The Atlantic Slave Trade System and Colonial Slavery The English were late-comers into African slave trade. The first were the Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch and then the English (1672 the Duke of York’s Royal African Co ended in 1698) slavery also lagged in English colonies, The foundations of “South Atlantic Plantation System’ was laid by the Portuguese in Brazil (which was also the last place on the globe to end slavery)

Pre-Contact Africa Pre-contact Africa, the myth of African primitivism (East African city-states had royal courts and stone palaces, mosques with coral carvings, imported luxury goods, maritime trade and urban growth) Different African societies, hundreds of cultures in endless variations, like so many different flowers in the same beds Stateless societies, microstates, chiefdoms, kingdoms and empires Forest (farming, crafts); grasslands (grazing); fishing; inter-zonal trade of salt, gold, slaves, iron, cotton textiles and kola nuts Religious belief systems. Africans believe in a pantheon of gods; protective ancestors, functional deities, need to win gods’ favor, prayer and magic. Islam expands into middle Africa

African Slavery African slavery existed but was quite different from economically oriented slavery of the New World Purpose was to add people to a lineage or group Assimilation into society was typical’ non-sale of second generation was the norm and half or more of pre-colonial West African population was in ‘slave status Very brutal slavery in the Tagaza salt mines and royal farms trans-Sarahan slave trade East African slave exports to Muslim world, to India and China Sources of Slaves: warfare, debt slavery and penal slavery

Rise of Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade System Mediterranean sugar plantation: the original model: a labor-intensive system Migrates to Atlantic Islands (Madeira, Azores, Sao Thome) then to Brazil and Caribbean Islands; Africans used with Indian and White labor Surging Caribbean and Latin American demand; tobacco, sugar and coffee plantations; mining How did a handful of European slave merchants involve Africa in the trans-Atlantic slave trade? The victimizer-victim model and the mutual partnership model The Atlantic slave trade system at full throttle; waterside transactions—the Ashanti slave catching warriors were very prosperous

Colonial Servitude v Slavery Three times the number of African come to the Americas than Europeans 5% to North America, 90% to South America and the Caribbean 1690-1760 However, in north American there are twice as many Europeans than Africans Resulting conclusion—large mortality rate/low birth rate Cheaper to buy new slaves than to raise slave families 20 million + die, beyond those who do not survive the middle passa6e 50 % survival rate once in the colonies   Newport, Boston, New York merchants dominate the slave trade but it is not the be all and end all of business and profit Rhode Island is the slave trade center of the colony. “Stock Raising” and “Ranches” for the sale and trade of slaves

Slaves have greater accessibility to freedom Two Poles of African Slavery in Colonial North America: What’s the difference? Slave Owning Slaves have greater accessibility to freedom More/greater legal protections in the courts and owning property More interracial mingling Greater personal living space; economic niches Slaves present in these societies, yet numerically few Slavery not economic underpinning of this society. Slaves are domestic servants not agricultural laborers. They are symbols of wealth. The typical southern states started slavery in this way. Slave Society More repressive and openly racially prejudiced No legal protections Race commingling tabooed and outlawed Minimal personal space Slaves represent 20% + of population. Slavery is central underpinnings of economy. In the Carolinas 60% of the population, after 1750 and 40% of Virginia’s population Large black presence=the local government’s insistence for protection of slavery.