1. Africa and the Atlantic World
Chapter 25 .

2. African States,

3. The States of West Africa and East Africa
Developed over the eighth to the sixteenth centuries
Kingdom of Ghana (9th century to 13th century)
Not related to modern state of Ghana (further north and in the interior, not on the coast)
Tran-Saharan gold and salt trading
nation was source of wealth; used camels
Accounts of Arabic-speaking traders
describe the kingdom
Becomes fully Muslim by 1100s;
declines and become incorporated into
the Mali Empire
Kingdom of Ghana

4. The States of West Africa and East Africa
Mali Empire (13th-16th century)
Grew along the Niger River Valley
Traded gold, salt, copper, and slaves
Military power was based on
semi-professional army; relied on
archers, some with poisoned arrows
Muslim religion mixed with traditional ancestor worship
Songhay Empire ( )
Expands in the early 1500s as Mali Empire declines; trading city of Gao is its capital
Sunni Ali (r ) created effective army and navy that patrolled the Niger River; brought other cities like Timbuktu under control
All emperors are Muslim and even create an Islamic university at Timbuktu
Musket-bearing Moroccan army destroys Songhay forces in 1591; a series of regional city-states exert local control in the void left by Songhay decline

5. Swahili Decline in East Africa
Portuguese Vasco da Gama
skirmishes with Africans on
eastern coast, , on his
way to India.
Portuguese fleet returns in 1502,
and forces Swahili city-state of
Kilwa to pay tribute
By 1505, Portuguese gunships
dominate the black Muslim,
Swahili-speaking ports of the East African coast.
Portuguese image of Kilwa made some time before 1572

6. Swahili Decline in East Africa
East African Cities of the 1500s

7. The Kingdom of Kongo Relations with Portuguese beginning 1483
King Nzinga Mbemba (Afonso I, r ) converts to Roman Catholicism
Useful connection with Portuguese interests
Viewed Christianity as supporting royal rule
Christian saints align with many traditional Kongolese spirits
A zealous convert, Afonso attempted to convert population at large

8. The King of Kongo and European Ambassadors

9. Slave Raiding in Kongo Initial Portuguese attempts at slave raiding
Soon discovered it is easier to trade weapons for slaves provided by African traders
Dealt with several authorities besides Kongo
Kongo kings appeal without success to slow, but not eliminate, slave trade (especially in regard to the enslavement of nobles of his family)
Relations deteriorate, Portuguese attack Kongo and decapitate king in 1665
Improved slave market develops in the south

10. The Kingdom of Ndongo (Angola)
Ndongo gains wealth and independence from Kongo by means of Portuguese slave trade
But Portuguese influence resisted by Queen Nzinga (r )
Posed as male king, with male concubines in female dress attending her
Nzinga establishes temporary alliance with Dutch in unsuccessful attempt to expel Portuguese
Decline of Ndongo power after her death
Ndongo becomes the Portuguese colony of Angola (they do not withdraw until 1975)

11. The Kingdom of Ndongo (Angola)
Queen Nzinga Meeting with Europeans in 1657

12. Regional Kingdoms in South Africa
Chieftains in South develop trade with Swahili city-states of the east coast
Great Zimbabwe: Great walled city-state that dominated gold-producing area of the modern-day state Zimbabwe from roughly 1100 to 1400.
Dutch build Cape Town in 1652, and become increasingly involvement with southern African politics
Encounter Khoikhoi people (often called “Hottentots” by Europeans)
British colonies also develop and eventually compete with Dutch settlments

13. Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa
Pre-Islamic paganism involved animism and ancestor worship
Islam develops in commercial centers
Timbuktu becomes major center of Islamic scholarship by sixteenth century
African traditions and beliefs blended into Islam
Islam often changed gender relations and standards of female modesty

14. The Fulani
Began as a nomadic pastoral people of West Africa who had moved into cities by the 1600s
Started a movement to impose strict adherence to Islamic norms
Around 1680, the Fulani begin military campaigns to enforce sharia in West Africa
Their influence extended to south as well

