Africa and the Atlantic
Slave Trade
Chapter 20
Atlantic Slave Trade - Portugal
Established forts
Dual trade
Africans acquired goods, slaves
Portuguese received ivory, pepper, animal skins, gold
Gold Coast – kingdom of Benin
Conversion to Christianity
1441 – first slaves brought to Portugal
Atlantic Slave Trade
1450-1850: 12 million Africans were taken across Atlantic
10-11 million actually made it
80% came over in later century
Brazil received 40%
U.S. was only area that had a positive growth rate
Saharan slave trade – women slaves
Atlantic slave trade – young men for hard labor
Triangular Trade
African Societies
Many forms of slavery existed in Africa
Nonegalitarian society
Land was controlled by the state
Atlantic trade opened new opportunities to slave-holding
societies
African Politics
Majority of west and central African states were unstable
European presence shifted power from Africa
Guns, horses, iron, cloth, tobacco – slave trade was
directed along the coast due to these European goods
Southern Africa – White Settlers
1652 Dutch East India Company established a colony at
the Cape of Good Hope
Cape Colony depended on slave labor
1800, Cape Colony had 17,000 Afrikaners
26,000 slaves
1815, Britain took over Dutch Company
Zulu Rise to Power
Nguni people had a new leader in 1818: Shaka
Military leadership
Shaka’s Zulu kingdom became center for political and
military organization
Shaka was assassinated in 1828, but his ideas lived on
Zulu power remained in black Africa until late 1800s
Slavery: Impact on Africans
Destruction of previous life in Africa
1/3 of slaves died on voyage over
Horrific conditions aboard slave ships
– Ex. Dutch slave ship, 700 of 716 Africans died aboard
Middle Passage
Africans were able to bring their culture, language, belief,
tradition, and memories with them
Shortage of female slaves
Religious conversion
Resistance was common in Latin America
African Slave Societies
Plantation labor
Slaveholder hierarchy:
– Free whites
– Free people of color
– Slaves
Creole and mulatto slaves were given more opportunities
Also more likely to win their freedom
Abolition of Slavery
Jean-Jacques Rousseau of France – philosopher
Adam Smith of England – political economist
William Wilberforce – abolitionist movement
British slave trade was abolished in 1807 to the Americas
1888, slavery was finally abolished in Brazil