1 What word comes to mind 2 How

1. What word comes to mind? 2. How accurate is this?

The Slave Trade

Exploration • Reasons – Sea route around Africa to India – Hoped to find Kingdoms of West Africa, who had large resources of gold • Who? – Prince Henry of Portugal(early 1440 s) – Bartholomeu Dias (1488) sailed around the southern tip of Africa – Vasco da Gama (1498) followed Dias’ route and reached India by sea

Trade in Human Beings • Why did demand increase? – Large labor force needed to make American colonies profitable – Native Americans died too quickly, Africans were believed to be better able to survive

Trade in Human Beings, cont • History – Existed since ancient times – Originally slaves were captives of war, sometimes people sold themselves into slavery during times of famine – Slaves considered part of community, often rose to positions of power, condition was not considered hereditary

Atlantic Slave Trade

Trade in Human Beings, cont • Atlantic Slave Trade – Slaves were packed into airless holds of slave ships – many did not survive the “middle passage” – Loose Pack/Tight Pack – Between 1500 and 1600, nearly 300, 000 Africans were transported to the Americas, the next century the number rose to almost 1. 5 million

Layout for packing of slaves in cargo area

Trade in Human Beings, cont – By the end in 1870, 9. 5 million Africans had been imported to the Americas. – Majority sent to work on plantations in the Caribbean, much smaller number sent to British colonies – Many African rulers/merchants willingly caught and sold Africans to Westerners • had been selling Africans to Muslims and other African rulers for years – Portugal and Great Britain were active participants in the slave trade

Trade in Human Beings, cont • GUNS change everything! – Europeans traded guns & manufactured goods for slaves – Africans used guns to get more slaves

Ending the Slave Trade • Supporters – Abolitionists (movement to end slavery) • Quakers, Olaudah • Equiano, Frederick Douglass King Affonso – Christian African ruler of Congo, who had once traded slaves, but decided it harmed his nation

Ending the Slave Trade, cont • Reasons – Humanitarian – Moral/Ethical – Enlightenment

Effects • Society Disrupted – Encouraged wars – Increased tensions between neighboring peoples • Economy Suffered – raiders seized healthy young men and women • no one left to farm & tend land • East Africa – Africans shipped to Middle East, Asia, North Africa

Effects • Diaspora – African people scattered across globe – Spread African ideas, customs, beliefs, musical traditions, proverbs, foods, art to other regions of the world • Legacy – Sierra Leone & Liberia – Sierra Leone British set up West African colony for freed slaves in 1787 – Liberia US set up colony for freed slaves, independent in 1847