15. Christianity in Sub-Saharan Africa
Like African Islam, Christian practice was syncretic with African beliefs
The Antonian movement flourished in the early eighteenth century
Founded by Dona Beatriz, a charismatic Kongolese noblewoman, who claimed she was possessed by the spirit of St. Anthony of Padua (13th-century Franciscan monk and patron saint of Portugal)
She promotes distinctly African Christianity
Jesus was a black man
Kongo was the holy land
Heaven was for Africans
Christian missionaries persuade King Pedro IV of Kongo to burn Dona Beatriz at the stake

16. Social Change in Early Modern Africa
Trade with Europeans brings new goods to Africa
New crops from Americas
South American manioc (cassava) becomes the staple bread flour (must be boiled; raw cassava has considerable amount of cyanide)
New World crops peanuts and maize become important supplements to Sub-Saharan crops of bananas, yams, rice, and millet
Increased food supply boosts overall population growth despite heavy losses via the slave trade

17. Population Growth in Africa

18. Foundations of the Slave Trade
Slavery in Sub-Saharan Africa dates to antiquity, well before Europeans arrive
War captives, criminals, debtors, and people expelled from clans were made into slaves
Distinct from Asian and European slavery
No private property, therefore wealth defined by human labor potential, not land: status in kinship network
Slaves often assimilated into owner’s clan, especially a woman who gave birth to a child for the family

19. The Islamic Slave Trade
After eighth century, Muslim traders created a much bigger demand for slaves, bringing them back to the Middle East and Mediterranean for sale
African peoples acquired slaves by raiding villages, and then selling them to Arab traders on Swahili coast or at trans-Saharan trading depots
Arab traders depend on African infrastructure to maintain supply
European demand on west coast caused demand to rise to even greater heights

20. The Early Slave Trade
Portuguese raid west African coast in 1441, take twelve men and meet with stiff resistance.
Discover it is less risky to buy slaves from African dealers rather than take them by force.
1460: By this time Portuguese traders bought 500 slaves per year and sold them to work as miners, porters, domestic servants in Spain and Portugal
1520: 2,000 per year to work in sugarcane plantations in the Americas

21. Slaves at Work in a New World Mine

22. The Triangular Trade
1) European manufactured goods (especially firearms) sent to Africa
2) African slaves purchased and sent to Americas
3) Cash crops purchased in Americas and returned to Europe
Each leg of this voyage was not usually carried out by the same ship. For example, by the late 1700s, slave ships were specialized to carry only human cargo.

23. The Atlantic Slave Trade, 1500-1800

24. The Middle Passage (Africa to Americas)
African captors force-marched slaves from the interior to holding pens at coast
Nineteenth-century drawing of enslaved African war captives being marched

25. The Middle Passage (Africa to Americas)
Spanish first bring slaves directly from Africa to Caribbean in 1518 (some may have arrived via Portuguese as early as 1501)
Portuguese brought slaves directly from Kongo and Angola to Brazil by the 1530s
Middle passage under horrific conditions:
4-6 weeks (shortest passage was to Brazil)
Cramped quarters; high rates of disease; extreme temperatures and dampness in ships’ holds; adult males were put in chains; horrible smell
Mortality initially high, often over 50% in the 1500s and 1600s, eventually declined to 5% by late 1700s

26. The Middle Passage (Africa to Americas)
Total slave traffic, 1500s to 1800s: twelve million
Approximately four million die before arrival
Competition between European slave-trading nations:
1500s: Trade dominated by Portuguese
1600s: Competition between Portugal, Spain, England France, Netherlands
1650: Netherlands briefly becomes dominant slave trading nation
1700s: Trade dominated by the British (Liverpool, Bristol, and London merchants)

27. Average Yearly Volume of African Slave Exports by Century

28. Impact on African Regions
Rwanda and Bugunda of the Great Lakes region and the Masai and Turkana herding peoples of the eastern plains escape the effects of the slave trade being far from the west coast slave ports
Some societies benefited economically from slave trade: Asante, Dahomey, and Oyo peoples
These slave trading states became despised by neighboring peoples

29. Social Effects of Slave Trade
Total African population expands due to importation of American crops
Yet millions of captured Africans removed from society, deplete regional populations
Distorted sex ratios result
Two-thirds of slaves were male, years of age
Less males encouraged polygamy and women acting in traditionally male roles

