Transcript Ch. 20: Africa and the Atlantic Slave Trade

Ch. 20: Africa and the
Atlantic Slave Trade
The Atlantic Slave Trade
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Portugal led the way
in exploring the
African coast
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Established
cities/factories for
trade
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El Mina
Luanda
Other nations
followed Portugal,
brought competition
Development of sugar
plantations = need
for slave labor
El Mina, a Portuguese coastal
fortress
How Many Slaves Were
Exported?
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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
Development of the Slave
Trade
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Portugal controlled most
of it
From 1630 on,
competition increased
Dutch seized El Mina
British Royal 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
African Slave Trade I
African Societies, Slavery, and
the Slave Trade
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Traditions of slavery
deeply engrained in
economic systems
and social
hierarchy
In Islam, slavery
accepted, but only
non-Muslims
Slavery and African Politics
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Europeans tapped into
the established slave
trade
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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
West Coast: Asante/Dahomey
& East Coast: Swahili/Sudan
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Serve as examples of the
impact of slave trade
Asante (Ashanti) rose to
prominence during the
slave trade
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Dahomey
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Ruled along the Gold Coast
Ruled for two centuries
(1650-1820)
Traded slaves for European
firearms
Swahili Coast on the
East Coast of Africa
brought ivory, gold,
slaves from the interior
South Africa
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Bantu peoples in
southern Africa were
organized around
small chiefdoms
Southern expansion
brought Dutch
contact
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Settlers moving inland
from Cape Colony
looking for farmland
British control from
1815 led to warfare
with Bantu
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Boer Great Trek
African Slave Trade II
Zulu Rise to Power
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Shaka chief of the
Zulu (1818)
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Created a powerful
state that survived his
death
All of southern Africa
was involved in
turmoil called
mfecane (1815 –
1840)
The African Diaspora
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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
Slave Societies in the Americas
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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
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Less need for new slaves
More cut off from Africa than
slaves in other areas
End of the Slave Trade /
Abolition of Slavery
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Abolition resulted from changes outside of Africa
Main change was from European intellectuals
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William Wilberforce
British stopped the slave trade in 1807
Slavery was finally abolished in the Americas
when Brazil stopped the practice in 1888