Human Trade

• The Transatlantic Slave Trade lasted for approximately 400 years; the 16th to 19th centuries

• One particular group was singled out: Africans

• It was intellectualized by the creation of the false idea that Black inferiority justified slavery

• The Portuguese started the practice of enslaving Africans as early as 1481

  • They did not officially stop until 1869

• Dutch trading began in 1612 and ended in 1872

• The British entered the trade in 1640

  • The American colonies under British rule began in 1619

• Traders would initially capture young men from warring clans or those who were already enslaved from previous wars

  • A caboceer would keep watch over the captives for a few months as they were taken tot he caves, the baracoons

  • The captures were forced to live in these cave-like dwellings until the slave ships set sail on the Transatlantic Voyage

The Triangular Route

• Ships left Western Europe for the African coast

  • Goods were loaded to exchange for enslaved people

• Arriving in Africa, captains traded goods for the enslaved people

  • Weapons, gun power, textiles, pearls, and rum were highly sought after

  • Exchange could take weeks or a few months

• The ships, loaded with people in abhorrent conditions, crossed the Atlantic to America

  • The famous diagram depicting how closely enslaved people were kept was actually a mandate instructing better conditions for the slaves

  • This means the amount of space was even smaller when the trade began

• Slave traders brought agricultural products produced by enslaved people such as sugar, cotton, coffee, tobacco, and rice back to Europe for the process to begin again

• The Middle Passage was the most treacherous part of the voyage

  • It took about 2 months to get from Africa to the Americas

  • A fourth of the enslaved people were expected to die on the trip

The Tragic Total

• Rough estimates are 20 to 30 million people were forcibly taken from their homes and sold into slavery

• Approximately 12 million of those Africans were brought to the Americas

• Many would die during the voyage, chained to each other, surrounded by waste and bodies in low light with very little ventilation

The Journey

• Some would try to jump overboard to get back to their homeland

• The Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, British, and French had major trading companies in competition

Enslavement in the New World

• At the time the United States were formed, the Constitution made provisions to continue to engage in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade

  • There are three provisions for the continuation of the sale and labor of enslaved Africans

1. Slave Trade would continue for 20 years

2. Fugitive Slave Law

3. 3/5 Compromise

• By the 19th century, roughly 1/3 of the global Black population lived in the South

• Plantation owners usually had no more than 50 slaves

  • Around one fifth of the wealthiest owners would have more than 50 enslaved people

• Slave Codes, or Code Noir, were enacted to control the enslaved population

  • The codes included but were not limited to: Forbidding literacy, forbidding “legalized” marriages, restricting movement (as in migration)

Resistance and Rebellion

• Resistance took on various forms

  • Poisoning the master’s food

  • Feigning illness

  • Working slowly

  • Breaking tools

  • Stealing food from the master’s house

• Rebellions scared the white population

• Rebellion led to stringent laws and increased punishment

Summary

• Prior to the triangular trade, Africa had intra-continental slavery

  • It was never a benign institution

• Enslaved Africans were used in a wider variety of ways than in the New World where they were considered chattel

• Enslaved Africans Africans were used as agricultural workers, soldiers, servants, and, at times, officials of state

• The Angolan coast supplied nearly half of the enslaved people who were sent to the Americas

• The Atlantic Slave Trade carried about two or three men for every woman

• The Slave Trade reduced the adult male population by about 20%, dramatically altering the ratio of working adults to dependents and of adult men to adult women

• About 14% of enslaved people sent to the New World were children under 14, 56% were adult males, and 30% were adult women