The Atlantic Slave Trade
I. Introduction
Slavery: is the ownership, buying & selling
of human beings for the purpose of forced &
unpaid labor
Slavery existed long before…
Maya & Aztecs (Meso-America)
Sumerians & Babylonians (Mid-East)
Egyptians
Greeks & Romans
Ottomans
African societies kept slaves for domestic
purposes (power/wealth)
• Europeans changed that
II. Why Africans?
600s: Islam spread into Af. (used slaves)
Euro. empires in Amers. needed a labor force
• Native Amers. unaccustomed to hard agrarian labor;
died of Euro. disease; escaped
W. Af. tribes had already begun to practice
slavery (POWs)
Why Africans?
1) proved resistant to Euro. disease
2) were familiar w/tropical climate & accustomed
to agriculture/pastoralism
3) less-likely to escape (not familiar
w/surroundings)
4) could not blend in w/others (skin color)
1518: Spain & Portugal started shipping slaves
across the Atlantic
• 1650: 300,000 slaves in Spanish Amer.
• Soon after, British, Dutch, & French
1600s: Brazil dominated Euro. sugar market
• >40% of Afs. brought to Amers. = Brazil
1690-1807: England dominated slave trade
III. The Triangular Trade
1450 – end of 19th Cent.: slaves were
obtained along W. coast of Africa
w/cooperation of W. African kings & merchants
• POWs from tribal wars were sold first, then raiding
parties began
African kings received Euro. manufactured
goods (textiles, brandy, horses, & GUNS)
• Guns = strengthened African kingdoms
• Euros. built forts along W. Af. coast to hold captured
slaves until slave ships arrived
• THIS EXPORT OF EURO. GOODS TO AF. WAS
THE FIRST LEG OF TRIANGULAR TRADE
A. The Middle Passage
The transport of slaves from W. Af. to
Amers. (2nd leg of Triangular Trade)
• Journey = >4,000 miles, 5 – 12 weeks
• Ships carried 250 – 600 slaves (overcrowded)
• Conditions were appalling
• Ships smelled of urine, faeces, & vomit
• Slaves = $$$$$$$
A ship’s surgeon
Causes of Death: dysentery, smallpox,
depression (suicide)
• 20% lost at sea
“It was not atypical to see a massive school of
sharks darting in & out of the wake of the ships
filled w/human cargo plying the Atlantic. For
miles they followed the battered & moldy
vessels, waiting to attack the disease-ravaged
black bodies that were periodically tossed into
the ocean. If the Atlantic were to dry up, it
would reveal a scattered pathway of human
bones, African bones marking the various
routes of the Middle Passage”
----Ship’s Surgeon
Third leg of Triangular Trade: the return to
Europe w/produce from the slave-labor
plantations (cotton, sugar, tobacco, rum, etc.)
12 million slaves left Africa while 10 million
made it to Amer.
IV. Consequences of the Atlantic
Slave Trade
1) Loss of the fittest members of Af. Societies
• Families torn apart
2) Introduction of guns to Af.
3) Economic contributions to other countries
4) Agricultural/pastoral expertise
5) Diffusion of African culture
6) Af.-Amer. pops
• Mulattos