1. Africa is unique in that it consists of various environmental conditions

2. African Origins Scientist believe that Africa was home to the ancient ancestors of all human beings, who first originated in East Africa more than a million years ago Africa’s long history witnessed the emergence of human agriculture and the rise and fall of vast civilizations in ancient Egypt and Nubia

3. African Cultural Heritage Diversity has characterized all aspects of African history: varying geographic regions & more than 800 different native languages The African kinship system: based on the extended family, a group of people who were both related to each other and dependent on each others survival Animism – The belief that spirits inhabit all things in nature One institution African societies shared was the practice of slavery

4. The History of West Africa There were several powerful empires in West Africa which include Ghana, Mali, Songhai Empire West Africa inland waterways sustained extensive trade networks, with canoes, carrying agricultural products, lumber, fish, and slaves African systems of landownership were also collective rather than individual Slavery in West Africa was often assigned to war captives or debtors

5. This painting depicts the atrocious practice of slavery that took place from the 16 th to the 19 th century As shown in this depiction, armed escorts march a group of freshly captured Africans to the coast for sale in slave markets

6. Europe in the Age of the Slave Trade In Africa, European monarchs hoped to find sources of gold and other luxury goods they could use to enrich their treasuries, pay their armies, and increase the commercial power of their nations Portugal, one of Europe’s earliest nation-states, pioneered the navigation of the West African coast Spain was also active in this early trade and established its own Atlantic colony in the Canary Islands during the 15 th century

7. The First Africans in the Americas Roughly 300,000 Africans landed in the Americas before 1620 The Spanish conquest of the Americas and enslaved Africans The cultivation of sugarcane, one of the earliest slave- grown crops, was first introduced on Hispaniola and eventually spread throughout the Caribbean The demand for such labor would only increase over time, giving rise to an international slave trade that would last more than three centuries and carry approximately 12.5 million slaves to the New World

8. The Business of Slave Trade Europeans also expanded the trade by traversing larger stretches of the African coast European slave ships carried on a Triangle Trade The Middle Passage - slave ships journey from the West African coast to the slave ports of the New World This trade fueled the economic development of Europe, supplying much of the raw material and capital that propelled European powers into the industrial age

10. The Atlantic slave trade, 1500-1800. Note the triangular pattern of the Atlantic trade routes between Europe, Africa, and the Americas Over 80% of all slaves shipped across the Atlantic were sent to the Caribbean islands and Brazil

11. The “middle passage” would take over 30 to 90 days The worst part of the long Middle Passage began as men, women, and children were packed, nearly naked, into ships designed to accommodate the maximum number of slaves in the least amount of space Throughout the slave trade, men outnumbered women by a ratio of roughly 2:1 Before 1700, children accounted for roughly 12% of slave ships’ cargo, but by 1810 the proportion had risen to an average 46%

13. Middle Passage: below decks on an illegal slave ship seized by a British anti-slavery patrol in 1846 What kinds of conditions are depicted in this drawing?