The Atlantic Slave Trade

Chapter 4, Section 3

Main IdeasTo meet their growing labor needs,

Europeans enslaved millions of Africans in the Americas.

Descendants of enslaved Africans represent a significant part of the Americas’ population today.

IntroductionSugar plantations and

tobacco farms required a large supply of workers to make them profitable for their owners.

Europeans planned to use natives as cheap labor, but many died from disease, warfare and brutal treatment, resulting in a labor shortage.

Africans were the Europeans’ solution to cheap labor.

The Causes of African Slavery

Slavery in AfricaSlavery started with the spread of Islam

into Africa in the seventh century.Muslim rulers justified slavery with belief that

non-Muslim POWs could be bought and sold as slaves.

Between 650 & 1600, Muslims transported about 17 million Africans.Slaves had some legal rights & opportunities

for social mobility.

American slavery differed from Muslim and African slavery because American slavery was based on heredity and race.

Advantages of using Africans in the AmericasAfricans had been exposed to

European diseases and had built up some immunity.

Many Africans had experience in farming and could be taught plantation work.

Africans were less likely to escape because they did not know their way around the new land.

Skin color made it easier to catch them if they escaped and tried to live among others.

Atlantic Slave TradeThe buying and selling of

Africans became a massive enterprise.

Between 1500 & 1600, 300,000 Africans were transported to the Americas.

During the next century, that number climbed to almost 1.3 million.

By the end of the AST (1870), Europeans had imported about 9.5 million Africans to the Americas.

Slavery Spreads Throughout the Americas

African Cooperation and ResistanceMany African rulers

and merchants played a willing role in the AST.

European traders only went as far as the ports.

African merchants, with the help of rulers, captured Africans to be enslaved.Delivered them to

Europeans in exchange for gold, guns and other goods.

Growing Slave TradeAs the slave trade grew,

some rulers began to oppose it.

However, they were lured by its profits and many continued to participate.

African merchants developed new trade routes to avoid rulers who refused to cooperate.

A Forced Journey

Triangular TradeAfricans

transported to Americas were part of a transatlantic trading network known as the triangular trade.

What places are involved in all three examples?

What was transported from the West Indies to England?

What was transported from Africa to the southern colonies?

The Middle PassageThe Middle Passage

= voyage that brought Africans to the Americas.

Middle portion of transatlantic trade triangle.

Packed tightlySevere whippings

and beatingsDiseasesSuicide

20% died on the voyage

The voyage that brought Africans to America.

Africans were packed into ships like sardines.

Slavery in the Americas

A Harsh LifeOnce in America, Africans

were auctioned off.Worked in mines or fields

as domestic servants.Lived on little food and in

huts.Worked long days and

suffered beatingsSlavery was a lifelong

condition and a hereditary one.

Resistance and RebellionTo deal with the

horrors of slavery, Africans developed a new way of life based on their cultural heritage.

Focused on musical traditions and stories of their ancestors.

Resisted by breaking tools, uprooting plants, working slowly and running away.

Severe resistance? REVOLT

Consequences: AfricaCultures lost

generations of their fittest members.

Families torn apart.

Introduction of guns to continent.

Contributions: AmericaLaborBrought their expertise,

especially in agriculture.Culture – art, music,

religion and foodCurrent population

Numbers and mixingIn addition to slaves, the

settlement of the Americas brought about new items to and from the Americas.