Name: ______Beard – World History Date: ______

The Atlantic Slave Trade

The Atlantic slave trade was one of the most important examples of forced migration in human history. While slavery in the U.S. is well-documented, only ten percent of the slaves imported from Africa came to the United States; the other ninety per cent were disbursed throughout the Americas—nearly half went to Brazil alone. Where did they go? What did slavery look like in other parts of the New World? And what are the lingering effects on the modern world?

It’s important to discuss slavery as a historical phenomenon, both inside and outside of the U.S. 80% of African slaves went to Brazil or to the Caribbean. In contrast, only 10% went to the U.S., where slavery was maintained through natural reproduction among the slave population as opposed to the constant supply of new slaves from Africa. In order to understand the big picture, we should compare the slave trade and slavery across the Americas region as a whole.

Development of slave trade The Portuguese went to Africa in 15th century looking to bypass Muslim North Africans who had a monopoly on the sub-Saharan trade in gold and spices. As they explored and traded in West Africa, the Portuguese learned that money could be made by transporting slaves along the Atlantic coast to Muslim merchants.

In addition to trading in Africa, the Portuguese began to export small numbers of slaves to Europe, to work in the cities. At the end of the 15th century, about 10% of the population of Lisbon (one of the largest cities in Europe and the capital of Portugal) was African. Also, at this time, Europeans established sugar plantations on the islands off of Northwest Africa and the slave trade to those islands became profitable. The use of slave labor for plantation agriculture predates the development of slavery in the Americas. Soon enough, other countries became interested in the profitable slave trade. English and Dutch ships joined in. They would raid Portuguese ships as well as going onto the mainland to enslave Africans for the trade. Soon enough, other countries became interested in the profitable slave trade. English and Dutch ships joined in. They would raid Portuguese ships as well as going onto the mainland to enslave Africans for the trade. When Europeans began to explore the Americas, Africans were part of most expeditions to the region. The Spanish brought them in the early 16th century to work on sugar plantations and in gold mines on the island of Hispaniola (current-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic). Slaves were also put to work draining the shallow lakes of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital, in Mexico.

The slave trade increased in the seventeenth century, as more large-scale agricultural production increased the need for labor. The demand for sugar, a highly profitable crop that grew well in various parts of the Americas, continued to grow. And the Europeans introduced large-scale production of indigo, rice, tobacco, coffee, cocoa, and cotton. Imports of African slaves increased over the latter half of the 17th century and into the 18th. Approximately 1.3 million slaves were exported on the trans-Atlantic route in the 17thcentury; over 6 million were exported in the 18th century.

The end of the trans-Atlantic slave trade began in the early 19th century, with bans on the importation of slaves in Britain and the U.S. in 1807. International pressure, as well as British blockades of slave ships, led to the decline of the slave trade, which had mostly ended by the 1850s. The effects of the slave trade on West Africa were massive, especially in terms of demographics. When we look at slave trade maps over the centuries, we can see that West African populations were vastly reduced to the point where slave traders were launching further into the interior of the continent to purchase slaves. The coastal areas couldn’t feed the European demand for slave labor. In addition to the loss of able-bodied workers to the Americas, the slave trade caused wars and slave raids that brought about additional deaths, as well as environmental destruction. Only a few traditional kingdoms (like Benin, a kingdom in southern Nigeria) were able to limit the trade or regulate it with local law. In the end, though, few were successful over the long haul: these small, centralized kingdoms were not very effective at resisting the slave trade and their populations dwindled as European demand and greed increased.

Assignment:

Summarize the article. What new facts did you learn about the Slave Trade?