Slavery Flashcards
How did sugar connect the word?
Grown in warmer climates eg. India
350AD - boiled and dried - crystals traded with Islamic world between 350-1100 AD
Through the crusades traded as luxury item in Europe
Who was sugar available to in the 1400s and why?
Only the rich because merchants charged very high prices because it had to be traded from very far away
How did the idea of slave labour stem from growing sugar ( where and who grew sugar)
end of 1400s, spainish and Portuguese found islands off the coast of Africa, perfect climate I.e canary Islands, Cape Verde, São tomé etc. Portuguese took people from nearby African kingdoms used them for slave labour, idea spread
How, when and who spread the sugar trade to the Americas?
Portuguese tried to make Brazilians move to coast but by 1600,
200 000 enslaved Africans moved to Brazil and Caribbean
How did sugar develop from luxury to commodity?
Until 1600, not enough production of sugar so it’s only for the wealthy, but then it became accessible so affordable. Industrial revolution, demand for sugar increases as it is a source for quick energy.
Enslaved people
the legal property of someone else, bought, sold and traded as goods
What happend to slavery after the fall of the roman empire?
Less common
Where did it continue to exist?
Africa
Why were people enslaved (before transatlantic slave trade) and how were they different from transatlantic slaves?
Punishment for crimes, captured in warfare, often serfs, could rise to power and were like part of master’s family
What did slave labour produce?
Sugar, cotton, tobacco, rum
When was the slave trade abolished
(British empire)?
1807
How many people we transported as enslaved people between 1502 and 1850?
11 to 60 million
When was owning a slave illegal (British empire)?
1833
What was happening to african empires in the 1600s?
the previously wealthy and powerful empires ie Mali were crumbling
How did the transatlantic slave trade start?
Europeans especially brits traded manufactured goods and weapons that african rulers wanted for prisoners of war and criminals (‘labour’)
Explain how the trade of weapons for slaves was a cycle of violence
The kingdoms went to war for slaves to get more goods, so other kingdoms had to trade slaves for weapons for protection, this lead to lots of wars and political instability
European ‘justification’ for slave trade
Already seen as wrong, made up that Africans were ‘biologically inferior’ which divided people and created racism
Slave trade triangle -Europe to western coast of Africa
textile, rum, weapons, manufactured goods
Slave trade triangle - middle passage (western coast of Africa to carribean)
Enslaved people (Labour supply)
Slave trade triangle - Americas to Europe
Sugar, tobacco, cotton etc. (goods produced by slaves) brought to be manufactured and traded
How was american slavery and african slavery different?
American - like chattle or goods, unhumane
African - like serfs
Middle passage - march to the coast (what, conditions)
-marched to European coastal forts
- 20miles a day -8hrs of walking
-2 by 2 at leg -all chained at the neck
Middle passage -coastal forts (who, where,conditions)
-Europeans had fine houses and forts on coast
-enslaved kept in crowded dungeons for many months
-Conflict between people from different kingdoms which were at war
-led to many deaths
Middle passage - canoe to ships (conditions)
-chained together
-many drowned themselves to avoid a life of slavery
