CHAPTER 25Africa and the Africans

in the Age of the Atlantic Slave Trade

World Civilizations: The Global ExperienceFifth Edition

Stearns/Adas/Schwartz/Gilbert

Copyright 2007, Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Longman

Chapter 25: Africa and the Africans in the Age of the Atlantic Slave Trade

Stearns et al., World Civilizations: The Global Experience, 5th Edition Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Longman, Copyright 2007

I. The Atlantic Slave Trade II. African Societies, Slavery, and the Slave TradeIII. White Settlers and Africans in Southern AfricaIV. The African Diaspora

Chapter 25: Africa and the Africans in the Age of the Atlantic Slave Trade

Stearns et al., World Civilizations: The Global Experience, 5th Edition Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Longman, Copyright 2007

I. The Atlantic Slave Trade

PortugueseFactoriesEntrepots for interior trade Especially goldGenerally with local consentEl MinaMissionaries followedEspecially to Benin, KongoKing Nzinga Mvemba, KongoConverts to ChristianityMove southAngolaLuanda, 1570sMbundu peopleMozambiqueGold trade from MonomotapaFew settlers

Common European patternTrading stationsSlave trade becomes central

Portuguese Expansion and Major African Kingdoms

Chapter 25: Africa and the Africans in the Age of the Atlantic Slave Trade

Stearns et al., World Civilizations: The Global Experience, 5th Edition Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Longman, Copyright 2007

I. The Atlantic Slave Trade

A. Trend Toward Expansion

1450-185012 million Africans sent across

Atlantic10-11 survive

18th centuryHeight80 percent of total trade

Muslim areasTrans-Saharan, Red Sea, East

Africa3 million slaves traded

B. Demographic PatternsSaharan trade

Mostly womenAtlantic trade

Primarily young men for hard labor

Chapter 25: Africa and the Africans in the Age of the Atlantic Slave Trade

Stearns et al., World Civilizations: The Global Experience, 5th Edition Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Longman, Copyright 2007

I. The Atlantic Slave Trade

C. Organization of the TradePortuguese dominate first

to 1630Dutch

Seize El Mina, 1630Rival Portuguese

EnglishSlave trade from 1660s

French18th century

DahomeyRoyal monopoly on flow of slaves

Economic importance?Same profits as other tradeValue tied up with plantation and

mining economyDefinitely ties Africa to global

economy

Chapter 25: Africa and the Africans in the Age of the Atlantic Slave Trade

Stearns et al., World Civilizations: The Global Experience, 5th Edition Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Longman, Copyright 2007

II. African Societies, Slavery, and the Slave Trade

African slave traditions changedIntensified use of slaves

A. Slaving and African PoliticsWest and Central Africa

Small, volatile statesWarfare endemic

Military becomes importantFeeds into slave trade

European influenceStates close to coast

dominate

Chapter 25: Africa and the Africans in the Age of the Atlantic Slave Trade

Stearns et al., World Civilizations: The Global Experience, 5th Edition Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Longman, Copyright 2007

II. African Societies, Slavery, and the Slave Trade

B. Asante and Dahomey

Asante EmpireAkan peopleCenter at KumasiBetween the coast and Hause and

Mande regions1650, Oyoko clan

FirearmsCentralization, expansion

Osei TutuAsantehene

DutchTrade directly with Asante

Chapter 25: Africa and the Africans in the Age of the Atlantic Slave Trade

Stearns et al., World Civilizations: The Global Experience, 5th Edition Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Longman, Copyright 2007

II. African Societies, Slavery, and the Slave Trade

B. Asante and DahomeyBeninControls trade with Europeans, but not

slave trade

DahomeyFon peoplesCenter at AbomeyFirearms by 1720sAgaja (1708-1740)

ExpansionTakes port of Whydah

Other developmentsDivine right kingship

Akin to European absolutismSome states limit royal power

Oyo, Yoruba peoplesKing and council

Artistic achievementsEspecially Benin, the Yoruba

Chapter 25: Africa and the Africans in the Age of the Atlantic Slave Trade

Stearns et al., World Civilizations: The Global Experience, 5th Edition Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Longman, Copyright 2007

II. African Societies, Slavery, and the Slave Trade

C. East Africa and the Sudan

East coast

Swahili trading townsIvory, gold slaves to Middle East

ZanzibarCloves

Interior

Luo dynasties in great lakes area

Bunyoro, Buganda

MonarchiesNorthern Savanna

New Islamization

Songhay breaks up in 1500s

Successor states

Pagan Bambara of Segu

Muslim Hausa states in northern Nigeria

Muslim reform movements, from 1770s

Usuman Dan Fodio, 1804

Hausa states

New kingdom of Sokoto

Chapter 25: Africa and the Africans in the Age of the Atlantic Slave Trade

Stearns et al., World Civilizations: The Global Experience, 5th Edition Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Longman, Copyright 2007

III. White Settlers and Africans in Southern Africa

Bantu into southern Africa by 1500Left arid areas to Khoikhoi, SanAgriculture, pastoralismIron, copperChiefdoms common

CapetownDutch colony, 1652Estates worked by slavesWars with San, KhoikhoiBy 1760s, encounter Bantu1795, Britain occupies colony

1815, possessionAfter 1834, Afrikaners push beyond

boundaries

Chapter 25: Africa and the Africans in the Age of the Atlantic Slave Trade

Stearns et al., World Civilizations: The Global Experience, 5th Edition Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Longman, Copyright 2007

III. White Settlers and Africans in Southern Africa

A.The Mfecane and the Zulu Rise to Power

Nguni people1818, Shaka creates Zulu

chiefdom1828, assassinated

Beginning of mfecane

MfecanePeriod of disruption, wanderingDefeated into new areas

Swazi, Lesotho

Chapter 25: Africa and the Africans in the Age of the Atlantic Slave Trade

Stearns et al., World Civilizations: The Global Experience, 5th Edition Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Longman, Copyright 2007

IV. The African Diaspora

Slave trade in joining Africa to world economy

A. Slave LivesMillions killedFamilies destroyed

B. Africans in the AmericasPlantation system

C. American Slave SocietiesMiscegenation

Chapter 25: Africa and the Africans in the Age of the Atlantic Slave Trade

Stearns et al., World Civilizations: The Global Experience, 5th Edition Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Longman, Copyright 2007

IV. The African Diaspora

D. The People and Gods in ExileDynamic, creativeReligion adaptive

Haitian vodun

Muslim Africans1835, Brazil

Muslim Yoruba and Hausa slavesPalmares, Brazil

1600s, runaway slave stateSuriname

Fusion culture formed by runaway slaves

C. The End of the Slave Trade and the Abolition of Slavery

Slave trade ended outside of AfricaCauses?

Probably not economic self-interest

Influence of Enlightenment