TRANSATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE

Canadian History 11

What is Slavery?What is Slavery? A slave is

someone who is owned by another person.

A slave has: No choice No freedom No money

A slave has to do what is asked of him by his master, usually this is work of some kind.

Slaves are punished for not following their master's orders, working too slowly, or attempting to runaway.

When we think of slavery today we think of the black Africans who were captured, sold into slavery and taken to the Americas to work on the plantations there.

What is Slavery?What is Slavery?

History of History of SlaverySlavery

Evidence suggests slavery Evidence suggests slavery has existed throughout has existed throughout recorded history:recorded history:Laws regarding the ownership and treatment of slaves in outlined in the Code of Hammurabi – the written law of ancient Babylon

Both the leading states of Greece - Sparta and Athens - depend entirely upon forced labour from miners to domestic servants to clerical work and banking

People were used in ancient Egypt as slaves to build the pyramids

History of History of SlaverySlaveryEvidence suggests slavery has Evidence suggests slavery has existed throughout recorded existed throughout recorded history:history:Romans and also ancient Britons used slaves to labour for free as well – the most privileged slaves were the secretarial staff of the emperor – majority were whipped into submission in the mines, worked the fields in chain gangs, or forced into combat as gladiators During the eastward expansion of the Germans in the 10th century so many Slavs are captured that their racial name becomes the generic term for a 'slave‘Slavery is an accepted part of life in Arabia during the time of Muhammad, in the 7th century, and the Qur'an offers no arguments against the practice - it merely states, particularly in relation to female slaves, that they must be well treatedDuring the early Middle Ages the missionaries and bishops of the Roman Catholic church argue against the ownership of slaves in the emerging dynasties of northern Europe

Why did slaves come from Why did slaves come from Africa?Africa?

A new and disastrous chapter in the story of slavery begins with the arrival of the Portuguese in west Africa in the 15th century

Why did slaves come from Why did slaves come from Africa?Africa?

Africa today is thought of as a poor, very underdeveloped continent

Some even mistake Africa as one country

During the 16th and 17th centuries: Europeans first began

exploring the world Africa was a rich land,

eager to trade gold, copper, ivory and leather goods for the white’s pots, pans, alcohol and guns.

Why did slaves come Why did slaves come from Africa?from Africa?

Under African law, slavery was a punishment for serious crimes, but most of these slaves were slaves of other black Africans. It was not usual for slaves to be traded at this time.

In 1492, Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas. Other Europeans followed and made slaves of the Native peoples living there.

Europeans brought Western diseases to the Americas and their Aboriginal slaves began dying. Another source of slaves had to be found. 

Why did slaves come Why did slaves come from Africa?from Africa?

From trading with the Africans, Europeans knew that slavery was used as a punishment in Africa. They began to ask for slaves, rather than African goods, in exchange for the guns and alcohol that the African chiefs wanted.

The African chiefs agreed and so the Triangular Trade was developed.

Effects of Slavery on Effects of Slavery on AfricaAfrica

Although the concept was not new, slaves were not mistreated badly by their masters in Africa

This was not the case once trading in slaves became 'big business‘

From about 1510, Europeans had begun capturing slaves and taking them to work in the Americas

their weapons were much more powerful than the Africans' traditional spears and shields. 

Effects of Slavery on Effects of Slavery on AfricaAfrica

Europeans exchanged guns for slaves and African chiefs, began inventing new crimes for which the punishment was slavery.  

Coastal Africans were using guns to raid inland villages for the slaves that the Europeans wanted.

Slaves were chained together and marched to the coast. takes many days or weeks slaves who showed any sign of resistance to the

traders, were whipped too weak or sickly to complete the journey at the

required pace were left to die.

Triangular TradeTriangular Trade

Triangular TradeTriangular Trade This was the name

given to the trading route used by European merchants who exchanged goods with Africans for slaves, shipped the slaves to the Americas, sold them and brought goods from the Americas back to Europe.

Triangular TradeTriangular Trade The first leg was the

journey from Europe to Africa where goods were exchanged for slaves

The second, or middle, leg of the journey was the transportation of slaves to the Americas. It was nicknamed the 'middle passage’

The third and final leg of the journey, was the transport of goods from the Americas back to Europe

Triangular TradeTriangular Trade

The Slave ShipThe Slave Ship The African slaves were

viewed as cargo by the merchants and were packed into the ships with no regard to their basic human rights

Slave ships could be either 'tight pack' or 'loose pack‘

A 'tight pack' could hold many more slaves than the 'loose pack' because the amount of space allocated to each slave was considerably less, but more slaves would die on route to the Americas

The Slave ShipThe Slave Ship

The Slave ShipThe Slave Ship

The Slave ShipThe Slave Ship Many slaves became seasick or developed diarrhoea.

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.

Conditions on the slave ships were so bad that many slaves decided they would prefer to die and tried to starve themselves by refusing to eat or by jumping overboard.

Slaves that would not eat were whipped or force fed and the traders and ship owners began fixing nets to the sides of the boat so that the slaves could not jump overboard.

The Slave ShipThe Slave Ship

Sick and dying Sick and dying slaves were slaves were

thrown thrown overboard to overboard to prevent the prevent the spread of spread of

illnessillness

Over one Over one million million

Africans did Africans did not survive not survive

the trip across the trip across the Middle the Middle PassagePassage

Trans-Atlantic Exports by Trans-Atlantic Exports by Region:Region:1650-19001650-1900Region Number of slaves %

Senegambia 479,900  4.7Upper Guinea 411,200  4.0Windward Coast 183,200  1.8Gold Coast 1,035,600  10.1Blight of Benin 2,016,200  19.7Blight of Biafra 1,463,700  14.3West Central 4,179,500  40.8South East 470,900  4.6 

Total 10,240,200  100.0 

Data derived from tables 1.1, 3.2, 3.4, 4.1 and 7.4as presented in:Transformations in Slaveryby Paul E. LovejoyCambridge University Press, 2000,ISBN 0-521-78430-1

Slavery is a Modern Slavery is a Modern IssueIssue

Slavery is not simply a thing of the past.

In 1999, the International Labour Conference condemned the government of Myanmar (Burma) for their “widespread use of forced labour”

Throughout our modern world, women and young girls are forced into prostitution, while both children and adults work in near slavery conditions in sweat shops producing goods for the western world.