Age of the Atlantic Slave Trade

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• Age of the Atlantic Slave Trade

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• Africa still maintained links to the Muslim world
  but came increasingly pulled into the world of
  the West
• African culture blended with the cultures of
  those places slaves were brought to
• During this period Africa itself remained
  relatively free of outside political control

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• The Portuguese
• Established forts/trading (factories) posts with
  consent of local rulers
• Allowed Portuguese to penetrate existing African
  interior trade routes
• Established inland trade contact/collection
  points (lancados)
• Trade was primary basis of relations with
  Africans but with trade came political, social,
  and religious relations

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• The Kingdom of Kongo
• Missionaries succeeded in converting the royal
  family to Christianity then general population
• Portugal and Kongo exchanged ambassadors
• Kongo treated with rough equality
• Eventual enslavement of Kongo citizens led Kongo
  king to attempt to end slave trade and limit
  Portuguese activities

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• Further contacts with African tribes made as
  Portuguese made way down Africas coast
• Portuguese established settlement at Luanda
  (Angola)
• Portuguese outposts an attempt to control trade

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• Slavery active on Christian-Muslim frontier
• Trade between Iberia and Africa through African
  states
• Trade expanded with introduction of sugar into
  Atlantic islands and later Brazil

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• Demographics
• 1450-1850 12 million Africans shipped across
  Atlantic
• Only about 10-11 million actually arrived
• Slave trade peaked in 18th century
• High volume due to slave mortality rates and low
  fertility rates
• Exception was United States. Why?

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• In total populations, slaves in American colonies
  never more than ¼ - in Caribbean, slaves 80-90
  percent
• Brazil received the most slaves about 42
  percent of all those who reached the New World
  due to high demand over longest period of time

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• Demographic patterns
• Trans-Saharan slave trade mostly women and
  children. Why?
• Atlantic slave trade mostly male. Why?
• How might these patterns impact African
  demographics

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• Control of the slave trade by Europeans reflected
  the political situation in Europe slavery was
  led by Portugal as was exploration
• As power of Portuguese eclipsed so too was its
  control of slave trade
• As Britain became power in Europe it took over
  slave trade
• Slave trade had costs-
• Majority of Europeans died the first year out
• Less than 10 percent of employees of Royal Africa
  Company returned to Britain

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• The Process of slave trading
• Europeans often dealt directly with local rulers-
  paid tax or offered gifts
• Mulatto agents bought slaves at inland trade
  centers and transported slaves to coast
• Both Europe and African states involved in trade
  both sought slaving monopolies

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• The economics of slavery
• Was it profitable? One voyage might give a profit
  of 300 percent. But counting risks and costs,
  trade gave about a 5-10 percent profit overall
• Slave trade vital to plantations and mines of New
  World therefore contributed to growth of
  European economies
• Linked Africa to globalized trade networks
  Triangular trade

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• Slavery in Africa
• Slavery an established institution before arrival
  of foreign slavers
• Slavery used for labor and to extend lineage
• The Sudanic states took on Islamic concepts of
  slavery
• Europeans were able to tap into pre-existing
  slave trade routes
• African states happy to supply slaves in return
  for European goods
• African states rarely sold their own people -
  rather they sold captives from neighboring tribes

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• Western African states gained power through
  contact with Europeans (middlemen such as Sudanic
  states)
• Use of gunpowder weapons allowed expansion
  against weaker neighbors
• Result was unending warfare and disruption of
  society

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• African kingdoms based on slavery
• Asante
• Linked Akan clans under central rule
• Expanded through gunpowder constant supply of
  prisoners for slave trade
• Benin
• Already a power upon arrival of Europeans
• Initial trade excluded slaves increasing
  European pressures resulted in limited slave
  trade
• Dahomey
• Used gunpowder to expand territory and slave
  trade
• Major slaving state

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• East Africa and the Sudan
• Swahili trade cities still involved in Indian
  Ocean trade adjusted to military presence of
  Portuguese and Ottomans
• Slaves brought from interior mostly traded to
  Middle East but smaller number to European
  plantations
• Zanzibar and off-shore islands plantations
  established by Swahili, Arabs, and Indian
  merchants

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• Islam in Africa
• Break-up of Songhay created smaller states such
  as Hausa states - run by Muslim royal or
  aristocratic families
• Emergence of Muslim reform movements
• Fulani expansion based on Sufi variant took
  control of Hausa states
• Based new kingdom at Sokoto under a caliph
• Social and political changes due to expanded
  Islam under jihad greater numbers of slaves

