Transatlantic Slave Trade (15th

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Transatlantic Slave Trade(15th 19th century)
It takes more than a horrifying transatlantic
voyage chained in the filthy hold of a slave ship
to erase someones culture - Maya Angelou
Kevin Lu Period 5

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Origins of Slave Trade
Destination of most slaves

• Portugal first to heavily import African slaves,
  their advantage ship building
• Cause for slave trade economic-driven era
• mercantilism economy theory set the stage for
  slavery 
• based on the definition "country's wealth depends
  on capital (gold) (Chambers 543)
• slave labor for raw goods gt sell for capital
  in Europe

http//www.history.org/History/teaching/eft/slavet
radesample/images/SlaveTrade_SampleLesson.pdf
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Origins continued.
Sugar plantation

• Exploration gt discovery of abundant riches of
  West Indies, need labor for profitable, but
  labor-intensive sugar plantations in the
  Caribbean and Brazil
• Symbiotic relationship with
• Industrial Revolution
• 12 million slaves arrive
• in New World

Process of Indigo Dye
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Triangular Trade
Triangular Trade European manufactured goods
like guns, gunpowder, glass, textiles traded for
slaves gt slaves sent to West Indies gt in return
raw goods like sugar, cotton, rice, coffee,
tobacco sent to Europe
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Middle Passage

• Dangerous Middle Passage
• - journey in which slaves were captured and
  loaded onto ships to travel across the Atlantic
  Ocean
• Brutal conditions
• unhygienic
• overcrowded
• disease
• force-fed
• lack of water
• forced to dance to stay agile
• death was common
• Arrival in Americas covered in grease so that
  they looked healthy and more valuable at
  auctions, branded as possessions
• Seasoning - breaking or conditioning slaves
  for new life of labor
• Language and Culture
• New name, loss of identityand real communication
  with others
• Daily Life
• resistance, preservation of African language on
  the plantation to organize together - subculture

Crampled conditions
Slave Action Ad
Slave traders ledger
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Excerpts

• From Slave Olaudah Equianos narrative (The
  Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah
  Equiano or Gustavus Vassa the African) 1789
  (Click here to read whole narrative)
• The noise and clamor with which this is
  attended, and the eagerness visible in the
  countenances of the buyers, serve not a little to
  increase the apprehension of terrified
  Africans... In this manner, without scruple, are
  relations and friends separated, most of them
  never to see each other again.
• From An Account of the Slave Trade on the Coast
  of Africa by Alexander Falconbridge, a surgeon on
  slave ships (1788)
•  Upon the Negroes refusing to take sustenance, I
  have seen coals of fire, glowing hot, put on a
  shovel and placed so near their lips as to scorch
  and burn them. And this has been accompanied with
  threats of forcing them to swallow the coals if
  they any longer persisted in refusing to eat.
  These means have generally had the desired
  effect. I have also been credibly informed that a
  certain captain in the slave- trade, poured
  melted lead on such of his Negroes as obstinately
  refused their food. . .

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• Zong slave ship court case, 1781
• - London ship navigates to wrong shore
• Not enough resources for the overcrowded ship.
• Crew throws 132 alive slaves into ocean
  believing that since the slaves were property,
  they could claim insurance.
• Former slave Equiano found out and alerted Quaker
  abolitionists. Case goes to court. Court first
  says it is allowed to kill animals for the
  safety of the ship, equating Africans to being
  animals.
• Eventually, landmark decision concluded that the
  Africans were people. (Zong)

A Landmark Case recognizing slaves as humans
Read some more landmark cases
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Europes Role
part of 1713 Treaty of Urecht with Great Britain
gives Britain full control over slave trade to
Spanish colonies, later, in 1748, part of Treaty
of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748)- renew Asiento contract
with Spain

