Transcript The Slave Trade

Slavery and Triangle Trade
Triangle Trade
European Background
• Portuguese started African slave trade in
1441
• First Africans in Hispanola in 1505
• 1450-1850 ~12 million Africans sent to
Americas
Why Africans?
• Native Americans dying off Some degree of
disease resistance
• No muskets and gunpowder
• Africans participated in trade by enslaving others,
selling debtors and criminals, and kidnapping
• Skilled workers
– Knew how to extract precious ore from mines
– Familiar with soils and crops
• Not familiar with the land—making escape
less likely
Portuguese Slave Trade
• The Portuguese
population was too
small to provide a
large number of
colonists.
• The sugar
plantations required
a large labor force.
• Slaves filled this
demand.
Europeans and Africans
Meet to Trade
Slave Trade and Sugar
• Portuguese crop
growers extended
the use of slave
labor to South
America.
• Because of this,
Brazil would
eventually become
the wealthiest of the
sugar-producing
lands in the western
hemisphere.
European Slave Trade
Plantations
• The first was established by the Spanish on
Hispaniola in 1516.
• Originally the predominant crop was sugar. In
addition to sugar, plantations produced crops like
tobacco, indigo, and cotton.
• In the 1530s Portuguese began organizing
plantations in Brazil, and Brazil became the
world’s leading supplier of sugar.
• Labor intensive=
HARD WORK
• Relied almost
exclusively on
large amounts of
slave labor
supervised by
small numbers of
European or
Euro-American
managers.
Plantations
Brazilian sugar mill in the 1830s
Justification- Why?
• Slavery made development of the New
World profitable
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Slavery Expands
• In 1518, the first shipment of slaves went directly
from West Africa to the Caribbean where the slaves
worked on sugar plantations.
• By the 1520s, the Spanish had introduced slaves to
Mexico, Peru, and Central America where they
worked as farmers and miners.
• By the early 17th century, the British had introduced
slaves to North America.
Impact of Slave Trade on the Americas
•Diverse Culture- Cultural Diffusion- Africans
brought part of their culture (like music food,
traditions, Language) to the Americas.
•Made Latin American colonies (Brazil) wealthy
Exportation
• Trip called the Middle
Passage
• 5000 miles, 3 wks. to
3 mos.
• 20-25% died
• Strip Africans’ self
respect and self
identity
The Middle Passage
The Middle Passage
Slave Master Brands
Inspection and Sale