Brutal Reality of the Atlantic Slave Trade

1. The Atlantic Slave Trade Credit given to: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston Publishing for portions of this presentation

2. The Slave Trade – Background 1 Triangular Trade is a term used to describe the pattern of trade that emerged in the 1500s between the three lands bordering the Atlantic Ocean: Europe, Africa, and the Americas (Findlay 2). When Europeans began colonizing the Americas in the 1500s, they started plantations that grew cash crops like sugar, tobacco, and rice, which were then shipped back to Europe. Millions of human hands were needed to grow and harvest these cash crops. For that labor, Europeans turned to Africa (Postma 8 - 13). One leg of the triangular trade bears a particularly grim history. That leg was the transport of African slaves from Africa to the Americas, a journey called the Middle Passage.

3. Africa had its own tradition of slavery when European sailors first began to explore its coast in the late1400s. Africans traditionally enslaved war captives, some of whom were traded with Arabs (Walvin 52-53). As the need for labor in the European colonies of the Americas grew, Europeans encouraged the growth of African slave-catching by offering manufactured goods in exchange for slaves. African slave-catchers would kidnap villagers and bring them to slave trading fortresses along the coast. Here an African captive would be kept in a jail cell for days, weeks, or even months, until a slave purchaser arrived in his ship (Postma 21-22).

4. Questions • What drove the European interest in slaves from Africa? • Were Africans participating in slavery before the Europeans arrived? Explain your answer.

5. The Slave Trade – Background 2 Once put into the hands of European slave traders, anywhere from 50 to almost 700 slaves were boarded onto wooden boats in shackles. They were taken under the main deck and chained together below the main deck on dismal shelves for storing the human cargo.  

6. The spaces where the slaves were kept were pits of death. There was no light, no proper ventilation, and little or no sanitation. The smell of perspiration quickly blended with vomit, blood, urine, excrement, and dead bodies. The voyage on the slave ship could last anywhere from one month to five months. Many died from suffocation, but disease was responsible for about 70% of deaths(Postma 45). Outbreaks of dysentery, a disease caused by contaminated drinking water, were the main killers. Scurvy, a disease caused by a lack of vitamin C, also took many lives (Kolchin 21). Infectious diseases like smallpox and measles were also common (Postma 45).

7. When weather was good, slaves were taken above to the main deck and “danced” during the morning. Someone played a drum or another instrument, and the slaves were ordered to move about the ship for exercise (Kolchin 21). Here, they were also given their meals, which usually consisted or rations of beans, corn, rice, or yams. Sometimes, small amounts of meat would be added (Postma 24). If the weather was not good, however, slaves were kept in the slimy under-decks all day and all night (Postma 27).

8. Depression and desperation caused many slaves to lose the will to live. Some committed suicide by finding opportunities to throw themselves overboard or refusing food (Postma 45). Crew members tried to prevent self-starving through torturous force-feeding(Kolchin 21) The goal of the slavers after all, was to get as many slaves as possible to ports in the New World (Walvin 65).

9. Economic concerns sometimes led to throwing live slaves overboard. If any slaves showed signs of smallpox, a disease which could wipe out large portions of the slaves and the crew, they would be thrown overboard. Signs of opthamalia, a disease which caused temporary blindness, threatened the value of the slaves, and any slave showing signs of this disease was also thrown overboard. Sometimes, if the voyage was taking too long and rations were running too thin, the sickest slaves would be thrown overboard so that the healthier ones would have the rations to make it to port (Walvin 67).

10. Sometimes, slaves aboard a ship would revolt. Revolts would sometimes result in the death of slaves. Slaves who seemed rebellious would be flogged, or beaten. Finally, some ships sank, taking down their entire crew and kidnapped cargo.

11. Questions • Describe the conditions on the decks where the slaves were kept. • What were the causes of slave deaths aboard the slave ships? List at least 6 causes of death. • Do you think the crews on slave ships wanted to hurt the slaves? Why or why not? List at least 3 things that would prompt the crew to kill a slave.

12. The Atlantic Slave Trade Main Idea Between the 1500s and the 1800s millions of Africans were captured, shipped across the Atlantic Ocean, and sold as slaves in the Americas. • Reading Focus • Where did the Atlantic slave trade originate? • How did slavery evolve in the American colonies? • What were the consequences of the slave trade?

