The Encounter

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The Encounter

• Pre-Industrial Colonialism

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Early African Kingdoms

• 7th-8th century, great Kingdoms developed in West
  Africa as a result of the trade
• Gold Salt Trade Route
• Ghana, Mali, Songhai

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Expansion of Trade in Africa

• As trade multiplied and linked all regions of
  sub-Saharan Africa, state building began
• Central Africa
• Kongo, Lunda
• South Africa
• Great Zimbabwe
• East Africa
• City States Mombassa, Kilwa, Malindi, etc.

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Global Trading Partners

• Arabs
• Chinese
• Portuguese
• All other Europeans came later

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African Trade Routes

• Trans Saharan
• From West Africa through the Sahara to the Middle
  East
• East African
• From east coast of Africa to the Middle East
• Trans-Atlantic
• West coast of Africa to North America, South
  America, and the Caribbean islands

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Trade

• Cocoa
• Kasava
• Gold
• Salt
• Ivory (pianos)
• Ostrich feathers
• People

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The African Slave Trade

• 3 groups involved
• African leaders
• Europeans
• Arabs
• Middleman

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The African Slave Trade

• 3 groups involved
• African leaders
• Sold prisoners of wars
• No such thing as Africans selling Africans
• Associated with a tribe
• Europeans
• Slave traders bought slaves for goods
• Arabs
• Captured in war
• Raided villages

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Trans Saharan Slave Trade

• Called the land of the blacks by Muslim traders
• Slaves began arriving in Mediterranean in 700 A.D
• Estimated 9 million slaves

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Trans Saharan Slave Trade

• Who were these slaves?
• Women
• Domestic help
• Concubines
• Wives

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Trans Saharan Slave Trade

• Were the children of slave women free or slaves?

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Trans Saharan Slave Trade

• Were the children of slave women free or slaves?
• They were born free and mixed into Mediterranean
  and Islamic society

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Trans Saharan Slave Trade

• Why not male slaves?

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Trans Saharan Slave Trade

• Why not male slaves?
• Violent
• Would not integrate into new society
• Not used as domestic servants
• No need for plantation labor
• If captured were castrated and killed

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Slavery and Islam

• Was slavery acceptable to Muslims who traveled to
  Africa?

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Slavery and Islam

• Was slavery acceptable to Muslims who traveled to
  Africa?
• Yes, enslaving another Muslim was unacceptable
  but enslaving others was permitted

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European Explorers
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Why only the exterior?

• European traders and explorers only interacted
  with African coastal tribes
• WHY????

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Why only the exterior?

• European traders and explorers only interacted
  with African coastal tribes
• WHY???? Interior was difficult to navigate, too
  many tropical illnesses (malaria)

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Forces of Change

• Ship design 15th C
• Portable firearms 15th C
• Sugar Demand 17th C
• Cotton Gin 18th C

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Portugal Begins..

• Prince Henry of Portugal
• Wanted direct routes to gold trade in West Africa
• trade routes to spice islands of south-east Asia.
  
• 1444 Portuguese traders found slaves in Mauritania

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Portugual Begins.

• 1483, Portuguese fleet entered Kongo for
  commercial relations
• Brought Christianity -King of Kongo converted
• Appreciated it b/c it supported monarchial rule
• Saints similar to spirits in indigenous religion
• Established close political and diplomatic
  relations
• Traded copper, ivory, slaves from Kongo
• Africans received textiles, weapons, advisers

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Trans Atlantic Slave Trade

• Different motives
• Different captives
• Impacted all of the western hemisphere
• Especially the Caribbean and Brazil

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Trans Atlantic Slave Trade

• Different motives
• Needed plantation labor
• Sugar, rice, cotton, cocoa, tobacco
• Went on slaving expeditions themselves, but
• Often relied on alliances with authorities in
  interior

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Trans Atlantic Slave Trade

• Different captives
• Young men
• Capable of doing hard manual labor
• Average life span on a plantation was 5 years
• Usually dead by 25 years old

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Surviving the voyage

• Slave ships extremely over crowded
• Lack of oxygen in lower decks

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Surviving the voyage

• If a small amount of slaves survived the trip,
  slave traders would still make a profit

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Slave Auctions

• Slave traders sold slaves on an auction block

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Female Slaves

• Brought to plantations to work and to reproduce
  more slaves
• High infant mortality rate
• Children born into slavery

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The branding of slaves was common practice among
slave owners
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Slaverys Impact on Africa

• How was the African continent effected by the
  slave trade???

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Slaverys impact on Africa

• Economic and Social
• 16 million people taken
• Economic loss
• Social impact
• Distorted sex ratios (polygamy, roles of women
  change)
• New Atlantic food crops (maize, cassava, peanuts)
  grew very well in Africa

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Slaverys impact on Africa

• Economic / Social
• Weapons traded for slaves (swords, blades, and
  guns)
• New tools for Africans machetes, iron bars,
  horses, etc.

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Slaverys impact on Africa

• Political
• Some African cities prospered
• Encouraged warfare between tribes (esp with
  introduction of guns)

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Slaverys impact on the world

• Cotton
• Sugar
• Tobacco
• Coffee
• Cocoa
• RiceCould these crops have been cultivated
  without slaves?

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Slave plantation in Antigua (island in the
Caribbean)
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Plantation in Brazil (purchased the largest
amount of slaves in the New World)
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The Cape Coast Castle Memorial Plaque
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End to Slavery

• 1807 - British declared slavery illegal (could
  still to own slaves until 1834)
• 1834 British freed all children under six in the
  West Indies.
• other slaves were called apprentices and had to
  work for nothing for six years.
• 1865 United States outlaws slavery

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Resettlement

• Liberia colonized 1822 by freed slaves coming
  directly from America
• Independence was achieved in 1847 under J.J.
  Roberts
• Indigenous Africans hostile to freed slaves

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