Slavery in the Atlantic World - Detailed Notes
Slavery in the Atlantic World
Relevance for exam question on comparative British colonization:
Comparisons and contrasts in Britain’s New World colonies.
Slavery was more significant in colonial British America than in Colonial Mexico.
Reading the American Past
Doc. 3-3, p. 39-40: A Dutch Tobacco Shop
Patterns of social life displayed in the engraving.
Depiction of work and leisure associated with tobacco.
Characterization of seventeenth-century Europeans' desire for tobacco.
Beneficiaries of the activities in the shop and how they benefited.
Influence of tobacco shops on colonists in the seventeenth-century British colonies in the Chesapeake region.
Doc. 3-5, p. 43: Pedro Naranjo Describes Pueblo Revolt
In 1675, Spanish officials in New Mexico tried to eliminate traditional religious practices of Pueblo people.
Arrest of Pueblo spiritual leaders, including Popé, who organized a revolt in 1680.
The Pueblo uprising resulted in deaths of priests and other Spaniards.
Pedro Naranjo's testimony reveals opposition to Christianity and Spanish rule rooted in Pueblo beliefs.
Comparative Questions (Chap. 3)
Attitudes toward Native Americans among English and Spanish colonists, and vice versa.
Influence of tobacco production on individuals in the documents, considering social rank, gender, race, age, religion, and ethnicity.
Similarities and contrasts between Opechancanough's uprising, Bacon's Rebellion, and the Pueblo Revolt regarding conflicts over land rights and religion in the southern colonies.
Contrasting concepts of order and disorder among free white colonists, Indians, slaves, and servants.
The New World and Revival & Growth of Slavery
Shift from slaves as auxiliaries to the primary labor force.
Initially, slaves served as concubines, household servants, artisans, etc.
In the New World, they became the main labor force for export agriculture.
Change from a degree of freedom to being considered property.
New World Destinations: Demography & Geography
Areas with large native sedentary populations typically did not get many slaves because the natives became the workforce.
This was especially the case for Mexico and Peru.
Caribbean exception:
The region was peopled by the sedentary Ararwaks (Taino), but forced importation of slaves occurred because most natives perished in the decades after contact.
Regions suitable for agriculture that were peopled by semi- and non-sedentary peoples often imported slaves.
Examples include the Chesapeake, lower south, and Brazil.
Timing: Slavery, Institution of Last Resort
African slavery was generally not the labor system of first choice.
Brazil became the first agrarian exporter in the mid-1500s, but an enslaved African labor system did not become prevalent until the 1600s.
The Chesapeake began exporting tobacco in the early 1600s but did not mainly rely on African slave labor until the 1700s.
Slave Numbers
Approximately 10 million Africans were forcibly transported across the Atlantic during the colonial and national periods.
About 1.5-2 million more died on the “middle passage.”
About ¾ of the people that crossed the Atlantic up to 1820 were Africans.
This changed in the 19th Century with attacks on the slave trade and increased European migration.
Leading Slave-Trading Nations
The Portuguese started bringing slaves to the New World shortly after “discovery” in 1492.
The Portuguese led the slave trade in the 15th and 16th centuries, the Dutch in the 17th Century, and the British in the 18th Century.
Numbers slowed in the 19th century as Britain policed to outlaw the international slave trade.
Very few arrived after 1850 or so.
“Middle Passage” (Across Atlantic)
The journey could take 2 months to cross the Atlantic.
For many, the journey began earlier as they were taken from the interior of Africa.
For many, crossing the Atlantic was not the end, as they were often shipped somewhere else after the first stop (perhaps the Caribbean).
Slaves were packed very tightly onto ships (like sardines) and chained below for fear of rebellion.
Some regulation of the industry occurred in the 18th century regarding ship size.
The death toll decreased in the 18th century but remained quite high.
Destinations by Region (Rough Estimates)
40% Caribbean (including British, French, and Spanish colonies).
40% Brazil.
6% Spanish America.
4% British America.
Slave Trade, 1650-1850
Between 1650 and 1860, approximately 10 to 15 million enslaved people were transported from western Africa to the Americas.
