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Chapter 20.3The Atlantic Slave Trade
Causes• The Americas– Need for cheap labor source: Sugar and Tobacco – Native Americans (original labor source) die from European
diseases• Why didn’t Africans die?
– Profitability of industries (sugar, tobacco, mining, coffee, cotton) is a “pull” factor
• Africa– Drought and famine in Africa results in selling of children and
adults into slavery– Warfare and enslavement: response to European demand– African merchants and rulers willing role to sell its people– Supply and demand (for products and labor)
Slavery in Africa• Slavery not a new concept• 7th century (600s) spread
of Islam increases slave trade– Across the Sahara, the Red
Sea and the Indian Ocean• Justification for– Muslim belief non-Muslim
prisoners can be bought and sold
• b/t 650 -1600 17 million Africans transported throughout Muslim land in North Africa
Slavery in Africa Cont…• African and Muslim Societies allow – Slaves’ rights and upward mobility
–Muslim slaves have positions of power and serve in military
– African slaves may marry into family of slave owner
Africa’s Role
• Euro traders wait at ports
• Local rulers and merchants capture Africans to sell
• Exchange humans for gold, guns, and goods
• Profits lure more rulers
Contributors to Slave Trade
• Portugal and Spain lead way
• Colonization of Americas kills off native population
• African’s Advantage over Native Americans:– Exposure to Euro’s diseases and animals
– Experienced farmers
– Escape less likely
– Skin color (you are a slave!)
Contributors by Volume
• England: – From 1690 to abolishment leading carrier
– 1.7 million to colonies in West Indies
– 400,000 to North American colonies
• Portugal: – 17th century more than 40% to Brazil
• French, Dutch, Spanish
• Danish least amount
Mapping the Contributors
Mapping the Volume
Triangular Trade• Triangular Trade crisscrossed northern and southern colonies,
West Indies, England, Europe, and Africa
• The first stage :
– Take manufactured goods from Europe to Africa: cloth, spirit, tobacco, beads, shells, metal goods, and guns.
– Guns were used to help expand empires and obtain more slaves. Goods were exchanged for African slaves.
• The second stage of the
– The Middle Passage involved shipping the slaves to the Americas.
• The third stage
– Involved returning to Europe with the products of the slave-labor: cotton, sugar, tobacco, molasses and rum.
Mapping the Trade
The Middle Passage• Humans are “cargo” on a slave ship
• Theory: majority of deaths occurred during the middle passage –
– Result of malnutrition and disease
• Survival Rate for the Middle Passage
– Estimated death rate of around 13%
– Lower than the mortality rate for seamen, officers and passengers on the same voyages
Population Shift• Result of the slave trade on colony populations:
– Five times as many Africans arrived in the Americas than Europeans.
• David Eltis 1893:
– By 1820: 8.4 million African immigrants to Americas
– 2.4 million Europeans
– Euro population however exceeds African’s by 11 million
– Sex ratios: more men then women
– Survival and reproduction of Africans dramatically lower
– Fertility rates low/mortality rates high
• Location, location, location
– Geography: most slaves settled in low-lying tropical areas
– General mortality rate in areas higher than temperate regions
Culture Survives
• Cultural heritage survives as way of coping
• Forms of Resistance– Slow work
– Escaping
– Revolts: Spanish, Brazilian, North American, and West Indies colonies
• Stone Rebellion– South Carolina 1739