Africa in the Age of the Atlantic Slave Trade Inspired by Mr. Millhouse; Hebron High School

I. Sugar and Slaves  1620s & 30s – GB, F, NL settled West Indies islands.  Chartered Corp developed WI colonies  Cheap passage for poor Europeans => indentured servants  Ex. Barbados  1640s: Grew tobacco, then switched to Sugar; better profit by 1680s  By 1700 Barbados surpassed Brazil Grew: Tobacco- Sugar

II. Volume of the Slave Trade  15 th century -minimal: to islands off Africa’s coast plantations  16 th c.. – small  17 th C.  1 st half of 17 th c. increase to 10,000 per year  2 nd half of 17 th c. increase to 20,000.  >1/2 landed in GB, F, NL colonies  18 th c. most of trade  7 million slaves, 80% of all trade  19 th c. slows down, under attack,  still exports to Cuba & Brazil (1.7 million)\  Muslim areas - Trans-Saharan, Red Sea, East Africa  3 million slaves traded

III. Switch to Slaves  Tobacco –farmers preferred Europeans  Cheaper = willing to accept low pay in return for land  1750 sugar production – speculator drove land-price up  Europeans choose N. America, Owners had to get Africans  Demographic Patterns  Trans-Saharan trade = Mostly women  Atlantic trade = Primarily young men African kingdom preferred to keep the women for domestic slaves and sell the men to the Europeans

American Sugar Plantation

Treatment of slaves

IV. Plantation Economy  Relied on slave labor  Chattel slavery – owners held legal rights over life of workers  Grew crops for export to European markets Not food for consumption  plantations forerunner of factory labor

African Diaspora  WI plantation colonies = world’s more polarized societies.  On most island 90 % were slaves.  Pwr resided in the hands of a Plantocracy  Slave health: death outnumbered birth  Life expectancy = 23 yrs for males and 25.5 for females

African Slave Trade

Middle Passage

Triangular Trade part of the Atlantic Circuit

V. Slavery and African Politics  Common in African society  slaves = main form of wealth due to non- egalitarian land-ownership (king owned all land)  Europeans= new opportunities for expansion of slavery  Competition between rival kingdoms led to endless wars => need for guns  Kingdoms trade slaves for guns (W. Africa)  Slave trade shifts balance of power –  From Sudanic E. Africa to the West Africa

True size of Africa

VI. West African Kingdoms  Asante on the Gold Coast (Ghana) (1650s to 1820s)  Centralized leadership under Osei Tutu after 1650 (d 1715)  Slave made up 2/3 of trade by 1700  Dahomey (becomes Benin)– (17 th c to 19 th c )  Dependent on slavery; controlledby royal court  1.8 million slaves ( shipped from Bight of Benin betw )

VII. East Africa & the Arrival of Europe  Swahili city-states continued traditional commerce in the Indian Ocean  Some African states copied European plantation system  Zanzibar (plantation economy) 100,000 slaves by 1860  Sultan continues to trade slaves until 1910s  Islamic States  Slavery legitimate for non-muslims

VIII. Effect on Africa  Social Effect  _____________________________________________________  ____________________________________________________  Economic Effect  _____________________________________________________  ____________________________________________________  _____________________________________________________

IX. Cape Colony  Dutch East India Co. establish a colony at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652  Provision ships headed to Asia  Large fertile lands were great for farming  Used slave labor  Slaves brought from Indonesia and other parts of Asia  Eventually enslave the natives  Dutch settlers, called Boers, move to Cape Colony in search of land  17, 000 settlers, 26,ooo slaves, and 14,ooo natives by 1800

VII. Sudanic Africa  Period of violent Islamization in 18 th C  Islamic elites vs. animistic natives  Violence helped supply slaves to coastal regions  In the 1770s Muslim spread “purified” Sufi Islam  The Sokoto Caliphate (N. Nigeria) founded by Usman’s son  Inspired by Usamn Dan Fodio who Believed he was an instrument of Allah  Preached jihad against Hausa kingdoms  Son attacked neighboring Muslim kingdoms  Effects of reformist Islam  Spread literacy, new centers of trade emerged, attempts to eliminate pagan practices

Areas to concentrate on for test  Columbian Exchange  Spanish conquest  Sociedad de Castas – social stratification  Plantation Economy  Brazil – development – slave colony to Gold  African Slavery –Chattel  Triangular trade impact on Africa & Europe  Slavery impact on Africa  S. Africa