Unit 2 Lesson 5: Slave Trade

Question 1

The transatlantic trade network

Answer 1

The transatlantic trade network connected the continents of Africa, the Americas, and Europe through trade. It is sometimes nicknamed the “triangle trade” or “triangular trade” because it connected these continents in the shape of a triangle.

Question 2

When Europeans first made contact with the Americas in 1492, they began to extract resources from the continents. Raw materials were shipped from the Americas to Europe. These materials were processed and shipped to Africa. From Africa, these manufactured goods, and especially enslaved people, were shipped under harsh conditions to the Americas. But how did this trade network come to exist? And why were enslaved people subjected to such cruelty?

Answer 2

Mercantilism depended on trade. The need to trade resulted in the creation of the transatlantic trade network. Under mercantilism, exports became more important than imports in order to increase a country’s wealth. The flow of goods across the Atlantic became necessary as this economic system grew. Colonies provided raw materials for the mother country who in turn created manufactured goods. It is important to note that most of the profits from this trade went to the mother country. In the coming centuries, people also began to settle in the Americas, and Europeans continued to create new colonies in order to expand their wealth.

Question 3

Slavery dates back to the earliest civilizations, first appearing in Mesopotamia over 8,000 years ago. Mercantilism and the growth of colonies in the Americas led to a demand in slave labor. The Spanish first used Indigenous Americans as forced labor. Why were Africans taken

Answer 3

When they showed little immunity to European diseases, they were replaced with enslaved Africans. Cultivating crops such as sugar, which was especially common in the Caribbean, was labor intensive. The practice of slavery grew in the Americas with plantations. Slavery was a way to cut labor costs. This led to the growth of the slave trade, and thus the transatlantic trade network. Enslaved Africans were taken to the Americas. In the Americas, they were forced to work to cultivate raw materials. Then those raw materials were taken back across the Atlantic to create manufactured goods.

Question 4

The Middle Passage was a name given to the “middle” trade route across the Atlantic, connecting Africa and the Americas.

Answer 4

The demand for enslaved people led to an estimated 10 to 12 million people forcibly transported along this route in horrible conditions. People were crammed tightly into the bottom of ships, often without room to stand or lay. Their food and water rations were meager. Sanitary conditions were poor, leading to the spread of disease. Enslaved people faced psychological and physical abuse by the crew.

Question 5

The transatlantic trade network impacted economic systems.

Answer 5

It led to mercantilism becoming the dominant economic system. As a result, more and more colonies were created. Many European countries became wealthy, though this wealth came at the cost of Indigenous peoples and enslaved Africans. It led countries to compete with one another over resources. They came to view possession of colonies as a point of national pride and power. This later led to the development of nationalism.

Question 6

The Middle Passage led to the widespread African diaspora. T

Answer 6

This was the massive movement of African peoples and cultures around the world as a result of the slave trade. In some places, African cultures became influential on the local culture, such as in the Caribbean. In others, African cultures, languages, and religions were suppressed. In the American colonies, many enslaved people were forbidden from speaking their native language and were forcibly converted to Christianity. This led to the destruction of some African cultures. As a result, modern Black American culture emerged. While it is influenced in some ways by African cultures, it also fused with elements of European American cultures when enslaved people were forced to assimilate.

Question 7

What was the Middle Passage?

Answer 7

It was the sea journey that transported enslaved people from Africa to the Americas.

Question 8

What was traded along the transatlantic trade network?

Answer 8

manufactured goods, raw materials, and enslaved people

Question 9

Search online to investigate the Middle Passage in more detail. What else did you learn about how enslaved people were treated on the Middle Passage?

Answer 9

Enslaved people were chained together to prevent rebellion. The rations they were given could shrink if the trip was delayed, leading some to starve. Some enslaved people committed suicide to escape the torture and enslavement while on the journey.

Question 10

The Slave Trade as a Financial Transaction

Answer 10

Due to the growing demand of cash crops, plantation owners began using the importation of enslaved Africans as a financial transaction. Often these transactions resulted in large profits for the slave traders, despite the terrible human cost.

Question 10

Although the African slave trade exploited enslaved people, the large-scale forced migration, known as diaspora, of enslaved Africans to the Americas and the Caribbean islands influenced the diverse American culture today.

