CHAPTER 18
IN THIS CHAPTER
Summary: As the Columbian Exchange united the Eastern and Western hemispheres across the Atlantic Ocean, the exchange of human beings created a new interaction between Africa and the Western Hemisphere. Slave systems, already a part of life in African kingdoms, became a part of life in the Western world. The result was the unification of three cultures—African, European, and American—in the Americas.
Key Terms
impressment*
indentured servitude*
Middle Passage*
triangular trade*
Beginnings of the Atlantic Slave Trade
Portugal’s quest for gold and pepper from African kingdoms brought it into contact with systems of slave trade already in existence in Africa. The subsequent development of the trans-Atlantic slave trade was an extension of trade in human beings already carried out by Africans enslaving fellow Africans. The slave trade within Africa especially valued women slaves for use as household servants or as members of the harem.
The long-existent trans-Saharan trade had already brought some African slaves to the Mediterranean world. In the mid-fifteenth century, Portugal opened up direct trade with sub-Saharan Africa. Portuguese and Spanish interests in the slave trade increased when they set up sugar plantations on the Madeira and Canary Islands and on São Tomé. The first slaves from Africa arrived in Portugal in the mid-1400s. Europeans tended to use Africans as household servants.
Trade in gold, spices, and slaves brought the Portuguese into contact with prosperous and powerful African kingdoms, among them Kongo, Benin, Mali, and Songhay. Mali and Songhay had already become wealthy Muslim kingdoms enriched by the trans-Saharan gold-salt trade that had been in existence for centuries. In Kongo and Benin, Portugal was interested in Christianizing the inhabitants in addition to establishing trade relations. In the late fifteenth century, the rulers of Kongo had converted to Christianity; a few years later the nonruling classes were also converted.
Characteristics of African Kingdoms
Many of the African kingdoms encountered by the Portuguese had developed their own political and court traditions. African monarchs often ruled with the assistance of governing councils and had centralized governments with armies that carried out the state’s expansionist policies. Artisans produced works in ivory and ebony and, in Benin, also in bronze. Active trade existed not only in slaves but also in spices, ivory, and textiles. Slaves usually were prisoners of war or captives from African slave raids that were carried out against neighboring kingdoms and villages.
Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade
After Native Americans died in phenomenal numbers from European diseases, European colonists in the Americas turned to Africans as forced labor. West Africans, already skilled in agricultural techniques, were especially sought by Europeans for labor on the sugar plantations of Brazil and the Caribbean and in the rice fields of the southern colonies of British North America. The trans-Atlantic slave trade reached its peak during the eighteenth century. The slave trade was part of a triangular trade that involved three segments:
• European guns and other manufactured goods were traded to Africans for slaves. (Guns were then used by Africans to capture more slaves.)
• Slaves were transported from Africa to South America or the West Indies. This Middle Passage across the Atlantic placed the slaves in shackles in overcrowded and unsanitary slave ships.
• Sugar, molasses, and rum produced by slave labor were traded to Europe for manufactured goods, and the cycle resumed.
Slaves who crossed the Atlantic came from western and central Africa, particularly from Senegambia, Dahomey, Benin, and Kongo. As many as 25 percent of the slaves who came from central Africa died on the long march to the coast to be loaded onto slave ships. Perhaps 20 percent of slaves died on the Middle Passage from illness or suicide. If supplies ran low aboard ship, some slaves were thrown overboard.
Of the approximately 9 to 11 million slaves who crossed the Atlantic, only about 5 percent reached the colonies of British North America. Most of the slaves who eventually reached North America did not arrive directly from Africa, but first spent some time in the West Indies in the Caribbean Sea. The rigors of sugar production in the Caribbean islands and in Brazil required especially large numbers of slaves.
Once in the Americas, African slaves blended their culture with that of the Western Hemisphere. Particularly noteworthy was their introduction of African religions to the Americas. Slaves from West Africa often continued to practice Islam in addition to native African beliefs, while others created a syncretism of native African practices and beliefs and those of Christianity.
Slavery in Eastern and Southern Africa
Not all slave routes originating in Africa crossed the Atlantic or led to Europe. The cities of eastern Africa traded with the interior of the continent for gold, ivory, and slaves. Many of these slaves were transported to the Middle East, where they became household servants or members of harems. Other slaves in the Indian Ocean system were used on European plantations on islands in the Indian Ocean. Africans from the Swahili coast, Arabs, and Indians also set up plantation colonies along the eastern coast of Africa and on the islands of the Indian Ocean.
In southern Africa, the Cape Colony established by the Dutch in 1652 depended on slave labor. The first slaves arrived from Indonesia and Asia, but later the Dutch enslaved Africans.
