Topic 2.2 - Departure zones in Africa and the Slave trade go the united states

What does this video suggest about the scale of the slave trade (the atlantic slave trade in 2 minutes)

What questions does it raise

1. Slave trade was huge as the highest amount in the atlantic was about 4 million while the lowest was below 1.2 million. Combined with all 3 is still a crazy amount and it shows how the places that used it on a high level weren’t too diverse

2. Why did mainland north america have so much little slave trade?

3. Why did the caribbean have so much slave trade ?

4. What specifically were the slaves used most for?

Image A

What did american(north and south) countries saw the largest number of captive africans? The least?

Roughly how many captive africans were taken to the americas? How many of those were taken to the united states?

1. The united states and rio de la plata saw the least while brazil saw the most and also jamaica, veracruz, barbados, and cartagena

2. About 1 million was taken to the united states, Roughly it shows around 26 million was taken to the americas

Image B

What years was the transatlantic slave trade at its highest

What would you estimate the average number of persons per year transported to be

1. During the 1750-1850 was the highest

2. Maybe 75k or 50k

Image C

What locations in Africa did the enslaved come from?

Which 2 places did the highest percent of enslaved people come from?

Why do you think these locations were targeted and used in the slave trade?

1. Senegambia, sierra leone, ghana, benin, liberia/ivery coast, angola, and mozambique

2. senegambia and angola

3. Maybe bc people there were already familiar with laborious work that could get the enslavers more profit

Image D

Compare the time periods 1751-1800 (red) and 1800-1850 (orange), What changes do you notice

In some cases the number of regional origins of enslaved africans destined for the americas greatly decreased compared to the orange while others did the opposite (orange lower)

Image E

What regions were most enslaved people transported to

Describe a commonality of these regions

1. Southeast brazil, bahia, cuba, jamaica, and pernambuco

2. They are all right by the water and not in the center of their continents or island

Image F

What are the top 5 enslaving nations involved in the slave trade

Why do you think these nations were involved in the slave trade

1. Portugal, UK, france, netherlands, and spain

2. Bc they had such good army’s and weapons , more developed with their resources for conquest, technological advancements were great

Image G

What role did Charleston, SC play in the slave trade

What percentage of africans brought to the US landed in charleston SC

1. 48% of all americans who were brought to the US from africa landed here, the center of the slave trading

2. 48%

Domestic slavery vs chattel slavery

• Slavey before the transatlantic slave trade was typically domestic slavery

• Enslaved people: would be absorbed into the new culture that held them captive and were still considered human, typically gained freedom after a set time, children of the enslaved we’re not enslaved (they were members of a new society, perhaps a lower class)

• Began with portuguese/west african contact (1450’s) - enslaved forced to work on sugar plantations (são tomé)

• Chattel slavery wasn’t fully defined until the 16 century, in chattel slavery enslaved people and the descendants were classified as property and not as humans, considered enslaved for life

Scale and scope of transatlantic slave trade

• due to the slave trade, before the nineteenth century more people arrived in the americas from africa than from any other region

• lasted over 350 years

• 12.5 million enslaved africans were forcibly transported to the americas

• 1.9 million died during the middle passage → a second of silence to honor all of them would take 22 days

• 5% survived the journey

• approx. 388,000 came directly from africa to the united states

Primary trading zones

• enslaved africans transported directly to mainland north america primarily came from seengambia, sierra leone, libera, cote d’lvoire, ghana, benin, nigeria, angola, and mozambique

• captives from senegambia and angola composed nearly half of those taken to mainland north america (about ¼ of each region)

Impact on african america communities

• nearly half of those who arrived in the us came from muslim/christian regions of africa

• the distribution patterns of numerous african ethnic groups throughout the american south created diverse black communities with distinctive combinations of african based cultural practices, languages, and beliefs

• Enslaved africans cultural contributions in the us varied based on their many different places of origin

• The interactions of various african ethnic groups produced multiple combos of african based cultural practices, languages, and belief systems within african american communities

• The ancestors of early generations of african americas in mainland north america derived from numerous west and central african american ethnic groups such as the wolof (senegambia), akan (ghana), igbo, and yoruba (nigeria)