• How and why did slave trade start?
• Portugal and Spain (15-16th century)
• Prince Henry the Navigator explored coast of West
  Africa by 1460, since North Africa was already
  occupied by Muslims
• Initially sought , but found profit in slaves
• Spanish Asiento give permission for Great Britain
  to sell slaves to Spanish colonies
• Dutch (17th century)
• Dutch West India Company controls richest sugar
  crops in Brazil
• Copper trade
• French and English (late 17th-18th century)
• Captain John Hawkins, under the rule of Queen
  Elizabeth I, heads first English slave ship
  voyage in 1562
• first British settlement in Jamestown, Virginia
  1607
• France founds Quebec in 1608
• initially, only British government can transport
  slaves through Royal African Company, this
  changes in 1698 so rich can take advantage of
  this profitable trade eventually known as
  capitalism (Alcott)

Gold
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Impact in Europe

• Background The Slave Ship by JWM Turner (1840)
• Humans are powerless to the storm and sea
  monsters (government)
• Speaks out against the exploitation of slavery,
  the redness of the sunset symbolizes blood

• Economic
• Eventually jumpstarts Industrial Revolution with
  the profits made by sugar and other investments
  advancement of technology
• Cotton as raw material in textile production gt
  employment gt shift in roles, women go to work gt
  stimulate need for transportation gt railroads
• 2nd half of 18th century, British wonder about
  the morality of this slave trade and religious
  groups of Quakers and Methodists began to
  organize and spread abolitionist messages
• Wealthy port cities, like Liverpool, UK develop

The Slave Ship, http//personalpedia.wordpress.com
/
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Africas Role
Portugal makes contact with Kingdom of Kongo,
converts King to Christianity, gains footing in
Africa
Locations of most slave trading

• Slavery has existed since ancient times
• Global scale with growth of European colonial
  expansion and demand for supply of slaves
• European traders rarely go inland for fear of
  disease and unknown territorygtthey trade along
  the coast
• Civil war and hostile rivalries within Africa led
  Africans to capture and sell other Africans to
  European slave traders in return for to trade for
  goods like guns, gunpowder, textile, glass, iron
  (M'Bokolo)
• Become involved in slave raid (immediate profit
  return) instead of build powerful states which
  require time and greater cost (roads, border
  security, government system) (MBokolo)
• King Gezo (1840)
• The slave trade is the ruling principle of my
  people. It is the source and the glory of their
  wealth... the mother lulls the child to sleep
  with notes of triumph over an enemy reduced to
  slavery... (BBC)

Slaves being transported in Africa
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Impact in Africa

• Difficult to assess due to lack of statistic
  evidence
• Demographic shifts, uneven ratio of men to women
  and population declines (Rubenstein 253)
• Conflict among coastal regions who want to
  control trade leads to internal war
• Lack of agricultural and artisan development,
  instead there is focus solely on slave trade
• People afraid of getting captured, mistrust and
  fear gt ethnic stratification (Whatley)
• Rich kings and African slave traders gt unstable,
  unbalanced wealth
• Small, divided states
• Loss of contact with outside world insulation,
  economic stagnation, weak political structure

Slave forts along the coast
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The New Worlds Role

• First slaves arrive on Hispaniola in 1502 on
  Cuba, then Jamaica, South Carolina, Virginia,
  Colombia
• Arrival of Europeans in New World brought
  diseases that reduced the native population
  drastically
• Only 5 of slaves go to North America, rest go to
  Brazil and Caribbean (West Indies)
• Black slaves fulfill labor force on the
  plantation
• Plantation economy produces huge number of cash
  crops like cotton, sugar, tobaccogt more slaves
  than European settlers ("Africa and the
  Transatlantic Slave Trade")
• practice chattel slavery which means that slave
  status was passed down to descendants, society
  revolve around mass export of commodities
• - vs. lineage slavery in Africa, descendants may
  not share the same status, slaves were given
  tasks that free people did not want to do, not
  laborious manual labor for the singular goal of
  maximizing profit

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Impact on the New World

• United States
• Gabriels Rebellion (1800), Vesey Conspiracy
  (1822), and Nat Turners Rebellion (1831)
• Click here to learn more about the rebellions
• 2. Frederick Douglass aids abolition movement,
  Civil War, culminates in Emancipation
  Proclamation (1863)
• South America
• 3. Simon Bolivar 1826 liberate South America
• 4. Brazil Emancipation (1888) (Chambers 776)

