Slaveryupdated new

AsantePolitical System•Absolute Monarch called Asantehene

•Osei Tutu

•Centralized – elected chief

•Golden Stool of Kumasi

Economic System•Traditionally dealt in gold and kola nuts

•Gold allowed them to buy slaves

•Increased power due to slave trade – received guns

•2/3 of exports were slaves

Influence of Europeans

•Portuguese contact with Asante at Fort of El Mina

•Gun / slave trade

Impact of Slave Trade•Power declined with end of slave trade in 1800s

•Use of slave trade provided rulers with great wealth and power – led to conflict with European

•Fell to British in 1901 after a long war

Benin

Political System•Absolute Monarch called Uzama (Chief)

•Eware the Great

•Independent city-states joined together

Economic System•Already established before Europeans

•Known for bronze statues

•Economy was based on spices, ivory, and textiles

•Began to exchange slaves for guns but tried to limit slave trade – increased due to European pressure and need for weapons

Influence of Europeans

•Increased slave trade began to overshadow other industry

•Guns increased Benin power in the region

Impact of Slave Trade•Kingdom disintegrated in 1700s as a result of civil wars and rulers’ greed over the slave trade.

CongoPolitical System•Absolute Monarch called ManiKongo (king)

•King Afonso

•Claimed Divine Right

Economic System•Traded pottery and iron goods

•Agriculture – corn introduced in 1600s from Americas

•Slave trade – for guns with Portuguese.

Influence of Europeans

•Christianity is spread – King converts

• Guns for slaves impact power of Kongo

•Portuguese interference in political, economic, religious concerns – Pope

Impact of Slave Trade•Merchants offset ruling families

•Corrupting influence of slave trade

•Kingdom falls by 1800s – Divided into small states.

FORCED IMMIGRATION

“Humanity is divided into two -- the masters and the slaves.”

~Aristotle

Do Now:

Few human practices have provoked such deep and widespread outrage as the practice of one human being enslaving another. Yet,

the institution of slavery is as old as civilization. Why has slavery survived for

thousands of years?

Examine “A World of Slavery”

• The institution of slavery was present in Africa long before the arrival of Europeans on its shores.

• Slaves were usually prisoners of war, conquered peoples, debtors or criminals.

• In the early 19th century, caravans of 18,000 to 20,000 Africans were brought to Cairo for resale.

A Slave Market in

Algiers, 1684 AD

Background

Europeans in the Caribbean

• Native Indian populations in the Americas were forced into slavery, mining gold and later working on sugar plantations.

• Battles, hard labor and European diseases destroyed enormous numbers of native peoples.

Timucuan Indians searching for gold in Florida. Native

Americans were the first to

endure forced labor in the New World.

Increased Need for Slave Labor

The Native

Americans

were

beginning to

be

exterminate

d-due to

over

working and

disease.

Colonizers in the New World found a new source of labor...____________.

the Africans

Forced Migration of Africans

• Africans proved to have resistance to European diseases and were considered to be stronger

workers than the Amerindians.• A system soon developed where _______________ enslaved Africans were sent to Spanish America

by as early as 1600.

75,000 to 90,000

Africans mine and wash gold and deliver it to a Spanish

overseer

Investors in the Slave TradeBy 1650, most of the coastal states in Europe had possessions

in the Americas.

Graph of countries participating in the slave trade

1. Around what year was the Slave Trade at its peak?

2. Which country continued the Slave Trade the longest? Why?

Infamous Investors

  Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal c. 1543

Encouraged by Prince Henry, the Portuguese became the foremost navigators in their day. They were the first to

make the difficult voyage to the west coast of Africa. As early as 1444, they brought cargoes of Africans to work as slaves on the sugar plantations of Madeira alongside

slaves from Russia and the Balkans. 

European royalty, nobility and leading merchants were the principal supporters and benefactors of the slave trade. Europeans believed that national power and private wealth were best built on a closed economic

system between the colonial societies and their mother country.

Carlos I of Spain  (1504-1556)

Spain was the first to establish colonies in the Americas. In 1516, during the reign of Carlos I,

enslaved Africans were brought to the Caribbean for the first time.

