African Roles and Experiences in the Transatlantic Slave Trade

Enslavers

Individuals who exploited the law and white supremacist doctrine to oppress enslaved Africans and their descendants.

Ladinos

Native Africans (free & enslaved) who traveled to Spain/Portugal and accompanied Europeans on their explorations of the Americas.

Atlantic Creoles

Africans who worked as intermediaries between Spanish and Indigenous peoples in the colonies before the predominance of chattel slavery.

Conquistadores

Africans who participated in the work of conquest in hopes of gaining their freedom.

Enslaved Laborers

Africans who worked largely in mining and agriculture to produce profit for Europeans.

Free Skilled Workers and Artisans

Africans who were not enslaved and contributed their skills in various trades.

Juan Garrido

A conquistador born in the Kingdom of Kongo, known as the first African to arrive in North America during a Spanish expedition in 1513.

Estevanico

An enslaved African healer from Morocco who worked as an explorer and translator in Texas in 1528.

Transatlantic Slave Trade

The forced transportation of over 12.5 million enslaved Africans to the Americas, lasting over 350 years from the early 1500s to the mid 1800s.

Slave Trading Zones in Africa

Geographic areas in Africa from which Africans were forcibly taken during the slave trade.

Black Participation in Colonization

The involvement of Black individuals in the colonization of America, influenced by Spain's early role in the slave trade.

Cultural Familiarity

The knowledge of multiple languages, cultural norms, and commercial practices that granted social mobility to Atlantic creoles.

Indigenous Lands

Territories that were claimed by European powers, with the assistance of ladinos.

Resistance to Sale

The act of enslaved individuals opposing their sale, often resulting in severe punishment.

Social Mobility

The ability of individuals, particularly Atlantic creoles, to improve their social status due to their skills and knowledge.

Spanish Military Forces

The military group that Juan Garrido served in to maintain his freedom while participating in conquests.

Indigenous Groups

Native populations that resisted Spanish colonialism, leading to the death of Estevanico.

Scale of the Slave Trade

The extensive number of Africans forcibly transported to the Americas, surpassing arrivals from any other region before the nineteenth century.

Geographic Scope of the Slave Trade

The wide-ranging areas in Africa and the Americas affected by the transatlantic slave trade.

Distinct African Ethnic Groups

The various cultural identities of Africans that influenced the development of African American communities in the United States.

Colonization of the Americas

The process through which European powers established control over Indigenous lands, significantly involving African individuals.

Spanish Explorers

European adventurers who laid claim to territories in the Americas, often accompanied by Africans.

Trade with African Empires

The economic exchanges that resulted in the presence of ladinos in the Americas.

Survivors from Africa

Only about 5 percent (approximately 388,000) came directly from Africa to what became the United States.

Enslaved Africans' origins

Enslaved Africans transported directly to mainland North America primarily came from locations that correspond to nine contemporary African regions.

Nine African regions

Senegambia, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Benin, Nigeria, Angola, Mozambique.

Captives from Senegambia and Angola

Composed nearly half of those taken to mainland North America.

Charleston, South Carolina

Forty-eight percent of all Africans who were brought to the United States directly from Africa landed here, the center of United States slave trading.

Top enslaving nations

Portugal, Great Britain, France, Spain, and the Netherlands were the top five nations involved in the transatlantic slave trade.

Cultural contributions

Enslaved Africans' cultural contributions in the United States varied based on their many different places of origin.

African ethnic groups

The ancestors of early generations of African Americans in mainland North America came from numerous West and Central African ethnic groups, such as Wolof, Akan, Igbo, and Yoruba.

Religious backgrounds

Nearly half of those who arrived in the United States came from societies in Muslim or Christian regions of Africa.

Distribution patterns

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.

Capture of Africans

Could last several months; Africans captured and marched from interior states to the Atlantic coast.

Waiting conditions

On the coast, captives waited in crowded, unsanitary dungeons.

Middle Passage

The crossing of the Atlantic Ocean; a 3-month journey that resulted in permanent separation from their communities.

Survival rate during Middle Passage

85% survived, but suffered from widespread disease and malnourishment.

Mortality during Middle Passage

About 15 percent of captive Africans died during the Middle Passage.

Final Passage

The selling of slaves in the Americas; involved arriving in port cities like Charleston, SC, where 48% landed.

Quarantine process

Slaves were quarantined, resold, and transported domestically to distant locations of servitude.

Duration of Final Passage

The long process could last as long as the first and second passages combined.

Economic impact of slave trade

Increased monetary incentives led to increasing domestic wars due to new weapons received from European trade.

Wealth of coastal states

Coastal states became wealthy trading goods and people.

Instability of interior states

Interior states became unstable with the constant threat of capture and enslavement.

Selling of soldiers

To maintain dominance, African leaders sold soldiers and war captives, leading to concentrations of soldiers in the Americas who helped lead revolts.

Long-term effects on African societies

African societies suffered from long-term instability and loss of kin that would have become leaders and continued cultural traditions.

African American writers

Used various literary genres, including narratives and poetry, to articulate the physical and emotional effects they experienced from being sold at auction into unknown territory.

Countering enslavers' claims

African American writers sought to counter enslavers' claims that slavery was a benign institution to advance the cause of abolition.

Enslaved Population Growth

The increase in the number of enslaved individuals primarily through childbirth rather than new importations.

Plantation Breeding

The practice of deliberately breeding enslaved people for sale, notably in Virginia and Maryland.

