Atlantic Slave Trade and the Columbian Exchange

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Atlantic Slave Trade and the Columbian Exchange

• World History

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Atlantic Slave Trade

• Slavery had existed for hundreds of years prior
  to becoming an institution in N. America.
• As natives started dying off, the colonies looked
  to Africa for slaves. Africans were not as
  vulnerable to disease, many had farmed before,
  and they had little knowledge of the land and no
  ties to the native tribes. In other words, there
  was nowhere they could hide.
• The buying and selling of Africans for work in
  the Americas was called the Atlantic slave trade.
  Between 1500 and 1870, nearly 10 million Africans
  were transported to the United States.

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Atlantic Slave Trade

• Spain and Portugal were the early leaders in the
  slave trade. They were often brought to work on
  the sugar plantations.
• As more colonies grew, there was a greater demand
  for cheap labor. Sugar, tobacco, and coffee
  plantations were some of the areas that slaves
  worked in.
• Some African rulers even participated in the
  slave trade. Merchants would capture members of
  other tribes and sell them to Europeans. Leaders
  had been selling slaves to Muslim leaders and
  they saw no difference in selling them to
  Westerners. As profits grew, the slave trade grew
  also.

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Triangular Trade

• Transatlantic trading network.
• On one route, Europeans took goods to the west
  coast of Africa. They traded these goods for
  Africans.
• The Africans were then sold into slavery in the
  Americas.
• Merchants would then bring back sugar, coffee,
  and tobacco to Europe to sell.

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Middle Passage

• This was the voyage that took Africans from their
  native country to the Americas.
• Voyage was often cruel, with Africans packed into
  unsanitary conditions in the lower decks of
  ships.
• Hundreds would die along the way from disease or
  abuse from the ships crew. There are accounts of
  some committing suicide by jumping into the sea.
• Nearly 20 aboard each slave ship died en route
  to America.

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Middle Passage
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Slavery in America

• Upon arriving, they were immediately sold to the
  highest bidder.
• Slavery was a horrible existence. They lived on
  little food and worked extremely long hours. They
  were in tight living conditions without the
  common comforts of their owners.
• They were subject to regular beatings and
  whippings.
• Children of slaves were also considered slaves.

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Consequences of Slave Trade

• Africa lost generations of its people.
• Firearms were introduced into Africa, which
  helped to spread conflict in the continent.
• Many colonies would not have survived if not for
  the labor provided by the slaves.
• African art, music, and food have gone on to
  influence American society.
• Many countries in Western Hemisphere now have
  substantial African-American populations.

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Columbian Exchange

• This is the global transfer of food, plants, and
  animals during the colonization of the Americas.
• Ships brought a large selection of items that
  many Europeans had never seen before such as
  tomatoes, squash, pineapples, and tobacco.
• Corn and potatoes were the most important because
  they were inexpensive to grow and nutritious.
• Europeans also introduced livestock to America
  such as horses, cattle, and pigs and food such as
  yams, bananas, and black-eyed peas.
• Disease was also a large part of the Columbian
  exchange.

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Columbian Exchange

• Growth in overseas trade led to the Commercial
  Revolution. This was a new wave of business and
  trade practices in the 15th and 16th centuries.
• Capitalism grew. This is an economic system based
  on private ownership and the investment of wealth
  for profit.
• Another business venture that developed was the
  joint-stock company. This was a number of people
  pooling their wealth for a common purpose. These
  helped established colonies.
• European nations adopted a policy of
  mercantilism. This was a theory that a countrys
  power depended on its wealth. Thus, the goal of
  every European country was to get as much wealth
  as possible.
• Favorable balance of trade could increase wealth
  because you were selling more goods than you
  bought.

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Changes in European Society

• Commercial Revolution spurred the growth of towns
  and the rise of the merchant class.
• Merchants rose in status because they controlled
  a lot of wealth.
• Commercial Revolution increased the wealth of
  European nations and the power of their rulers
  more than anything else.

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The First Thanksgiving - 1621
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Background

• Pre-Columbian Native American population was
  10-12 million.
• As Europeans started to colonize, a plague swept
  through the country.
• Smallpox, influenza, swine flu and other diseases
  decimated the Native population.

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Background

• King James of England had this to say about the
  plague- Thanks to Almighty God in his great
  goodness and bounty towards us for sending this
  wonderful plague among the savages.
• In 1617, disease swept through the New England
  area, killing 90-95 of the coastal population.
• Disease helped to inspire the warm reception that
  the Pilgrims received. Villages were so weakened
  that they aligned with the Pilgrims out of fear
  of other tribes.
• Howard Simpson (Pilgrim)- Villages lay in ruins
  because there was no one to tend them. The ground
  was strewn with the skulls and bones of thousands
  of Indians who had died and none was left to bury
  them.

