Africa+and+the+Africans+in+the+Age+of+the+Atlantic+Slave+Trade

Africa and the Africans in the Age of the Atlantic Slave Trade

435 - 440 Notes The Atlantic Slave Trade Main Idea: Portuguese had many factories along the African coast, for imports and exports, however, slaves became the main item for trade. Details: - Along the African coast, the Portuguese established several **factories** (forts and trading posting with resident merchants), the most important factory was the **El Mina**, established in 1482, was located in the heart of the gold-producing region of the forest zone. - Trade was the basis of Portuguese relations with the Africans, but social, religious, and political relations soon followed. - Portuguese attempted to send missionaries down into Africa to convert to Christianity, they found success in Kongo when the ruler, **Nzinga Mvemba**, brought the whole kingdom to Christianity. - Portuguese settled in **Luanda** on the coast of Africa in the 1570s, this became the basis for the Portuguese colony of Angola. - Portuguese had a lot of access to the gold trade. - Slave trade! Slaves were being sent back to Portugal for work, in place of serfdom. - Increase of sugar plantations, used the work of the slaves. - By 1600, the slave trade predominated over all other kinds of trade on the African coast. Trend Toward Expansion Main Idea: Slaves were in high demand in the Americas. Most of the slaves captured in Africa, were sent to the Americas. Details: - There were over 12 million slaves shipped over to the Americas, but only 10 million actually made it, conditions on ships were terrible. - High demand for slaves in mainly the Caribbean and Latin America, because mortality was high and fertility was low due to the fact that more men were shipped over than women. - By 1860, almost 6 million slaves worked in the Americas. Demographic Patterns Main Idea: Most of the men in Africa were sent to the Americas as a work force, because of the heavy labor needed. Details: - The trans-Saharan slave trade consisted mainly of women, who were used as concubines and domestic servants in north Africa and the Middle East. But the Atlantic Slave trade was concentrated on men. Kept women and children back to extend existing king groups. - Population increase when slaves reached the Americas. - New crops were introduced to Africa, such as maize and manioc, providing new food resources for the population. Organization of the Trade Main Idea: Slavery became to be one of the major aspects of the American economies. Details: - The first to control the African slave trade were the Portuguese, but they were soon overturned by the Dutch who seized El Mina in 1637. The **Royal African Company** was chartered for that purpose. The Royal African Company established a monopoly over the slave trade among British merchants. - Many of the people who worked for the Royal African Company died from the diseases that were exposed. - The Spanish developed a complicated system in which a healthy man was called an **Indies piece**, and children and women were priced at fractions of that value. - During some periods, **the triangular trade**, in which slaves were carried to the Americas; sugar, tobacco, and other goods were then carried to Europe.

440 - 448 Notes African Societies, Slavery, and the Slave Trade Main Idea: Before the Portuguese reached the African coast, slavery was already evident in African societies, rulers used them as servants, concubines, soldiers, administrators, and field workers. Details: - Slaves were used as servants, concubines, soldiers, administrators, and field workers. - Slavery was already present in the African society before Europeans reached the coast. They lived under harsh conditions, and almost always viewed as inferior. - Many Sudanic states enslaved captured Muslims. - African kings did not enslave their own people, unless their people were criminals, but instead they enslaved their neighbors. Slaving and African Politics Main Idea: The European presence in Africa led to an increase in foreign trade, but took charge when African states became a threat; it also gave the Europeans the opportunity to capture slaves from the central states of Africa. Details: - Many African states were small and fragmented, inevitably leading to instability, due to frequent wars driven by competition amongst states. The recurring wars promoted the importance of military. - The presence of the Europeans in the African coast led to closer contacts with trading industries; when they received too much power, the Europeans established forts to prevent centralization. - The West and central states had access to European goods, such as firearms, iron, horses, cloth, tobacco, and other goods; then redirected their trade towards the coast. Asante and Dahomey Main Idea: In African states Asante and Dahomey, slave trade was a vital piece to their economy. Asante's slave trade made up 2/3 of their economy while Dahomey's slave trade was center of theirs. Details: - The **Asante** state- members of the Akan clan - was ruled by **asantehene** (similar to emperor) **Osei Tutu** became to conquer surrounding areas.The Dutch took action in 1700. - Slaves made almost 2/3 of Asante's trade.Gold making up the rest. - The kingdom of Benin was at the height of its power when the Europeans arrived. Due to the power of the oba, slave trade was limited. - Once the kingdom of Dahomey had access to firearms, it enabled rulers to create a brutal political regimes based on the slave trade. - Ruling in Africa was similar to the ruling in Europe - Crafts such as bronze casting, woodcarving, and weaving flourished. - Europeans came to enjoy African arts. East Africa and Sudan Main Idea: While slavery was taking over much of their economic system, Islamization played an extensive role on their religious beliefs, trying to convert the people of Africa to Islam. Details: - The Swahili trading cities were constantly exporting ivory, gold, and an abundance of slaves. - Swahili, Indian, and Arabian merchants followed the European model and set up clove-producing plantations using African slave laborers. - Zanzibar had a slave population of about 100,000 slaves, all of which were African. - The Luo peoples, contributed to the development of related dynasties among the states in the are of the large lakes of east central Africa. - The process of Islamization led to a new and violent stage that not only linked it to the external slave trade and the growth of slavery but also produced long-term effects. - The Muslim reform had a great impact on the **Fulani** ( a postoral people who were spread across a broad area of western Sudan). - Literacy became more widely dispersed. - In the western and central part of Sudan, slave labor rose, especially along trade routes. They developed peanuts. White Settlers and Africans in Southern Africa Main Idea: Before the arrival of the Dutch East India Company, the Bantu-speaking peoples occupied much of southern Africa. Along with the Boers came a great dependence on the slave trade, but were soon seized by the British in 1815. Details: - The southern end of the continent was little affected by the slave trade. - The Bantu-speaking peoples took up much of Southern Africa, they practiced mainly agriculture and herding; worked iron and copper into tools, weapons, and adornments; and traded with their neighbors. - Cheifs held power with the support of relatives and with the acceptance of people. Their were lots of pressures from competition. - In 1652, the Dutch East India Company established a colony at the Cape of Good Hope for ships sailing to Asia. The colony depended on slave labor brought from Indonesia and Asia, but soon turned to the locals. - As Boers were pushing northward, the southern Bantu were extending their movement to the south. - British seized control of the Cape Colony in 1815. - Voortrekkers (English-speaking immigrants), created a numerous amount of Boer states. They staged their Great Trek far to the north to be free of government interference. The Mfecane and the Zulu Rise to Power Main Idea: The Zulu focused on strictly military power after power fell into the hands of military tactician Shaka. He led his warriors into the mfecane. Details: - A unification process had begun in some of the northern chiefdoms, and a new military organization had emerged. In 1818, Shaka reformed the loose forces into regiments organized by lineage and age. - This new military organization began to destroy his neighbors. His cruel behavior led to enemies within his own people. - The rise of the Zulu and other Nguni chiefdoms was the beginning of the **mfecane**, or wars of crushing and wandering. - **Swazi** adapted aspects of the Zulu model. - However, **Lesotho** resisted the Zulu example. - The Zulu power was crushed in the 1870s by Great Britain.

