1. Origins of Slavery in the Americas
IB History 2016

2. Objective
To obtain an understanding of the origins of slavery in North America and the Caribbean.

3. Estimated Slave imports by destination, 1451-1870
Origins
Estimated Slave imports by destination,
Destination
Total Slave Imports
British North America
339,000
Spanish America
1,552,100
French Caribbean
1,600,200
Brazil
3,464,800
Slavery and slave trading were ancient phenomena that existed in all cultures. Slavery had existed in all cultures and was common in West Africa, although it was less oppressive than it became in the Americas.
Interethnic rivalries in W. Africa led to the warfare that produced slaves during the sixteenth century.
Columbus’s voyages impacted the trade due to the establishment of colonies in the Caribbean, Mexico, and Central and South America. As the numbers of American Indians in these regions rapidly declined, due to diseases and violence, Europeans relied on the Atlantic slave trade for a source of slave labor.
As early as 1502, there were African Slaves on Hispaniola (Haiti and Dominican rep)
Gold and silver minds in Mexico and sugar plantations in Brazil produced an enormous demand for labor. Most Africans landed in Brazil with the least number landing in North America.
Europe provided an insatiable market for sugar, cultivation of this crop in the Americans became extremely profitable.

4. Capture and the Middle Passage
After capture, Africans were packed tightly into slave ships.
The death rate of the “passengers” was 50%.
From the interior to the coast: Captives were tied together with rope or secured with wooden yokes around their necks. Many captives died from hunger, exhaustion, and illness during their journey. Some killed themselves rather than submit to slavery. Slaves who rebelled were sometimes killed by their captors. Once taken to the coast, they would be held for weeks or months until forced onto a ship (canoes to large ships).
Voyage: Normally 2-3 months, but voyages could take as long as six months depending on currents, the weather, and “sea dogs” pirates who attacked Spanish ships to steal slaves.
On Ship: Cargo space generally only 5 feet high. Ships carpenters halved this vertical space by building shelves, so that slaves can be packed above and below the planks that measured only 5 and ½ feet long and 16 inches wide. Also, male slaves were chained to prevent rebellion and lodged separately from women and children.

5. The Middle Passage
Diseases such as malaria, yellow fever, measles, small pox, and dysentery constantly threated Africans and Europeans during the middle passage. Death rates were huge on board slave ships before Mortality dropped after that date because ships became faster and ships doctors knew more about hygiene and diet. There were also early forms of vaccinations against smallpox.
Slavers provided only 3-4 toilet tubs below deck for enslaved African s to use during the middle passage. They had to struggle among themselves to get to the tubs.

6. Atlantic Trade
Resistance and revolt at sea: Many Africans refused to accept their fate, slaver captains had to be vigilant. Uprisings were common, most took place while the ship prepared to set sail, when the African coast was still insight, others occurred on the open sea where it was unlikely that, even if the revolt was successful, would be able to return to their homes.

7. Destination, Auction, and Seasoning
Desire for Sugar, Demand for Labor
Slave Auctions
Process of Seasoning
Forced Acculturation
Language
Name
Labor
As slave ships neared their W. Indian destinations, the crew prepared the human cargo for landing and sale. They allowed the slaves to shave, wash with fresh water, and exercise. Those bound for N. America were often given some weeks to rest in the W. Indies.
The process of sale: The dehumanization and humiliation of Africans continued as the slaves went to market. They suffered close physical inspection from potential byers. Auctions took place either on deck or in sale yards on shore. However, some captains employed “the scramble.” In these barbaric events, the captain established standard prices for men, women, and children, herded the Africans together in a corral, and then allowed byers to rushing among them to grab and rope together the slaves they desired.
Seasoning: Seasoning was the beginning of the process of making new Africans more like slaves who were born in the Americas. Seasoning followed sale and required up to two years of acculturating slaves and braking them into plantation routines.
On Jamaica and other Caribbean islands, planters divided slaves into three categories:
Creoles – slaves born in the Americas
Old Africans – Those who had lived in the Americans for some time
New Africans – just arrived
Before 1720: North American plantation owners preferred “seasoned” slaves to “unbroken” ones who came directly from Africa. – ask students to infer why.
After 1720, labor demand in Caribbean increased, and fewer “seasoned” slaves came from there, instead, most slaves came directly from African and the middle passage.
Seasoning was a disciplinary process intended to modify the behavior and attitude of slaves and make them effective laborers. As part of this process, the slaves’ new masters gave them new names.
The seasoning process also involved slaves’ learning European languages: Spanish, French and English. Often this new learning produced creole dialects that had distinctive African linguistic features.
Seasoning varied in length from place to place. Masters or overseers broke slaves into plantation work by assigning them to one of several work gangs. The strongest men joined the first or “great gang,” which did the heavy field work of planting and harvesting. The second gang, including women and older males, did lighter field work, such as weeding. The third gang, composed of children, worked shorter hours and did such tasks as bringing food and water to the field gangs. Other slaves became domestic servants. New Africans served apprentices ships with old Africans from their same ethnic group or with creoles.

8. The Beginnings of Slavery in the United States
1500s: The Portuguese and Spanish had already brought Africans to South and Latin America.
In 1619, the first Africans were brought to the colony Jamestown, Virginia by the Dutch.
Landowners assessing the success of seasoning: 1st criterion survival. Africans were weakened and traumatized by the capture and middle passage. 2nd criterion Africans had to adapt to new foods and climate. 3rd criterion was learning a new language, enough to respond and understand demands. Final criterion, psychological. When new Africans ceased to be suicidal, planters assumed that they had accepted their status and separation from their homeland.
African adaptation and survival: Slaves entered plantation society with their memories of their family, homeland and culture. When ties to their villages were broken, they created bonds with shipmates that simulated blood relationships and became the new basis of new extended families. African slaves did not lose all their culture during the middle passage and seasoning in the Americans. The Africans who survived the Atlantic slave trade and slavery in the Americans were resilient.

9. Why Not Enslave the Native Population?
Lacked immunity to European diseases.
Familiar with the terrain and could escape easier.
Political allies
Native Americans were highly likely to catch European diseases.
They were familiar with the terrain and could escape easier.
They had political allies that could fight against the “owners.”

10. Reasons for Using Enslaved African Labor
Proximity
Experience
Immunity from diseases
Low escape possibilities
Proximity-It only took 2-6 weeks to get to the colonies from the Caribbean at first.
Experience-They had previous experience and knowledge working in sugar and rice production.
Immunity from diseases-Less likely to get sick due to prolonged contact over centuries.
Low escape possibilities-They did not know the land, had no allies, and were highly visible because of skin color.

11. Anthony Johnson
He was an African brought to the colonies in the 1620s.
He obtained his freedom, and purchased 250 acres of land in Virginia.
He owned at least one slave and white indentured servants.
This shows that blacks were not thought of strictly as slaves until the 1660s.
Chesapeake: At first indentured servants, then from s, black and white people worked in the tobacco fields together, lived together. Same with Native Indians.
As members of an oppressed working class, they were all unfree. A clear distinction had not yet been made between white freedom and black slavery.
Anthony Johnson:
Arrived in colony of Virginia in 1621
1625 census listed him as a servant
1651 he had 250 acres and servants
As the demand for labor to produce tobacco after 1660 exploded, so did the need for labor.

12. Summary