Chapter 18
The Atlantic System & Africa
1550-1800
Plantations in the West Indies
Colonization Before 1650
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Spanish settlers introduced sugarcane cultivation into the West
Indies shortly after 1500
French and English developed
colonies based on tobacco
cultivation
West Indian economies moved
from tobacco to sugar production
Portuguese introduced sugar-cane
cultivation to Brazil
Dutch West India Company, took
control of 1,000 miles of sugarproducing Brazilian coast
Dutch improved efficiency of
Brazilian sugar industry and
brought slaves to Brazil and the
West Indies
Sugar & Slaves
1640-1680’s)
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colonies transitioned from
tobacco to sugar economy
demand for labor caused
increase in volume of
Atlantic slave trade
Shift from European
indentured servants to
enslaved African labor was
caused by:
– Europeans unwilling to
indenture themselves to the
West Indies
– life expectancy of enslaved
longer than the term of
indenture
– rise in sugar prices allowed
planters to invest in slaves
Slave Trade from Africa
1551-1850
The Caribbean Colonies, 1660
•By 1660 slave labor predominated
Plantation Life in the Eighteenth Century
• Sugar was the most important and most profitable plantation crop
in the New World and was dependent on African labor
Sugar Processing
Technology and Environment
• Sugar plantations grew sugar cane and
processed it into sugar crystals, molasses, rum
• Growing/harvesting cane was simple
• machinery was complicated/expensive
• economies of scale
• caused soil exhaustion/deforestation
• led to invasive species
• the Arawak & Carib people became extinct
Slaves Lives
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West Indian society consisted of a
wealthy land-owning plantocracy,
their many slaves, and a few
people in between
Gang labor vs. task labor
Rewards and punishments, very
little rest and relaxation, no
education, and little time or
opportunity for family life
Disease, harsh working
conditions, and dangerous mill
machinery all contributed to the
short life expectancy
High mortality rate = majority of
slaves on West Indian plantations
were born in Africa
Slaves ran away; occasionally
staged violent revolts
Rebellions were curtailed by
suppressing African cultural
traditions, religions, and
languages
Free Whites & Free Blacks
Three groups of free people:
– wealthy “great whites”
– less-well-off, “little whites”
– free blacks
• Only wealthy could afford land,
machinery, slaves needed for
sugar plantation
• Became politically influential,
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Controlled colonial assemblies
gained seats in Parliament
Manumission produced a
significant free black population
Self purchase
Runaway slaves (maroons)
Cudjoe, Leader of the Jamaican Maroons
After decades of successful resistance to the British, a peace treaty was negotiated that
recognized the freedom of his runaway followers. The British also granted land and effective
self-government to the maroons in exchange for ending raids on plantations and the
promise to return future runaways.
Capitalism and Mercantilism
• Royal monopolies
inefficient & expensive
• Banks, joint-stock
companies, stock
exchanges, insurance
emerged
• Mercantilism promoted
private investment in
overseas trade and
accumulation of capital in
the form of precious metals
• Chartered companies;
Dutch West India
Company, French Royal
African Company used
military force to pursue
commercial dominance
• Atlantic became the major
trading area for the British,
French, & Portuguese in
the eighteenth century
The Atlantic Circuit
• Maritime exchanges included consumer products, slave
labor, precious metals, & other goods
• clockwise network of trade routes going from Europe to
Africa, from Africa to the plantation colonies of the
Americas (the Middle Passage), and then from the
colonies to Europe
• Could make profit on each leg
• Supplemented by other trade routes: Europe to the
Indian Ocean; Europe to the West Indies; New England
to the West Indies; and the “Triangular Trade” among
New England, Africa, and the West Indies.
