Africa and the Africans in the Age of the Atlantic Slave Trade

Chapter

AP* Sixth Edition

World CivilizationsThe Global Experience

World CivilizationsThe Global Experience

Copyright ©2011, ©2007, ©2004 by Pearson Education, Inc.All rights reserved.

World Civilizations: The Global Experience, AP* Sixth EditionStearns • Adas • Schwartz • Gilbert

Africa and the Africans Africa and the Africans in the Age of the in the Age of the Atlantic Slave TradeAtlantic Slave Trade

25



Africa and the Africans in the Age of the Atlantic Slave Trade

I. Africa and the Creation of an Atlantic System

II. African Societies, Slavery, and the Slave Trade

III. White Settlers and Africans in Southern Africa

IV. The African Diaspora



Africa and the Africans in the Age of the Atlantic Slave Trade



Africa from 1400-1850: Big Ideas

• The Slave Trade has defined Africa’s history during this period though this is far from a complete picture– Africa is much more than a victim of world history

• Europe’s role in Africa bears many important similarities and differences from Europe’s role in America– European germs did not have devistating effect in

Africa• Europe’s role in Africa would significantly

transform by the late 19th century



A Comparative Prompt

• Compare the experience and impact of European interactions in Latin America from 1492-1750 with that of Africa.– Have a clear thesis that is provable and

clearly arguable– Support your argument with three main ideas

supported by specific information



Africa in 1450: A European View





Cultural Regions of Africa

• North Africa- – Long integrated in Eurasian cultures and economies- not addressed in ch 20– Islam well-established

• West Africa- – State societies engage Portugal and later England and Holland in slave

trade- significant – Influence of Islam most pronounced in Sahel region

• South Africa– Also hit by slave trade– Largest European settlement- limited influence of Islam

• East Africa– Integrated into Indian Ocean trade by Arab merchants– Ancient Christian impact- Orthodox Ethiopians

• Central Africa– One of the most isolated regions in the world “And this also," said Marlow

suddenly, "has been one of the dark places of the earth.” ― Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness and the Congo Diary



Periodization of African History 1450-1850

• Text periodization based on European slave trade– 1450- Portuguese engage in slave trade- Integrates

Africa into the Atlantic system– Arab slave traders and indigenous slave trade

predates this– Almost twice as many Africans cross the Atlantic to

the Americas as do Europeans before 1800

• Africa as Sub-Saharan Africa– North Africa has been grouped with European History

in the Classical era and Middle East beginning in Post-classical era



The Atlantic Slave Trade

• Portuguese- Focus on routes to India and China around Africa

• Establish factories (fortress trading centers) along African Coast– Control limited areas with few people– Depended on mutually beneficial trade with local

peoples– El Mina (1482) most important– Sometimes provided slaves to local peoples in

exchange for ivory, pepper, animal skins and gold• Portugal did not introduce the slave trade to Africa

nor did they have great need for slaves until later



El Mina Castle: Europe’s First Slave- trading fort

This fort was seized by the Dutch by 1640



The Atlantic Slave Trade

• Nzinga Mbemba (Alphonso I) to the King of Portugal– What is the point of view of King Alphonso?

What relationship does he seem to have with the King of Portugal?

– How does this reflect the limited power of the Portuguese in Africa at this time?

– What additional source would be helpful in evaluating this piece of evidence?



Portuguese Contact and Penetration of Africa



Obtaining Slaves

• Europeans found slave-raiding to be inefficient– Trading for slaves more profitable– African groups owned and traded slaves

Obviously- the racial marker of slavery in the Americas was not present

Slave-owning was one of the few ways to accumulate wealth and status

Whole villages of slaves who paid tribute to ruler– Europeans tapped into existing slaving networks

Growing demand for slaves and power imbalance between Africa and Europe would weaken the position of African states vis a vis Europe



Trend Toward Expansion

• The growing world economy (particularly sugar and plantation economy) would support the growth of slave trade– More profits generated more wealth and competition for

slave trade– African societies faced the prospect of slave trade or be

made slaves Europeans provided fire arms in exchange for slaves impacting

the regional African balance of power

• Estimated about 12 million Africans bought and transported across the Atlantic between 1450-1850– 80% of these during the 18th century– Slaving would kill as many as 1/3 of the captured people



Demographic Impact

• High mortality of plantation slaves required continuing new supply – Sugar and mining particularly dangerous– Small numbers of women brought limited natural

growth– Exception southern United States- less

hazardous and higher fertility

• Demographic impact mitigated by import of Columbian exchange foods that supported population growth in China and Europe



Dominating the Trade

• Trans-Atlantic– Portuguese dominate first– to 1630– Dutch and later British and French– Trade moves eastward and southward over time– Supported by a private (capitalistic) and public (state

military support) partnership• Trans-Sahara and East African trade

– Dominated by Islamic societies– Forbidden to enslave fellow Muslims (this would

encourage the spread of Islam– Eventually dwarfed by the trans-Atlantic (about ¼ as large

by volume)- last area to be shut down by Royal navy









Demographic Patterns



The African Diaspora

• Diaspora- The forces dispersal of peoples– Jewish Diaspora first directed by the ancient

