1. Why was Africa referred to as a dark continent in the 18th century?
Africa in 1600s
Skilled craftsmen, diverse, civilised, wealthy, an organised society, religious diversity and tolerance
Why was Africa referred to as a dark continent in the 18th century?
In the 18th century many Europeans thought of Africa as the ‘dark continent’.
To them it was a mysterious place. Because they knew little about it, they often believed the strangest things.
Worse than that , many White people looked down on black people.
They believed that Africans were not as civilised as white people. They believed that White people were superior to Black people.
Experiences of the Middle passage
Estimated journey 8012 weeks
Approx. 1 in 4 did not survive the journey
Conditions poor and disease spread rapidly due to poor conditions
Diseased slaves would be thrown over board
Treated as ‘cargo’
Only brought above deck when land could no longer be seen
Kept below deck in chains
Slave auctions
Men, women and children were sold by auction at the public auction block to the highest bidder
Plantation experiences
Field Slave – hard labour outdoors – 18 hour days working on the fields
House Slave – worked indoors in the ‘big house’ cooking, cleaning etc.
Marriage and having children was encouraged. This was a way of controlling slaves as they were sacred that if they ran away their family would be punished.
Housing was very basic on the edge of the planation.
Food was very basic – just enough to get by.
transatlantic slave trade
took place between the 16th and 19th centuries.
Some 54,000 trade voyages were recorded.
This peaked in the 1780s at 78,000 slaves a year, with half of them being transported on British ships.
Knowledge Organiser: Black peoples of America: Why did it take so long to abolish slavery?
Slavery
A person who is owned by another person and has no personal freedoms
Abolish
To get rid of something, usually a law. Abolition of slavery meant the end of slavery
Slave trade triangle
The trade in slaves. Starting in Europe, money, guns and pots and pans were traded in Africa for slaves, who were then taken to work in America on the plantations and then the goods produced on the plantations e.g. sugar, rum, cotton, tobacco were taken by ship back to Europe.
Middle Passage
The sea voyage that was the second stage of the ‘triangular trade’ from Africa to America
Plantation
A plantation is a farm that grows only one crop – such as tobacco, sugar or cotton.
Resisting
fighting back/ opposing those in charge
Underground Railroad
The network of routes that helped slaves escape.
Conductors helped the slaves who were referred to as passengers to escape. Between 40,000 and 100,000 slaves managed to escape to the northern states of America or Canada using the Underground Railroad
Day to Day resistance
Passive non violent resistance e.g. working slowly, pretending to be mad, spitting in the masters food, burning crops, damaging equipment.
Jim Crow Laws
Slaves had been banned from reading and writing. Laws said they had to pass a test before they could vote. This stopped them voting. Blacks could not mix freely with whites
From 1896 it was legal to keep Black and White people separate.
Sharecroppers
Free slaves were promised a share of the profits if they stayed working on the plantation. They has houses, clothes and food but they were in debt to the farmer.
Ku Klux Klan
A group of southern white Americans who attacked black people who stood up for themselves, tried to vote or did well , burning their homes and lynching them.
Key events
1787
Abolition Society was formed
1807
Slavery is abolished in England
1831
Slavery is abolished in the British Empire
1865
Slavery is abolished in America
1909
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE (NAACP)
Key People
Thomas Clarkson
Thomas Clarkson devoted his life to trying to stop the slave trade in England.
He faced a real challenge as the slave trade had many supporters.
Solomon Northup
Northup was a black man who was born free in New York. He was kidnapped into slavery and kept for 12 years. His friends and family secured his release
Olaudah Equiano
A former Black African slave who lived in England and wrote a book as part of the campaign to abolish the slave trade.
He was a key figure in the anti-slavery campaign in England which first submitted evidence to the House of Commons in 1790
William Wilberforce
The main spokesman for the Abolition Society
Harriet Tubman
She was born a slave in 1820 in Maryland. She resisted slavery in every way she could.
In 1849 she ran away. The Underground Railroad helped her to reach Canada.
She became a conductor and made 19 journeys back to Maryland to help slaves escape. She led 300 people to safety.