Answer 10

The African diaspora in the Americas comprises a large proportion of the total population. In Jamaica, a majority of the population is of African descent. This historical development has left many traces in the distinctive culture of these regions, in terms of music, tradition, and religion.

Question 11

While cultural diversity was a positive long-term impact of diaspora, there were some negative long-term impacts

Answer 11

In the nineteenth century slavery was abolished, but other forms of labor exploitation, such as indentured servitude, were developed to recruit labor for large plantations. Black people faced disparities and inequalities such as access to rights and privileges as citizens. During the Reconstruction Era, Black people faced discriminatory practices that segregated them from White people. These practices continued as a form of exploitation that contributed greatly to disparities in wealth and opportunity between persons of different racial backgrounds.

Question 12

Why did plantation owners look to Africa for workers to harvest sugar in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries?

Answer 12

Harvesting sugar was a labor-intensive process. As indigenous populations declined due to diseases, plantation owners imported enslaved Africans as a cheap labor force.

Question 13

Identify two places where the African slave trade was most prominent during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to meet rising sugar production demands in Europe.

Answer 13

The two locations where African slave trade was the most prominent were in South America (Brazil) and in the Caribbean (Barbados and Jamaica).

Question 14

Consider the firsthand accounts of the enslaved person and the European traveler. Conduct research online to investigate various perspectives of the African slave trade. Analyze the accounts to determine how it shaped and continued to shape people’s perspectives over time. What impact did this have on the African diaspora over time?

Answer 14

The account of the enslaved person, Olaudah Equiano, reveals his perspective as one of fear and resentment at being treated like an animal rather than a human being. By contrast the perspective of the European traveler, Hans Sloan, was less sympathetic. Although he noted the harsh punishments issued to enslaved people, he rationalized this by arguing that some punishments were merited. Such contrasting views reflected the conflicting interests of slave owners and enslaved people. By preserving the economic advantages of White European settlers over African Americans across generations, the legacy of slavery continued to impact the African diaspora even after the institution was abolished in the nineteenth century.

Question 15

Some historians have pointed out a “gun and enslavement cycle” in which Africans traded enslaved peoples for European firearms.

Answer 15

This allowed them to gain power over their neighbors and expand their territory, and in doing so capture more prisoners of war. The cycle goes like this: First, Africans traded enslaved Africans to Europeans for firearms. Then, African nations gained power over their neighbors, in turn expanding their territory. In this expansion process, African nations would enslave more people, whom they could then trade for European firearms, and begin the cycle again. This supports the argument that warfare and the slave trade were linked, as empowered coastal kingdoms pushed into the interior of Africa.

Question 16

Africans traded for a diverse range of European goods, such as cloth, metal containers, alcohol, and tobacco. However, it was the trade of firearms that fueled local territorial conflicts.

Answer 16

Most Portuguese records say nothing about the trading, as the pope banned the trade of firearms with non-Christians in 1179. However, reports in West Africa show European nations did not heed the pope’s commands. Kwaland records show that the Portuguese firearm trade began in the sixteenth century and rapidly expanded in the latter half of the seventeenth century. In 1658, an English cargo ship heading for Cormantin carried 1,550 muskets.

Question 17

While historians may argue over the effectiveness of firearms in warfare due to their inaccuracies, it is undoubtable that the firearm trade drastically changed West African societies.

Answer 17

Firearms became symbols of royalty and prestige, as only the wealthiest had access to a number of firearms. Firearms were used in numerous ceremonies and celebrations as a way to make dramatic noise and pyrotechnics. A few kingdoms, such as Asante and Dahomey, used these firearms to build more disciplined armies. Even farmers carried firearms while working in their fields. In addition, hunting fundamentally changed and hunters were employed to protect crops from wild animals.

Question 18

Kongo has a long history of enslavement. However, this trade was closely monitored by local tribes and was not for an international slave trade market. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, few freeborn Kongos were sold to an international market. When the Kongo was at peace and the state had firm control over the trade, few freeborn people were enslaved.