Elizabeth I of England  (1558-1603)

Elizabeth I was a major investor in the slave trade. She sponsored a privateer, Sir John Hawkins, to bring slaves from Africa to sell

to the Spanish colonies. 

Louis XIV of France (1643-1715)

Louis XIV supplies nearly one half of the finances needed by the French Guinea

Company to commence its African trade.  

• The potential wealth to be made from slavery led to the triangular trade between

________________________________________.

The Transatlantic Slave Trade

Europe, Africa and the Americas.

• Europeans were able to sell manufactured goods in exchange for ____________

and luxury items.

raw materials

A Merchant Slaving Vessel: The Henrietta Marie

Let’s follow the journey of a typical slave ship…

First Stop!Londo

n!

A Merchant Slaving Vessel: The Henrietta Marie

The Henrietta Marie was typical of the numerous small merchant ships and West Indian traders active in the Atlantic at the turn of the 18th century. In the

year 1699, the ship left the port of London on her second slaving voyage, carrying a cargo of European manufactured goods for trade in West Africa.

The Port of London

The Henrietta Marie would start its journey in the London, a thriving port built on the banks of the Thames River.

jobs

dreams

•As the capital city, it was the center of social

and economic developments;

it was also the place to which young people came to learn trades,

find ____, and fulfill their

_________.

Investors in the Henrietta Marie

• The slave trading voyage was acostly undertaking.

• It required backing of several investors. A small stake in several voyages was more

prudent for the investor than a large stake in one ship.

• The problems to contend with ranged from bad _______ to slave revolts and payment problems.

• Some merchants did well in the trade, while others went

bankrupt.

weather

A Merchant Slaving Vessel: The Henrietta Marie

Three-masted,

square-sterned

vessel, about 60

feet long.

Small ship, capable of holding 200 slaves in her cargo area.

Stepped decks, built on many levels to accommodate the different cargoes of the transatlantic trade route.

To Africa!

The Crew of a Merchant Slave Ship

Men who could not find other work often gravitated to ports such as London where they signed on to

escape their economic problems.

Crews of slavers tended to be desperate, violent men.

Former slave ship master Reverend John Newton (B.1725) wrote about the men aboard the merchant slavers:

"We are for the most part supplied with the refuse and dregs of the nation. The prisons and glass houses supply us with large

quotas of boys impatient of their parents and masters, or already ruined by some untimely vice and for the most part

devoid of principles."

Benin

•When Europeans arrived in the late 15th century, there were established states

throughout West Africa.

Arriving in

Africa!

Port cities along the coast were controlled by Portuguese,

Dutch, English.

• West Africa was divided into states

with different rulers governing different

areas.

• Some African ethnic groups read and wrote in Arabic,

others had strong oral (speaking and

singing) traditions, and religious

practices.

The Henrietta Marie in Africa

• The Henrietta Marie traded in the area of New Calabar, saluting the town

with several_______, as was the custom of the day.

• African traders would often send canoes out to the European ships arriving into slaving ports. Some of

these Africans would guide the newly arrived ships into the rivers or harbors or ports.

guns

Slavery in Africa Powerful African leaders met with

European Traders from the Henrietta Marie.

1. If you were an African tribal leader, what would you want in exchange for slaves? Why?

Slavery and War

• European _____were a popular trade item with the Africans. The coastal rulers who had access to _____ used them to control areas further inland.

Pewter, Iron bars, glass beads, guns and other goods were rare in Africa, where they could be sold for much more than in England or other

European countries.

gunsguns

Africans Enslave Africans

War captivesPrisonersThievesReligious offenders

Soon Africans were rounding up slaves in groups of one, two and three

hundred for sale to the increasing number of European vessels arriving

in coastal ports.

Slave Catching Raids

• Conducted mostly by the Asante and Dahomey tribes.

• Would attack neighbors and catch as many people as possible.

• Europeans gave Africans weapons (mainly guns) to capture other Africans.

Before Shipping

• Slaves captured or purchased in the African interior were often held in confinement for months.

• Some of these people had been wounded in battles, and others were exposed to smallpox, yellow fever, and other

deadly diseases.

