Transcript Document

Chapter 2
Middle Passage
Iron Tools

West Africans
were making
iron tools long
before
Europeans
arrived in
Africa.
I. European Exploration ~
Colonization (Section 1)

Western European countries expand
during 15th century because they . . .
– Explore, conquer, and colonize
– Trade
• Eastern markets of India, China, and Japan
• New World
– Demand for laborers led to Atlantic slave trade!
II. The Slave Trade in Africa

Been around for a LONG time!
 African kingdoms and Islamic nations conduct
brisk commerce
– Not race based (as it will be in America)
– West African slave trade dealt mainly in women
and children (to serve as concubines and
servants)
III. The Origins of the Atlantic
Slave Trade

In 15th century, slaves used as domestic
servants on Iberian Peninsula
(Spain/Portugal)
 Slaves purchased from African traders
– Portugal and Spain dominated slave trade in 16th
century (1500s)
– Dutch dominated 17th century (1600s)
– English dominated 18th century (1700s) – think
Roots and the Lord Ligonier ship
Katharina

Although the overwhelming
majority of Africans who
were caught up in the
Atlantic slave trade went to
the Americas, a few
reached Europe. This
sixteenth-century drawing
by German artist Albrecht
Dürer depicts Katharina, a
servant of a Portuguese
official who lived in
Antwerp.
SOURCE: Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528), “Portrait of the Moorish Woman
Katharina.” Drawing. Uffizi Florence, Italy. Photograph © Foto Marburg/Art
Resource, NY
IV. Growth of the Atlantic Slave
Trade

High demand for labor in 16th century to
work in
– Spanish gold and silver mines
– Portuguese sugar plantations
– Tobacco, rice and indigo
Estimated Annual Export of Slaves from Western
Africa to the Americas, 1500-1700
Estimated Slave Imports by
Destination, 1451-1870
Growth of the Atlantic Slave
Trade (cont.)

Slavery was harsher in the Americas,
because it was
– Based on race
– Mostly males
• Believed to be stronger for labor
– Focused on agricultural work
– Known as “Chattel” (a type of slavery) where the
slaves lost rights as human beings
Growth of the Atlantic Slave
Trade (cont.)

Triangle trade and profits
– Slave, tobacco, and sugar profits funded
Industrial Revolution
– See Map of Triangle Trade
Triangle Trade: Who Gets
What?
Triangular trade
V. The African-American Ordeal:
Capture to Destination
Slavery: byproduct of war between
the West African kingdoms
 European traders provided firearms
to West Africans – they did not
instigate fighting

The African-American Ordeal:
Capture to Destination (cont.)

High mortality rate
– Exhaustion, suicide, murder
– Endured long, forced marches to the coast

Factories (fortified structures) served
as
– Headquarters for the traders
– Warehouses for the trade goods
– Pens or dungeons for captives/slaves
Factories: This one from the
Gulf of Guinea (modern Nigeria)
From Thomas Astley, A New and General Collection of Voyages, 1746
Courtesy of the Library of Congress
Cape Coast Castle (Ghana)
President Obama’s Trip to Cape
Coast Castle

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gm
Doon_yC0&feature=related

CNN w/ Anderson Cooper
The Crossing (Middle Passage)
40 to 180 days to reach the Caribbean
 Pirates attacked Spanish ships
 Frightening experience for all who
sailed

“The Slavers” (slave ships)
Small and narrow ships
 Two slaves per ship-tonnage formula
 Most captains were “tight packers”

– Ignored formula in the name of profits
From the Collection: The Atlantic Slave Trade and Life in the
AmericasJames S. Handler and Michael L. Tuite Jr.(c) 2006 Virginia
Foundation for the Humanities and University of Virginia
Slaves were forced to spend the voyage
sitting on deck of the ship Wildfire
The Slavers (cont.)

“Many slaves became seasick or
developed diarrhoea (sic). Unable to move
because they were chained into their
positions, the slave's deck became a
stinking mass of human waste. Slaves
who had developed sores where their
chains had rubbed their skin, had festering
wounds often with maggots eating away
their flesh.”
http://www.historyonthenet.com/Slave_Trade/middle_passage.htm
The Slavers (cont.)

