The Atlantic Slave Trade
Show me the money Africans were sold for guns, iron, rum, cloth, & other goods Slaves cost 1/10 (1680s) & 1/3 (1780s) of the value they produced in America Britain exporting 300,000 guns annually to Africa in 1790s
Effects on Africa Drained the wealth & people of Southern Sahara Desert Diminishing cultural contact with the Islamic world Growth of militaristic centralized states Use of European goods
Effects on the African slaves Change in class divisions Change in gender relations Eroding the dignity of human life High blood pressure for future generations
The “Middle Passage”
Why turn to African slavery? Why not Indians as slaves? Indians outnumbered the settlers Indians retaliated Knew the land, could escape Africans have been torn from their land & their culture Whites were new to a continent but brought their culture with them. Needed labor = $ H.Zinn Left the Africans in a state of helplessness
American Slavery American slavery was driven by a frenzy for limitless profit Based on racial hatred, therefore slavery treated slaves as less than human ~H.Zinn
Total numbers Total slaves brought to the Americas- 10 – 15 million Africa may have lost 50 million human being to death & slavery H.Zinn
Fear & Racism Settlers feared slave rebellions & feared that whites who were unhappy with the state of things might join with black to overthrow the social order & feared that Indians would join blacks & rebel H.Zinn
To combat these fears… Bribed Indians to return runaway slaves & made it illegal for fee blacks to travel in Indian country Gave a few new rights & benefits to poor whites Money, food, & land H.Zinn