Archaeology of the Slave Trade & Slave Ships

Question 1

What event did slavery coincide with 11,000 years ago?

Answer 1

invention of agriculture

Question 2

When and where were the earliest documented slavery dates?

Answer 2

3500 BCE, Sumer culture of Mesopotamia

Question 3

When was slavery widespread?

Answer 3

the ancient world

Question 4

Why were people enslaved? (5)

Answer 4

debt, crime, prisoners of war, abandoned children, or born to enslaved parents

Question 5

How was slavery different prior to European and Arab involvement? (2)

Answer 5

• Spain and Portugal enslaved people from many different places
• before ~1500, African kingdoms traded enslaved people with European and Arab traders

Question 6

What led to the development of chattel slavery?

Answer 6

European traders entered Africa, traded enslaved people for goods and shipped them to the Americas

Question 7

What was the Portuguese Age of Discovery’?

Answer 7

explorations down the coast of West Africa beginning in the 15th century

Question 8

How did improved nautical technology lead to European colonization and slave trade in West Africa? (2)

Answer 8

• the caravel

- mapping of the West African coast

Question 9

What opened possibilities to European enslavers?

Answer 9

maritime contact

Question 10

Who led the beginning of the transatlantic slave trade?

Answer 10

Portuguese and Spanish (Iberian)

Question 11

Why were the first Africans transported to Hispaniola in 1501? (3)

Answer 11

• prior to that, the Spanish had enslaved the native Taino people
• needed more enslaved people to work the sugar plantations
• by 1540, had enslaved and imported 30,000 Africans to Hispaniola

Question 12

When did the Portuguese import enslaved Africans to Brazil?

Answer 12

1545

Question 13

When was slavery abolished in Brazil?

Answer 13

1888

Question 14

What were four major slave trading ports in West Africa?

Answer 14

• Bunce Island, Sierra Leone
• Cape Coast Castle, Ghana
• Elmina Castle, Ghana
• Wydah, Ghana

Question 15

How did African societies benefit from trade with Europeans?

Answer 15

they were able to acquire more wealth

Question 16

How did unequal power lead to warfare and violence over who could capture the most enslaved people to trade with Europeans, and how can this be seen in the archaeological record? (4)

Answer 16

• destabilized many African nations
• supply and demand
• constant, unpredictable violence/kidnapping
• coastal groups often moved further to the interior, to high mountains or more defensible spots

Question 17

Why are there so few excavations on slave shipwrecks? (2)

Answer 17

• as of 2008, only three slave ships excavated, studied and published: Henrietta Marie, Fredensborg, and Adelaide
• others exist, but were not being used for slave trade when they were wrecked so we do not have material remains of them as slave ships

Question 18

What is the Slave Wrecks Project? (2)

Answer 18

• an international network of researchers and institutions hosted by the National Museum of African American History and Culture
• uses maritime archaeology, historical research and the study of sunken slave ships

Question 19

What was the Henrietta Marie? (6)

Answer 19

• French built, 17th century, captured by English
• sunk in 1700
• found in 1972
• no enslaved people left on board, captors sold 191 in Jamaica prior to wreck
• made two voyages as a slaver, 1697 and 1699
• freight included iron, beads, pewter, weapons, people, and sugar

Question 20

How was Henrietta Marie discovered and excavated? (2)

Answer 20

• 1972, Mel Fisher and gang searching for treasure of Nuestra Señora de Atocha
• 1983, Henry Taylor and David Moore excavated the ship

Question 21

What sort of artifacts were found on board the Henrietta Marie? (2)

Answer 21

• speak to experiences of Middle Passage

- over 7,000 total: bilboes, two cauldrons, elephant tusk, bell with name, 30,000 glass beads, crew gear

Question 22

What sort of resistance occurred aboard slave ships? (5)

Answer 22

• enslaved people rose up against slave ship captains and crew on 1 in 10 voyages
• most common while still on coast of Africa
• crew violently punished enslaved people who fought for their freedom
• death from revolt, punishment, torture, or illness could be compensated by European insurance companies and investors
• some enslaved people starved or killed themselves rather than endure the horrors of the Middle Passage

Question 23

What was the Clotilda? (5)

Answer 23

• built in 1855, Mobile, Alabama
• last known slave ship to arrive in U.S.
• Timothy Meaher and Capt. William Foster
• 1860: bought 110 people from Kingdom of Dahomey and trafficked them to America
• importation of enslaved Africans was illegal since 1808

Question 24

What was the role of slavery in Jamestown? (4)

Answer 24

• 1619: first enslaved people are transported to Jamestown
• captured Portuguese ship
• British brought enslaved people to Jamestown, their permanent settlement in North America
• beginning of racial slavery in future U.S.

Question 25

When were slaves first brought to New Amsterdam?

Answer 25

1626

Question 26

What confirmed the identity of the Henrietta Marie?

Answer 26

the ship’s bell

Question 27

When was the importation of slaves outlawed in the U.S.?

Answer 27

1808