Enslaved Women's Fertility

The commodification of enslaved women's ability to bear children, increasing their value to enslavers.

Sexual Violence

The widespread occurrence of enslavers raping enslaved women for exploitation and to increase the enslaved population.

Children Born into Slavery

Children automatically considered property of the mother's enslaver, crucial for the perpetuation of slavery.

Slave Narratives

Genres detailing the experiences of formerly enslaved Africans, serving as historical accounts, literary works, and political texts.

Political Aims of Slave Narratives

To end slavery and the slave trade, demonstrate Black humanity, and advocate for the inclusion of people of African descent in American society.

Phillis Wheatley

A well-known poet of pre-19th century, recognized for her contributions to literature and abolitionist movements.

Abolitionists' Use of Poetry

Poems by Phillis Wheatley were used to argue that Africans were artistic and intellectual.

Resistance on Slave Ships

Methods used by African captives to resist commodification and enslavement, including hunger strikes and revolts.

Slave Ship Diagrams

Visual representations of the arrangement of enslaved captives designed to maximize profit, often showing only half the actual number.

Unsanitary Conditions

The cramped and unhealthy environments on slave ships that increased disease, disability, and death rates during voyages.

Features to Minimize Resistance

Elements such as guns, nets, and iron instruments used by enslavers to prevent revolts and force-feed resisting captives.

Antislavery Activism

The movement spurred by African resistance on slave ships aimed at ending slavery.

Hunger Strikes

A method of resistance where enslaved individuals refused to eat as a form of protest against their conditions.

Jumping Overboard

An act of resistance where captives attempted to escape enslavement by jumping into the ocean.

Linguistic Differences in Revolts

Overcoming language barriers to unite and organize revolts among enslaved Africans.

Slave Ship Design Changes

Modifications made to slave ships in response to resistance, including barricades and safety measures.

Inhumane Practices

Cruel methods used during the slave trade, including physical abuse and neglect of enslaved individuals.

Evidence of Resistance

Absence of documented acts of resistance in slave ship diagrams, which often omit critical elements of the enslaved experience.

Disease on Slave Ships

The prevalence of illness among enslaved individuals due to overcrowded and unsanitary conditions during transport.

Commodification of Africans

The process of treating enslaved individuals as property or commodities to be bought and sold.

Sengbe Pieh

A Mende captive from Sierra Leone who led a revolt aboard the slave ship La Amistad in 1839.

La Amistad

The schooner on which enslaved Africans revolted in 1839, leading to a significant Supreme Court trial.

Supreme Court Trial

A legal case that lasted two years, resulting in the Mende captives being granted their freedom.

Abolition of the slave trade

Refers to the end of the importation of slaves to the US (1808), Cuba (1820), and Portuguese colonies (1836).

Havana, Cuba

A center for the slave trade where Portuguese slave hunters abducted Africans from Sierra Leone in 1839.

Abduction of Africans

The act of Portuguese slave hunters capturing a large group of Africans from Sierra Leone in February 1839.

Cuban schooner Amistad

The ship on which two Spanish plantation owners placed 53 Africans for transport to a Caribbean plantation.

Seizure of the Amistad

On July 1, 1839, the Africans aboard the Amistad took control of the ship and killed the captain and cook.

Public Sympathy

The emotional response generated by the trial of the Mende captives, which supported the abolitionist cause.

Enslaved people roles

The various domestic, agricultural, and skilled labor roles performed by enslaved individuals in the 19th century.

Specialized roles

Distinct tasks performed by enslaved people, which could vary based on the preferences of their enslavers.

Bound to institutions

Some enslaved individuals were tied to churches, factories, and colleges rather than to individual enslavers.

Skills brought by enslaved Africans

Skills such as blacksmithing, basket-weaving, and the cultivation of rice and indigo that many enslaved Africans possessed.

Exploitation of skills

The practice of enslavers using the valuable skills of enslaved individuals in various trades and crafts.

Economic effects of commodification

The impact of enslaved people's labor and commodification on African American communities and the broader economy.

Cotton industry growth

The expansion of the cotton industry in the US that led to the displacement of enslaved African American families.

African American authors

Writers who advanced the causes of abolition and equality through their literary works about slave auctions.

Slave auctions

Events in the 19th century United States South where enslaved individuals were sold to the highest bidder.

Gang system

A labor system where enslaved laborers worked in groups from sunup to sundown under the supervision of an overseer.

Task system

A labor system where enslaved people worked individually until they met a daily quota, generally with less supervision.

Gullah creole language

A linguistic practice maintained by some enslaved people in the Carolina lowcountry, developed with less oversight.

Slave codes

Laws that defined the status of enslaved people and the rights of masters, giving slave owners absolute power over the enslaved.

Chattel slavery

A race-based, inheritable, lifelong condition defined by slave codes, including restrictions on movement and congregation.

Code Noir

A set of laws governing slavery in French colonies.

Código Negro

A set of laws governing slavery in Spanish colonies.

Thirteenth Amendment

The amendment to the United States Constitution that abolished slavery.

Economic interdependence

The mutual reliance between the North and South fostered by slavery, even in cities not directly involved in the slave trade.

Wealth disparities

The significant economic inequalities entrenched along racial lines in America due to slavery.

Legal rights of enslaved people

Enslaved African Americans had no wages to pass down and no legal right to accumulate property.

American law and African Americans

The impact of American law on the lives and citizenship rights of enslaved and free African Americans between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries.