Slave Trade

1. Slave Trade

2. Note Taking • You are to take jot notes unless otherwise indicated.

3. What is “slavery” ? Slaveryis a social-economic system under which people are deprived of personal freedom and are forced to work for other people. The term also refers to the condition of those people who are treated as the “property” of another person of household. - - Although outlawed in nearly all countries today, slavery is still secretly practiced in many parts of the world. There are an estimated 27 million victims of slavery worldwide

4. - - At the end of the 14th century Europeans started to take people from Africa against their will. - - They were mainly used as servants for the rich. The Europeans bribed the slaves by telling that if they came they would all be considered Christian by the 17 century. - - When Spanish and Portuguese sea-captains explored the America’s the took African servants with them. Some of these African’s proved to be excellent explorers.

5. - - British merchants built coastal forts in Africa where they kept the captured African’s until the arrival of the “slave ships” The merchants received the slaves from African chiefs by giving them goods from tribal wars. However the demand for slaves became so great that parties were organized to obtain young Africans.

6. Slave Ships An estimated 15 million Africans were transported to the America’s between 1540 and 1850. To maximize their profits slave merchants carried as many slaves as was physically possible on the ships. One committee in 1788 determined that one slave ship “The Brookes” was only supposed to carry around 450 passengers. At the time it was transporting over 600 slaves from Africa to America.

9. Make a Sketch of the inside of a slave ship

10. Conditions aboard the slave ships were wretched. Men, women and children crammed into every available space, denied adequate room, food or breathing space. Chained together by their hands and feet, the slaves had little room to move. It has been estimated that only about half of the people taken from Africa became effective workers in America. A large number of enslaved Africans died on the journey from diseases.

11. Summarize the lived experiences of: • Olaudan Equiano • Austin Stewart

12. Olaudan Equiano - - This is the story of Olaudan He was captured and sold as a slave in the kingdom of Benin in African. He wrote about his experiences in “The life of Olaudan Equiano” - - The first object which saluted my eyes when I arrived on the coast was the sea and a slave ship which was then riding at anchor and waiting for its cargo. These filled me with astonishment which soon was converted into terror when I was carried on board. I was immediately handled and tossed up to see if I were sound by some of the crew. - - I was soon put down under the decks and there I received such a greeting in my nostrils as I had never experienced in my life. So that with the loathsomeness of the stench and crying together I became so sick and low that I was not able to eat nor had I the least desire to taste anything. I now wished for the last friend, death to relieve me; but soon to my grief 2 of the white men offered me eatables On my refusing to eat of then held me fast by the hands and the other shoved the food down my throat. - - The closeness of the place and the heat of the climate added to the number in the ship which was so crowded that each had scarcely room to turn himself. Almost suffocated us. - - The air soon became so unfit for respiration. From a variety of loathsome smells and brought on a sickness among the slaves of which many dies. The wretched situation was again aggravated by the chains, now unsupportable and the filth of the necessary tubs into which the children often fell and were almost suffocated. The shrieks of the women and the groans on the dying rendered the whole scene of horror.

13. There are a few different types of slaves. Two of the most common are: House Slaves Field Slaves

14. House Slaves House slaves usually lived better than field slaves. They usually had better food and were sometimes given the family's cast-off clothing. However, not all slave-owners took this view, Harriet Jacobs reports that her mistress "would station herself in the kitchen, and wait till it was dished, and then spit in all the kettles and pans" to make sure that the slaves did not eat what was left over. Their living accommodation was also better than those of other slaves. In some cases the slaves were treated like the slave-owners children. When this happened close bonds of affection and friendship usually developed. Even though it was illegal, some house slaves were educated by the women in the family. Trusted house slaves who had provided good service over a long period of time were sometimes promised their freedom when their master's died. However, there are many cases where this promise was not kept.

15. Austin Stewart - - This is a story of a boy who served as a slave for 22 years (1857) When Austin was 8 years old he was sent to the “great house” or the family mansion of his mater. He was to serve as an errand boy. He had to stand in the presence of the masters family all day and part of the night, ready to do anything which they commanded him to perform. His masters family consisted of him his wife and their 7 children. Mrs Helm was a very industrious woman and generally busy in her household affair - sewing. Knitting and looking after the servants. She was always finding something wrong with the servants and frequently punishing the slaves herself.. She would strike them over the head with a heavy iron key until the blood ran or whip them with a cowhide which she always kept by her side. Austin had felt the weight of the heavy iron keys on his head many times. And for the slightest offenses. No slave could possibly escape from being punished. “I care not how attentive they might be nor how industrious - punished they must and punished they certainly were”

16. Field Slaves Slaves were in the fields from sunrise to sunset and at harvest time they did an eighteen hour day. Women worked the same hours as the men and pregnant women were expected to continue until their child was born. The division of the land into smaller units under private ownership in America became known as the plantation system. Crops grown on these plantations such as tobacco, rice, sugar and cotton were labor intensive. Plantation owners discovered it was cheaper to buy slaves then to pay wages to workers.

17. Slaves were not cheap. By the 17th century slaves could be bought in Africa for $25 and sold in America for $150. After the slave trade became illegal prices went much higher. Even with a death rate of 50% Merchants could make a large profit from the trade. In 1860 there were about nine million southern white people. Only four hundred thousand of those people owned slaves. Some people even owned 50 or more. It was calculated that about 88% of America’s slave owners owned 20 slaves or less. Slave owners used to brand their slaves. They would use red hot irons to put a mark on their back. This mark would prove who owned them.

18. The death-rate amongst slaves was high. To replace their losses, plantation owners encouraged the slaves to have children. Child-bearing started around the age of thirteen, and by twenty the women slaves would be expected to have four or five children. To encourage child-bearing some population owners promised women slaves their freedom after they had produced fifteen children. Young women were often advertised for sale as "good breeding stock". To encourage child-bearing some population owners promised women slaves their freedom after they had produced fifteen children. One slave trader from Virginia boasted that his successful breeding policies enabled him to sell 6,000 slave children a year.

19. Most slave-owners encouraged their slaves to marry. It was believed that married men was less likely to be rebellious or to run away. Some masters favored marriage for religious reasons and it was in the interests of plantation owners for women to have children Most men were against this. They did not want to watch someone of their own kind (someone from their hometown) Be treated unfairly. Moses Grandy agreed. He wrote “no colored man wishes to live at the house where his wife lives, For he has to endure the continual misery of seeing her flogged and abused without daring to say a word in her defense”

20. The accommodation provided for slaves usually consisted of wooden shacks with dirt floors. They were built to house two families. Wooden floors were known as a luxury. There were mostly only single rooms and you have to try and fit every member of your family inside. An average slave family usually consists of a mother, father, and 5-10 children. There were no bedsteads, or furniture. The beds were made up of straw and old rags thrown down in the corners and boxed in with boards. A single blanket was the only covering.

21. Slaves were forbidden to practice their own religion. Their owners would never allow them to go to church or leave the house. The could not practice Christianity for fear that they would interpret the teachings of Jesus Christ as being in favor of equality. Slaves were also forbidden from continuing with African religious rituals. Drums were also banned as overseas worried that they would be used to send messages.

22. The main method used to control the behavior of slaves was the threat of having them whipped. The number of lashes depended on the seriousness of the offence. When slaves ran away and were captured they were given 107 lashes. Moses Roper (an African slave) received 200 lashes and this was only brought to an end when the master's wife pleaded for his life to be spared. Women as well as men were whipped

23. State laws gave slave marriages no legal protection meaning husbands could be separated from their wives and children from their mothers. Where some slaves were born children were taken from their mother at a very early age. Frequently, before the child has reached its twelfth month, its mother is taken from it, and hired out on some farm a considerable distance off." Family Life Masters used the threat of selling her children as a means of controlling her behavior. One mother had just witnessed seven of her children being sold at a slave-market: "She begged the trader to tell her where he intended to take them; this he refused to do. How could he, when he knew he would sell them, one by one, wherever he could command the highest price? The mother was saddened in the street, and her wild, haggard face lives to-day in slave books everywhere.. She wrung her hands in anguish, and exclaimed, 'Gone! All gone! Why don't God kill me?' No one had any words wherewith to comfort her."

24. Pregnant slaves were expected to continue until their child was born. Only a month's rest was allowed for recovery from child-bearing. The women then carried the child on their backs while they worked in the fields

25. The Trip Back HomeFrom Nova Scotia to Sierra Leone Sierra Leone is a republic in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea on the north and Liberia on the south, with the Atlantic Ocean on the west. The country consists of three provinces and one area, which includes the capital city, Freetown. During the 18th century, Sierra Leone was an important center of the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans. European contacts with Sierra Leone were among the first in West Africa. In 1652 , the first slaves in North America were brought from Sierra Leone to the Sea Islands off the coast of the southern United States. During the 1700s there was a thriving trade bringing slaves from Sierra Leone to the plantations of South Carolina and Georgia where their rice-farming skills made them particularly valuable.

26. George Ross wrote about his trip back to Sierra Leone in a journal. He began his journal in the mid-Atlantic in September 1800. His journal continued on to tell about his travels and all the problems they faced along the way. It was said that this trip took them about 2 months to complete. They ran in to intruders who wanted to fight. They hit problems with others wanting to take all of their food and valuables. George Ross even experienced 2 births on his travels back to his home town. http://www.ourroots.ca/e/toc.aspx?id=8190

27. Thousands of slaves were returned to Freetown. Most chose to remain in Sierra Leone. These returned Africans were from all areas of Africa. They joined the previous settlers and together became known as Creole or Krio people. Cut off from their homes and traditions by the experience of slavery, they assimilated some aspects of British styles of life and built a flourishing trade on the West African coast.

28. Book Work • Read Pages 76-84 • Do questions 1-4 pg 84

29. Bibliography ! Websites ! 1. http://www.wikipedia.com 2. http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/slavery.htm 3. http://www.google.ca Books ! 1. Back to Africa – from Nova Scotia to Sierra leone 2. National geographic