Forms of Slavery
• Slavery in the Middle East and Africa
• Africans were enslaved by Muslims for being
nonbelievers of Islam
– Transported across Sahara Desert to East African
coast and ended up in North Africa or the Middle
East
• African tribes enslaved other tribes due to
warfare, crimes, kidnapping, debt, and selfenslavement
– Slaves were gathered for shipment to the markets
in the north and the west
Slavery Defined
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A form of exploitation
Slaves were property
Outsiders who were alien by origin
Coercion (force) can be used at will
Their labor was at complete disposal of master
No rights to sexuality or reproduction
Slave status was inherited unless by provision
African Presence in the Americas
• 11 million Africans transported14-35 age
• driven by labor shortage due to diseases that
ravaged native populations
• supplied by preexisting slave markets on West
African coast
– 1st trading forts established by Portugal
• began in 16th c. in Spanish America, 17th c. in
British America
• Peak occurred in 18th century6 million
slaves arrived in Americas
This eighteenth-century print shows bound African captives being forced to a slaving port.
It was largely African middlemen who captured slaves in the interior and marched them to
the coast.
North Wind Picture Archives
Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade
Definition
Characteristics
Barracoon
Examples
Non-Examples
The Middle Passage
Slave Ship
“Middle Passage”
“Coffin” Position Below Deck
African Captives Thrown Overboard
Sharks followed the slave ships!
Diagrams of Slave Ships
Slave Dancer
• Describe the conditions within the slave ships
from the reading.
• 8-12 weeks was length of voyage from W.
Africa to Caribbean
• To load a ship of 500 slaves could take months
– Slaves held in barracoons or in ship for months
• The Daniel and Henry (slave ship)
– Loaded first slave on April 11, 1700
– Landed in Jamaica on Nov. 17, 1700
• If still alive, a slave boarded in April would have spent
32 weeks chained in the hold
Survival Rate
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452 slaves loaded on the Daniel and Henry
246 survived and landed in Jamaica
206 died in transit
A loss of 45.5%
The average death rate was 20% for the
Middle Passage
18th century Slave Trade
• Majority of slaves sent to West Indies and
Brazil
• 10% go to N. American colonies
Treatment of slaves
• Many slaves tried to jump
overboard or starve
themselves
• Speculum orisdevice
used by captains to force
slaves’ jaws open to feed
Slavery Instruments
Why do you
think the slave
captains forced
the slaves to
eat?
For what other
activities do you think
crew members might
have used torture
devices to punish
slaves?
The Account of William Snelgrave
• Explain how the crew guarded against slave
revolt?
• From the perspective of the slaves, what are
the obstacles to success and consequences if
you should fail
Arrival in Americas
• Slaves were checked for disease by a doctor
on the ship
• Sent to shore to be counted, held, bathed,
clothed, and fed to prepare for sale
• At public auction, slaves would be inspected
by buyers for physical ailments
• New owner’s name often branded on slave
Impressions of the Valongo Slave
Market
• What similarities existed between the
barracoons of Africa and the Valongo Slave
Market?
The Plantation System
• Large, rural estates
– Slavery needed for efficient and labor-consuming
production of cash crops
• Main production of sugar, tobacco, cotton,
and cotton for export
• Plantation owners imported all finished or
manufactured goods consumed on plantation
from Europe
Slaves Working in a Brazilian Sugar Mill
Sugar was both raised and processed on plantations such as this one in Brazil.
© Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS
The Silver Mines of Potosí. Worked by conscripted Indian laborers under extremely harsh
conditions, these mines provided Spain with a vast treasure in silver.
Hulton/Corbis-Bettmann
The Experience of Slavery
• “seasoned” slaves worth more than those newly
arrived
• maintenance of ethnic bonds in the New World—
African language, religion
• Generally accepted that all the slaves in plantation
societies led difficult lives with little variation
• Some slaves mixed Christianity with African religions
• One of factors that continued slavery was racist
ideology
Slaves on the plantations of the American South were the chattel property of their
masters, and their lives were grim. Some artists sought to disguise this harsh reality by
depicting the lighter moments of slave society as in this scene of slaves dancing.
Getty Images Inc.—Hulton Archive Photos
Slaves in the City
• What do we learn about slaves’ lives in the
city and on plantations?
• Slaves were sold, traded, and rented based on
the slaves’ skill. Identify six different
occupations fulfilled by slave labor.
• What steps were to be taken if a slave was
stolen, found, or a runaway?
The Abolition of Slavery
Factors
1. Abolition movement led by Christians and
humanitarians in N. America and Europe
1. Wrote anti-slavery books and lobbied gov’ts
2. Changing economy of Europe and America
– Industrialization=no need for slaves
3. Aversion to the slave trade as a result of the
Enlightenment and emphasis on individual
liberty
4. Opposition to the slave trade and slavery
from Africans and slaves
4. Slave revolt (1791) in St. Domingue (Haiti) drove
French out and created a black republic in the
Americas
4. Fear of slave revolts frightened whites and
contributed to the end of the trade
The End of Slavery
• Britain was the first major slaving country to
outlaw the trade in January 1807
– Royal Navy patrolled African coast for slave ships
– Freed over 160,000 slaves from ships
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U.S. abolished importation of slaves in 1808
Outlawed in British colonies in 1834
French outlawed slavery in 1848
U.S. outlawed in 1865Amendment ?
Brazil and Cuba maintained slavery until 1888
Review Qs
1. What was the nature of slavery in America?
2. How was it linked to the economies of the
Americas, Europe, and Africa?
3. Why was the plantation system
unprecedented?
4. How did the plantation system contribute to
the inhumane treatment of slaves?