Answer 18

The kings of Kongo sought to protect their free people from illegal enslavement. In addition to King Afonso’s 1526 letter to the king of Portugal appealing to him as a fellow Christian, seventeenth-century kings struggled to protect their people. The kings came to realize that they had to obtain slaves in order to pay for allegiances with important European nations as well as pay for commodities. Even King Afonso sent frequent gifts of enslaved individuals to the Portuguese king to cover the expenses of diplomatic agents’ work in Portugal. However, he had a relatively tight handle on this trade and could use only foreign-born enslaved peoples to meet these quotas. From Afonso’s rule to the eighteenth century, Kongo had two forms of currency: nzimbu shells, which were the traditional form of currency used for local commerce, and enslaved individuals for international commerce and diplomatic obligations. The Catholic Church, in a legal matter in 1571 involving the bishop of São Tomé, even accepted enslaved peoples as a form of tax payment. This need for enslaved peoples was met through war captives but also through the purchase of individuals.

Question 19

The Jaga invasion,

Answer 19

The Jaga invasion, or uprising, between 1568 and 1570 led to the first large-scale enslavement of freeborn Kongos. Jaga included various peoples (the Yaka, Suku, Teke, Kuba, Luba, and Hungaan tribes) east and south of the Kongo whom the Portuguese referred to collectively as the Jaga. In 1568, after being the target of the Kongo slave trade, the warriors pushed back and invaded Kongo and Angola. The Portuguese aided Kongo in pushing back the invaders, thus restoring the Kongo monarchy.

Question 19

Why might the Portuguese have invested resources into restoring the Kongo monarchy?

Answer 19

There is disagreement among historians over the terminology regarding this event in history. It’s clear that people in Kongo did not want the monarchy. However, great confusion exists over whether or not the Portuguese inflated this story of the “Jaga invasion” since Kongo records were destroyed during the conflict. It’s even unclear who the “Jaga” were, as this was a Portuguese term that grouped many people together. This leads to disagreements among historians over whether the event was an internal rebellion, or uprising, or an actual invasion by other people.

Why do you think there is so much confusion? What consequences might there be for our understanding of African politics? If this was a rebellion, rather than an invasion, how might this change the way the Portuguese are viewed, as they helped to restore a monarchy that was being overthrown?

Question 20

In the early seventeenth century, when Kongo stopped territorial expansion, the expectation of using enslaved people as a form of currency remained.

Answer 20

Kongolese elites manipulated laws, expanding the crimes for which freeborn Kongos could be enslaved. For instance, in Angola, people found guilty of stealing were condemned to death, but in Kongo, the punishment was enslavement. Sources from the 1640s share that the actions that led to enslavement were quite subjective. The king ordinarily enslaved people who did not show “due respect and obedience,” and others could be enslaved if a family member was condemned to death as a form of repaying debts. Even public duels could lead to the enslavement of the people who lost.

Question 21

In spite of this, kings continued to try to protect their people. After a series of dynastic conflicts during which rival parties enslaved one another, King Pedro II was put into power in 1622, and he wrote to both the pope and King Philip of Spain complaining that the governor of Angola, a Portuguese colony, invaded the Kongo and illegally enslaved nobles and free people in order to send them to Brazil.

Answer 21

King Philip successfully tracked down some of these people in Brazil and returned them to the Kongo, but many were sent to other regions of the Americas.

Question 21

Civil wars that began in the late seventeenth century would also feed this enslavement process, as rebels were condemned to slavery. Civil war broke out in Kongo in 1665, lasting until 1709.

Answer 21

Historians have connected this war with the slave trade, as groups fought over control of the traffic of the enslaved and sold their captured enemies. In effect, the state collapsed, and contenders who rose to power enslaved their rivals. In addition, kings and political rivals enslaved Kongolese people to sell to foreign merchants and to use as gifts for both missionaries and political allies. They were also sold for manning armies and to serve as status symbols. The mechanisms put into place in the previous centuries to protect freeborn Kongos collapsed, while the demand for enslaved people increased with the need for weapons during the civil war. As one historian, Linda M. Heywood, stated, “The distinctions between foreign-born slaves and freeborn Kongos disappeared. Ultimately every Kongo was a potential slave.”