30. Political Effects of Slave Trade
Introduction of firearms increases violence in pre-existing conflicts
More weapons, more slaves; more slaves, more weapons
Dahomey people create an entire army dedicated to slave trade

31. African Slaves in Plantation Societies
Most slaves brought to tropical and subtropical regions
First plantation established in Hispaniola (Haiti and Dominican Republic) in 1516
Later Mexico, Brazil, Caribbean, and Americas
Sugar was the first major cash crop
Later: tobacco, rice, indigo, cotton, coffee
Plantations heavily dependent on slave labor
Racial division of labor

32. Destinations of African Slaves from the 1500s to the 1800s

33. Regional Differences
Caribbean, South America: African population unable to maintain numbers through natural means
Malaria, yellow fever
Brutal working conditions, sanitation, nutrition
Gender imbalance; tiny number of female slaves
Constant importation of slaves
North America: less disease, more balanced sex ratio
Slave families encouraged as prices for slaves rise in eighteenth century

34. Resistance to Slavery Working slowly for masters
Sabotaging plantation equipment (plows or sugar refining equipment)
Flight to maroon settlements in mountains, swamps, or jungles outside of the reach of colonial authority
New World Slave Revolts (not a complete list!)
Danish West Indies in 1733
Stono Rebellion in South Carolina in 1739
Tacky’s War in Jamaica in 1760
Dutch Guyana in 1763
St. Domingue in 1791 (Haiti founded in 1804)
Gabriel Prosser’s Revolt in Virginia in 1800
Denmark Vesey’s Revolt in South Carolina in 1822
Nat Turner’s Revolt in Virginia in 1831
Multiple revolts in Cuba across the 1800s

35. Slave Revolts Only one successful revolt
French-controlled Saint-Domingue ( )
Renamed Haiti
Elsewhere, revolts outgunned by Euro-American firepower
Vicious suppression of revolts, especially in places like the Caribbean where slaves greatly outnumbered whites

36. African-American Culture
Diversity of African cultures concentrated in slave population; slaves in the same ship often could not even speak to each other. No sense of “African” identity before arrival in the Americas.
African American culture blends many different African cultures
Creole Languages: Gullah (coastal South Carolina) and Geechee (coastal Georgia). African-based languages survived to a greater degree in places that had high slave concentrations and minimal contact with Europeans; otherwise slaves adapted European language adapted with African influences.
Religion: Christianity adapted to incorporate African traditions; religions like Voudou in Haiti, Santeria in Cuba, and Candomblé in Brazil blend Christianity and African beliefs
Music: Much of American popular music blends African rhythms with Anglo-Irish melodies: spirituals, blues, jazz, soul, hip hop, rock, etc.
Foodways: Southern cooking and New Orleans cuisine especially blends African traditions and ingredients with European ones, as in gumbo.

37. The Abolition of Slavery
Olaudah Equiano ( ), former
slave author’s best-selling autobiography
Humanized the trauma caused by slavery
Some evidence he was born in South
Carolina rather than Benin
Economic costs of slavery increase
Military expenses to prevent rebellions
Late Eighteenth Century: Price of sugar
falls while the price of slaves rise.
Wage labor becomes perceived as
more efficient
Wage-earners can spend income on
manufactured goods, while slaves
cannot

38. End of the Slave Trade Abolition of Atlantic Slave Trade
1803 – Denmark
1807 – Great Britain
1808 – United States (20 year period mandated by Constitution expires; internal domestic trade between states still allowed)
1814 – France
1817 – Netherlands
Spain
Possession of slaves remains legal
Clandestine trade continues to 1867 (some New York City merchants were involved with the trade, even during the Civil War)

39. Toward Emancipation Abolition of Slavery
1833 – British Colonies (owners are compensated by the government)
1848 – French and Danish Colonies (compensated)
1863 – Netherlands (compensated)
1865 – United States (with a bloody civil war; no compensation)
1886 – Cuba (a law in 1880 made slaves indentured servants)
Brazil (by royal decree; institution was in decline)
Saudi Arabia and Angola continue slavery as a legal institution until the 1960s
Many experts consider the varieties of human trafficking that still exist modern forms of slavery