment in Americas -
African cultures adapt
slave trade links Africa to Americas
millions of Africans killed
African culture to New World
1/3 die on way to ports 18 die onboard ships
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In America
replace indentured servants Indians in
agriculture
social hierarchy
slaves retained own social perceptions -
rebellions often organized on ethnic lines
slave-based societies vary in composition
Africans majority of population on Caribbean
islands
Brazil diverse freed slavesmiscegenation -
slaves 35 of colony
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North America little need for continuing slave
imports - manumission uncommon - freed slaves
under 10 of African Americans
slavery less influenced by African ways
work under harsh conditions
little family life few women - continuance
depended on owners
African culture still dynamic creative
mix African beliefs with Christianity
Vodun independent African beliefs - Haiti
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Muslim Africans hold on to beliefs
resistance common
run-aways create new communities - Palmares in
Brazil (10,000) - Zumbi
Suriname -fuse W. African, Indian, European
end of slave trade slavery external to Africa
slave-based economies flourish - economics not
reason to end trade
Enlightenment thinkers condemn slavery
Abolition in Britain 1807 in Brazil - 1888
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Discuss the stages in the Portuguese exploration
and penetration of Africa.

• explore coastal areas
• establish factories (forts) along the coasts
• forts established with consent of local ruler
  trade
• manufactured goods from Portuguese
• gold, ivory, pepper, animal skins from Africans
  eventually slaves
• penetrate existing trade routes
• establish trade contacts collection points
  links between economies of African interior
  European forts on coasts
• missionary efforts
• explore southwards then up east coast
• eventual colony in Angola
• primarily military commercial

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Trace the changes in the volume of the Atlantic
slave trade between 1450-1850.

• 15th century minimal to Atlantic island
  plantations
• 16th century small
• 17th c. increase to 16,000 per year
• 18th c. most of trade, 7 million slaves, 80 of
  all trade over all years
• 19th c. slows down, under attack, still exports
  to Cuba Brazil (1.7 million)

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What was the demographic impact of the African
slave trade on the sub-Saharan region?

• concentrated on men
• African societies who captured slaves preferred
  to keep women children as domestic slaves or
  to increase their clans
• skewed ratio of men to women in this area
• some areas ½ of what it would have been without
  the slave trade

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Discuss the arguments concerning the
profitability of the Slave trade.

• some argue profits great so were an element in
  rise of capitalism origins of industrial
  revolution
• many individuals did profit wouldnt have had a
  slave trade without that
• ship builders outfitters, African slave
  suppliers profited
• many risks costs
• little more profitable than other business
  activities of the time
• by itself not a major source of capital for
  industrial revolution
• directly tied to economy in Americas
• triangular trade
• calculate profit of goods produced in Europe as
  part of slave trade too
• contributed to formation of capitalism in
  Americas
• linked Africa to rest of world as a dependent
  region

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How did the slave trade affect African state
formation?

• most African states small fragmented
• a few gain major power through slave trade (for
  guns)
• importance of military in constant wars among
  Africans
• Asante Dahomey create centralized, autocratic
  states near the west coast based on slave trade
• conquer other states and get rid of their
  culture/customs
• enslaving societies autocratic centralized
• enslaved societies self-sufficiency
  anti-authoritarian

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What was the mfecane how did it affect southern
Africa?

• wars of crushing wandering
• battles forced migrations
• constant fighting as people sought to survive by
  fleeing, emulating or joining the Zulu
• groups raid Portuguese, clash w/ Europeans,
  fight neighboring chiefs
• new African states emerge (Swazi, Lesotho)
• southern part of continent thrown into turmoil by
  raiding parties refugees
• ends up causing British/Zulu wars

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What was the social structure of American
slave-based societies?

• Whites on top
• Slaves on the bottom
• free people of color in the middle
• within slave societies, salt water creole
  slaves born in Africa, born in Americas,
• mulatto creoles have more status, learn trades,
  work in the house, more likely to be freed

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Why did the slave trade come to an end?

• Enlightenment, Christian revivalism, industrial
  revolution
• factors external to Africa
• African societies start to export commodities,
  dependence on slave trade less
• opponents to slavery in the west
• slavery seen as backward immoral
• slave trade symbol of slaverys inhumanity
  cruelty
• England key to end abolished it in 1807
• pressured other European countries to do the same
• Navy used to enforce ban by capturing illegal
  ships

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Discuss how the political, social economic
organization of the Americas differed from that
of Africa.

• African countries independent, Americas were
  colonies of European countries
• plantation economy in Americas
• American society less homogeneous than African
• mixture produces a social hierarchy
• slavery present in Africa absence of racial
  mixture
• traditional social relationships based on
  nobility, land priesthood left intact in Africa

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Discuss how the West affected the political
development of Africa how slavery was a
component in the nature of state formation in
sub-Saharan Africa.

• debatable whether political development of Africa
  in early modern period was result of Western
  intervention or strictly internal African
  development
• slaver y exists in Africa Western nations
  accelerated slaving process
• exchange of guns for slaves unbalanced political
  situation in favor of slaving rulers trading with
  the West
• slaving states autocratic, expansionist 7
  centralized
• new states rise b/c of trade, many were south of
  savanna that was home to earlier state