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The European Age of Exploration and Colonization. The European Age of Exploration and Colonization. European nations sought to colonize Africa Portugal lead trade with African kingdoms Portugal sought trade route to India Columbus traveled west to reach East Landed in Americas
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The European Age of Explorationand Colonization • European nations sought to colonize Africa • Portugal lead trade with African kingdoms • Portugal sought trade route to India • Columbus traveled west to reach East • Landed in Americas • Enslaved indigenous Americans • Workforce demand caused Atlantic slave trade
The European Age of Exploration and Colonization (cont'd) • Middle Passage • The voyage of slave ships (slavers) across the Atlantic Ocean from Africa to the Americas
The Slave Trade In Africa • Slavery existed in all cultures for thousands of years • Sudanese conducted Islamic slave trade • Islamic slave trade included blacks and whites • Mainly women and children • Trans-Sahara slave trade made West African cities wealthy
The Origins of the Atlantic Slave Trade • Europeans, white Americans purchased slaves from African traders • Interethnic warfare produced slaves • No racial solidarity among Europeans, Africans
The Origins of the Atlantic Slave Trade (cont'd) • Columbus’s voyages drastically change slave trade • Disease, overwork cause decline in American Indians • Europeans rely on Atlantic slave trade • Atlantic slave trade grew huge, tragic
The Origins of the Atlantic Slave Trade (cont'd) • Guinea Coast • The southward-facing coast of West Africa, from which many of the people caught up in the Atlantic slave trade departed for the Americas
ESTIMATED ANNUAL EXPORTS OF SLAVES FROM WESTERN AFRICA TO THE AMERICAS
Growth of the Atlantic Slave Trade • Spain and Portugal dominated Atlantic slave trade • Sugar cultivation in Americas extremely profitable • Slavery in America based on race • Most slaves men or boys
Growth of the Atlantic Slave Trade (cont'd) • Dutch shift sugar production to West Indies • England and France follow DutchTobacco as cash crop increases slave demand • After wars, England dominates slave trade • Slave trade Profits helped fund Industrial Revolution
Growth of the Atlantic Slave Trade (cont'd) • Indigo • A bluish-violet dye produced from the indigo plant • Chattel • A form of slavery in which the enslaved are treated legally as property • Asiento • The monopoly over the slave trade from Africa to Spain’s American colonies.
Growth of the Atlantic Slave Trade (cont'd) • Cash crop • A crop grown for sale rather than subsistence • Industrial Revolution • An economic change that began in England during the early eighteenth century and spread to Continental Europe and the United States. Industry rather than agriculture became the dominant form of enterprise.
ATLANTIC TRADE AMONG THE AMERICAS, GREAT BRITAIN, AND WEST AFRICA DURING THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES
The African-American Ordeal from Capture to Destination • African war captives fueled slave trade • European traders provided firearms • Captives brought to coast, held in factories • Branded like cattle • European brutalization meant to destroy self-respect, identity
The African-American Ordeal from Capture to Destination (cont'd) • Factories • Headquarters for a European company that traded for slaves or engaged in other commercial enterprises on the West African coast
The Crossing • Captives forced to leave native land • Voyages lasted three to six month • Human, natural causes delay voyages • Western European nations fought for ships • Piracy • Hurricanes, doldrums
In this late eighteenth-century drawing, African slave traders conduct a group of bound captives from the interior of Africatoward European trading posts.
The Slavers and Their Technology • Ships called slavers • Slaves “tight packed” onto ships, chained together • Seaboard epidemics causes high mortality rate
The Slavers and Their Technology (cont'd) • By eighteenth century, slavers were “useful machines” • Built to resist storms, better ventilated • Included “bondage hardware” • Slavers • Ships used to transport slaves from Africa to the Americas
A Slave’s Story • Boy captured, sent on voyage to West Indies • Overcrowded, unsanitary, darkness, chafing of chains • Desperation, catatonia, some jump overboard, prefer drowning • Crews force slaves to sing and dance
A Captain’s Story • John Newton, Evangelical Christian, became slaver captain • Purchased West African slaves, sailed to West Indies • After retirement, repented involvement in slave trade • Wrote “Amazing Grace” as forgiveness for sins
A Captain’s Story (cont'd) • Indentured servant • A person who sold his or her freedom to a master for a term of years
Provisions for the Middle Passage • Slave captains purchased African staples for slaves • Skimped on supplies to save money • Many died of malnutrition, refusal to eat
Sanitation, Disease, and Death • Death rates astronomical on slave ships • Dysentery, small pox kill most slaves • Ships surgeons rewarded for delivering healthy slaves • Surgeons regarded African remedies as superstitions • Slaves dumbfounded by beliefs, practices of captors
Cruelty • For Europeans, Africans were cultural strangers • As strangers, Africans subjected to brutalization
African Women on Slave Ships • Women worth half price of men • Crew members abused them sexually • Separate compartments made women easy targets
Landing and Sale in the West Indies • Crew prepared human cargo for sale • Cruelty, confinement, disease not easily remedied • Slaves suffer close inspection at market • Buyers grab, rope slaves they choose
Seasoning • Disciplinary process to make slaves effective laborers • Slaves divided into Creoles, old Africans, new Africans • West Indian masters gave slaves’ new names • Taught slaves European languages
Seasoning (cont'd) • Planters housed slaves with Creoles, old Africans • Old Africans, Creoles used to train new recruits • New Africans provided labor for slave land • Slaves sold surplus crops to purchase freedom • New Africans learned building, agriculture skills
Seasoning (cont'd) • Seasoning • The process by which newly arrived Africans were broken into slavery in the Americas • Creoles • Persons of African or European parentage born in the Americas • Acculturated • Change in individuals who are introduced to a new culture
The End of the Journey:Masters and Slaves in the Americas • Planter’s criteria to assess successful seasoning • Many Africans did not survive seasoning • Africans adapted to new foods, climate, language • Africans adjusted psychologically • Africans retain culture during passage, seasoning
The Ending of the Atlantic Slave Trade • English abolitionists crusade against slavery • Industrialized economy less dependent on slave trade • Britain abolished Atlantic slave trade • U.S. Congress outlaws Atlantic slave trade • Guinea, West Africa fought to keep trade going • Economies depended on it
Conclusion • Forced migration brought 11 million Africans to Americas • Many survived horrible Atlantic slave trade • Nearly 40 million Americans of African descent