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

Slave stuff

** __The 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. **
 * Most forts 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.
 * Trade was the basis of Portuguese relations with Africans, but in the wake of commerce followed political, religious, and social relations.
 * Missionary efforts were made to convert the rulers of Benin, Kongo, and other African kingdoms
 * **Nzinga Mvemba** brought the kingdom of Kongo to Christianity
 * **Luanda** was the basis of the Portuguese colony in Angola.
 * The Portuguese effort was primarily commercial and military, although it was always accompanied by strong missionary effort.
 * Sugar production demanded many workers for constant labor under difficult conditions.
 * By 1600, the slave trade predominated over all other kinds of commerce in Africa.

** __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. ** ** __White Settlers and Africans in Southern Africa__ – In southern Africa, a Dutch colony eventually brought Europeans into conflict with Africans, especially the southern Bantu-speaking peoples. One of these groups, Zulu, created under Shaka a powerful chiefdom during the early 19th century in a process of expansion that affected the whole region **
 * Slaves were considered “property with a soul” according to Aristotle
 * Atlantic trade allowed new opportunities for expansion and intensification of slavery 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 into existing trading routes.
 * Increasing centralization and hierarchy could be seen in the enslaving societies, self-sufficiency and anti-authoritarian ideas developed as a whiplash result.
 * **Asante** is modern day Ghana and would use the gold to become a power in Africa.
 * **Dahomey** would become a slaving state that drove its economy by enslaving people around them to sell.

**__ Slave Lives __**** - **** Slave life was harsh and unforgiving. **  **__Africans in the Americas__ -** ** As the size of plantations grew in the Americas, the number of slaves shipped over from Africa rose. **   **__American Slave Societies__ -** ** Slavers were at the bottom of the social ladder and treated very poorly when working on plantations and as servants. **   **__The People and Gods in Exile__ -** ** As slaves were brought into America, slave owners hadn't attempted to mix African slaves to rid them of their own heritage and place them into a more Americanized one. **   **__The End of the Slave Trade and the Abolition of Slavery__**** - **** The Atlantic Slave Trade had ended once Europe had changed economically, politically, and religiously. Europe had established plantations within American and within its own colonies. Motivation of ending the slave trade is unknown since English plantations had flourished. **
 *  More than 700 slaves were stuffed into small cargoes where unsanitary conditions had caused many to die before they even reached their destination.
 *  The mortality rate of slaves was 18% before the 18th century.
 *  The **Middle Passage** was the route that the ships traveled on to bring the slaves to the Americas
 *  Africans had kept their culture, traditions and beliefs despite being brought into slavery
 *  Because the Africans were already experienced they were widely captured.
 *  Native American slaves were no longer used when African slaves came into the picture
 *  In English colonies, indentured servitude decreased with the increase of African slaves
 *  Demand for crops in Europe had caused expansion in the amount of slaves to work in plantations, but slaves also worked in mines and urban households.
 *  Slaves were split into two groups: **saltwater slaves-** born in Africa and brought to the colonies, and the **Creole Slaves-** born in the colonies
 *  Creole and mulatto slaves were given more freedom to work as house servants rather than working in the fields, they also were allowed freedom which was called manumission which involved the freeing of slaves.
 *  Religious leaders and African nobles had control over slaves
 *  In Jamaica, Alkan-led rebellions had occurred in the 18th century
 *  Brazil- a large group of slaves had escaped in the 17th century led by Angolans.
 *  During the 18th century, the Caribbean islands had their indigenous population decrease causing Africans to take over the land.
 *  In Jamaica and St. Domingue, slaves had made up about 80% of the population,
 *  In North America, Creole slaves had dominated the population.
 * <span style="background: white; color: black; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"> Instead of concentrating on importing slaves they used Creole slaves as a cheaper method of acquiring slaves.
 * <span style="background: white; color: black; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo4; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"> Africans had been converted to Catholicism by the Spaniards and the Portuguese as a result they created their own Black Catholic brotherhood while in America and Britain they had become Protestants.
 * <span style="background: white; color: black; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo4; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"> In English run islands, **obeah** were Africans who practiced their own religion. In Brazil they practiced **candomble** and in Haiti **vondun**.
 * <span style="background: white; color: black; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo4; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"> Africans tried to merge Christianity along with their own beliefs in order to create one.
 * <span style="background: white; color: black; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo4; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"> Though, Muslim Africans revolted in 1835 in Bahia, the largest slave rebellion in Brazil, the rebellion was directed at whites and nonbelievers.
 * <span style="background: white; color: black; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo4; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"> Many slaves had rebelled during the time in **Palmares**- a large runaway slave kingdom was built in order to hide all slaves and to rebel against Portuguese and the Dutch. About 8,000 to 10,000 people lived there
 * <span style="background: white; color: black; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo4; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"> In Jamaica runaway slaves had been able to acquire their recognition of their freedom. Slave rebellions happened mainly in the Caribbean and Brazil in the 18th century.
 * <span style="background: white; color: black; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo4; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"> **Suriname**, was a Dutch plantation colony where slaves had ran off and waged war against those who hunted them down. The ones who were captured were executed, a truce did develop. The Suriname had kept their African heritage including language, kinship, religion, and various other beliefs, but it was also meshed with contact from Europeans and American **Indians.**
 * <span style="background: white; color: black; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo5; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"> Jean-Jacques Rousseau in France and Adam Smith in England were against the slave trade. They believed that slavery was cruel and inhumane, but even ancient Rome had enslaved barbarians as a way to civilize them.
 * <span style="background: white; color: black; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo5; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"> John Wesley and **William Wilberforce** were abolitionists who tried to fight against merchants and the West Indies interest.
 * <span style="background: white; color: black; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo5; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"> After debate in Britain, slavery was abolished in 1807 by the parliament. They then tried to abolish slavery in other countries and Spain and Portugal had suppressed their trade while Britain used their navy to capture illegal slave traders.