Romans on Palestinian Jews

• The economic and social conditions that promoted the slave trade had a profound and unique cultural and demographic impact on the world; particularly Americas and Africa



The African Diaspora

• Slave trade lumped various African cultures together– Lacked institutional support- often cultural repression– Incorporated African traditions to create Creole culture– Cultural aspects deemed to be productive were

maintained and supported by dominant culture– Family formation disrupted- commodities rather than

people• Maroon colonies of run-aways

– Suriname and Jamaica Fused various African cultural practices with Amerindian and

European ideas Worked to maintain independence though resistance and

isolation- impact still visible today



The African Diaspora Understood in Amoral Utilitarian Terms

• Merchants move goods from where they are cheap and of lower value to where they are prized and of higher value– Labor was made valuable and relatively scarce in growing

plantation agriculture of new world– People relatively cheap in Africa

• Merchants seized opportunity in trading goods (guns, cowry shells, alcohol) to Africa to trade for slaves that were valued in the Americas where they worked the mines and plantations

• Some have argued that the accumulation of wealth in this trade financed the Industrial Revolution



Cowry Shells: The Price of a Man

• Like many societies, shells were used as currency in west Africa– Often strung in 5 and 10

“denominations” or fashioned as jewelry

• British traders would trade Indian Ocean cowries for slaves to import to American colonies



Impact of Slavery on African culture

• Slave trade promoted warrior cultures to develop in west Africa– War as a source of slaves– Fire arms and the fight for political dominance

Gun-slave cycle hard to break– The growing value of the slave trade in the 18th century

would intensify the political impact of the slave trade– European powers would meddle in internal affairs to

prevent one state from monopolizing slave trade• African kingdoms of Dahomey and Asante Kingdom in

West Africa dominate through the 18th century– Slave trade dominated their connection to the world

economy



World Trade and Asante Tradition

• Kente cloth- Asante weaving tradition– Combines local weaving

traditions with materials and dyes from India and Europe to create textiles representing local values

– Way to convey wealth, lineage and status

• Carried on by slaves from these regions to the New World



The Experiences of Slavery: A Dutch Point of View

• The Dutch replaced the Portuguese for a time in dominating the Atlantic route African slave trade by the mid 17th Century- soon by the English

• What is the writer’s point of view? How does it impact what he observes?

• How does Bosman reflect his shared humanity with these slaves? How does he distance himself from them morally as a slave-trader?

• Why do you believe he exhibits any interest in how these slaves are treated?



The Experience of Slavery: An African Point of View

• Because of the limits of language, Europeans had little understanding of the people they bought and transported for sale in the Americas- dumb brutes

• Olauada Equiano- Captured slave who traveled with a British naval officer- learned to read and bought his freedom

• Wrote a biography about his experience– Some controversy as to authenticity- written

many years later through support of abolitionists

– Work encouraged Britain to abolish the slave trade



African Culture in America



African Cultures in America



East Africa and the Sudan

• East coast– Swahili trading towns

Ivory, gold slaves to Middle East

– Zanzibar Cloves

• Interior– Luo dynasties in great lakes area




• Bunyoro, Buganda– Monarchies

• Northern Savanna– New Islamization

• Songhay breaks up in 1500s– Successor states

Pagan Bambara of Segu Muslim Hausa states in northern Nigeria




• Muslim reform movements, from 1770s– Usuman Dan Fodio, 1804

Hausa states

• New kingdom of Sokoto



White Settlers and Africans in Southern Africa

• Bantu into southern Africa by 1500– Left arid areas to Khoikhoi, San– Agriculture, pastoralism– Iron, copper– Chiefdoms common



White Settlers and Africans in Southern Africa

• Capetown– Dutch colony, 1652– Estates worked by slaves– Wars with San, Khoikhoi– By 1760s, encounter Bantu– 1795, Britain occupies colony

1815, possession

– After 1834, Afrikaners push beyond boundaries



The Mfecane and theZulu Rise to Power

• Nguni people– 1818, Shaka creates Zulu chiefdom

1828, assassinated

– Beginning of mfecane

• Mfecane– Period of disruption, wandering– Defeated into new areas

Swazi, Lesotho



The People and Gods in Exile

•Dynamic, creative•Religion adaptive

–Haitian vodun

•Muslim Africans–1835, Brazil

Muslim Yoruba and Hausa slaves

• Palmares, Brazil–1600s, runaway slave state



The End of the Slave Trade and the Abolition of Slavery

• Slave trade ended outside of Africa– Causes?

Probably not economic self-interest Influence of Enlightenment Writings by slaves like Equiano and support of abolitionist

societies Religious re-awakening-

• External Slave trade ended in America in 1808 and as a practice in 1865• British navy worked hard to disrupt international

slave trade in 19th century• Slavery continued in Brazil until 1888

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