Most were shipped to the West Indies, Central America, and South America.
Genetic Impact of Slave Trade
Millions of people were traded across the Atlantic between 1515 and 1865.
Approximately 12.5 million people were taken on ships, with about 10.5 million getting off alive and 2 million dying en route.
Brazilian Beginnings: From Dyewood to Sugar
Shift from Natives to African Slaves.
Reproduction of the slave population.
Engenho
“Engenho” = engine (whole operation, not just growing sugar).
Need for a diverse workforce of blacksmiths, masons, carpenters, etc.
Specialized processing tasks; assembly line; work in shifts; machinery could be working 18 hours per day.
11 months of work per year in fields (2 planting; 9 harvesting).
Engenhos have an average of 60-80 slaves (some as many as 200).
Annually, engenhos lose 5-10% of slaves.
Lavradores de cana are a group under the planters who own slaves.
The English Caribbean: Barbados and Jamaica
Impact of Brazil and the Dutch.
Shift from tobacco and servants to sugar and slaves.
Change from smallholders to latifundia.
Numbers in British Caribbean
1640-1700: About 250,000 slaves imported into the British West Indies.
First half of 1700s: About 150,000 more imported into the British West Indies.
British Slavery on the North America Mainland
All mainland colonies had slaves (comparison).
Slavery was more important in some areas than others (contrast).
The percentage of the population that was slaves increased as one moved southward.
The upper and lower south, with significant numbers of slaves, are more like the British Caribbean on the slavery metric.
How Many Slaves Imported Onto the Mainland and Timing?
1607-1700: Population of 250,000; 90% white (less than 10% slaves).
1700 to 1775: 150,000 free Europeans migrate; 275,000 African slaves imported.
New England
Slaves as auxiliaries; less than 5% of the population.
Old Testament justification for slavery embodied in “Body of Liberties”:
Enslavement via war.
Can be sold into slavery.
Can sell oneself into slavery.
Middle Colonies
The Dutch previously had slaves in New Amsterdam.
A higher percentage of slaves in urban than rural areas (about 10% of Philadelphia residents owned slaves).
William Penn said that as long as slaves were taught the word of God, slavery was acceptable.
Upper South/Chesapeake: Why Shift From Indentured Servants to Slaves?
Short answer: no other alternatives.
Less “push” factors in England meant fewer servants willing to come.
By the late 1600s, servants had more options since there were more colonies.
Improved health conditions made slaves a better investment.
British began to control the slave trade.
Politics and social issues: Bacon’s Rebellion.
Numbers in Chesapeake
Between 1620-1680, 80% of people who migrated to the Chesapeake were indentured.
The first Africans arrived in Jamestown in 1619.
By the 1690s, 3,500 were imported to the Chesapeake.
Bacon’s Rebellion (disturbing aspect for planters): blacks fought with whites.
1700-1740: About 50,000 slaves were imported to the Chesapeake.
The Law in VA: Slavery Strengthens Over Time
VIRGINIA: by the mid-17th century, a master could not be found guilty of murdering a slave.
By the late 17th century, it became legal in VA for a Christian to enslave a Christian.
In 1705, compulsory slave service in slave patrols was required for non-slaveholders.
Perpetual inherited bondage.
An entirely separate penal and judicial code for blacks and whites.
Lower South (Carolinas and Georgia)
Tobacco vs. rice production: the former (relatively small plantations and numbers) was less unpleasant in terms of work; the latter was harsher, more like sugar production.
Caribbean connection: overflow from Barbados (planters and slaves).
Law: Planters' guarantees of the legality of slavery at the start (1669).
Rice production took off in the 18th century (slave population: 4,000 in 1700; and 40,000 in 1740).
Impact of Expansion of Slavery on Free Blacks
Conditions for free blacks declined over time.
Before slaves were the main labor force in the Chesapeake, free blacks could intermarry with whites, (perhaps) vote & hold political positions, bear arms, etc.
Afterward: a ceiling was put on the number of free blacks in the colony.
Essentially, free blacks were forced to leave southern colonies.
Hence, there was a situation where free and enslaved blacks were not allowed to live side by side.