Ch. 20: Africa and the Atlantic Slave Trade

1. Ch. 20: Africa and the Atlantic Slave Trade

2. Portugal led the way in exploring the African coast Established cities/factories for trade El Mina Luanda Other nations followed Portugal, brought competition Development of sugar plantations = need for slave labor The Atlantic Slave Trade El Mina, a Portuguese coastal fortress

3. How Many Slaves Were Exported? • As many as 12 million over four hundred years • High mortality + low birth rates = high demand for slaves • Brazil received 42% of slaves • Trans-Saharan slave trade was mostly in women in Islamic lands • Trans-Atlantic trade took men for agricultural labor

4. Portugal controlled most of it From 1630 on, competition increased Dutch seized El Mina BritishRoyal Africa Company Followed by France Purchases of slaves made through local rulers Slave prices were based on the healthy male – Indies Piece Triangular trade developed Development of the Slave Trade

6. African Slave Trade I

7. African Societies, Slavery, and the Slave Trade • Traditions of slavery deeply engrained in economic systems and social hierarchy • In Islam, slavery accepted, but only non-Muslims

8. Slavery and African Politics • Europeans tapped into the established slave trade • Settled along the coast • Intensified the slave trade • Warfare typified much of Sub-Sahara Africa • Ghana and Songhay took advantage – became intermediaries in slave trade

9. Serve as examples of the impact of slave trade Asante (Ashanti) rose to prominence during the slave trade Ruled along the Gold Coast Ruled for two centuries (1650-1820) Dahomey Traded slaves for European firearms Swahili Coast on the East Coast of Africa brought ivory, gold, slaves from the interior West Coast: Asante/Dahomey& East Coast: Swahili/Sudan

10. Bantu peoples in southern Africa were organized around small chiefdoms Southern expansion brought Dutch contact Settlers moving inland from Cape Colony looking for farmland British control from 1815 led to warfare with Bantu Boer Great Trek South Africa

11. African Slave Trade II

12. Zulu Rise to Power • Shaka chief of the Zulu (1818) • Created a powerful state that survived his death • All of southern Africa was involved in turmoil called mfecane (1815 – 1840)

13. The African Diaspora • Slave trade not only forcibly brought slaves into a different culture, it brought foreign products into Africa • The Middle Passage was traumatic for slaves and often lethal • Africans in the Americans often employed in agricultural labor

16. Slave Societies in the Americas • A hierarchy developed distinguishing saltwater slaves (newly arrived) from creole descendants • Creoles could gain more skilled work in better conditions • N. American slave population had a higher birth rate • Less need for new slaves • More cut off from Africa than slaves in other areas

17. End of the Slave Trade / Abolition of Slavery • Abolition resulted from changes outside of Africa • Main change was from European intellectuals • William Wilberforce • British stopped the slave trade in 1807 • Slavery was finally abolished in the Americas when Brazil stopped the practice in 1888