1. The TransAtlantic Slave Trade

2. Introduction
The Atlantic Slave Trade was the most significant link Africa had to the larger Atlantic World in early modern times.

3. The Early Slave Trade Earliest European slave traders were Portuguese.
They learned that they could buy slaves instead of capturing them.
Increased the numbers of slaves they brought home.

5. The Early Slave Trade: Slavery Expands
Meanwhile, disease had reduced the native populations in Spanish territories.
Spanish looked for laborers for the Caribbean and the Americas.
In 1518, the first shipment of slaves went directly from west Africa to the Caribbean where the slaves worked on sugar plantations.

6. The Early Slave Trade: Slavery Expands Continued
By the 1520s, the Spanish had introduced slaves to Mexico, Peru, and Central America where they worked as cultivators and miners
By the early 17th Century, the British had introduced slaves to North America

7. Europeans
By the 15th and 16thc when the Europeans ventured to Africa, the slave trade was well-established.
European influence caused it to expand dramatically.
African peoples received European goods for slaves.
Firearms were the most common.

8. Europeans: Triangular Trade
European goods (cloth ,metal wares, and firearms) went to Africa and were exchanged for slaves.
Slaves were then shipped to the Caribbean and Americas where they were sold for cash or sometimes bartered for sugar or molasses.
Then the ships returned to Europe loaded with American products.

9. Triangular Trade Route

10. Slaves: Capture Violent. Neighborhoods raided.
Wars started to capture slaves.

12. Slaves: Capture Force-marched to holding pens then loaded on ships
The trans-Atlantic journey was called “Middle Passage”
Ships filthy, hot, & crowded

13. The Middle Passage

14. Slaves: The Middle Passage
Slaves had enough room to sit upright, not enough to stand
Some forced slaves to lie in chains with only 20” b/w them

15. Slaves: The Middle Passage Continued
Men = right; women = left; children = middle.
Slaves jammed onto platforms 6’ wide w/out enough room to sit up.

18. Slaves: The Middle Passage Continued
Crews tried to keep slaves alive for profit, but treatment was very cruel
Some slaves refused to eat; crew used tools to pry mouths open to force-feed them

19. Slaves: Dancing
Slaves forced to “Dance” daily for exercise - hop in place in shackles/swing their arms.
Whips/cat-o’-nine-tails to force slaves to exercise.

21. Slaves: The Middle Passage Continued
Slaves thrown overboard when supplies ran low, disease/sickness/unhealthy or left behind at the port.

24. Auctions: Arrival When ship docked, slaves placed in pens.
Slaves washed, covered w/ grease or tar to look healthy.
Branded w/ hot iron to identify them.

25. Auctions Slaves sold at auctions Buyers physically inspected slaves
Auctioneers had slaves demonstrate their physical abilities

26. Auctions

27. Auctions
“We didn’t spend many days in the merchant’s custody before we were sold. When the drum started to beat, buyers rushed at once into the yeard where slaves were confined and made a choice of which “property” they wanted to purchase. The noise and eagerness visible in the faces of the buyers was frightening to the terrified Africans. In this way, without a second thought, family and friends were separated, most of them never to see each other again. I remember in the boat in which I was brought over... there were several brothers who were sold to different buyers. It was very emotional to see and hear their cries as they were separated. Mothers torn from their children, men from their wives.”
Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano

28. Plantations
Most African slaves went to the Caribbean or South America.
Plantations produced crops like sugar, tobacco, indigo, and cotton.
Crops were exported for profit.

29. Between 1501 and the 1860s, at least twelve million African men, women, and children were transported in the transatlantic slave trade. Among them were farmers, fishermen, cattle herders, craftspeople, scholars, slaves, musicians, as well as political and religious leaders and tribal kings and queens.

30. Plantations: North America
North America living conditions were not good.
Plantation owners imported large numbers of female slaves and encouraged their slaves to form families and bear children

32. Plantations: Forms of Resistance
Work slowly
Sabotage
Runaway
Revolt

33. Impact of Slave Trade in Africa
Abolishing the slave trade did not end slavery
British ships patrolled the west coast of Africa to halt illegal trade
The last documented ship that carried slaves across the Atlantic arrived in Cuba in 1867

34. Impact of Slave Trade in Africa
Some states like Rwanda largely escaped the slave trade through resistance and geography
Some like Senegal in west Africa were hit very hard
Other societies benefited economically from selling slaves, trading, or operating ports

35. Impact of Slave Trade in Africa
As abolition took root in the 19th Century some African merchants even complained about the loss of their livelihood
On the whole, however, the slave trade devastated Africa

36. Impact of Slave Trade in Africa
It deprived Africa of a huge part of their population.
It distorted African gender ratios because ~ 2/3 of slaves were male.
The introduction of firearms increased the level of violence.

37. Cultural Diffusion
How did The Transatlantic Slave Trade increase cultural diffusion in Africa and the United States?

38. Amistad

39. RETEACHING SECTION

40. Slave Trade - Definition
Collecting, transporting, & selling of human beings as slaves, in particular the former trade in African blacks as slaves by European countries & North America.

41. Picture/Diagram-Triangular Slave Trade
North America
Europe
Africa
South America

42. Impact on Africa
It deprived Africa of a huge part of their population.
It distorted African gender ratios because ~ 2/3 of slaves were male.
The introduction of firearms increased the level of violence.

43. Process: From Africa to Ending Country
This is an essay and should be written in paragraph form. Think about the following questions as you write your essay.
How were they captured?
What was the middle passage on the ships like?
What happened when they arrived off the ships?
What happened at the plantations?