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Click on Thumbnails to Learn More
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.gif http//repeatingislands.com/2011/12/17/the-du
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iography.com/imported/images/Biography/Images/Prof
iles/B/Simon-Bolivar-241196-1-402.jpg http//publi
c.gettysburg.edu/tshannon/hist106web/site20/brazi
l.htm http//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/common
s/thumb/d/d0/Nat_Turner_captured.jpg/250px-Nat_Tur
ner_captured.jpg
Box shows New World
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Influence of Religion

• Africa
• Before slavery variety of religious, spiritual
  beliefs
• By 15th century, Portuguese missionaries spread
  Christian beliefs in Africa
• Americas
• Spanish government promise fugitive slaves
  freedom if they came to Florida and converted
  (Muhammad)
• British slaveholders were afraid that
  Christianity would result in slaves demanding
  freedom (Muhammad)
• Colonies then passed laws that said conversion
  did not change their slave status
• Great Awakening spread messages like "individual
  freedom" and "direct channel with God" (same "one
  god" belief as those of African religions),
  concept of heaven, with Baptist and Methodist
  churches

Founder of Methodist Church, John Wesley opposed
slavery, published Thoughts on Slavery in
1774 Learn More
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Influence of Religion continued

• Americas
• Appealing to slave through similar actions of
  dancing, call-and-response (ring shout) singing
  missionaries say slaves would bond through a
  common religion, "social control (Muhammad)
• Several slave rebellions happen gt plantation
  owners fear religion is cause behind these
  insurrections, restrict blacks from meeting, tear
  down churches (Muhammad)
• Americas and Europe
• use Bible to justify slavery bring
  civilization Learn More
• Abolition Movement
• driven by many reasons, including beliefs spread
  by Methodist and Quakers, former slave
  autobiographies, awareness of inhumanity,
  French/American revolution
• Click here to learn more about slavery and
  religion

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Notable Figures

• William Wilberforce
• member of British Parliament
• dedicated to the abolition of slavery
• 1807 263 to 16 vote in favor of abolishing
  transatlantic slave

Toussaint LOurverture - leader of successful
13-year slave rebellion in Saint-Domingue on the
island of Hispanola, gaining independence from
France in 1804 - influence from the French
Revolution taking place overseas Click here to
learn - grand-scale influence Haiti become a
refuge for slaves escaping from Jamaica, inspires
Simon Bolivar to fight for Venezuela's
independence, inspires enslaved blacks in United
States to revolt
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Decline of Slave Trade
http//faculty.goucher.edu/mbell/ Master_of_the_Cr
ossroads/Tlouv1.jpg

• Olaudah Equiano (1745 1797) slave who
• bough his freedom after 21 years,
• involved in the British abolition movement
• Haitian Rebellion at Saint Domingue of 1791
• abolish slavery, gain independence, led by
• Toussaint LOurverture (Chambers 598-600)
• British Slave Trade Act 1807 abolishes slave
  trade,
• but not slavery.
• Began with growing Christian duty, spread by new
  forms of Protestantism, such as Quakerism to free
  the oppressed savage (Rubenstein 267)
• Led by politicians William Wilberforce, Thomas
  Clarkson
• Treaty of Paris 1814  includes agreement to end
  slave trade in 5 years, in 1814 Dutch outlaw
  slave trade too
• La Amistad (1839) slave-led mutiny on ship from
  Sierra Leone to Cuba gt end up in U.S. court
  case, United States v. La Amistad, survivors
  return to Africa in 1842

God Almighty has set before me two great
objects, the suppression of the slave trade and
the reformation of manners. -William
Wilberforce, 1759
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Legacy