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• 1652- Dutch colony at Cape of Good Hope
  established (VOC)
• Dependent on slave labor brought from SE Asia
  later incorporated African peoples
• Colony expanded by Afrikaners (Boers)
• Britain seized colony in 1795
• Chafing under British rule, Boers moved north
  creating numerous autonomous Boer state

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• The Zulus
• Unification of Nguni peoples
• Shaka - military reorganization based on lineage
  and age new tactics short thrusting spear
  permanent institution
• Shaka gained control by crushing royal families
  and opposition
• Shaka assassinated but reforms left in place
• Zulus most powerful African army

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• Rise of Zulus and other Nguni chiefdoms brought
  about mfecane wars of crushing and wandering
• Emergence of states based on Zulu model such as
  the Swazi
• Lesotho resisted Zulu model defended against
  Nguni armies
• All of southern Africa in turmoil due to mfecane
• Boers able to hold lands due to gunpowder
• Zulus crushed by British in 1870s

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• Slave Lives
• Forced march upon capture to trade towns or slave
  pens on coast as many as 1/3 died en route
• Voyage to Americas (middle passage) saw losses as
  high as 18 percent
• Losses also high on Muslim Saharan Passage
• Conditions on ship led many to suicide or revolt
• Slaves arrived in Americas with African cultures
  intact

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COT
Changes Continuities
Rise of new slave trading kingdoms (Benin, Ife, Asante. Kongo) expansionistic through new gunpowder weaponry Introduction of firearms, molasses and rum Portuguese coastal communities facilitated by Slave trade Break-down of families as slave trade required more males for labor intensive work in sugar plantations in new world New foodstuffs like manioc and sweet potatoes increase populations Pattern of European settlements in coasts and South Africa (Dutch Boers) Joint stock companies (VOC) invested in African trade Rise of Zulu in South Africa Introduction of Christianity to Kongo ( many converts) Diplomatic relations initially between Portuguese and Kongo Slave trade led to unending warfare Slavery persisted (controlled by Arabs from 8th-20th centuries) Swahili city0states still engaged in Indian Ocean trade High mortality rate of slavery Africa still controlled by Africans (geography and diseases hindered interior expansion and still dominant African Empires) Islam still dominated life in Africa Animism still popular in Africa African culture remained intact (matrilineal, bride wealth, stateless societies, griots,, Bantu languages) Trans-Saharan and Indian Ocean Trade continued
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Thesis

• From 1450-1750 Africa was impacted by the new
  Trans-Atlantic slave trade ( great circuit,
  Middle Passage, African Diaspora) losing mostly
  male enslaved (appox 10-14 million) to engage in
  the intensive labor in the new world leading to
  the civil wars and destruction of many families,
  introducing new firearms for the development of
  dominant empires like the Kingdom of the Kongo,
  however, slavery would persist across the Sahara
  still dominated by Arab merchants.

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• Africans in the Americas
• Used mostly as labor in mines and on plantations
• Slaves usually had experience in crop production
  skills used by plantation owners
• Slavery gradually replaced indentured servitude
  in American colonies due to costs
• Urban slaves worked as domestic servants,
  artisans, and street vendors

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• American Slave Societies
• Societies differed as slaves mixed with various
  European cultures
• Salt-Water slaves- African born black
• Creole slaves- American born could be mulatto
• General hierarchy with whites on top and slave
  son bottom with free mixed races in-between
• Creole slaves usually had more opportunity for
  skilled work, work in homes, and opportunity for
  manumission

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• Class lines based on color and differences of
  African groups (tribalism)
• Many rebellions and mass-escapes organized along
  tribal lines
• Total populations in Caribbean dominated by
  slaves Brazil only about a 1/3 due to greater
  manumission
• Despite difficulties, most slaves lived in family
  units

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• Slaves blended African religions with
  Christianity
• Runaways constant problem
• Runaway kingdom of Palmares
• Jamaican maroons
• Suriname maroons

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• The End of Slavery
• Enlightenment ideals Christian revival
  Industrial Revolution abolition of slavery
• British slave trade abolished 1807 British navy
  used to suppress trade
• Slavery truly ended in the Americas with
  abolition in Brazil 1888