COMMERCE IN PEOPLE: THE ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE

AP World History Notes: Chapter 15 The Atlantic Slave Trade

 Lasted from about 1500 to 1866  About 12.5 million Africans taken from their societies  10.7 million Americas  1.8 million (14.4%) died during the transatlantic crossing  Millions more died in the process of capture and transport The Middle Passage

 Middle Passage  Enslaved person’s journey from Africa to the Americas  Middle leg of the “Triangular Trade” pattern  Miserable journey  Packed tightly together  Chained together  Many suffocated or died of disease (1 in 6)  Some committed suicide or went on hunger strikes

The Atlantic Slave Trade

 When slaves arrived in the Americas, they were sold at auctions  Used as laborers, seen only as a unit for profit  Viewed as valuable property/things, NOT people Slavery in the Americas: Something Different

 Immense size of the traffic of slaves  Centrality of slave labor to the economies of colonial America  Slavery based on plantation agriculture only  Slaves treated as dehumanized property  Slave status = inherited; little hope of freedom  Racial dimension  Atlantic slavery came to be indentified with Africa and “blackness” Origins of Atlantic Slavery

 Origins = lie in the Mediterranean = where Europeans first established sugar plantations  After they learned about sugarcane and producing usable sugar from the Arabs  Also set up sugar plantations on islands off the coast of West Africa  Sugar plantation work = difficult and dangerous  Slavery became the source of labor because nobody would work under these conditions for the small wages being offered Origins of Atlantic Slavery

 Africa = primary source of slave labor for the colonies through a process of elimination  Slavic-peoples = no longer available  Native Americans = quickly died off from European diseases or escaped into known terrain and blended in with free natives  Europeans = Christians = exempt from slavery Inspection and sale of an African slave  European indentured servants = expensive and temporary Origins of Atlantic Slavery

 To the Europeans, Africans were perfect for plantation labor because:  Skilled farmers  Some immunity to tropical and European diseases  Not Christian  Relatively close and easy to get  Available in large numbers “Testing an African Slave for Sickness”  Had darker skin  allowed the Europeans to view them as an “inferior” race How Did the Slave Trade Work?

 Step 1: African merchants and political elites captured slaves and brought them to the coast of West Africa

 Step 2: Europeans waited on the coast (in ships or fortified settlements) to purchase these slaves

 Step 3: Europeans brought slaves to the Americas and sold them at slave auctions to plantation owners The Slave Trade in Practice

 In exchange for slaves, African sellers wanted:  European and Indian textiles  Cowrie shells (used as money in West Africa)  European metal goods  Firearms and gunpowder  Tobacco and alcohol  Decorative items, such as beads The Impact of the Slave Trade in Africa

 Slowed Africa’s population growth  Simultaneously = populations of Europe, China, etc. were expanding

 Causes:  Loss of millions of people over 4 centuries  Economic stagnation caused by the slave trade  Political disruption caused by the slave trade Number of Slaves Traded During the Slave Trade