• Africa
• Lack of common language and religion
• Tension between state borders caused by ethnic
  differences and unequal levels of wealth
• poverty due to lack of industrial/economic growth
  because younger generation is sold into slavery
• Americas
• Forever alters history gt racism
• key issue in American politics leading to many
  arguments between North and South states
• Modern day African Diaspora African Americans
  visit West Africa, research their collective
  history (inspire TV series Roots)

Point of No Return Door, Goree Island, Senegal
slaves exit homeland through this door Click to
Learn More
Infamous Elmira Castle, Ghana slave trading
outpost Click to Learn More
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Quiz
5. Which was the destination for the most
slaves? a) Barbados b) New England colonies c)
Mexico d) Brazil e) Netherlands 6. Most of the
slaves in the New World came from a) West
Africa b) Natives c) Prisoner of war d) North
Africa e) East Africa 7. The Middle Passage
refers to a) Slave rebellion in Sierra Leone b)
Transportation of slaves from selling block to
plantations c) Introduction of Christianity to
slaves d) Slave capture in Africa e) Voyage
across the Atlantic Ocean from Africa to
America
8. The ever-growing demand for sugar was
dependent on a) Stable British government b)
Indentured servants from Western Europe c) New
agricultural technologies d) Rise of
mercantilism e) Slave labor 9. Which was not
part of the triangular trade? a) Transportation
of West Indies natives to Europe b) European
export of manufactured goods to Africa c)
Shipment of sugar, rice, tobacco to Europe d)
Ship slaves to New World e) All of the above are
correct

• Most important West Indian cash crop?
• a) sugar
• b) gold
• c) tobacco
• d) rice
• e) Coffee
• 2. African slaves were converted to
• a) Witchcraft
• b) Laissez-faire
• c) Quakerism
• d) Christianity
• e) Islam
• 3. First country to begin contact with Africa?
• a) Italy
• b) Britain
• c) Portugal
• d) Spain

1)A, 2)D, 3)C, 4)D, 5)A, 7)E, 8)E, 9)A
(Answers will show up here on next click)
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Extra Links (Click on image)

• Transatlantic slave trade and abolition
• Very good PBS resource broken in 4 time periods
  from 1450 to 1865
• Lots of good resources at the end of this page
  pictures of slave forts, pamphlets related to the
  slave trade, autobiographies of slaves

http//americanhistory.si.edu/brown/history/2-batt
leground/detail/almanac.html http//consortiumnews
.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/PBS_logo.jpg http
//www.darwinproject.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/
12/Am_I_not_a_man-276x300.jpg
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WORKS CITED/BIBLIOGRAPHY

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  f-europe.htmlgt.
• African Slave Owners. BBC. 9 Jan. 2013.
  lthttp//www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features
  /storyofafrica/9chapter2.shtmlgt.
• Hathaway, Jane. Rebellion, Repression,
  Reinvention Mutiny in Comparative Perspective.
  Westport, CT Praeger, 2001.
• Whatley, Warren and Rob Gillezeau. The Impact of
  the Transatlantic Slave Trade on Ethnic
  Stratification in Africa. lthttp//cliometrics.org/
  conferences/ASSA/Jan_11/Whatley.pdfgt.
• M'Bokolo, Elikia. "The Impact of the Slave Trade
  on Africa." - Le Monde Diplomatique. N.p., Apr.
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  98/04/02africagt.
• "Abolition." Abolition (Library of Congress
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  Web. 18 Dec. 2012.
• "Africa and the Transatlantic Slave Trade." BBC
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• Appiah, Anthony, and Henry Louis.
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• Equiano, Olaudah. "The Middle Passage." Recovered
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  Cambridge UP, 2000. Print.
• ""The Middle Passage"" "The Middle Passage"
  ushistory.org. Independence Hall Association of
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• Obadina, Tunde. "Slave Trade as Root to African
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• Rubinstein, W. D. Genocide A History. Harlow,
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• Scott, Jennifer. "The Slave Trade." The Slave
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• Shahadah, 'Alik. "African Holocaust." AFRICAN
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• "Trade and Commerce." Understanding Slave
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  Itemid152gt.
• The Zong Case Study. Understanding Slave
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