13. Beginnings Native Americans African Slaves • Shortage of labor in Americas led to beginning of Atlantic slave trade • European planters needed workers on sugar, tobacco plantations • Planters first used Native Americans; European diseases killed millions • 1600s, used indentured servants • Expensive to support workers • Millions forcibly taken to Americas • Most from coast of West Africa • Some exchanged for firearms, goods • Others kidnapped on raids by traders Origins of the Slave Trade • Slavery has existed in many parts of the world • People forced into slavery came from different walks of life • Farmers, merchants, priests, soldiers, or musicians; fathers and mothers, sons and daughters.

14. Slave Trade Destinations

15. Slave Trade Destinations

16. Trade Network Captured Africans became part of a network called the triangular trade: • First leg of triangle - ships carried European goods to Africa to be exchanged for slaves. • Second leg - Middle Passage - Africans were brought to the Americas to be sold. • Third leg - American products were carried to Europe. • Some slave traders from Americas sailed directly to Africa, not following triangular route

17. Triangular Trade

18. Middle Passage • Middle Passage, terrifying ordeal • Captive Africans chained together, forced into dark, cramped quarters below ship’s decks • Could neither sit nor stand • Journey lasted three to six weeks. Ten to twenty percent did not survive

19. Horrific Conditions • Olaudah Equiano wrote about conditions on slave ship: • “The stench of the hold…was so intolerably loathsome, that it was dangerous to remain there for any time… • “The shrieks of the women, and the groans of the dying, rendered the whole scene of horror almost inconceivable.” Middle Passage

20. Summarize What was the Middle Passage of the slave trade like? Analyze Why were some people willing to treat others in this way? Respond What is your reaction to this clip?

21. Jobs • Most slaves worked on plantations • Others worked in mines, in towns, in the countryside • Skilled craft workers—carpenters, metalworkers, coopers—continued crafts in Americas • Women given domestic duties Slavery in the Colonies • Slave traders carried captive Africans throughout the Americas • Spanish—Caribbean sugar plantations; Portuguese—Brazil; English—West Indies but also to colonies in North America. • England dominated the slave trade by end of 1600s

23. Living Conditions • Slaves had to meet own basic needs at end of workday • Cooking, mending, tending the sick fitted in around work for slaveholder • Living conditions harsh • Physical, degrading punishment inflicted for minor offenses Slavery in the Colonies Many slaveholders lived in constant fear of rebellion by angry slaves who could no longer take harsh treatment they faced on plantations.

24. Property • Laws in Americas considered enslaved Africans to be property • Slaves had no rights, freedoms • Slaveholders controlled most conditions under which they lived • Often enslaved people endured brutal treatment, abuse

25. Resistance • Slaves coped with inhumane conditions many different ways • Some resisted by trying to keep cultural traditions alive • Others turned to religion for strength, hope • Some fought back by slowing work, destroying equipment, revolting • Some able to flee, establish communities of runaways

26. Summarize Why did many slaves fight back against their owners? Respond What would you have done if you were a slave?

27. Effect: Human Cost Effect on Africa • Estimates of 15 to 20 million Africans shipped to Americas against their will • Millions more sent to Europe, Asia, Middle East • Human cost enormous • Countless died in transit • Millions deprived of freedom • Descendants doomed to lives of forced servitude • Effects profound in Africa • Slave raiders captured strongest young—future leaders of societies • Divided Africans one from another—some rulers waged wars to gain captives • Forced labor of millions of Africans did not enrich Africa Effects of the Slave Trade • 400 years of Atlantic slave trade • Devastated West African societies

28. Summarize What effects did the Atlantic slave trade have in Africa? Speculate What effect would the Atlantic slave trade have had in the Americas?

29. Effect: Economies • Forced labor of Africans did enrich other parts of world • Labor of African slaves built economies of many American colonies • Their knowledge of agriculture contributed to growth of rice industry in southern English colonies

30. Effect: Spread of Culture • As result of slave trade, people of African descent spread throughout Americas, Western Europe • Spread called the African Diaspora • Eventually led to spread of African culture—music, art, religion, food—throughout the Western World