The Atlantic Slave Trade Guided Notes

Slide 1:

1. Around 1500, European colonists in the Americas needed cheap labor began using enslaved Africans on plantations and farms
2. Slavery existed in Africa for centuries
3. Spread of _________ into Africa during the seventh century ushered in an era of increase slavery and the slave trade  
4. Muslim rulers justified enslavement with the Muslim belief that non-muslim prisoners of war could be bought and sold as slaves
5. Between 650 and 1600 muslims transported around 17 million africans to the muslim lands of north africa and southwest asia

Slide 2:

1. Slaves had some legal rights and an opportunity for social mobility
2. Some slaves even occupied positions of influence and power
3. Serving as generals
4. You could escape slavery in a number of ways, such as marrying into the family they served.

Slide 3:

1. First Europeans to explore Africa were the Portuguese in the 1400s
2. Traders were more interested in trading for gold than captured Africans
3. Changed with the colonization of _______________.
4. Natives began dying by the millions

Slide 4: 

1. Europeans saw advantages in using Africans in the America
2. Many Africans had been exposed to European diseases and built up a tolerance
3. Experience in farming and could be taught plantation work
4. Less likely to escape because they did not know their way around the new land
5. Skin color made it easier to catch them if they escaped and tried to live among others

Slide 5: 

1. Buying and selling of Africans for work in the Americas, known as the _______ ______, became a massive enterprise
2. Between 1500-1600 nearly 300,000 africans were transported to the Americas
3. During the next century that number climbed to 1.3 million
4. When it ended around 1870 that number was 9.5 million

Slide 6:

1. __________ took an early lead in importing Africans to the Americas
2. Moved on from the Caribbean and began to colonize the American mainland
3. Imported and enslaved thousands
4. 1650 nearly 300,000 Africans labored throughout Spanish America on plantations along in gold and silver mines

Slide 7:

1. The Portuguese surpassed the Spanish in the importation of Africans to the Americans in the 1600s
2. When Brazil dominated the European sugar market
3. Sugar industry grew and so did European colonists demand for cheap labor

Slide 8:

1. England came to dominate the slave trade
2. From 1690 until England abolish slave trade in 1807 it was the leader.
3. They transported more than 1.7 million Africans to their colonies in the West Indies
4. African slaves were also brought to the U.S.
5. Nearly 400,000 slaves were sold to Britain's North American colonies
6. By 1830 there were 2 million slaves in the U.S.

Slide 9:

1. Many African rulers and merchants played a willing role in the slave trade
2. European traders, rather than travel inland, waited in ports along the coasts of Africa
3. _________  ___________ with the help of local rulers captured Africans to be enslaved.
4. Delivered them to europeans in exchange for guns, gold and other goods
5. As the trade grew some African rulers voice their opposition, but the profits lured many African rulers continued participation

Slide 10: 

1. Africans transported to the Americas were part of a transatlantic trading network known as the _____________ trade
2. Over one trade route, Europeans transported manufactured goods to the west coast of Africa
3. Traders exchanged goods for captured Africans
4. Africans were then transported across the Atlantic and sold in the West Indies
5. Merchants bought sugar, coffee and tobacco in the west indies and sailed to Europe with these products

Slide 11: 

1. Another triangular route, merchants carried rum and other goods from the New England colonies to Africa, they exchanged their merchandise for Africans
2. Traders transported the Africas to the West Indies and sold them for sugar and molasses
3. They then sold these goods to rum producers in New England

4. Various other transatlantic routes existed
5. Triangular trade encompassed a network of trade routes crisscross the northern and southern colonies, West Indies, England, Europe and Africa

Slide 12:

• Voyage that brought captured Africans to the West Indies and later to North and South America were known as the Middle Passage
• considered the middle leg of the transatlantic trade triangle
• Europeans packed Africans into the dark holds of large ships

1. Africans endured whippings and beatings as well as diseases that went through the vessel
2. Numerous africans died from diseases and physical abuse
3. Many committed suicide by drowning

20% would die on their way across the middle passage

Slide 13:

• Upon arriving in the America, captured Africans usually were actioned off to the highest bidder
• After being sold slaves worked in mines or fields or as domestic servants

1. Lived on little food in small dreary huts
2. Worked long days
3. Suffered beatings

• Slavery was a lifelong and hereditary existence

Slide 14: 

1. To cope with the horrors of slavery, africans developed a way of life based on their cultural heritage
2. Kept musical traditional and stories of their ancestors alive
3. They also found ways to resist
4. Made themselves less productive by breaking tools, uprooting plants and working slowly

Slide 15:  

1. Thousands would also run away
2. Some slaves openly revolted.
3. 1522 about 20 slaves on Hispaniola attacked and killed several Spanish colonies
4. Larger revolts happened to Spanish settlements in the 16th century
5. Occasional uprising occurred in Brazil, the west indies and north America
6. Group of slaves in South Carolina led an uprising known as the Stono Rebellion.

Slide 16:

1. Atlantic slave trade had an impact on both Africa and the Americas
2. in Africa
3. Numerous cultures lost generations of their fittest members
4. _________ torn apart
5. Introduced guns into the African continent

Slide 17:

1. While unwilling participants in the growth of colonies
2. They contributed greatly to economic and cultural development
3. Greatest contribution was __________, as colonies like Haiti and Barbados wouldn't have survived without it
4. Also contributed bringing their expertise in agriculture
5. Art, music, religion and good continue to influence society today

Slide 18: 

1. Influx of so many Africans to the americans also left a mark on the population itself
2. From the U.S. to Brazil many nations of the western hemisphere have a substantial African American population
3. Latin American countries have a sizable mixed race population too.