1. Chapter 20: Africa and the Africans in the Age of the Atlantic Slave Trade
Get students to prepare map of Africa
Use overhead projector and current map of africa to create map

2. Evolution of African Slavery
African rulers justified the sale of slaves through their Muslim beliefs.
Between the years 650 and 1600, black and white Muslims transported 4.8 million African to Muslim lands in SW Asia.
In African and Muslim societies, slaves had rights and the opportunity for social mobility.
Slavery in African and Muslim societies was NOT hereditary.

3. Atlantic Slave Trade: Establishing Control
The Portuguese established factories (forts and trading posts with resident merchants).
Most with the consent of local rulers.
El Mina (1482)- the most important factory located in west Africa
Trade was the basis of Portuguese relations with African peoples.
Impressed by power and magnificence of Africans
Missionary efforts to convert rulers in Africa.
Nzinga Mvemba ruler of Kongo ( ) made the region Christian with Portuguese support.
Page 444 baquaqua may mirror the early lives of many
Page 447 Initial contact was primarily for trade
Kongo has a trade relationship but looses control and does not want to “europeanize”
Was it an intrusion or did they need to trade

4. Portuguese Expansion and Major African Kingdoms
Page 446 look at the map and write down what you see hint patterns, geography
Notice settlement of africa is very gradual southward movement and stays on the coast
Portuguese are on the west coast and muslims “rule” the east coast

5. Portuguese Exploration
Luanda- permanent Portuguese settlement, which would later be colony of Angola
Portuguese established outposts on Mozambique Island, Kilwa, Sofala and Mombasa.
In the 17th century, the Dutch, English and French competed with the Portuguese for trading stations.
The slave trade was a major interest to the Portuguese.
First slaves brought to Portugal from Africa in 1441.
Gain importance with sugar plantations on cash crop islands
Page 447 A specific example isettlements is Luanda now angola

6. Trend Toward Expansion
Portuguese originally raided for slaves along the coast but realized that trade was an easier way to get more slaves.
Slave trade was important when plantations (sugar) demanded constant labor.
Brazil imported 4 million
Caribbean imported 2.2 million
By 1600, the slave trade predominated over all other kinds of commerce on the African coast.
Red Sea and east African slave routes continued during this period
Page 448

9. The Atlantic Slave Trade
: 12 million Africans shipped across the Atlantic
Mortality rate on slave ships was 10-20%.
The 17th century was the busiest for slave trade.
Mortality was high and fertility was low, so the only way to keep large numbers of slaves was to import more and more.
Page 448
As I’ve mentioned before a lot of controversy over the numbers
One slave is one too many

10. The Atlantic Slave Trade
Most slaves were taken from sub-Saharan Africa (Senegambia region) but later were taken from west central Africa primarily.
Over 3 million slaves were taken by Muslim traders from trans- Saharan area, Red Sea and east Africa.
Atlantic slave trade slaves were mostly men, while the trans- Saharan slave trade slaves were mostly women.
Trans-Saharan slaves were used as concubines and domestic servants
Atlantic slaves were used for plantation labor
Portugal controlled most of the African coastal trade until 1630.
Dutch seized El Mina in 1637  Portuguese no longer monopolize slave trade

11. Profitability of Trade
Royal African Company
English want their own source of slaves for growing plantations in Caribbean colonies
Establish trade forts in Africa to obtain slaves
Fewer than 10% of employees survived; tropical diseases
Variety of currencies involved in slave trade
Triangular trade: made emerging capitalism central to Atlantic world
Profitability of slave trade
Page 450

12. African Societies and the Slave Trade
In Africa, slaves were already used as servants, concubines, soldiers, administrators, and field workers to Middle East and Northern Africa
Europeans used this to justify their enslavement of Africans
Slaves used for gold mining, salt production, and caravan work.
Europeans essentially tapped into existing routes and supplies of slaves.
African rulers generally did not enslave their own people, but enslaved neighboring peoples.
Page 451

13. Slaving and African Politics
To some extent Africa already had “internal turmoil” and Europeans simply intensified African slave trade and enslavement.
Endless wars promoted the importance of the military and made the sale of captives an extension of politics.
Page 453 Shift of power within Africa as trade begins to be redirected towards coastal trade with Europeans
Firearms, iron, horses, cloth, tobacco
Gun and slave cycle
Increase firepower allowed states to expand over neighbors, producing more slaves, which they traded for guns
Result: unending warfare and disruption of societies through slave trade
Page 452

