Africa+and+the+Slave+Trade

African Slave Trade


 * __Atlantic Slave Trade__- Early Portuguese contacts set the patterns for contact with the African coast. The slave trade expanded to meet the demand for labor in the new American colonies, and millions were exported in an organized commerce that involved both Europeans and Africans.**
 * Portuguese established **factories**
 * factories were forts and trading posts with resident merchants
 * **El Mina**
 * Heart of the gold producing region of the forest zone.
 * Factories were established with the consent of local rulers who benefited from access to European commodities and sometimes from the military support the Portuguese provided in local wars.
 * Relations
 * Trade it was the basis of the relationship between Portugal and Africa
 * This is where Africans adopted political, religious, and social customs.
 * Missionary efforts were made to convert the rulers of
 * Benin, Kongo, and other African kingdoms
 * **Nzinga Mvemba**, the ruler of Kongo helped bring the whole kingdom under Christianity
 * The Portuguese settlement of **Luanda,** was the basis for the Portuguese colony in Angola.
 * The Portuguese effort was primarily commercial and military, although it was always accompanied by a strong missionary effort.
 * This was the principal pattern of European contact with Africa.
 * Slavery
 * had declined in Europe during the Middle Ages, when it was replaced by serfdom.
 * Sugar plantations called for workers and constant labor under difficult conditions, usually in a tropical or subtropical environment.
 * 1600, the slave trade predominated over all other kids of commerce on the African coast.
 * Trend Towards Expansion
 * Between 1450 and 1850, it is estimated that about 12 million Africans were shipped across the Atlantic.
 * With a mortality rate of 10 to 20 percent on the ships, about 10 or 11 million Africans actually arrived in the Americas.
 * Mortality was high and fertility low due to the low amount of women being shipped in.
 * Demographic Patterns
 * Atlantic slave trade was concentrated on men.
 * African societies that sold captives into slavery often preferred to sell the men and keep the women, and children as domestic slaves.
 * Organization of the Trade
 * **Royal African Company** was the British company that established the slave trade for the Empire.
 * **Indies piece** was the term used to decribe a healthy man and children and women were sold at a fraction of the price.
 * __African Societies, Slavery, and the Slave Trade__- The slave trade influenced African forms of servitude and the social and political development of African states. Newly powerful states emerged in west Africa; in the Sudan and east Africa, slavery also produced long-term effects.**
 * Attitude
 * Slaves were considered to be "property with souls"
 * Atlantic trade opened up new opportunities for expansion and intensification of slaver in those societies.
 * The existence of slavery in Africa and the preexisting trade in people allowed Europeans to mobilize the commerce in slaves quickly by tapping existing routes and supplies.
 * Slaving and African Politics
 * "The trade in slaves is the business of kings, rich men, and prime ministers"
 * Caused instability in the region as people would want to make a profit at the expense of their neighbors.
 * They would want to expand their power.
 * Asante and Dahomey
 * Asante
 * it was the Gold Coast
 * members of the Akan people
 * produced gold and the kola nut
 * is almost modern-day Ghana
 * Dahomey
 * remained its own independent entity
 * it would cycle slaves for firearms.
 * East Africa and Sudan
 * Would continue the economic relations they had with the Middle East and with India.
 * Slavery would also be very large here
 * Zanzibar (offshore island) had a slave population of 100,000
 * Islam
 * The **Fulani** or pastoral people of Sudan would be influenced by the Muslim trade routes and would be largely responsible for the spread of Islam through Africa.
 * __White Settlers and Africans in Southern Africa__ - In southern Africa, a Dutch colony eventually brought Europeans into conflict with Africans, especially the southern Banut-speaking peoples. One of these groups, the Zulu, created under Shaka a powerful chiefdom during the early 19th century in a process of expansion that affected the whole region.**
 * The people would do the **Great Trek** northward to get away from this.
 * Zulu power, a tribe that had been made, would begin to dominate the area with one of the most impressive black army's of Africa until the end of the century.
 * __African Diaspora__ - Despite African resistane to enslavement, the slave trade and the horrifying Middle Passage carried millions of Africans from their original homelands. In the Americas, especially in plantation colonies, they became a large segment of the population, and African cultures were adapted to new environments and conditions.**
 * Slave Lives
 * Their villages were often destroyed
 * They were separated from friends and family.
 * One third of the slaves died on the trip.
 * They were brought to work in plantations to do hard and tedious work.