1. Africa in the Age of the Atlantic Slave Trade
Mr. Somogye
AP World History

2. Overview Atlantic Slave Trade
Mid 15th – mid 19th cent. Aprox 11 million ppl from Africa to the Americas
Millions more died in the process
Vast Human Tragedy
Transformed societies of all participants
African Diaspora created racially mixed societies in the Americas
Slave trade and slavery enriched many
Metaphor for many types of social oppression

3. Volume of the Slave Trade
15th century minimal – to Atlantic island plantations
16th century – small
17th c. increase to 16,000 per year
18th c. most of trade, 7 million slaves, 80% of all trade over all years
19th c. slows down, under attack, still exports to Cuba & Brazil (1.7 million)

4. African Slave Trade

5. African Slave Trade

6. African Slavery Slavery was common in African society
Where?
The Kongo, Ghana, Benin, etc.
All land was owned by the state
Owning slaves was a way to gain wealth
Slaves were used for servants, concubines, and field workers
Arrival of Europeans provided new opportunities for expansion of slavery

7. Slavery & African Politics
Competition between rival kingdoms led to endless wars
Kingdoms trade slaves for guns
Wars led to political centralization
Slave trade shifts balance of power
From Sudanic Africa to the Gold Coast, the Kongo, and Angola

8. Slave trade Most human societies had slaves
Africans practiced slavery and sold slaves for centuries
Slavery took many forms
Slavery in Americas = very distinct
Scale and importance was enormous
Plantation agriculture, slave = no rights, inherited
Hypocrisy of societal ideals vs. practice of slavery
Slavery = blackness

9. American Sugar Plantation
Chattel Slavery, Seasoning of Slaves
Dehumanization, loss of identity
Sugar = hardest labor
Terror and fear to control enslaved peoples
to be black = to be a slave (1619)
many forms of resistance overt & covert

10. Why Africans? Origins of Atlantic slavery in Med. w/ sugar
Slavs no longer available
Indians died of European diseases
Indians still were enslaved, just didn’t last
Euro indentured servants = too expensive and too Christian
Africans
Were farmers, some immunity to Euro diseases
Not Christian, readily available
Historical dispute about racism, haha dispute
Racism had existed but also developed along w/ slavery

11. Middle Passage

12. Slavery In Practice Driven by European demand
Europeans rarely raided for slaves, rather they traded freely w/ Africans for slaves
Africans capture and sell 4 Euro goods (esp. silver)
Destabilized African Societies
Pace of slave trade inc. exponentially
The Enslaved
ppl from West Africa, marginal groups
Africans rarely sold own ppl
80% end up in Brazil and Caribbean

13. Elmina Castle

14. Consequences of Atlantic Slave Trade
Created new trans-regional linkages
Slowed Africa’s Growth
Europe and China expand
Africa population % drops
economic stagnation and political disruption (no production, no adv. In agriculture or industry)
Effects still felt today
tribal conflict, underdevelopment, political corrup.
Kingdoms disintegrated (Kongo, Oyo)
The Human Toll