african kingdoms, the atlantic slave trade, and the origins of black america

portuguese exploration of the african coast

• portugal explored the west african coast

portuguese forts in africa

• set along the west african coast

portuguese trade and treaties with african leaders

• portuguese brought luxury goods to trade for slaves (luxury goods)

• made treaties with african leaders to exchange slaves and iron in exchange for artillery (muskets and such)

  • some african leaders put a limit to the amount of slaves they’d sell to them

portuguese wars in africa

• helped the ethiopian christian empire to defeat the ottomans in yemen(?)

• tried to colonize this one kingdom under the guise of helping them defeat local rebels

• portuguese allied with this one group that helped them raid the kingdom of kongo(?) and capture a bunch of slaves

all from the book

american plantation slavery

• chattel slavery

  • slaves are property

• based on the “color line”

  • based on skin color

• numbers/population grew because families were formed

atlantic mercantilism

• there’s a finite amount of resources (gold and such) and the more you have the more powerful you are

• sell more to others than they sell to you

• depended on slavery and the colonies in order to get supplies

• subsidies were given to businesses and tariffs were placed

statistics about africans brought to the americas

• about 12.5 million africans sent out

  • 1 million never lived to make it

• 45.5% of slaves came from west central africa

• about 48.5% of slaves went to brazil

• only 4-5% went to the american colonies

mercantilism and american slavery

mother countries depended on slave labor to get the resources they needed to trade

characteristics of modern slavery

• chattel slavery

• exploited the slaves

• idk what else

chattel

type of slavery where they were treated as property and had no rights

color line

• what american slavery was later based on

• division because of skin color

presentism

looking at the past with the bias of the present

characteristics of slavery in the caribbean

• no slave families

• easily replaced b/c they kept dying

  • low population

• heavy mortality

  • disease

  • revolts

  • overworking

• concentrated on sugar

• high ratio of slaves to whites

• absentee-ism

absenteeism

white owners left some person/people to watch over the plantation for them

the sugar empire: brazil

• about 48.5% of slaves were sent here

• portuguese planted sugar here

• also found gold so there was a short gold rush

• both were labor intensive

• idk what else

slavery in british north america (usa)

• basis of south’s economy

• racial caste system

• 6% of slaves sent here

  • population grew b/c of families

• shut down (importation) in 1808

characteristics of society on barbados

• tobacco and sugar grown

  • labor intensive

• cultural hearth

• same as caribbean characteristics

• community as a whole was poor

  • white owners were really rich though

• exploited the community

• absenteeism present

barbados as a cultural hearth

• spread to south carolina, jamaica, georgia

• a certain culture grew here

  • creole i think

• more like africa here

origins of south carolina

• old barbados plantation owners moved here

• brought their slaves

• brought rice and grew it here

• only british NA colony that ever had a high black:white ratio (1720)

gullah

• creole language

• mixed old english and a bunch of african languages

• spoken, not written

• (forcibly) happened b/c lots of different types of africans wanted to communicate with each other

• dismissed as “slave talk”

• became a form of resistance

• evidence african culture didn’t die on the middle passage

stono rebellion

• 1739

• slave rebellion

• blacks and whites killed

• largest slave revolt in colonial america

slavery in the usa compared to slavery in latin america, south america, and the caribbean

• crops grown

  • less labor intensive

  • different crops

• less slave revolts

• got more food and care

• balance between the sexes

• family structure (monogamy)

  • “marriage” encouraged b/c it’s advantageous to slave owners

    • more slaves produced

    • more satisfaction so less slave revolts

• less breastfeeding time?? idk

  • leads to more pregnancies??

• fewer absentee land lords

• white majority

• higher % of whites w/o slaves

• race united whites

slave revolts in the americas compared to the caribbean

• smaller

• not as often

african diaspora

idk

triangular trade

trade between africa, the colonies, and it’s mother country

ex: colonies produced sugar, mother country made rum with the sugar, mother country trades rum for slaves, in the colonies the slaves get exchanged for sugar