Africa and the Slave Trade

Chattel slavery

Ownership of human beings; slaves had a legal statusof property and can be bought and sold

Triangular trade

Slave trade between Europe, Africa, and the New World

Middle Passage

The journey in the triangular trade from Africa to the Americas

Polygamy

Having more than one husband/wife at a time

Maroons

Escaped slaves that formed free communities by retreating into inaccessible locations such as mountains, forests, and swamps

Songhai Empire

Engaged in the trans-Saharan trade; imported salt, textile, metal and exxported gold and slaves

Songhai emperors

Valued Islam for relations with Muslim merchants and Islamic States —> established mosques, schools teaching Quran, Islamic Universities

Swahili City-States

A collection of trading cities along the East African coast; Vasco da Gama and his Portuguese naval fleet forced tribute and built administrative centers and ports to control trade in East Africa but failed.

Kingdom of Kongo

Kingdom in Central Africa that established diplomatic and commercial relations with Portugal; provided gold, silver, and slaves from enemies or royal subordinates to Portuguese who provided textiles, weapons, and advisors

Christianity in Kongo

Christianity was a way to establish closer diplomatic and commercial relation with the Portuguese people —> King Afonso became a devout Roman Catholic and sought to convert his subjects

Cape Town

Trading post built by Dutch mariners, who eventually established Dutch settlements in the South African region

Ndongo

Portuguese tried to establish a colony here to directly support slave trade —> Queen Nzinga led a military resistance by mobilizing Central Africa and allying with Dutch mariners

Angola

First European colony in Sub-Saharan Africa

Islamic Slave Trade

Muslim merchants from North Africa, Arabia, Persia sought African slaves for sale to the Mediterranean, Southwest Asia, India, Southeast Asia, and China

Servitude

Overwhelming demand for slave caused merchants to raid villages, capture innocent people, and utilize forced labor

Early Slave Trade (Atlantic)

African slaves were captured to work on plantations in the Americas and the Caribbean primarily on sugar plantations —> natives died of diseases, revolted, and escaped

Triangular trade

Enslaved Africans to the Americas, raw materials to Europe, and manufactured goods to Africa.

Implications of Triangular Trade

Cultural diffusion, distorted sex ratios and increased polygamy, great profits for African merchants

Middle Passage

Sea journey of enslaved Africans characterized by extreme death rate: starvation, disease, etc.

Plantation societies

produced cash crops (sugar, tobacco, rice, cotton, etc.) for profit —> dependent on slave labor

Hierarchy of labor

Europeans governed plantation affairs, Africans did the physical labor