Demography of Slavery and the Slave Trade
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Demography of Slavery • Origins of slavery • Dimensions of the Slave Trade • Demographic Impact on Africa • Middle Passage • Regional differences in slave demography • Economics of slavery in the U.S. Domesday book, 1086 1 13th Century Slave Market in present day Yemen 2 Earliest representation of the people of the new world 3 7,000,000 6,000,000 5,000,000 Slave Exports from Africa to Americas 4,000,000 3,000,000 2,000,000 1,000,000 - 1500-1600 1601-1700 1701-1800 1801-1900 Embarkations by country: Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade 1,400,000 1,200,000 1,000,000 800,000 Database (2008) 600,000 400,000 200,000 0 1501-1525 1526-1550 1551-1575 1576-1600 1601-1625 1626-1650 1651-1675 1676-1700 1701-1725 Spain / Uruguay Portugal / Brazil 1726-1750 Great Britain Netherlands 1751-1775 U.S. A. France 1776-1800 Denmark / Baltic 1801-1825 1826-1850 1851-1866 4 Embarkations by country: Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade 2,000,000 1,500,000 1,000,000 Database (2008) 500,000 0 1501-1525 1526-1550 1551-1575 1576-1600 1601-1625 1626-1650 1651-1675 Denmark / Baltic 1676-1700 France 1701-1725 U.S.A. 1726-1750 Netherlands Great Britain 1751-1775 Portugal / Brazil 1776-1800 Spain / Uruguay 1801-1825 1826-1850 1851-1866 5 Latest figures from Trans-Atlantic Slave Inferring mortality: Trade Database (2008) • Total embarked: 12,521,336 • Total disembarked: 10,702,565 • Implied death date: 14.52% 35 Percent of Slaves Dying by Time Period 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 1501-1525 1526-1550 1551-1575 1576-1600 1601-1625 1626-1650 1651-1675 1676-1700 1701-1725 1726-1750 1751-1775 1776-1800 1801-1825 1826-1850 1851-1866 6 Percent of Slaves Dying by Importing Country 20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 Spain / Portugal / Great Britain Netherlands U.S.A. France Denmark / Uruguay Brazil Baltic Destinations of Slaves in the Atlantic Trade 5% 12% Caribbean Brazil Central, South America 50% North America 33% 7 Disembarkations by destinati 1200000 1000000 800000 600000 Database (2008) 400000 on: Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade 200000 0 1501-1525 1526-1550 1551-1575 1576-1600 1601-1625 1626-1650 1651-1675 1676-1700 1701-1725 Mainland North America British Caribbean 1726-1750 French Caribbean Other Caribbean 1751-1775 Spanish Americas Brazil 1776-1800 1801-1825 1826-1850 1851-1866 8 Disembarkations by country: 2,000,000 1,800,000 1,600,000 1,400,000 1,200,000 1,000,000 Database (2008) 800,000 600,000 Trans-Atlantic 400,000 200,000 - Slave Trade 1501-1525 1526-1550 1551-1575 1576-1600 1601-1625 1626-1650 1651-1675 Brazil 1676-1700 Spanish Americas 1701-1725 Other Caribbean French Caribbean 1726-1750 British Caribbean 1751-1775 Mainland North America 1776-1800 1801-1825 1826-1850 1851-1866 9 10 Slave Market on the African Coast, early 18th cent. Sale of Enslaved Africans and Transport to Slave Ship, mid-18th cent. 11 12 13 14 15 Slave Population of British Colonies 1680 1750 Caribbean 76,000 295,000 North America 9,000 247,000 16 Total Slave Disembarkations by 1680 and 1750 1680 1750 Caribbean 113,976 948,097 North America 4,070 161,121 Ratio of Slave Population to Disembarkations 1680 1750 Caribbean 0.66 0.31 North America 2.21 1.53 17 Hypotheses: Mortality higher in West Indies, due to • disease environment • dietary deficiencies (protein, thiamine, vitamin A, and calcium), and overall caloric intake • brutality of work conditions on large plantations with absentee owners • Easy availability of additional slaves from Africa • Infanticide/suicide as slave resistance Hypotheses: Fertility lower in West Indies because of • African lactation practices and taboos on intercourse after giving birth, reinforced by continued high importation from Africa • dietary deficiencies leading to late menarche and low fecundity • skewed sex ratios • absence of slave breeding by planters • work conditions—excessive labor reduced fecundity 18 Crude Birth Rates among slaves, early 19th century: – Jamaica: 23 – United States: 53 Measuring the brutality of slavery • Fogel and Engerman, Time on the Cross: – 0.7 whippings per slave per year • Herbert Gutman, Slavery and the Numbers Game: – Same data, one slave whipped every 4.56 days 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Slaves on Smith's Plantation, Beaufort, South Carolina. Photographed in 1862 26 Interior view of a slave pen, showing the doors of cells where the slaves were held before being sold. Slave pen, Alexandria, Va. Photographed between 1861 and 1865 27 Brazilian sugar mill in the 1830s 28 Newly Enslaved Africans, Brazil, 1830s Brazilian Plantation 29 Slave Market, Brazil, Ca. 1825 Slave Market, Brazil, 1830s 30 Newly Arrived Slaves, Surinam, 1770s Sale of a Slave Woman and Her Children, Surinam, 1839 31 Slave Auction, Martinique, 1826 Slave Auction, New Orleans, 1839 32 Slave Market, Muscat (Oman), 1840s Slave Market in Zanzibar, East Africa, 1873 33 Slave Market, Zanzibar, 1864 Slave Market, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1819-1820 34 Slave market, Charleston SC, 1850s Slave Dealer, Alexandria, Virginia, 1863 or 1865 35.