Crowded, unsanitary conditions
– Slaves rode on planks 66” x 15”
• only 20”– 25” of headroom
– Males chained together in pairs
– Kept apart from women and children
– High mortality rates
• One-third perish between capture and
embarkation
A Slave’s Story

Olaudah Equiano
– Writes autobiography of his
capture/voyage
Conditions
 Suicides
 Smells
 Feedings

A Slave’s Story – Olaudah Equiano

Autobiography capture/voyage: The
Interesting Narrative of the Life of
Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa,
the African
A Slave’s Story – Olaudah
Equiano
Describes horrific conditions
 Noted African suicides

– Nets up along boat edge to limit attempts
– Felt more suicides would have occurred if
nets were absent
A Slave’s Story – Olaudah
Equiano

Smells
– Human waste
– Unwashed bodies

Feedings
A Captain’s Story

John Newton
– Evangelical Christian
– Slaver captain
– Anglican priest
• Repentance
• Amazing Grace
A Captain’s Story – John Newton

Indentured
servant on a
slave ship

Becomes a
Slaver Captain
A Captain’s Story – John Newton
Is “born again” as an Evangelical
Christian following a rough, stormy trip
 Poor health causes retirement –
becomes an Anglican (Episcopalian)
priest

A Captain’s Story – John Newton

Realizes horrors of slavery and seeks
repentance.

Ends up writing
the hymn,
Amazing Grace
Provisions for the Middle
Passage

Slaves fed twice per day
– Poor and insufficient diet
•
•
•
•
•
Vegetable pulps, stews, and fruits
Denied meat or fish
Ten people eating from one bucket
Unwashed hands spread disease
Malnutrition, weakness, depression, death
Sanitation, Disease,
and Death

High before 1750
– Poor sanitation
• No germ theory prior to early 20th century
• Malaria, yellow fever, smallpox, dysentery
Sanitation, Disease,
and Death

After 1750
– Faster ships
– Hygiene and diet better understood
– Early forms of smallpox vaccinations
Resistance and Revolt at Sea

Uprisings were common
– Most rebellions before sailing
– Some preferred death to bondage
– Justification for harsh treatment by slavers
Cruelty

Middle passage horrors exaggerated
– Historian Eric Williams says that stories
were influenced by those who hoped to
end slavery

Cultural context
– Misunderstanding of each other’s culture
(not that they tried to understand each
other!!!!!!!!)
Cruelty

Exceptional cruelties
– Slaves had half the space allowed
indentured servants and convicts
Cruelty

Exceptional cruelties
– Slaves had half the space allowed
indentured servants and convicts
– Slavery was only suitable for nonChristians
– Brutal treatment by crew members
BECAUSE AFRICANS WERE NOT SEEN
AS EQUAL TO WESTERN EUROPEANS,
THESE CRUELTIES WERE SOCIALLY
ACCEPTED AT THIS TIME
African Women on Slave Ships

African women worth half the price of African
men in the Caribbean markets
 Fewer of them on the boat and they were not
as valuable
 Separated from male slaves made women
easier targets
VI. Landing and Sale in the West
Indies

Pre-sale
– Bathed and exercised
– Bodies oiled to conceal blemishes and
bruises
– Hemp plugs used to block the bloody
discharge of dysentary

GOAL: Get the most $$ from the sale
of the product = slaves
VI. Landing and Sale in the West
Indies
VII. Seasoning (following Sale in
West Indies)
To modify behavior and attitude
 In preparation for resale to North
American planters

VII. Seasoning (cont.)

Creoles
– Slaves born in the Americas
– Worth three times price of unseasoned Africans
– Instructed New Africans

Old Africans
– Had lived in the Americas for some time
– Also instructed New Africans

New Africans (a.k.a.: “Salt-Water
Negroes” or “Guinea-Birds”)
– Goal: Make them more like Creoles
When is a slave seasoned?
? ? ? ?
VIII. The End of the Journey

Survival (Slaves have survived)
– One-third died in first three years in West
Indies
• Men died at a greater rate than women

Have adapted to new foods of the West
Indies/Americas
VIII. The End of the Journey

Have learned a new language
– Creole dialect well enough to obey
commands

They are no longer suicidal
– Africans retained culture despite the
hardships and cruel treatment
– Created bonds with shipmates that
replaced blood kinship (like an extended
family)
IX. The Ending of the Atlantic
Slave Trade

Cruelties help end
Atlantic slave trade
– English abolitionists
IX. The Ending of the Atlantic
Slave Trade

Cruelties help end Atlantic slave trade
– English abolitionists
• Moral crusade and economy less dependent on slave
trade
• Great Britain bans Atlantic slave trade in 1807
• Patrols African coast to enforce
– United States Congress outlaws slave
trade in 1808
IX. The Ending of the Atlantic
Slave Trade

An ironic twist!
– Guinea and western central African
kingdoms opposed the banning of the
slave trade
– Their economies were dependent on the
trade!
X. Conclusion

Nine to eleven million Africans brought
to the Americas during three centuries
of trade
– Millions more died
– Most arrived between 1701 and 1810
– Only 600,000 reached the British colonies
of North America