1. Chapter 4 section 3 Old institution Why Africans? Triangular trade
Middle passage
Slave auctions 1

2. Spaniards brought Africans to the Americas
Europeans forced Native Americans to work as slaves
As natives escaped or died, the Spaniards looked to Africa as a labor source
Most Africans were from the west coast of Africa
Slaves were taken first to the Caribbean and South America
Eventually slavery was brought to North America
Tally sheet from an actual cargo of slaves 2

3. Map of the region in Africa where most people were taken from

4. 4

5. Slavery was an old institution
Practiced for many centuries in most societies throughout the world
Generally slaves were…
war prisoners or non-believers of the religion who conquered them
Slavery in the Americas differed in that earlier forms of slavery did not involve multiple generations, denying education, and did not degrade slaves to sub-human status. It also had not been primarily race-based 5

6. Reliance on slave labor
Attempts to enslave Native Americans failed for both Spanish and British
Indentured servants were cheaper, but not cost effective in the long run
Slaves more expensive initially, but because they were not paid or granted freedom it was more cost effective over time
Many saw Africans’ black skin as a sign of inferiority
As the southern colonies developed, it became obvious that a limited population would not provide free labor needed for shops and factories, similar to what had been developed in the New England and Middle colonies. The Southern colonies, with limited male population and very few cities and factories, lent themselves to reliance of slave labor over free labor and indentured servitude.
While slaves were more costly in the short term, they tended to have more economic benefit in the long run. While an indentured servant would eventually be able to earn their freedom, a slave was a slave for the rest of their lives. In addition, any children that slave would bear would also be subject to a life of servitude. 6

7. Why enslave Africans?
Difficult, if not impossible, to enslave Native Americans
Whites tended to feel culturally superior to Africans
Distance of Africa to “New World” tended to make Africans feel disconnected and made it more difficult for them to try to get home. Also they were unfamiliar with the terrain if they did escape
Whites, as Christians, felt an “obligation” to convert blacks to Christianity from their Muslim faith
Many whites sought to justify the enslavement of Africans. While some whites attempted to enslave Native Americans, this tended to be extremely difficult to do because Native Americans could more easily escape because they knew the countryside. This made African enslavement more attractive, since they would not know the territory as Native Americans would. In addition, whites could easily rationalize slavery because they felt culturally superior to black Africans. In their view, their language, music, government, and so on was more advanced than those in Africa, and therefore enslavement seemed more acceptable, to the point that many whites believed that Africans were not human, but were simply human-like creatures.
As Christians, many whites also felt that Muslims were inferior, and frequently endangered of not reaching salvation unless they would be converted. In the minds of some whites, the only effective way to convert these “heathens” was to enslave them. 7

8. Triangular trade
Black slaves were brought to the colonies via the “triangular trade route”.
In its simplest form, triangular trade worked in this way: rum and sugar, as well as molasses, would be sent to Great Britain from the colonies, specifically the West Indies. From that point, raw materials would be made into finished goods, and would then be sent to Africa, where they would be traded for slaves. Frequently an African tribe might defeat another tribe in battle, and sell prisoners of war as slaves. In other instances, a tribal chieftain might sell some of his own people into slavery for goods. Once the slaves were “collected”, they would be sent across the Atlantic in what was called the “Middle Passage”. Estimates note that more than 20% of prospective slaves died of various causes en route to the New World.
Once the slaves made it to the West Indies, they were unloaded and trained to be house servants or field hands in what was known as the “seasoning process”. The slave ships, empty of their human cargo, would then pick up sugarcane and molasses, which would be made into rum, and the triangular trade would be conducted again. 8

9. Slave ship
This diagram shows the typical layout of how slaves were packed in the hold of a slaving vessel.
Comfort and safety took a distant second to ensuring that a sufficient number of slaves would survive the voyage, providing the slavers a profit for their work.
Slaves were transported via ship for the long voyage from Africa to the New World. Slavers frequently chose to “tight-pack” their slave ships, often “layering” their cargo one over the other in a “spoon-style” fashion. As the voyage continued, and slaves were allowed to be brought on deck for short periods of time, some would jump overboard to drown or be eaten by sharks rather than suffer any further in the horrible conditions “tween decks”. More than 20% of the slaves captured in Africa died from disease, maltreatment, or injury as the ships made their way across the Atlantic. 9

10. Brutal conditions in the Middle Passage
This drawing of slaves on deck of a slave ship hides the unbelievably harsh conditions that the slaves endured during the Middle Passage between Africa and the Caribbean.
Slaves were frequently brutalized, mistreated and forced to live for weeks on end in individual spaces no larger than a grave with little food and water.
The toll of these conditions was horrendous. A voyage which resulted in less than one-quarter of the cargo dying was considered successful.
Slaves en route in the Middle Passage would generally be fed only two meals per day, and the type of food that they would receive would generally depend on the supplies that slavers were able to forage from the region the slaves were captured in. Water rations usually averaged about a half pint per day.
Slaves were infrequently brought on deck and “danced” for exercise. They were forced to jump up and down to the beat of a kettle drum, sometimes until the shackles on their legs caused the skin to chafe and they would actually bleed. On some ships, crew members would clean the slave decks with hot vinegar to eliminate the smell of human waste and vomit, but frequently, they would simply let the stench grow until they arrived at port. In some instances, ports would not allow slave ships to dock due to the smell and possibility of spread of disease, such as smallpox, which could easily kill most of a slave ship’s cargo and crew.
In some instances, ophthalmia, a highly contagious disease which quickly caused blindness, would sweep through a ship. 10

11. Slave Auctions
Slaves were better fed as they approached the New World in order to make them more “saleable”
Their bodies were oiled down to make their skin look more healthy, and hot tar would be used to fill “imperfections”, such as scars from beatings and whippings on board slave ships
Slaves would then be sold to the highest bidder 11