Chapter 20 Slave Trade Flashcards
El Mina
Most important Portuguese factory in the heart of the gold producing zone of Africa.
Portuguese factories
Forts and trading ports with resident merchants along the African coast.
Nzinga Mvemba
African ruler of Kongo. During Portuguese missionary activity to convert Africa he converted his entire country.
Luanda
Portuguese colony on the west coast of Africa that became the basis for the colony of Angola.
Trans Saharan Slave Trade
Consisted mainly of women to be used as concubines and domestic servants.
Royal African Company
Created to supply Britain with slaves for it’s American colonies.
Indies Piece
Created by the Spanish. Counted one healthy man as an indies piece. Others like a woman or child were counted as fractions of that.
Triangular Trade
Slaves to America, cash crops and metals to Europe, and European goods to Africa.
Was the slave trade profitable?
One ship may bring a profit of 300% on a single trip but in the long run because of costs and risks profit was closer to 5% to 10%.
What was slavery like in Africa?
Many types. Peasants diwn to being considered property. Many societies nonegalitarian, ruler owned all the land so owning slaves was one of the only ways to increase personal wealth.
Asante
Rose to prominence on the Gold Coast during the slave trade. Members of the Akan people, divided into at least 20 matrilineal clan based states. Oyoko clan predominated. Due to cooperation and firearms an era of centralization and expansion was ushered in.
Osei Tutu and the title of asantehene
Osei was a vigorous ruler who created the title as to show the supreme civil and religious leader. Many Akan clans respected authority of the title but remained largely autocratic in their own villages.
Benin
Kingdom on the African coast, traded with Europeans. Origins in the city of ife, in 1516 the ruler or oba, limited trade in slaves. Trade controlled by king. Slaves mever top priority.
Dahomey
Developed from fon people in Abomey. Kings ruled with help of councils but firearms allowed creation of an autocratic government. Under king agaja it moved to the coast and captured the port of whydah. Used guns and slaves circle and traded with Europeans. As they expanded they created a unified state by destroying old traditions.
Zanzibar and other offshore African islands
Arabian merchants followed European model and set up clove producing plantations with African slave labor.
Luo peoples
Nilotic people who upon migrating formed dynasties along the many lakes in central Africa. At bunyoro the luo established a ruling dynast over the Bantu people of the region.
Upon the breakup of the songhay empire…
Several successor states sprung up, some like Bambara were pagan, others like Hausa were ruled by Muslim royal families but had animist subjects.
Fulani and usuman Dan fodio
Pastoral people in the western Sudan. Fodio preached Muslim reform in Hausa. Later preached a jihad against them. Fulani took control of Hausa and made a new empire with it’s capital in sokoto.
San and Khoikhoi
Hunters and sheep herders on the southern region of Africa. Relatively unaffected by slavery. Pushed north and west when Dutch started conflict with them on the cape of good hope for slave labor.
Great trek
When Britain seized the cape colony and tried to abolish slavery the Dutch (boers) made this great trek north because they depended on slavery.
Shaka
Leader of the newly unified Nguni people. His own Zulu chiefdom absorbed or destroyed its neighbors.
Mfecane
Wars of crushing and wandering triggered by the rise of the Nguni people and the Zulu.
Swazi and Lesotho
Kingdoms a that survived Zulu conquest. Swazi adapted to Zulu aspects and Lesotho was able to hold them off.
Middle passage
Passage from Africa to America for a slave. Horrible, many died.
Saltwater slaves and creole slaves
Saltwater slaves brought from Africa and creole born in America
Obeah
Name given to African religious practices in America. Often a mix of tribal beliefs and Christianity.
Suriname
Former Dutch plantation colony. Large numbers of slaves ran there and waged a war from the rain forest against expeditions to hunt them down.
Palmares
Enormous runaway slave kingdom in Brazil.
William wilberforce
Abolitionist in England speaking out against slavery with ideas that surfaced during enlightenment.
