Slavery

African Empires Three great empires: Ghana, Mali and Songhai rose and fell in West Africa between 400-1500. The early empires of Africa prospered by trading gold and salt to Europeans and Arabs.

African Culture Like the Native Americans the people of West Africa were matrilineal. Matrilineal means people trace their decent through their mothers, rather than their fathers.

Slavery War between African nations led to captives. Captives of warring nations would be made slaves. Slaves in Africa could work or marry their way out of slavery. With the arrival of Europeans and Arabs in Africa those who were captives were sold into slavery outside of Africa. Europeans needed slaves to help mine for gold. Europeans discovered sugar from the Arabs. Sugar plantations were labor intensive and to avoid paying laborers high wages they used enslaved workers.

Slavery Sugar plantations were set up by the Portuguese and the Spanish in South America and the Caribbean which brought slavery to the new world. The colonization of America expanded the slave trade and changed slavery in Africa. Africans were taken from their homes marched hundreds of miles across land and shipped across the Atlantic Ocean on the Middle Passage. There was little chance for a slave to gain freedom.

Middle Passage Middle Passage: enslaved Africans were bound by their hands and neck and shipped to America. 10-12 million Africans were shipped through the middle passage. 2 million of those died on the passage over.

Slavery in America Chattel Slavery: One human being is said to be owned by another human being. First slaves in America were treated like indentured servants. If slaves converted to Christianity they could have earned their freedom. Enslaving Africans was first accepted because they were not Christians. Maryland was the first colony to formally recognize slavery when it denied Africans the same rights as English citizens. Virginia created the slave codes. Slave codes were a set of laws that formally regulated slavery and defined relationships between enslaved Africans and free people. Africans were denied the right to own land, testify in court, allowed to move freely around town and were not allowed to assemble in large groups. In the Southern colonies slave labor of thousands of slaves was vital to the growth of the plantation economy.