The Atlantic Economy
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By 1700 the volume of
maritime exchanges
among the Atlantic
continents began to
rival the trade of the
Indian Ocean basin
Notice the trade in
consumer products,
slave labor, precious
metals, and other
goods
A silver trade to East
Asia laid the basis for
a Pacific Ocean
economy
The African Slave Trade
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Before discovery of America,
Greek, Russian, Bulgarian,
Armenian, and then black slaves
worked the plantations of southern
Italy, Sicily, Portugal, &
Mediterranean, Spain
models for American slavery
became highly specialized
run by chartered companies (in the
17thcentury) and then private
traders (in the 18th century)
Disease, maltreatment, suicide,
and psychological depression
Disease killed Europeans on slave
ships at about same rate as it killed
slaves
Atlantic slave trade cheapened life
in Africa as well as in the Americas
Model of the English vessel Brookes shows the specially built section of the hold
where enslaved Africans were packed together during the Middle Passage.
African Slave Trade
• Some kings
based their
power on
slave raiding
and trade with
Europeans
The Dahomean royal family, and European observers, await the sacrifice of slaves about
to be thrown from the heights in honor of the king. The umbrella is a symbol of
monarchy in parts of West Africa.
Queen Njiga (Nzinga) of Ndongo
1624-1629
• most important female
political figure in the
history of early modern
Angola
• Used military to enforce
expansionist policies
• participated fully in the
slave trade
• fiercely resisted
Portuguese attempts to
control that trade
Here she sits enthroned, wearing her
crown (the cross a sign of her Christian
baptism) and bracelets, giving an order.
She has become a symbol of African
resistance to colonial rule.
City of Luanda, 1575
• center of the huge
slave trade to
Brazil
• Droughts forced
refugees to flee to
kingdoms in
better-watered
areas
• kings traded male
refugees to slave
dealers
• partnership
between European
traders and
African elites
Offices and warehouses line the streets, and slaves are
dragged to the ships for transportation to America. kidnapping
was the main source of people to sell into slavery.
African and European Partnerships
• Portuguese
present before the
Manikongo
• initially fostered
good relationship
with the Kingdom
of Kongo
• Civil War within
Kongo led to
many
enslavement by
Portuguese and
other Europeans
Middle Passage & Slave Ships
• Europe/Africa trade grew after 1650
• Trade in other goods continued; did not lead to any significant
European colonization of Africa
• African merchants exploited the demand for slaves:
– raised the price
– Forced Europeans to observe African trading customs
– Competition prevented unified bargaining position
• Exchange of slaves for firearms contributed to state formation in
the Gold and Slave Coasts
Africa and Islamic Slave Trade
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Between 1550 -1800, Europeans
built a growing trade with Africa
but did not acquire territory
Only significant colonies were on
islands; Portuguese in Angola;
Dutch Cape Colony, which was
tied to the Indian Ocean trade
rather than to the Atlantic trade.
Muslim territorial dominance was
significant
Trans-Saharan slave trade was
smaller in volume than the Atlantic
slave trade
Supplied slaves for the personal
slave army of the Moroccan rulers
and for sugar plantation labor,
servants, and artisans
Most slaves were women destined
to be concubines or servants and
children, including eunuchs,
meant for service as harem
guards
Traders approaching Timbuktu
Muslims and Slavery
Spread of Islam in Africa
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Muslim cultural influences
south of the Sahara much
stronger than European
cultural influences
Islam & Arabic spread more
rapidly than Christianity &
English, which were largely
confined to the coastal
trading centers
European & Islamic slave
trade did not have a
significant effect on the
overall population of Africa
acute effect on certain areas
Impact on African States and Trade
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Songhai, Kanem-Bornu, Benin, Lunda,
Buganda, and Ethiopia, remained
powerful in this era
West African coastal societies
increasingly drawn into world trade
East African coastal cities remained
tied to Indian Ocean trade
Volume of trade goods imported into
sub-Saharan Africa did not have
significant effect on livelihood of
traditional African artisans
Both African & European merchants
benefited, but Europeans saw greater
benefit because they directed it
West African States and Trade
1500-1800
• Atlantic & trans-Saharan
trade brought new goods
& promoted rise of
powerful states and
trading communities
• Moroccan invasion of
Songhai and Portuguese
colonization of the
Angolan ports of Luanda
and Benguela showed
the political dangers of
such relations