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The Portuguese were the first Europeans to
thoroughly explore the west coast of Africa
Arrived beginning in the 1440s…50 years
before Columbus discovered the New World
They were looking
for gold, geographic
knowledge,
Christian allies,
perhaps a new route
to Asia.
They were NOT
looking for slaves
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1441, two captains brought 1012 Africans back to Portugal as
exhibits
One of the Africans was a tribal
chief, who negotiated his release
in exchange for other Africans on
the next voyage – they were then
used as slaves
Slaves were property…not looked
at as people or human beings
Within 10 years, thousands of
slaves had been transported to
Portugal and Portuguese islands
By the start of the 1500s, roughly
200,000 Africans had been
transported to Europe
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The discovery of the New World (North
America) created a new market for slavery
1600’s – Slaves transported to American
colonies
Why blacks but not other whites or
natives?
◦ Whites used as indentured servants
◦ Indians were tough and resourceful…they knew
the land and they fought back
◦ Africans were torn from their homes, their
families, their country, their way of life…they
were regarded as completely helpless
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Africans were often captured from their inland
villages by other Africans, then given to Europeans
Why not by Europeans?
◦ They didn’t know the land
◦ Many Africans were prisoners of war, captured during
battles between warring tribes
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After their capture,
Africans were marched to
the coast where trading
posts and harbors had
been established
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March to the sea could last months and cover
thousands of miles
Shackled around the neck under whip and gun
Death marches – 4 out of every 10 died
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Those who were too weak to carry on were
left behind to die
Some were killed, but a dead African is worth
less than one that’s alive
Marches
showed the
Africans’
complete
helplessness
in the face of a
superior force
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Once on the coast, the Africans were kept in
small cages until they were picked and sold
Had to be thoroughly examined by the ship’s
surgeons (don’t want anyone getting the
others sick)
Branded on the
chest like cattle
when sold
Thrown back in
their cages for
10-15 days until
they were put on
the ships
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“As the slaves came down
from the inland country, they
are put into a booth or prison
near the beach, and when the
Europeans are to receive
them, they are brought out
onto a large plain, where the
ship’s surgeons examine
every part of everyone of
them…men and women
being stark naked. Such as
are allowed good and sound
are set on one side…marked
on the breast with a red-hot
iron, imprinting the mark of
the French, English, or Dutch
companies. The branded
slaves after this are returned
to their former booths where
they await shipment,
sometimes 10-15 days…” –
from Howard Zinn’s A
People’s History of the United
States
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Slaves chained together in the dark, wet slime
of the ship’s hull
Essentially packed on top of each other
Spaces not much bigger than coffins, which is
fitting considering about 1 of 3 died on ship
Sailors would hear
horrible noises
from below, open
the hatches and
find slaves in
different stages of
suffocation
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Many died, many killed by other slaves in a
desperate attempt to breath
Slaves would jump overboard…better to
drown than stay on the ship and suffer
Many slaves refused to eat, hoping to
die…but they were force fed (can’t sell a dead
slave)
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Many slaves refused to
eat, hoping to die…but
they were force fed (can’t
sell a dead slave)
One observer said “a slave
deck was covered with so
much blood and mucus
that it resembled a
slaughterhouse”
There were a number of
slave rebellions on board,
but in the end the guys
with the guns win out
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“The height, sometimes, between decks was
only eighteen inches; so that the unfortunate
human beings could not turn around, or even
on their sides, the elevation being less than
the breadth of their shoulders; and here they
are usually chained to the decks by the neck
and legs. In such a place the sense of misery
and suffocation is so great, that the
Negroes…are driven to frenzy.”
– from Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of
the United States
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About 20 African slaves arrive in Jamestown
1619
◦ (slaves in Spanish Florida around 1519)
Jamestown settled by the British in 1607
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The colony had troubles surviving…by 1610
only 60 of the original 900 settlers were still
alive
tobacco was introduced to the colony in
1617, became a cash crop, and helped
Jamestown survive and thrive
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Jamestown needed laborers to
clear the land and cultivate
the crops
◦ used Africans as slaves
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by 1800, 10-15 million
African slaves in America
Estimated that Africa lost 50
million human beings to
slavery and death at the
hands of slave traders and
plantation owners in western
Europe and America…these
are and were considered the
most advanced countries in
the world