14. Asante and Dahomey
Impact of Slave Trade Two Case Studies: Two major empires rose to prominence in the period of slave trade.
Asante: dominant state on Gold Coast
Comprised of 20 small states based on clans
Osei Tutu- supreme civil and religious leader, joinedmany of the clans
Controlled many gold-producing zones (1/3 trade) ; constant supply of slaves (2/3 of Asante’s trade)
Dominant state of Gold Coast until 1820s
Dahomey
Access to firearms in 1720s; creates autocratic and brutal political regime based on slave trade
Over 1.8 million slaves exported
Page

15. Asante and Dahomey

16. East Africa
On east coast, Swahili trading cities continued commerce in Indian Ocean adjusting to military presence of Portuguese and Ottoman Turks
Trade brought ivory, gold, slaves for harems and households of Arabia
Interior of Eastern Africa is less well-known
Bantu pastoralists
Islamization
Process continues across Western Sudan
Some states continue with Muslim royal families and aristocrats, and animist peasants
Others see conversions across all levels of society
Page 457

19. White Settlers and Africans in Southern Africa
16th Century- Bantu-speaking peoples occupied eastern regions of southern Africa.
Agriculture, herding, work with iron and copper
1652- Cape of Good Hope established as a Dutch colony for ships sailing to Asia
Depended on slave labor brought from Asia, Indonesia but then used African labor
Competition and warfare with indigenous Africans
By 1800: 17,000 settlers, 26,000 slaves
White Settlers and Africans in Southern Africa

20. Mfecane and Zulu Rise to Power
1795- Great Britain seized Cape Colony
1815- Under formal British control
Nguni people: occupied lands in southern and eastern Africa
Shaka Zulu: Nguni leader and military tactician who began African unification process in 1818
New military and political organization (organized by lineage and age)
Absorbed and destroyed neighbors
Mfecane- “wars of crushing and wandering,” whole southern continent thrown into turmoil
Zulu Wars of 1870’s: Zulu power crushed by Great Britain

21. African Diaspora
African Diaspora: dispersion of Africans across the globe; accomplished primarily by the slave trade and introduction of Africans into world economy
Slavery meant destruction of villages, capture in war, forced march to trading town, separation from family (1/3 died in this journey)

22. Slave Lives
Cargo sizes varied and were sometimes as high as 700 slaves in one ship
Middle Passage (slave voyage to America) was traumatic
Slaves were taken, branded by hot irons, confined and shackled, as well as being treated poorly
Slave ships were dirty, unsanitary and many suffered from poor hygiene, dysentery, disease
Extreme anxiety, suicide, resistance

23. Plantations
Slave labor was first used for sugar plantation labor and mining, but later for rice, cotton and tobacco
Plantation became the locus of African life
Slaves held urban occupations, street vendors, household servants; almost no occupation they did not perform, though most were agricultural laborers

24. American Slave Societies
Comprised of African-born saltwater slaves (black) and Creole slaves (American-born descendants, some of whom were mulattos as result of sexual exploitation of slave women and other racial mixings)
Hierarchy of slaves by slaveholders (Creoles and mulattos given more opportunities to acquire skilled jobs, such as house-hold servants)
Some African nobles and religious leaders still exercised authority within African community
Compositions of slave-based societies

25. The People and Gods in Exile
Family formation was difficult for slaves
Families may be separated at any time
Male to female ratio sometimes 3:1
Religion - continuity and adaptation
Conversion to Catholicism by Spaniards and Portuguese
African religion did not die out and continued despite attempts by slave owners to suppress them
Often Christianity and African religions were fused
Resistance and rebellion
Palmares: runaway slave kingdom in 17th c. Brazil that resisted Portuguese and Dutch attempts to destroy it for 100 years
Suriname: large numbers of slaves ran off in this plantation colony in 18th c. and waged war against captors

26. The End of the Slave Trade and the Abolition of Slavery
End of Atlantic slave trade and abolition of slavery around 19th century
Economic, political and religious changes are occurring in Europe and the colonies
Opponents of slavery and brutality of trade appeared into the mid-18th century
Appearing in relation to Enlightenment thinkers
Now seen as backward and Immoral, symbol of inhumanity and cruelty
1807- British slave trade was abolished with help of abolitionists like John Wesley and William Wilberforce
1888- Brazilian slave trade was abolished