Transatlantic Slave Trade: Key Points

Origins and early labor systems

  • Long Christian–Muslim conflict on Iberia and the Black Sea; slave trades supplied labor
  • Muslim dominance of the trade fades in the mid-1400s as Christians rise to power on Iberia; Iberia/Black Sea cease to be main sources of captives
  • The term
    "slave" derives from the Slavs, Eastern Europeans who provided labor prior to widespread African slavery
  • Early slave labor centered on Mediterranean sugar plantations (Cyprus, Crete)

Sugar, trade shifts, and West Africa contact

  • Sugar becomes a globally valued commodity; demand drives labor supply
  • Portuguese begin contact with the West African coast seeking gold and to recruit labor for sugar production
  • Sugar production expands from the Mediterranean to West Africa (Sao Tome, Madeira, Cape Verde)
  • By the early 1500s, sugar labor shifts to Africans on West African islands and along the coast

European exploration and conquest in the Americas

  • European powers (Spain and Portugal) stake claims in the Americas; conflict and exchange intensify
  • Indigenous populations in the Americas are decimated by new European diseases (The Great Dying)
  • Example: Spanish conquest of Mexico began in 1519; by 1621, about 90\% of Mexico’s Indigenous population had perished due to disease
  • Africans begin to travel to the Americas as enslaved laborers; some Africans arrive as free people on expeditions

The Middle Passage and mortality

  • Transatlantic slave trade lasts about 400\text{ years}
  • Approximately 12{,}000{,}000 Africans were transported to the Americas
  • Estimated toll: up to 100{,}000{,}000 Africans lost/killed (wars, raids, voyage deaths)
  • Major European participants: England and France together account for up to 50\% of slave-trade activity

Destinations and regional origins

  • The vast majority of enslaved Africans were sent to Brazil and the Caribbean
  • A smaller share (~7\%) were sent to North America (what becomes the United States)
  • About 85\% of enslaved Africans came from four African regions:
    • West Central Africa (including the Kingdom of Congo) → Saint-Domingue/Haiti and much of South America
    • Bight of Benin (The Slave Coast) → Fons and Yoruba; NE Brazil and the French Caribbean
    • Bight of Biafra (Igbo, Ogoni, Ijo) → Leeward Islands and Jamaica
    • Gold Coast (Akan, Ga) → Jamaica, Barbados, Guyanas, Suriname (to lesser extent)

Key takeaways

  • Slavery in the Americas built on a shift from Eastern European to African labor for sugar and other labor
  • The transatlantic system was driven by commodity demand (notably sugar), disease impact on Indigenous populations, and forced migrations of millions
  • The trade was dominated by a few European powers, with substantial regional differences in origins and destinations

For deeper detail

  • See the PowerPoint on the Transatlantic Slave Trade for the middle passage and conditions of transport.