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The African Diaspora. By: Keirra Porter. Introduction. The slave trade was how Africa and the Americas linked. Slave trade was the principal way African societies were drawn into the world economy. Imported into Africa: European firearms Indian textiles Indonesian cowrie shells
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The African Diaspora By: Keirra Porter
Introduction • The slave trade was how Africa and the Americas linked. • Slave trade was the principal way African societies were drawn into the world economy. • Imported into Africa: • European firearms • Indian textiles • Indonesian cowrie shells • American tobacco • Africa traded gold, ivory, and especially slaves in return
Slave Lives • What Slavery Meant To Slaves: • destruction of their villages or capture in war • separation from family & friends • forced march to interior trading town or slave pens at coast • Deadly Conditions: • 1/3 of slaves died along the way or in slave pens • cargo sizes on ships could go as high as 700 slaves • unsanitary • Avg. mortality rate- 18% until 18th cent. • Losses were catastrophic such as Dutch ship in 1737 where 700 of 716 slaves died
Slave Lives (cont.) • The Middle Passage: • taken from homes • branded • confined • shackled • The Africans faced dangers of poor hygiene, dysentery, disease, and bad treatment (beaten or worse) • Middle Passage did not strip them of their culture • arrived in Americas retaining their languages, beliefs, artistic traditions, & memories
Africans in the Americas • Slaves carried across Atlantic, then brought to plantations and mines • used large amnts. of labor – forced • after failed attempts to use Native Americans as laborers, Africans brought in • West Africans were sought by Europeans for the specialized tasks of making sugar • slaves did many other things, such as… • Mining • Artisians • Street vendors • Household work • Most slaves, though, were agricultural laborers.
American Slave Societies • Social Hierarchy • Europeans • Creoles • Mulattos (African & European) • Mestizos (Native American & European) • African & Native American slaves • Among slaves, slaveholders also created a hierarchy based on origin and color. • Creole and mulatto slaves given more opportunities • Skilled jobs • House servants • More likely to win their freedom by manumission
The End of the Slave Trade • The end of the Atlantic slave trade and the abolition of slavery in the Atlantic world resulted from economic, political, and religious changes in Europe. • African societies began exporting other commodities • depended less on slave trade • Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Adam Smith both wrote against slavery. • Slave trade criticized • The symbol of slavery’s inhumanity & cruelty
The End of the Slave Trade (cont.) • England was the key to the end of the slave trade. • British slave trade abolished in 1807 • Britain tried to impose abolition of the slave trade on other countries throughout the Atlantic. • Spain & Portugal pressured to gradually suppress trade • British navy used to enforce agreements by capturing illegal slave ships • Full end of slavery in Americas occurred in 1888, when it was abolished in Brazil.