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Why Plymouth?

• Mayflower was initially going to Jamestown.
• Only 35 out of the 102 passengers were Pilgrims
  seeking religious freedom. The rest were people
  seeking fortune in the Virginia tobacco farms.
• Some historians suggest that the Pilgrims may
  have misled the other passengers and went to the
  New England area on purpose. Other historians
  believe they had no real destination in mind.
• What is true is that the Plymouth Company already
  had detailed descriptions of the area provided a
  couple years earlier by Squanto, a member of the
  Wampanoag tribe. John Smith (Jamestown) had also
  surveyed the region.
• The Pilgrims may have also wanted to avoid being
  under Anglican control, since they had just left
  England for that very reason.

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The Mayflower (re-creation)
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Plymouth Rock
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Meeting the Natives

• Squanto was one of the first Natives to greet the
  Pilgrims. His entire village was nearly wiped out
  by disease years earlier.
• His first impression of the Pilgrims was that
  they smelled bad. He tried to get them to bathe,
  but they wouldnt listen.
• Squanto had learned English as a boy.
• He was captured by an English captain in 1605 and
  spent 9 years in England before sailing back
  home.
• He was kidnapped again in 1614 and sold into
  slavery in Spain. Squanto escaped and made it to
  England, where he then took another trip back
  home.

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The Natives Help Out

• The Pilgrims started receiving help the second
  day they were in Plymouth. This is from a
  Pilgrims journal We marched to the place we
  called Cornhill, where we had found the corn
  before. At another place we had seen before, we
  dug and found some more cornIn all we had about
  ten bushels, which will be enough to seed. It was
  with Gods help that we found this corn, for how
  else we could have done it, without meeting some
  Indians who might trouble us.

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More Native Help

• The next morning, we found a place like a grave.
  We decided to dig it up. We found first a mat,
  and under that a fine bowWe also found bowls,
  trays, dishes, and things like that. We took
  several of the prettiest things to carry away
  with us, and covered the body up again.
• What does that sound like?

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Thanksgiving

• Squanto taught the Pilgrims how to plant corn,
  squash, and pumpkins. He also introduced them to
  the indigenous turkey, which we eat today. Half
  the Pilgrims had died that first winter.
• Several days were set aside in the Fall of 1621
  for feasting. This was the first Thanksgiving.
• Some evidence suggests, however, that the Spanish
  had a similar celebration starting in 1565 in St.
  Augustine, Florida.

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First Thanksgiving Meal

• Venison
• Turkey
• Fowl
• Fish
• Corn
• Squash
• Onions
• Pumpkins
• Had enough to feed 53 Pilgrims and 90 Indians

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More Thanksgiving Facts

• Squanto died from a fever in 1622.
• Eastern Indians had actually observed an Autumnal
  Harvest for centuries.
• George Washington set aside several days for
  Thanksgiving starting in 1789, though it wasnt a
  national holiday yet.
• Lincoln proclaimed it a national holiday in 1863.
  Why then?
• Franklin Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving back a week
  in 1941 in order to provide an economic boost.
• The Pilgrims were not commonly known as Pilgrims
  until the 1870s. They were originally
  separatists.
• The Pilgrims werent even included in the
  tradition until the 1890s.

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Thanksgiving Today

• Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade will celebrate
  its 81st anniversary this year.
• Takes place in New York City.

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Mr. Potato Head sneaks up on unsuspecting New
Yorker
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Thanksgiving Today

• Thanksgiving week is one of the busiest travel
  weeks of the year, behind only Christmas.
• 78 of all workers in U.S. are off on
  Thanksgiving.

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Thanksgiving Travel
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Thanksgiving Today

• Thanksgiving Day football games have become an
  American tradition.
• Some families and friends play in their backyard,
  while others watch the NFL on television.
• Detroit Lions have hosted a Thanksgiving game
  every year since 1934.

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Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving in recent years. Go
Packers!
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Thanksgiving Today

• Day after Thanksgiving is the biggest shopping
  day of the year.
• Referred to as Black Friday because retailers
  get into the black (making a profit) in sales.
• Retailers provide great deals as incentive to
  shoppers.
• 175 million shoppers.
• 11 billion dollars spent.

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Black Friday
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Have a Great Thanksgiving!
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