1. The Atlantic Slave Trade
Mr. Snell
HRHS

2. Setting the Stage
Sugar plantations & tobacco farms required a large supply of workers.
Europeans planned to use Native Americans.
Native Americans were wiped out by disease.
Europeans in Brazil, the Caribbean, and southern colonies of North America turned to Africa to fill the void of workers.

3. Origins of the Slave Trade
Caused by a shortage of labor in the Americas.
Plantations – estates where cash crops were grown on large scale.
Early cash crops – sugar or tobacco

4. What do you think this picture represents?
The Door of No Return

5. Birth of the Slave
Indentured Servants – People who worked for a set period of time in exchange for passage to America.
Expensive
Millions of Africans taken
West African coast, from Senegal to Angola

6. How?
Slaves supplied by African rulers in exchange for European guns or other goods.
European organized slave raids to kidnap Africans.
Capture Africans hauled to slave island forts.
Marched to slave ships, embark on overseas journey.
Triangular Trade – Transatlantic 3 part trading network for African slaves.

7. Triangular Trade 1st Leg – Ships carry European goods to Africa.
2nd leg – Middle Passage – Africans shipped across the Atlantic Ocean to be sold as slaves.
3rd leg – American products are sent back to Europe (sugar, rice, tobacco)

9. The Middle Passage – The Horrible Overseas Journey
Terrifying ordeal for Africans.
Chained together in dark cramped quarters below ship’s deck.
Packed in extremely tight.
3 to 6 week journey from Africa to America.
10-20% died during the trips
Terror in the homeland
Auction block and uncertain future…

11. Slavery in the Colonies
Captive Africans taken all of the Americas.
Spanish took them to the Caribbean sugar plantations.
Portuguese brought millions to brazil
English took many to the West Indies but also to North American colonies.
By the end of the 1600s, England dominated the slave trade.

12. Living Conditions Most slaves worked on plantations. Harsh conditions
Had to meet their own needs in leftover workday hours.
Minor offences often received harsh punishment.
Slaveholders lived in constant fear of rebellion.

13. Slave Resistance American laws considered slaves property.
Slaves had no rights or freedoms.
Slaves endured brutal treatment and abuse.
Slaves turned to religion, some resisted abuse.
Slaves fought back
Destroyed equipment
Slowed down work
Revolts
Runaway slaves

14. Overall Effects of the Slave Trade
Continued for 400 years devastating West African societies.
15-20 million slaves were shipped to the Americas against their will.
High human cost
Death, freedom deprivation, forced servitude.

15. Effects in Africa
Slave raiders captured the strongest, youngest people – future leaders.
Divided Africans from one another.
Waging war on one another to gain captives.
Force labor for millions not in Africa.
Built economies everywhere but Africa
Rice industry in South USA
African Diaspora – led to diffusion of African culture

16. Remaining Effects of the Slave Trade
Freed African Americans from slavery in the United States founded the country Liberia.
Name many settlements after slave states, ie. Mississippi or Louisiana.
Cleared land for huge plantations with southern-style mansions
Modeled government after USA
Slavery still exists