Question 22

Asante

Answer 22

Through the slave trade, the Akan people around Kumasi gained access to firearms after 1650. This led to a centralization of power and territorial expansion in the Gold Coast. The many Akan clans unified but recognized each other’s autonomy. By 1700, enslaved people made up almost two-thirds of the new state’s trade. The Dutch realized that the state emerged and began direct trading with the new power. Through the harvesting of the mineral wealth of the area and the trading of enslaved prisoners for firearms, Asante became a dominant power of West Africa and remained so until the 1820s.

Question 23

Dahomey

Answer 23

The kingdom of Dahomey based its economy around the slave trade, as firearms were the key to the kings creating an autocratic political regime. In the early eighteenth century the state expanded to the coast to access international trade, using a professional army. As it moved into new geographical areas, the Dahomey state imposed its own traditions, and more than 1.8 million enslaved peoples were exported through the Bight of Benin between 1640 and 1890.

Question 24

uropean trade in West Africa determined the “winners and losers” of territorial expansion and disputes from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. However, the question comes down to the following: how much did the trade and European involvement in African affairs actually fuel quests for territorial expansion?

Answer 24

Historians can look at the historical case studies of the Kongo, Dahomey, and Asante, three kingdoms that rose to prominence during the slave trade. From this, they can make the connection between the firearms trade and the slave trade. Essentially, the increase in firearms led to increased warfare, which in turn led to a “raid or be raided” situation. The Portuguese and other European nations desired enslaved peoples to populate and work in the Americas. These European powers, who had firearms to trade, had very little interest in the local currencies, such as nzimbu shells in the Kongo.

Question 25

The international slave trade altered not only the economic landscape of West Africa but also the societal landscap

Answer 25

Local political leaders and merchants actively supplied enslaved peoples to the Europeans, as it helped to strengthen diplomatic relations. However, leaders were not slave capturers. This led to wealth shifting from herd- and land-owning families, who traditionally held significant power, to those directly involved in capturing people and making the exchange, such as urban merchants and warrior elites. Slavery also strengthened the warrior class in Africa. This led to shifted economic and societal focus, away from rural villages and toward port cities along the African west coast.

Question 26

In the argument that there is an inherent “firearms and enslavement” cycle,” what is the step missing and labeled as “D” in the following? 1. Africans traded enslaved Africans for European firearms. 1. Africans gained power over their neighbors. 1. Africans expanded their territory. 1. D

Answer 26

African traders would have more access to enslaved peoples, whom they could trade for European firearms.

Question 27

What might be a counterargument to the claim that an increased European firearms trade led to increased warfare in West Africa?

Answer 27

The firearms were not very accurate, and there is a lack of documentation regarding firearms sales in West Africa.

Question 28

Why might there be a lack of documentation of European firearms sales in West Africa between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries?

Answer 28

The pope outlawed the sale of firearms to non-Christians, and European merchants did not want to keep excellent records regarding illegal, or unsupported, trading.

Question 29

Analyze how the international slave trade affected the social transformation of regional connections into global trade networks.

Answer 29

Local political leaders and merchants actively supplied enslaved peoples to the Europeans, as it helped to strengthen diplomatic relations. This led to wealth shifting from herd- and land-owning families, who traditionally held significant power, to those directly involved in capturing people and making the exchange.

Question 30

Analyze how firearms affected political transformation of regional connections into global trade networks.

Answer 30

Firearms became symbols of royalty and prestige, as only the wealthiest had access to a large number of firearms. Firearms were instrumental to the creation of autocratic political regime. In the early eighteenth century, the state was able to use their firearms and army to expand to the coast, granting them access to international trade.

Question 31

Olaudah Equiano was a formerly enslaved person who became an abolitionist and writer in the eighteenth century. His autobiography sheds light on the experience of the enslavement process, the experience of an enslaved person, and the realities faced by formerly enslaved peoples who were freed.

Answer 31

Documents uncovered by historians in the twenty-first century cast doubts on the accuracy of his account as a truly first-person experience and suggest he may have integrated others’ stories into his own autobiography. However, this should not fully discount Equiano’s account of the transatlantic slave trade. Originally published in 1789, this narrative became well-known in the abolitionist movements of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. As you read through his narrative, consider why it would have been so compelling and influential in the abolitionist movement.

Question 32

Why might the figures in the folk art model of a slave ship differ substantially from one another?

Answer 32

It allowed the artist to depict the great diversity of African cultures and peoples captured and enslaved during the transatlantic slave trade.