GHG - Africa and the African Slave Trade (Lesson)
Africa and the African Slave Trade
This painting, "The Slave Trade" by Auguste-Francois Biard, 1840, hangs at the entrance to the "From Slavery to Freedom" exhibit at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, Ohio.
The "Peculiar Institution" that was referenced at the end of the previous lesson was slavery. The phrase "Peculiar Institution" originated in the United States during the 1800s CE to describe the distinctive quality of the type of slavery practiced in North and South America and in the Caribbean from the time the Spaniards began to import people from Africa to work in their mines and on their plantations—chattel slavery.
In the previous lesson, you learned that the native populations that first encountered the Europeans were devastated by disease and conquest. Of those that survived, most were rounded up and put to work on plantations or in mines. In order to spread the workload, Europeans sought to increase their workforces in the "New World" and looked towards Africa—which already was, in their experience, a source for the trade in slaves.
By the 10th Century CE, several strong states emerged in Africa—over the centuries they conquered and were conquered by other strong states that grew out of the wealth that came from trade. The benefits—wealth and power—gotten from trading with foreigners was well understood on the continent of Africa by the 15th Century. At that time, there were several empires in Africa looking to maintain their wealth and power.
Early in the 1400s, Portugal started exploring the west coast of Africa. If you will recall—in 1494 CE, Pope Alexander VI divided the uncharted lands of the Atlantic Ocean between Spain and Portugal. Spain received those lands to the west of the Papal Demarcation Line and Portugal received those to the east—including Africa. Portugal established trade relationships with the kingdoms and empires along West Africa; part of that trade involved humans. In fact, the first permanent European structure built south of the Sahara Desert was a structure in which to trade slaves known as São Jorge da Mina, or more plainly—"Elmina."
Slavery existed in Africa before the Europeans arrived—but it was of a different form. Slaves usually came from conquered territories and served the victors for a period of time, not life. However, it was not unusual for slaves to be traded. When the Portuguese arrived, they brought guns and other goods that African kings recognized as beneficial to defending their titles and enriching their lands. In exchange for European goods, African kingdoms set up or allowed Europeans to set up trade ports along the Atlantic Ocean with locals supplying the people that would become slaves in foreign lands. When the plantations and mines in the "New World" needed more hands, the Europeans knew exactly where a ready market awaited them. The first direct voyage of a slave ship from Africa to the "New World" occurred within the first quarter of the 1500s—within no time at all, that voyage became a regular occurrence. Between the days of Christopher Columbus and the beginning of the 19th Century, the number of Africans delivered to the "New World" surpassed the number of Europeans that arrived by five times.
The voyage of African slaves to the "New World" is referred to as the "Middle Passage" due to its place within the Triangular Trade between Europe, Africa and the Americas. A triangular trade system is exactly what the term describes—trade between three points with each stop including the unloading and reloading of different goods. In the case of the "Middle Passage," that which was loaded upon the ships for trade was human. Crammed below deck on slave ships, millions of Africans were forced to participate in the "Middle Passage."
Slave ships departing on the "Middle Passage" usually left ports within the regions depicted on the below map.
These regions were homes to several kingdoms and empires that sought to protect their holdings from each other. And while many African kings cooperated with the European traders who brought goods that would tip the balance in favor of the king, they resisted European expansion into Africa. However, many European traders were ruthless in protecting and expanding their markets and many of these kingdoms eventually fell.
The disruption to African life that the Transatlantic Slave Trade brought was immense. In addition to changing the political structures of West Africa, social structures were radically broken down as well. Neighbors could no longer trust each other as the potential for profit increased the number of snatchings to supply the slave ships. The loss of millions of people, mostly men, impacted the demography of West Africa—some historians estimate that the African population remained stagnant until the end of the 19th Century. These changes in politics and population left the African continent severely injured and in a position to succumb to later European expansions.
While on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean—those who were forced to sail on the "Middle Passage," if they survived, found themselves in a completely alien environment. Of the millions who survived the journey, roughly 60% became slaves in South America (with the majority in the Portuguese colony of Brazil,) about 35% became slaves on Caribbean islands, and the remaining 5% became slaves in North America. Each of these different regions were ruled by different imperial forces with varied laws as to the treatment of slaves and varied environments in which slaves worked. However, in all of the regions, the slaves were considered property as were their descendants in a form of chattel slavery that didn't remotely resemble the types of slavery that had ever before existed.
Recap Section
Review what you've learned by completing the activity below.
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