The Atlantic Slave Trade

1. The Atlantic Slave Trade

2. ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE1500-1870 • THE BUYING AND SELLING OF AFRICANS FOR WORK IN THE AMERICAS • BECAME A MASSIVE ENTERPRISE • 1450-1900: 9.5 MILLION AFRICANS WERE TRANSPORTED TO THE AMERICAS

3. Between 1450 and the late 1800's, it is estimated that between 10-15 MILLION Africans were kidnapped and sold into slavery. 

4. Native American Slavery • The expanding European empires in the New World, in North, South, and Central America,  lacked a major resource - workers. • At first, the European colonists attempted to use Native Americans as a work force, but that did not work very well. • Native Americans could slip away, and return with others to punish those who tried to enslave them. • Many died of European Diseases

5. The Portuguese soon discovered that Africans were excellent workers. • They were used to more tropical climate conditions. • Experienced in farming • Strong immune systems • The African people did not want to be slaves. They had to be captured and forced into slavery. A business sprang up - slavers. These were traders who captured and sold people into slavery

6. THE JOURNEY • AFRICANS: • CAPTURED • SHIPPED TO THE AMERICAS • 1-6 MONTHS • DEHUMANIZING VOYAGE • MANY DIED ALONG THE WAY

7. THE MIDDLE PASSAGE • VOYAGE THAT BROUGHT CAPTURED AFRICANS FROM AFRICA TO THE WEST INDIES, NORTH AMERICA, AND SOUTH AMERICA • “MIDDLE LEG” OF THE TRANSATLANTIC TRADE TRIANGLE

8. THE MIDDLE PASSAGE • CHARACTERISTICS OF THE JOURNEY: • SICKENING CRUELTY • AFRICANS WERE PACKED INTO THE SHIP • SMELL: BLOOD, SWEAT, EXCREMENT • VICTIMS LAID IN VOMIT AND WASTE • 20% DIED ON THE TRIP • SOME COMMITTED SUICIDE BY JUMPING OFF THE SHIP

9. The Middle Passage • Many captured people died on the ships sailing to the New World. • Conditions were terrible. • People were packed into the hold of ship without regard to their safety or their most basic needs. • The slaves who made it alive were strong workers and resistant to disease. 

10. African Slave Ship

11. Inside of an African Slave Ship Diagram of a slave ship from the Atlantic slave trade. From an Abstract of Evidence delivered before a select committee of the House of Commons in 1790 and 1791

13. For over 300 years, slaves were captured along the west coast of Africa, often with the active help of African kings and merchants. • Slaves were traded for beads, textiles, brandy, horses, and guns. • Slavery was illegal in the United States after the Civil War, but slaves continued to be traded in Central and South America for another 40 years until finally slavery was declared illegal in Central and South America as well. 

14. The Triangular/Trans-Atlantic Trade

15. Slave Distribution

16. National Dominations

19. Trans-Atlantic Exports of African Slaves

20. Trans-Atlantic Imports of African Slaves(1450 – 1900)

21. United States Slavery • By 1830: 2 million slaves lived in the United States.

22. SLAVERY IN THE AMERICASAFRICANS FACED A HARSH LIFE • Upon arrival Africans: • Auctioned off • Families were split apart • Worked in the mines, fields, and were servants • Whipped, Beaten, and Raped • Worked from sunup to sundown • No pay • Enslave for LIFE!

23. African Resistance • Rebellions: Runaway, Not Work, Act Sick, Strike back at slave holders, destroy crops • TO COPE WITH THE HORRORS OF SLAVERY, AFRICANS DEVELOPED A WAY OF LIFE BASED STRONGLY ON THEIR CULTURAL HERITAGE • MUSICAL TRADITIONS • FOLK TALES

24. EFFECTS OF THETRANS-ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE EFFECTS ON EUROPE: • Trading networks expanded • Substantial Economic Gains • The engraving, pottery, textile-making, shipbuilding and metal trades flourished in many European countries = employment • Shared business ideas between countries • Created companies for trade organization • Creates tension/competition between European countries • Age of Trade developed into the Age of Colonization of African countries • Received African Slaves (200,000 approx.), Sugar, rum, cotton, tobacco, and coffee • Global Power

25. EFFECTS OF THETRANS-ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE EFFECTS ON NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA: • Large population of Africans (9.5 million approx.) • African Labor – brought agricultural expertise • Plantations • Create Agricultural Regions • Black populations • Mixed Races – Mulatto and African-Americans • Establishment Economically Successful Colonies • Introduced to African culture (art, music, foods, tradition, folk tales, and religion) • Colonial Empires

26. EFFECTS OF THETRANS-ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE EFFECTS ON AFRICA: • Diverted the flow of trade across the Sahara to the Atlantic Coast of West Africa • Fall of Sudanese States • Portuguese influenced the names of places along the West African Coast: Cape Verde, Cape Palamas, Sierra Leone, El Mina • West Africa was introduced to new crops • West Africa expanded trading opportunities • Converted some to Christianity • Lost generations (young and able) • Families torn apart • Depopulation • Received: Guns, rum, Foods, Horses and Tar • Lost some cultural traditions • Economically damaged

27. EFFECTS OF THETRANS-ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE EFFECTS ON THE WORLD: • LASTING INTERNATIONAL TRADING SYSTEMS • CHANGED THE SWIMMING ROUTES OF SHARKS IN THE ATLANTIC OCEAN • GLOBAL ECONOMIC INTERDEPENDENCE • Diffusion: Ideas, Culture, Goods, and Diseases • INFLUENCED THE COLUMBIAN AND GLOBAL EXCHANGE • FOODS (FRUITS AND VEGETABLES, LIVE STOCK, TOBACCO, AND DISEASE) • COMMERCIAL REVOLUTION • Capitalism • Joint-stock companies • Mercantilism • New Social Ranks and Status