The Atlantic Slave Trade

1. The Atlantic Slave Trade 1450-1850

2. Statistics • Total of approx. 12 million Africans were taken from their homeland • 2000/year between 1450-1850

3. Why did it begin? • Began buying slaves • The Portuguese explored the African Coast 2. Europeans discover New World 3. Native Americans were an inadequate labor force Create Colonies • Need for a large labor force • Plantations and Mines

4. Labor Source Native Americans Africans Immunity to Disease Experienced Farmers Unfamiliar land Hard to escape Profits from slave trade • Dying from Disease • Hunters, not farmers • Knew the Geography Easy to escape

5. Slave Trade Characteristics • Spain and Portugal were the leaders • By 1600s: 3. Taken primarily from West Africa 4. Role of Africans England, Dutch and French were involved Kings gave permission Merchants sold captives Hunters captured other Africans

6. A slaves Journey from Africa to the New World As you listen to the podcast, record where each step took place and a supporting detail Step 3 ________________________________ Step 5 ________________________________ Step 1 ________________________________ Step 6 ____________________________________ Step 2 ________________________________ Step 4 ________________________________

7. Step 1 Africans eager for guns/horses, traded POWs to Europeans. There was a premium on Adult Males. Captured slaves were escorted on a 500 mile walk to sea

8. Step 2 Captured slaves were placed in prisons, examined by surgeons and stripped of clothing. Invalids were thrown into sea. Branded with company logo. Families were separated

9. Step 3 Over 700 slaves were packed into the ship. They were separated by gender, arranged together in mixed language groups

10. Step 4 Disease was common in the holds of the ship. Slaves were fed once a day and brought to the surface once a week

11. Step 5 Slave rebellions were ruthlessly oppressed. Agitators were thrown overboard. Suicides were common.

12. . Slaves were sold in the West Indies and then could be sent to Brazil and Mexico where they labored on sugar plantations or in the gold mines. They could also be shipped to the S. British Colonies where they worked on tobacco, rice and cotton plantations Step 6

13. Consequences of Slave Trade • Africa lost a generation of people • Families were divided • Demand for Guns in Africa— 5. Greatly developed the Americas 6. New Culture emerge: More Civil Wars African//European mix-Mulattoes New Songs, dress, different forms of Christianity

14. Questions 1. Why were Africans willing to trade other Africans into slavery? 2. While on a slave ship there were few slave rebellions despite the fact that slaves outnumbered their captors 10 to 1. Why do you think there we so few rebellions? 3. Where in North America would you expect to find large numbers of slaves and why? North or South? 4. Some form of slavery has existed in nearly every empire in history. What makes the Atlantic Slave trade uniquely cruel and barbaric form of labor? 5. Do you think slave hunters/traders hated the people they captured and enslaved? Explain.