448 - 454 Notes The African Diaspora Main Idea: The slave trade linked Africa to the world economy.. Details: - The slave trade was responsible for getting Africa involved in the world economy. - African communities received European firearms, Indian textiles, Indonesian cowrie shells, and American tobacco in exchange or ivory, gold, and especially slaves. - Slave prices rose in the 18th century, benefiting Africa. - Several ports that sold slaves and other goods, located at Whydah, Porto Novo, and Luanda. Slave Lives Main Idea: As slaves were taken on a journey to the Americas (the Middle Passage), the horrific conditions caused a spike in the mortality rate of slaves. Details: - Conditions for slaves were horrific, mortality was extremely low. - Cargo sizes could go as high as 700 slaves. - The average mortality rate was 18%. until the 18th century, when it went down slightly. - The **Middle Passage** was the journey the slaves took to the Americas. The conditions were deadly, due to many factors of poor hygiene, dysentery, disease, and bad treatment. - Slaves were not striped of their culture. Africans in the Americas Main Idea: As many slaves were forced into farming on the sugar plantations, some slaves took on other occupations. There wasn't a job that the slaves did not perform. Details: - When slaves reached the Americas, they were mainly brought to plantations. - African slaves replaced indentured English servants and Indians. - They were used for their specialized task of sugar making. - The plantation became the central focus of African and American life. - Slaves were not just farmers, but they were also working as artisans, street vendors, and household servants. American Slave Societies Main Idea: As more and more Africans were being imported to the Americas, they started to dominated the populations, at times outnumbering the Europeans who ruled them. Details: - There were two different types of African slaves, which were, **saltwater slaves** (who were almost invariably black) and **Creole slaves** (American born descendants). - There was a hierarchy in the American society, free whites were at the top, free people of color in the middle, and slaves at the bottom. - There was a large amount of mulattos, due to sexual exploitation of slave women. - Slaves made up the majority of the population in the Americas, at times 80% of the populations in major countries were African. - By 1850, fewer than 1 percent of slaves there were African born in North America. The People and Gods in Exile Main Idea: African religion was one of the few continuities the slaves could hold onto from their origins, but they were sometimes combined with that off Christianity, forming new ones. Also slave rebellion was recurring. Details: - There were more male slaves than female ones. - Many slaves were converted to Catholicism by the Portuguese and the Spaniards. - In North America, they were mainly Protestant. - **Obeah** was the name give to African practices in the English islands. - In the practices of Brazilian **candomble** (Yoruba) and Haitian **vodun** (Aja), fully developed versions of African religions flourished and continue today. - Tried fuse their old traditional African beliefs with that of Christianity. - Many slaves attempted to runaway, those who were successful developed communities in Jamaica, Columbia, Venezuela, Haiti, and Brazil. - One slave kingdom, **Palmares**, resisted Portuguese and Dutch attempts to destroy it. - Slave rebellions were common in the Caribbean and Brazil in the 18th century. - A former Dutch plantation colony, Suriname, had one of the most remarkable story of African American resistance. The runaway slaves mounted an almost perpetual war in the rain forest against the various expeditions sent to hunt them down. There a still about 50,000 descendants still living in Suriname and French Giana. The End of the Slave Trade and the Abolition of Slavery Main Idea: By the middle of the 18th century, opposition towards slavery began, it wasn't until 1888, till it was finally abolished in the Americas. Details: - The end to the slave trade and the abolition of slavery was a combination of the Enlightenment, the age of revolution, Christian revivalism, and maybe even the Industrial Revolution. - Opponents of slavery appeared in the mid-18th century. - Under the leadership of religious humanitarians, such as John Wesley and Wiliam Wilberforce, an abolition movement gained strength against the merchants the the West Indies interests. - The British slave trade was abolished 1807. - The full end of slavery was in 1888, when it abolished in Brazil.