The Transatlantic Slave Trade and Slavery in The Americas

Transatlantic Slave Trade destinations

The vast majority of enslaved people were sent to Brazil and the Caribbean, not to the United States.

Sugar Colonies

Highly profitable colonies in the Caribbean and Brazil that relied heavily on enslaved labor for sugar production.

Transatlantic Slave Trade origin

The system started in West Africa, facilitated by European coastal ports.

European Coastal Ports (West Africa)

Trading posts originally set up by Portuguese, Dutch, English, and French on the West African coast to facilitate the slave trade.

Togo and Acan

Local kingdoms on the West African coast that established diplomatic and trade agreements with European powers involved in the slave trade, often supplied enslaved people in exchange for goods like guns and muskets.

Slavery in West Africa (pre-European arrival)

Existed, often involved war captives, but was not a mass system dominating societies or based on a distinct racial or ethnic hierarchy.

Middle Passage

The horrific sea journey from West or Central Africa to the Caribbean across the Atlantic Ocean, where approximately one-third of enslaved people died due to brutal and inhumane conditions.

Major Participants in Transatlantic Slave Trade

Portugal, Spain, Britain, and France were the largest participants, with the Portuguese initially being the most involved, but smaller European powers like the Danes also participated.

Slavery in Brazil

Characterized by massive sugar plantations, a large percentage of the population enslaved (70-90% in some regions), and enslaved Africans often preserving more of their original cultures due to less direct interaction with Europeans.

Kilombo (Quilombo)

Communities of enslaved Africans in Brazil who escaped plantation life, lived in the mountains, and created their own independent societies, often resisting slavery.

Maroon Communities

Societies formed by enslaved people who escaped plantations in places like Jamaica and Brazil, creating independent communities, often in remote mountainous areas, to resist slavery.

Caribbean Sugar Plantations (conditions)

Characterized by extremely high workload, dangerous conditions (malaria, yellow fever), and very high death rates, requiring constant resupply of enslaved people via the Transatlantic Slave Trade as individuals often died within three years.

Key Caribbean Slave Colonies

Major European colonies in the Caribbean that relied heavily on enslaved labor for sugar, including Spanish Cuba, British Jamaica, and French Saint-Domingue (which eventually became Haiti).

Indentured Servitude

A system where European colonists worked as servants for a set period (e.g., 3-4 years) under contract to gain their freedom and land, protected by courts, unlike lifelong slavery.

Race-Based Slavery

A system established in colonies like Virginia and South Carolina around 167