Origins and Development of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade

These flashcards review the beginnings of European exploration, reasons for the shift to West African enslaved labor, social conditions in West Africa, traditional African slavery forms, and the expansion of the trans-Atlantic slave trade by the 1700s.

Which European nation led early 1600s voyages along the coast of Africa in search of a sea route to Asia?

Portugal

What valuable items did early European explorers hope to purchase cheaply in Africa and resell in Europe for large profits?

Spices and other rare goods

Which African region did the Portuguese seize in the late 1500s with help from the Kingdom of Kongo?

South-West Angola

Name two ways African rulers earned revenue from European trade prior to large-scale slave export.

By taxing goods moving in and out of their realms and by charging entrance fees to ports

Which European powers followed Portugal and Spain in conquering parts of North and South America in the late 1400s–early 1500s?

The British, Dutch, and French

List three cash crops grown on early American plantations that relied on enslaved labor.

Sugar, tobacco, and coffee

Approximately what percentage of the Native American population was wiped out by mistreatment and diseases such as smallpox?

About 90%

Give one medical reason plantation owners turned to West Africa for enslaved labor after Native populations declined.

West Africans had prior exposure and resistance to diseases that devastated Native Americans

Why did the climate of West Africa make its people attractive to American plantation owners?

It was similar to climates in plantation regions of the Americas, making Africans more agriculturally adaptable

Name one logistical reason West Africa became the main source of enslaved labor for the Americas.

The trans-Atlantic voyage from West Africa to the Americas was relatively direct

Identify three prominent West African kingdoms that flourished before European domination.

Mali, Benin, and Kongo

Which West African empire was noted for achievements in mathematics, medicine, and astronomy?

The Songhai Empire

Besides Islam, what other type of religion was widely practiced in West Africa before the trans-Atlantic slave trade?

Traditional religions centered on belief in a Creator and ancestors

In traditional West African slavery, what obligations did owners have toward their slaves?

Provide food, drink, clothing, and shelter

How did the status of children born to slaves typically differ in West African societies compared to New World chattel slavery?

Children of slaves were not automatically enslaved

Define debt slavery (pawnship) as practiced in West Africa.

A person pledged themselves or a family member as collateral to repay a loan, often working as a servant until the debt was cleared

What was military slavery in West Africa?

Boys taken at a young age, trained as professional soldiers, with some chance to gain freedom

During the 1700s, roughly how many Africans were transported annually across the Atlantic?

About 60,000 people per year