Slave Trade and Middle Passage

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Slave Trade and Middle Passage
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Background

• Luxury goods like sugar, tobacco, and cotton were
  in high demand in newly-rich Europe
• Native American populations had died out due to
  smallpox
• Need new sources of labor

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Basics

• African societies empire building and needed
  weapons
• Traded captured Africans for guns at W. African
  coast
• European traders took them across the Middle
  Passage to colonial areas

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Textiles, guns and manufactured goods to Africa
Triangle Trade
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Graph of slaves taken to Americas to grow luxury
crops
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Middle Passage

• Production of these new products called for more
  laborers!
• Journey from Africa to America
• Below deck slaves packed tightly laborers!
• Journey from Africa to America
• Below deck slaves packed tightly

2 feet wide
4 feet long
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Slave Ship
Middle Passage
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Middle Passage ConditionsPick 5

• Slaves while on board were burned with hot irons
  and put in cuffs.
• There was very little headroom.
• There were about 300 to 400 people packed in a
  tiny area.
• Not much room to breathe.
• Disease happened a lot.
• Food was nasty
• Some slaves tried to kill themselves by starving
  themselves but were then force fed.

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1 in 5 (20) did not survive the trip across the
Atlantic Ocean 10-24 million slaves brought
to the New World
African CaptivesThrown Overboard
Sharks followed the slave ships!
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In The Americas

• The slaves worked long hours
• Separated from family members.
• Most were treated very bad and beaten, but there
  were exceptions
• Some slaves were able to gain freedom but very
  few.

African Slaves Working In A Brazilian Sugar Mill
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Amistad Video Clip
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Slave Trade

• Imagine one day you were tending your crops in
  your African tribe, when all of the sudden
  leaders of your tribe start beating your family
  members and tied them up. You are so scared that
  you cant move, but at least you are hidden from
  view, but the same is not true of your family.
  You see your mother, father and sister get taken
  away. You follow the group and see your family
  taken by men who look different and dress
  different than you. You see them load your family
  onto a large ship, all the while treating your
  family with no respect.

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Task

• You feel that it is your duty to warn others
  about what happened, so others will not be
  trapped and separated from their families like
  you.
• Develop a drawing with a caption warning others
  about the foreigners.
• On the back describe
• The reason for African Slavery
• The Middle Passage
• Life in the Americas for African Slaves
• One step further
• Create a caption to warn others about hazards of
  today (Examples of hazards Child Abuse, Animal
  Cruelty, Pollution, Teen Suicide, Bullying)
• Example Caption For Teen Suicide You are never
  alone.

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Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade