The Atlantic Slave Trade

• Lasted from about 1500 to 1866

• About 12.5 million Africans were taken from their societies

  • About 10.7 million made it to the Americas

  • About 1.8 million (14.4%) died during the transatlantic crossing

  • Millions more died in the process of capture and transport to the African coast 🡪 and didn’t even make it to the ships

• When slaves arrived in the Americas, they were sold at auctions

  • Used as laborers, seen only as a unit for profit

  • Viewed as valuable property/things, NOT people

The Middle Passage

• Middle Passage

  • Enslaved person’s journey from Africa to the Americas

  • Middle leg of the “Triangular Trade” pattern

  • Miserable journey

    • Packed tightly together

    • Chained together

    • Many suffocated or died of disease (1 in 6)

    • Some committed suicide or went on hunger strikes

The Slave Trade in Context

• Idea of slavery = nothing new

• Before 1500 = Mediterranean and Indian Ocean regions were major areas of slave trading

  • Major source of slaves = southern Russia

• Many African societies practiced slavery themselves, as well as selling slaves into these networks

  • Trans-Saharan slave trade = brought Africans to the Mediterranean

  • East African slave trade = brought Africans to the Middle East and Indian Ocean area

• Slaves have always been considered “outsiders” of their masters’ societies, but slavery came in many forms 🡪 examples:

  • Some slaves could be assimilated into their owners’ households or communities

  • In some places, children of slaves were considered slaves; in other places they were considered free

  • Preference for female slaves in the Islamic world

  • Jobs of slaves differed depending on the region

__**Slavery in the Americas: Something Different
**__Immense size of the traffic of slaves

• Centrality of slave labor to the economies of colonial America

• Slavery based on plantation agriculture only

• Slaves treated as dehumanized property

• Slave status = inherited; little hope of freedom

• Racial dimension 🡪 Atlantic slavery came to be indentified with Africa and “blackness”

Origins of Atlantic Slavery

• Origins = lie in the Mediterranean = where Europeans first established sugar plantations

  • After they learned about sugarcane and producing usable sugar from the Arabs

  • Also set up sugar plantations on islands off the coast of West Africa

• Sugar plantation work = difficult and dangerous

  • Slavery became the source of labor because nobody would work under these conditions for the small wages being offered

• Original slaves on these Mediterranean plantations = Slavic-speaking people from the Black Sea region

• 1453 = Ottoman Turks captured Constantinople

  • Result = Official end of Byzantine Empire

  • Result = Ottomans now controlled Black Sea region

  • Result = Ottomans cut off Christian Europe from its major source of slaves

• At the same time = the Portuguese were starting to explore the coast of West Africa

  • Were looking for gold 🡪 but found an alternative source of slaves there

• Result = when sugar-plantations started in the Americas, Europeans already had ties to a West African source of labor supply

• Africa = primary source of slave labor for the colonies through a process of elimination

  • Slavic-peoples = no longer available

  • Native Americans = quickly died off from European diseases

  • Europeans = Christians = exempt from slavery

  • European indentured servants = expensive and temporary

• To the Europeans, Africans were perfect for plantation labor because:

  • Skilled farmers

  • Some immunity to tropical and European diseases

  • Not Christian

  • Relatively close and easy to get

  • Available in large numbers

  • Had darker skin 🡪 allowed the Europeans to view them as an “inferior” race

The Slave Trade in Practice

• Slave raiding in Africa = unnecessary and unwise

  • African societies = capable of defending themselves against European intrusion

  • African societies = willing to sell their slaves peacefully

  • Europeans = dropped like flies when entering Africa’s interior because not immune to tropical diseases

• In exchange for slaves, African sellers wanted:

  • European and Indian textiles

  • Cowrie shells (used as money in West Africa)

  • European metal goods

  • Firearms and gunpowder

  • Tobacco and alcohol

  • Decorative items, such as beads

• African slave trade = hurt smaller societies within Africa

  • Raided by larger, more powerful neighbors to conquer their people to sell as slaves

  • Lacked the protection of a strong state

How Did the Slave Trade Work?

• Step 1: African merchants and political elites captured slaves and brought them to the coast of West Africa

• Step 2: Europeans waited on the coast (in ships or fortified settlements) to purchase these slaves

• Step 3: Europeans brought slaves to the Americas and sold them at slave auctions to plantation owners

Where Did These Slaves Come From?

• Slave trade drew mainly on the societies of West Africa

• Progressively moved into the interior of Africa as the demand for slaves picked up

• Slaves = drawn from marginal groups in African societies = prisoners of war, criminals, debtors, people who had been “pawned” during times of difficulty, etc.

  • Those captured and sold = “outsiders”

  • So Africans didn’t believe they were “selling their own people”

The Impact of the Slave Trade in Africa

• Slowed Africa’s population growth

  • Simultaneously = populations of Europe, China, etc. were expanding

• Causes:

  • Loss of millions of people over 4 centuries

  • Economic stagnation caused by the slave trade

  • Political disruption caused by the slave trade

• Slave trade = did not help Africa economically because: African merchants and elites who sold the slaves kept the money for themselves and did not invest in their African societies

• No technological breakthroughs in agriculture or industry to help increase the wealth of African societies