C. Trade and Slavery

CK_5_TH_HG_P104_230.QXD 2/14/06 2:23 PM Page 158 III. European Exploration, Trade, and the Clash of Cultures Cape Colony and South Africa In 1652, the Dutch established a settlement called De Kaap, “The Cape,” at the tip of the Cape of Good Hope. The settlement served as a reprovisioning stop for its ships outbound to India and homeward-bound to the Netherlands. This settlement later became known as Cape Town. A few Dutch settled there to grow fruits and vegetables, raise cattle, and provide casks of fresh water to the ships. In time, more settlers and soldiers came to protect the colony from the native Khoikhoi people, who resented Dutch aggression against them, and who were unhappy at the encroachment on their lands. By the late 1700s, their descendants, the Boers (the Dutch word for farmer) had moved far enough into southern Africa that they came in conflict with black Africans and fought a series of wars against them. In the early 1800s, the British gained control of the Cape Colony and fought intermittent wars throughout the 19th century against their new subjects, the Boers. In 1910, the various Boer colonies were recognized as the Union of South Africa, a self-governing domin- ion of Great Britain. New Netherland Teaching Idea The first settlement in the area of present-day New York City was a Dutch For a small nation, the Netherlands was trading post established by Henry Hudson in 1609. In 1626, Peter Minuit, acting a worldwide commercial power in the for the Dutch West India Company, purchased Manhattan Island from the 1500s through the 1700s. Have students Manhattan people for $24 in trade goods. The Dutch named the city New do research in print and online sources Amsterdam in honor of the principal city in the Netherlands and turned the set- to develop a report about the tlement into a center for fur trading. The entire Hudson Valley was known as New Netherlands in this time period. Netherland. The report could take the form of a The success of the Dutch drew the attention of the English, who decided to written paper, an illustrated history, a press their claim to the area. They based their claim on John Cabot’s 1497 voyage. model, or a map. Students should con- In 1664, the English captured the settlement and renamed the entire area New duct their research first and then dis- York, in honor of the English king’s brother, the Duke of York. New Amsterdam cuss it with you before choosing their was renamed New York City. medium. The Duke of York gave the lower portion of New York to two friends, who named it New Jersey after the Isle of Jersey in the English Channel. New Jersey was a proprietary colony managed for the benefit of the two proprietors, but they offered religious tolerance and representative government to all who immigrated there. C. Trade and Slavery The Sugar Trade São Tomé, in the Gulf of Guinea, the Madeira Islands slightly northwest of Morocco, and other islands off the west African coast that the Portuguese explored and colonized became the first centers of sugar agriculture. Likewise, the Spanish introduced sugar cultivation to the Canary Islands, also off the west coast of Africa. Because sugar agriculture is labor-intensive, the Portuguese and Spanish needed large numbers of cheap laborers. Thus the Europeans began to trade with local Muslim merchants and other warlords for captives from the African mainland. The workers were typically captured by political rivals and sold as slaves. 158 Grade 5 Handbook CK_5_TH_HG_P104_230.QXD 2/14/06 2:23 PM Page 159 In the mid-1400s, some 50 years before the transatlantic slave trade began, the Spanish and the Portuguese were buying Africans as slaves to work their sugar Teaching Idea plantations on the eastern Atlantic islands. Later, the plantation model was intro- Create an overhead of Instructional duced in Spanish colonies in the Caribbean and in the Portuguese colony of Brazil. Master 21, The West Indies, to help students visualize the location of the Sugar Plantations on the Caribbean Islands islands of the West Indies in relation As one historical account states, “The story of sugar in the Caribbean goes to the North and South American con- hand in hand with the story of slavery.” The warm, moist climate and rich soil of tinents. Point out that the West Indies the Caribbean islands were well suited to the cultivation of sugar cane. The are divided into four main groups: the Spanish knew from their experience on the islands off the African coast that sugar Bahamas; the Greater Antilles (Cuba, agriculture took vast amounts of labor, which had to be cheap in order to make Hispaniola [Haiti and the Dominican the plantations profitable. Therefore, they made great efforts to transport enslaved Republic], Jamaica, Puerto Rico); the Africans to work these new plantations in the Caribbean. When the English cap- Lesser Antilles (Leeward and tured islands from the Spanish and colonized other islands on their own, they fol- Windward Islands, Trinidad and lowed the Spanish example and that of the Portuguese in Brazil. African slaves Tobago, Barbados); and the not only planted the sugar cane and harvested it, but also worked in the mills Netherlands Antilles. where the raw cane was crushed and boiled down to make sugar and molasses. Ask students questions about The backers of the southern English colonies on the mainland of North which island is the largest, which America eventually realized that the climate and soil in parts of the South were cardinal direction any group is from suited to the cultivation of labor-intensive crops, such as tobacco, rice, and indi- another and from the mainland, the go. After the mid-1600s, the English began acquiring slaves from plantations in distance between island groups and the Caribbean. Although relatively poor, the planters on the mainland were able the mainland, and so on. to buy a few cast-off slaves from the West Indies and gradually were able to buy captives direct from Africa as the basis of the economy switched to large plantation farming. Name Date The West Indies Transatlantic Slave Trade Study the map. Use it to answer the questions below. Gulf Florida of N Mexico BAHAMAS W E The first Africans in the English colonies on the mainland arrived at S CUBA ATLANTIC Jamestown not long after 1607. These first Africans are believed to have been OCEAN DOMINICAN REPUBLIC HAITI G Hispaniola treated like English indentured servants, people who contracted to work for a cer- R E A T Leeward E R Islands JAMAICA A Puerto Rico N T I L L E S (U.S.) tain period of time and were then released. By the 1680s, however, the terms of HONDURAS LESSER ANTILLES Caribbean Sea Windward service began to change to lifelong servitude. When tobacco cultivation took off NICARAGUA Islands TRINIDAD & TOBAGO BARBADOS COSTA RICA in the late 17th century, it was difficult to find enough workers to farm the large PANAMA plantations that the English were starting in the colony, and buying captured VENEZUELA 0 200 400 miles COLOMBIA Africans promised a steady supply of labor. 0 200 400 kilometers 1. About how many miles is Cuba from end to end? Importing Africans as slaves for the Southern colonies became big business 800 miles (1,287 km) 2. What group of islands is northwest of Hispaniola? for American merchants and sea captains in the 1700s. Because the climate and the Bahamas Purpose: To read and interpret a map of the West Indies terrain of New England were not suitable for large plantation-style farms, slavery Knowledge Foundation Copyright ©Core did not take a firm hold in New England. However, there were some slaves in Master 21 Grade 5: History & Geography those colonies, and the principal merchants trading in slaves resided in Rhode Use Instructional Master 21. Island. Slavery was less important in the Middle colonies, where most farms were small and tilled by families, although again there were some slaves on farms and in cities, where they worked in houses and as skilled artisans and craftspersons. Triangular Trade The slave trade was part of what was known as the “triangular” trade between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres. The triangular trade was so named because the trading networks that comprised it connected three main areas: 1. Africa, 2. the colonies in the Caribbean and on the North American mainland, History and Geography: World 159 CK_5_TH_HG_P104_230.QXD 2/14/06 2:23 PM Page 160 III. European Exploration, Trade, and the Clash of Cultures and 3. Europe. As you can see from the map below, goods were transported in dif- Teaching Idea ferent directions, depending on who had what, and who needed what. For exam- Create an overhead of Instructional ple, slaves might be shipped from Africa to the Caribbean and put to work grow- Master 22, Triangular Trade Routes, to ing sugar cane and making molasses. Then the molasses they produced might be orient students to the concept of recip- shipped to New England, where it would be made into rum that would be rocal trade. Triangular trade does not shipped to Africa for sale. Or, slaves might be shipped first to the Caribbean and mean that the same ships went from then onto the southern part of North America. There they would produce a crop Africa to the Caribbean to the mainland like rice, which could be shipped to England. to Europe and back to Africa, but that trade goods flowed along these routes. Have students identify the goods ENGLAND Bristol that were carried on each leg of the London es uri ux EUROPE s, l route and hypothesize why certain ood ed g ctur Boston w nufa hale ma products were exported or imported New York oil, lumber, furs NORTH Philadelphia ilk, co d e, s bac oo r from each region.

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