Effects of the Slave Trade on Africa
The African slave trade profoundly altered the demographics of Africa. Family life was disrupted as more males than females were transported across the Atlantic for the heavy work required on plantations. In some areas of Africa, populations were reduced by one-half. The slave trade increased African dependency on the importation of European technology, lessening the technological development of African kingdoms.
Other Forms of Servitude
In addition to their involvement in both the Mediterranean and trans-Atlantic slave trades, Europeans used other forms of servitude such as impressment and indentured servitude . Impressment involved the seizure of sailors from foreign vessels. Indentured servants were required to work for a master for a specific number of years in exchange for passage to a European colony such as the English colonies of northeastern North America.
Rapid Review
Europeans did not initiate the African slave trade but tapped into slave trade systems already in place. Europeans involved in the slave trade encountered wealthy and powerful African kingdoms. Although the main focus of the African slave trade in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries occurred across the Atlantic, there also was an active slave trade in the Indian Ocean. The slave trade significantly reduced the populations of some areas of Africa and created a dependence on European goods.
Review Questions
1 . African kingdoms in the period from 1450 to 1750
(A) featured monarchs who ruled without advisers
(B) frequently enslaved their own people
(C) like the Chinese, were not interested in European trade goods
(D) were involved in the slave trade before the arrival of Europeans
2 . Compared to the trans-Atlantic slave trade, that of eastern Africa
(A) involved only European nations
(B) acquired slaves from coastal areas only
(C) did not involve central Africa
(D) also involved the plantation system
3 . Within Africa, the slave trade
(A) increased African dependence on European nations
(B) decreased the value of women slaves
(C) had little effect on central African kingdoms
(D) promoted unity among African kingdoms
4 . Historians searching for the earliest models of European plantation slavery would need to study
(A) plantation society on Indian Ocean islands
(B) the history of the Madeira and Canary Islands
(C) sugar plantations in the West Indies
(D) cotton plantations in British North America
5 . The African slave trade
(A) had no ties to Middle Eastern trade
(B) was frequently the result of African rivalries
(C) was abolished by the Dutch in southern Africa
(D) was limited to the Atlantic Ocean
6 . The trans-Atlantic slave trade
(A) produced average mortality rates of over 50 percent along the Middle Passage
(B) carried the majority of slaves to North America
(C) increased after the establishment of sugar plantations
(D) carried more women than men
7 . When the Portuguese first became involved in the slave trade
(A) they were uninterested in Christianizing African peoples
(B) they were interested primarily in gold and spices
(C) they were amazed at the poverty of African kingdoms
(D) they created the African slave trade
8 . Sugar plantations
(A) were initially founded in the Caribbean
(B) required fewer slaves than the cotton and rice fields of North America
(C) were the ultimate destination of the first Portuguese slaves
(D) especially valued slaves from western Africa
Answers and Explanations
1 . D Trans-Saharan and Middle Eastern trade routes existed before 1450. African monarchs tended to rule with councils of advisers (A). Africans seldom enslaved their own people, usually enslaving prisoners of war or captives from raiding parties on neighboring tribes or kingdoms (B). African traders became dependent on European goods they received in exchange for slaves (C).
2 . D Both the trans-Atlantic and eastern African trade routes took slaves to European-run plantations. Eastern African slave trade involved Africans, Indians, and Arabs also (A). It involved both coastal and island areas (B). Slaves were captured from central Africa before being taken to the coast (C).
3 . A Guns purchased from European nations were used by Africans to acquire more slaves within Africa. Within Africa, slave women were valued as household servants (B). Central African kingdoms were often the source of slaves for trade across the oceans and within Africa (C). The slave trade increased African rivalries (D).
4 . B The earliest models of European plantations were established on the Madeira and Canary Islands. Plantations in the Indian Ocean (A), the West Indies (C), and British North America (D) occurred later.
5 . B African rulers often raided neighboring villages in order to secure the wealth and power of slaves. Indian Ocean trade took slaves from East Africa to the Middle East (A). The Dutch enslaved Africans in Cape Colony (C). The Indian Ocean was another site of active slave trade (D).
6 . C The sugar plantations of the Caribbean and Brazil were the primary destination of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Middle Passage mortality rates averaged about 20 percent (A). Only about 5 percent of slaves crossing the Atlantic were sent to North America (B). It involved more men than women (D).
7 . B Portugal was interested in the gold and spice trade before it was concerned with the slave trade. The Portuguese were interested in bringing Christianity to Africa (A). They found wealthy and powerful African kingdoms (C), and tapped into already existing slave routes (D).
8 . D Western Africans were already accomplished farmers. The first sugar plantations were founded off the coast of Africa (A). They required the most slaves of any crop because of the rigors of sugar cultivation (B). The first Portuguese slaves were destined for the households of Europe (C).