Africa in the Age of the Atlantic Slave Trade

1. Africa in the Age of the Atlantic Slave Trade

2. Volume of the Slave Trade • 15th century minimal – to Atlantic island plantations • 16th century – small • 17th c. increase to 16,000 per year • 18th c. most of trade, 7 million slaves, 80% of all trade over all years • 19th c. slows down, under attack, still exports to Cuba & Brazil (1.7 million)

3. African Slave Trade

4. African Slave Trade

5. Middle Passage

6. American Sugar Plantation

7. African Slavery • Slavery was common in African society • Where? • The Kongo, Ghana, Benin, etc. • All land was owned by the state • Owning slaves was a way to gain wealth • Slaves were used for servants, concubines, and field workers • Arrival of Europeans provided new opportunities for expansion of slavery

8. Slavery & African Politics • Competition between rival kingdoms led to endless wars • Kingdoms trade slaves for guns • Wars led to political centralization • Slave trade shifts balance of power • From Sudanic Africa to the Gold Coast, the Kongo, and Angola

9. The Asanti: A Sample Kingdom • Asante is on the Gold Coast • Modern day Ghana • Asante were members of the Akan people • Began as twenty small states • Matrilineal clan lineage • Most prominent clan was the Okoyo • Access to firearms allowed the Okoyo to centralize their authority after 1650 CE • Under the leadership of Osei Tutu (d. 1717)

10. Asanti Kingdom • Other Akan clans forced to pay tribute • Clans maintain some autonomy • A council advised the ruler on important issues • Used an ideology of unity to overcome clan divisions • Dealt directly with the Dutch at El Mina • Slave made up 2/3 of trade by 1700

11. The Kongo • Centralized kingdom • Converted to Christianity • Maintained diplomatic ties with Portugal • Attempted to abolish the slave trade • Portugal monopolized trade with the Kongo • Cowries, slaves, Asian luxuries Loango, capital city of the Kongo

12. Cape Colony • Dutch East India Co. establish a colony at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652 • Provision ships headed to Asia • Large fertile lands were great for farming • Used slave labor • Slaves brought from Indonesia and other parts of Asia • Eventually enslave the natives • Dutch settlers, called Boers, move to Cape Colony in search of land • 17, 000 settlers, 26,ooo slaves, and 14,ooo natives by 1800

13. East Africa & the Arrival of Europe • Swahili city-states continued traditional commerce in the Indian Ocean • Portuguese settlers on the coast used slave soldiers to expand their territories • Established plantations growing Asian spices using African slaves • Some African states copied European plantation system • Zanzibar had 100,000 slaves by 1860

14. Sudanic Africa • Fall of Songhai brought period of violent Islamization • Islamic elites vs. animistic natives • Violence helped supply slaves to coastal regions • In the 1770s Muslim reform movements began to spread a “purified” Sufi Islam • Movement had a major impact on Fulani tribe of the Western Sudan

15. The Sokoto Caliphate • Founded by Usman Dan Fodio • Believed he was an instrument of Allah • Preached jihad against Hausa kingdoms • Usman’s son founded the Sokoto Caliphate in northern Nigeria • Attacked neighboring Muslim kingdoms • Effects of reformist Islam • Spread literacy, new centers of trade emerged, attempts to eliminate pagan practices