Slavery in the Americas DBQ

Transatlantic Slave Trade

The kidnaping and enslavement of 12 million Africans from 1500s to the 1700s. Transporting West Africans across the Atlantic and to the Americas in order to be sold for profit. Terrible abusive conditions traumatized and killed millions.

Triangular Trade

The movement and trade of resources/commodities connecting Europe, Africa, and America

Middle Passage

The middle part of the Transatlantic slave trade, where Africans were brought from West Africa to the Americas across the Atlantic Ocean, 10% of all enslaved Africans died during the journey on boats due to poor conditions, abuse, disease, and suicide

African Diaspora

The spread of people of African descent due to mainly the Transatlantic slave trade but also voluntary movement 

Cash Crop/Pleasure Crops

Crops that are farmed for their commercial value rather than their need. Ex. sugar, rice, tobacco, cotton

Sugar Trade

The increased demand for sugar in Europe led enslavers to create large-scale sugar plantations in the Americas as well as the Caribbean. This free labor assisted Europe and made it rich.

Racial Slavery

A system where people were enslaved solely based on race. Built on a false belief that one race is superior to another.

Ogun

A powerful Yoruba deity (Orisha) of iron, war, and technology

Abolition

The ending of a policy or movement, or referring to the legal abolishment of slavery in 1865

Syncretism

The natural blend or conjoining of something, ex. Cultural Syncretism: the blending of cultures

Vodou

A blend of French Catholicism and Haitian religion, which developed during enslavement. Recognizing one central power that can be connected to through praying to lesser spirits, very similar to the Christian God and saints.

Commodification

The process of transforming something into a commodity

Commodity

Something that can be bought and sold

Olaudah Equiano

A male writer and abolitionist who purchased his freedom from slavery in 1776. Taken from West Africa as a child, he was enslaved in the Barbados for most of his life

Chattel Slavery

A form of slavery in which slaves are seen as property or livestock belonging to their owners

Capitalism

A social and economic system in which resources and businesses are mostly owned by individuals and operated for profit.

Monopoly

When one company controls an entire industry, ex. Amazon

Oshun

Yoruba goddess/orisha of love, fertility, femininity, sexuality

Orisha

Yoruba deities originating in West Africa who’s stories traveled to the Americas through the African Diaspora (mainly slave trade)

Elite

Powerful people controlling wealth, including European Aristocrats, Wealthy Merchants, and American Slaveholders. Often created by multinational corporations and liberalism, which opened the transatlantic trade to many more Europeans

Plantation system

An agricultural model based on the mass production of cash crops using the physical labor of enslaved people or forced laborers,

European Countries involved in the transatlantic slave trade

Portugal, Britain, Spain, France, the Netherlands, and Denmark (much smaller scale)

Joint-Stock Company

A business whose ownership is divided into shares of stock, which can then be bought by shareholders

Royal African Company (RAC)

Created in 1672, this was Britain’s way of controlling trade from Africa, later specifically the slave trade. Assisted England in leading the world trade, which was a monopoly until 1689. Demand was high, and political power was lost (King James II). Traded people, gold, silver, and other commodities

Zong

A British slave ship that sailed the middle passage in 1781, carrying 481 Africans (2x the limit). Due to a lack of resources and starving slaves, they massacred 132 African people in order to claim insurance. As they would receive more insurance from casualties than from natural, avoidable deaths

Insurance

During the slave trade, insurance covered enslaved people as if they were cargo, and protected slave holders from financial loss because of death or injury

Yoruba

An ethnic group from Western Africa whose culture impacted most of the African Diaspora

Slavery Before Age of Exploitation

Slavery can be traced back to Mesopotamia in Hamurabi’s code, usually involving debt bondage and prisoners of war. Never determined as racial or chattel slavery.

Emancipation

The emancipation of something, in the context of the slave trade: the legal freeing of slaves after the abolition of slavery. (1863)

Beginning of Portuegese Trade

1336/1526/1444

The Arrival of the first Africans in English North America

1619

The End of the British Slave Trade

Slave Trade Act of 1807

places slaves were taken from and where they were taken to 

Oyotunji

A Yoruba Village located in South Carolina, was created in 1970, created to preserve African culture and history