• Removal of millions of African men and women from their homeland• Economic dependence on Europe, devastating effects when trade was

outlawed• Susceptibility to European imperialism

Africa is Changed

Europeans were Middle Men

• Carried a cargo valued at about £827. • £4 per slave: Brought 206 slaves to Jamaica. • 190 slaves were recorded sold at Port Royal

Not Welcomed

Inland!

Did convert some kingdoms to Christianity (Kongo)Forbidden to alter African

politics

Transporting the “Cargo”

•The men, women and children were shackled and confined to the

stifling cargo holds below deck. •After securing her cargo, the Henrietta Marie would have brought food and water aboard for the long voyage to the West Indies known as

the _________________.

To the Americas!

Middle Passage

• Trek from Africa to the Americas lasted 35-60 days

Middle Passage

The “Cargo”

• By 1654, some 8,000-10,000 Africans each year were undergoing the Middle Passage.

•By 1750, the annual number stabilized at 60,000-70,000.

The Middle Passage

“If the Atlantic were to dry up it would reveal a scattered pathway of human bones marking the various routes of the

Middle Passage.”

• About 9 to 15 million Africans went on voyage:• 3 to 5 million perished before they even reached the Americas.

• The mortality rate averaged between 13 and 33 percent of the slaves and the crew.

Dangers of Middle Passage

Scur

vyDysentery

Gangrene

DehydrationSuicid

eDisease

Malnutrition

The Atlantic Slave Trade“But what heart could be so hard as to not be pierced

with piteous feelings to see that company?” ~Eyewitness to a Portuguese slave unloading

1. Despite the inhumane

treatment of the African people,

why did the slave trade continue until the 19th

Century?

Profitability“No commerce in the world produces as

many advantages as that of the slave trade.”

~Colbert, Frenchman

Some believe the slave trade was the major reason for the rise of commercial capitalism and the Industrial Revolution.

Selling Slaves in the Caribbean

• With the first sighting of land, the captain of the Henrietta Marie would have ordered slaves on deck in

small groups for fresh air and grooming To improve their appearance for sale.

•Men were shaved, sores were dressed, and rations were improved as

they approached their destination of Jamaica on May 18, 1700,

indicating that she spent almost fourteen weeks on the Middle Passage.

A Lucrative Business

The slaves were most likely auctioned off in groups, with prices ranging between £12 -£18 each, depending on the sex, age and

condition of the individual.

Get Your Workers Here!

• Sold to the highest bidder

• Slaves-washed and greased with tar or lard

• Judged by condition– Muscle– Teeth– Scratches

• As early as 1522, the first notable

slave revolt broke out in the Spanish

colony of Hispaniola (now

Haiti).

•In the Caribbean they were known as "Maroons" and lived in the hills, using guerrilla warfare to _____ other slaves and steal necessary arms and equipment.

free

Rebellions in the Caribbean

• Enslaved Africans never accepted their fate, and rebellions continuedfor the next 300 years until theabolition of plantation slavery.• Many Africans escaped slavery and banded together to form new communities.

Indentured Servants• White indentured servants were another

exploited group of people who, in return for their passage to the Americas or the Caribbean,

agreed to work for their sponsor.

• Indentured servants were at the mercy of their master: they were unpaid and had to do

whatever they were told.

• They were bound to their master for a set period of time, _________________, after which they were set free, and could expect to receive a small tract of land from their master.

usually five years

The European

Sweet Tooth

• Most Europeans had never tasted sugar before the economic successes

of the transatlantic trade made the Caribbean product

readily available.

• England was a major consumer as early as 1660. For a century and a half,

sugar remained the most valuable and largest import,

overtaken only by _______ in the 1820s.cotton

The Henrietta Marie

•The profits from the sale of slaves enabled the Henrietta Marie to load West Indian goods for her

voyage home to England. • Sugar was the main commodity and cargo

entries reveal that she was carrying 81 hogsheads (large barrels) of muscovado sugar.

Back to!

London!

Video Recap

Pirates And Slavers:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9RvR9qGA74

THE END“The world would benefit f this part of our history could be told in such a way that those chains of the

past, those shackles that physically bound us together, against our wills, could in the telling

become…ironically, a positive connecting line to all of us living inside or outside the continent of Africa.”

~Historian Tom Feelings