The Slave Trade

US History
McIntyre
 The Atlantic Slave Trade
When?
•1450 - Spanish & Portuguese start
slaving in Africa
•1865 - still smuggling slaves until
the end of the civil war (technically
illegal in 1808)

2
 The Atlantic Slave Trade
Why? (3 reasons
combined)
•Labor shortage (not enough workers)
•Ethnocentrism –(feelings of superiority)
•Greed

3
 The Atlantic Slave Trade
Where to? Where from?
5%

60 65
% %
30
35 % 5%
%

4
 Number of people enslaved
•30 million taken
from their homes

•10 million die

during capture
phase
•10 million die
during middle
passage
•10 million
survive to make it
over the ocean

5
 Phases of the Slave Trade
Capture:
•Most captured 50-100 miles inland

•Tribes often did not have a choice in

helping capture neighbors “divide and
conquer”

6
 Phases of the Slave Trade
West African expectations about slavery:

•Slaves were not slaves for life

•A slave’s child would not be a slave

7
 Phases of the Slave Trade
Capture:

Cape Coast Castle, Gold Coast, 1727

Christiansborg Castle, Gold Coast, ca. 1750

8
 Phases of the Slave Trade
2. The Middle Passage
•Journey over the Atlantic Ocean

•400-500 people in a boat with little air

& much disease

9
 Phases of the Slave Trade
2. The Middle Passage - Tight Pack

•Higher mortality, higher profits

10
 Phases of the Slave Trade
2. The Middle
Passage -
Loose pack
•Lower
mortality,
lower profits

11
 Phases of the Slave Trade
3. “Seasoning” -

•Brutal work camps, 4-5 months in

Caribbean
•Meant to train people to be slaves

12
 Thinking Question:
(Don’t write down – just think!)

Given how many people died

during the “Capture phase” or
on the “Middle passage,” what
do you think went on in the
minds of the slave catchers and
slave traders?

13
 Triangle Trade
North
America

Molasses Rum, weapons

The Africa
Carribean Slaves

14
 Growth of Slavery
Why Africans?
•Americas are desperate for labor
•Harder for Africans to run away
than Native Americans
•African strengths - agricultural
practices, resistance to diseases

15
 Growth of Slavery
How did African slaves fight back?

•Open revolt (rare)

•Work slowdowns
•Breaking Tools
•Poisoning food

16
 Thinking Question:
(Don’t write down – just think!)

While many slaves resisted, not

all of them did. What did they
have to lose?

17
 Growth of Slavery
How much did it grow?

•1800 - 1 million in slavery

•1860 - 4 million (1/3 of Southern
population)

18
 Growth of Slavery
Why?

Cotton Gin
•Invented 1793 - made slavery VERY
productive
•100x faster than by hand
•More efficient = more $ (so need more
slaves)

19