The Atlantic slave Trade Flashcards
State the stages of the Triangle Trade.
Stage 1: Traders heading to Africa would load their ships with British good like Guns and Clothing before heading to the western African Coast
Stage 2: Once in Africa traders would exchange the goods to tribes for captured or enslaved Africans that they would provide.
Stage 3: Boats set off for America from Africa, Upon arrival the African prisoners are sold at markets and made slaves.
Stage 4: The traders load their boats up with goods grown in America like cotton, tobacco, sugar and rum and then they set off for Britain.
Stag 5: Goods are sold in Britain and the cycle begins again
State the effects of the slave trade on Brittish ports.
-Londons ports handled sugar imported from Caribbean plantations.
-Londons banks and financial institutions benefitted and made money from funding and insuring the slave trade.
-Glasgow controlled 50% of the European Tabbaco trade
-Bristol provided goods to trade for enslaved Africans. It was also a major sugar importer
- Liverpools merchants carried more enslaved Africans than any other British port.
-Due to the mass profit produced from the slave trade and demand for slaves being transported across the middle passage brittish ports grew massively to harbour slave ships.
-A lot of the money made by the slave trade was put into the British navy.
State effects of the triangle trade on Africa.
-The slave trade had devastating effects on Africa
1. Warlords of African tribes used the slave trade to gain economic opportunities in order to expand the power of their tribes, due to this the slave trade influenced many wars and violence between tribes. This is because tribes would start conflicts to capture people from other tribes to trade to the Europeans for guns, alcohol and cloth.
- The majority of Africans taken were young strong men and women in their child bearing years. The trades usually left elderly or disabled people that were least able to contribute to the African economic health or society. This had a huge impact as there weren’t many strong Africans to tend the crops and hunt making Africa’s agricultural development significantly.
- Massive decrease in population of Africa, almost one third was taken and enslaved.
Any other relevant points…
How were enslaved Africans held as cargo and what were the conditions on the slave ships?
How they were held as cargo:
-Tight Packed: When as many were stored on board as possible in rows below deck, shoulder width apart on shelves (one captain described them like books in a shelf) , higher likely hood of death. This was expected however a large number would still survive increasing the profit.
-Loose Packed: When fewer were stored aboard on a ship in order to limit spread of disease to reduce the death rate. The increased survival rate could lead to more to sell meaning higher profits
Conditions:
-Poor quality diet and food: many captive Africans couldn’t digest food carried by the Europeans. Lack of fruit and veg lead to scurvy. Salted meat and fish was the only source of protein, the high salt content caused dehydration.
-Unsanitary: There were no toilets, people were chained together so if one died the body could remain chained for hours to a still living person. Below deck was stuffy with little ventilation, one ship recorded a candle being unable to light below deck due to lack of oxygen. Food and water became contaminated with human waist.
-cramped conditions
-Those enslaved were tortured, abused or exploited
-disease and death was usual: Many that were tight packed just pooed where they lay as they weren’t allowed to go to the loo. 15-16 percent died in the middle passage.
Not so fun fact:
During 1788 a slave ship named ‘The Zong’ threw 132 Africans of their ship to die because they were running low on water supplies because of spending an extra 3 weeks out at sea. This act enraged abolitionists and was used to publicise their movement.
What is the middle passage?
The journey carrying Africans from Africa across the Atlantic to the Caribbean and Americas.
What is Dolben’s act, 1788
In 1788, a British MP named William Dolben passed a bill regulating the terrible conditions on slave ships. This bill was called the ‘Slave trade act of 1788,’ and controlled the number of slaves a ship could carry, according to weight. It also ordered all slave ships to carry a doctor that had to keep record of all slaves on board. These doctors received bonuses according to the number of Africans who survived the journey. Although conditions still remained terrible.
State how trade European trade with west Africa began.
Europe originally didn’t specialise in trade of enslaved people.
During the 15th century the Portuguese began with west Africa for gold, this is how it gained the name the golden coast. They built large forts in Africa used as trading bases.
Many other European powers like the Dutch, British and French began making trade connections with African after this in thing like gold, metals and timber.
Trade built and they later began trading goods for enslaved Africans and transporting them to the Americas.
Talk about the development of slave fortresses in west Africa.
Because the trade in West Africa became very profitable many European powers set up permanent trading camps on the west African coast, with permission from African leaders. Many of these trading posts functioned as small towns with housing areas for Europeans to stay and well defended warehouses where goods to be traded were stored. Overtime competition between the Europeans in trading grew, this made forts expand and stronger forts get built. Many were defended with heavy walls and cannons, many where fought over and changed ownership several times. When African trade became dominated by buying and enslaved people, store rooms became dungeons where enslaved people would be held.
What happened during and upon arrival at a slave fortress?
During:
Most Africans captured to be traded for were from areas by the African West coast. When the population of the coast decreased dramatically slavers had to move further inland to capture Africans. Those captured had to walk the long march back to the slave fortresses.
Upon Arrival:
-Males and Females were separated
-Families were split up
-Prisoners were inspected by a surgeon
-The healthiest were selected and bought, then branded on the chest with a hot iron to stop African slavers from switching those enslaved that were healthy with those unhealthy.
-Captives were taken to holding cells and dungeons to wait for the arrival of the European slave ships.
What were the conditions like of a slave fortress like for slaves?
-Those enslaved would be held in poorly ventilated dungeons with little room
-Food quality was poor and limited to keep the slaves hungry, weak and compliant.
-There was no sanitation meaning illness and disease spread easily
-The poor living conditions meant that many were killed by tropical diseases like malaria and yellow fever.
-Captive Africans had little resistance to European diseases that they had never encountered before leading to much death.
What was abuse and punishment like in slave fortresses.
-Captive Africans were whipped and beaten.
-Captive women and girls faced sexual assault
-People were put in punishment cells for rebelling, in severe cases they were deprived of food and left to die
Often slaves had to stay in camps for months before they were sold to European slave traders.
What negative impacts did the slave trade on the Caribbean islands?
The Atlantic slave trade and many long-lasting effect on the development in the Caribbean. Indigenous people named Arawaks were largely wiped out by European diseases, violence, starvation and enslavement. They were replaced by West Africans. The slave trade also damaged the Caribbean economy because of the mass demand for sugar larger plantations were built, taking up land and destroying the natural ecosystem. Large Sugar plantations made an over-reliance on sugar so when the International price of sugar went down it had a huge impact on the economy. Many of the European powers discovered that they could get sugar a lot cheaper than places like India and the Caribbean could not compete with the cheap prices and the economy crashed. As well as this European population of the Caribbean were outnumbered compared to enslaved population 20:1 Europeans lived in fear of Rebellion. Military from the powers were sent to the islands to protect the European population from rebellion.
Give examples of rebellion from slaves and say why they usually didn’t work.
-Many enslaved Africans did not take their captivity kindly. There was much resistance on slave ships and plantations. Passive resistance included working slowly and damaging machinery. There was also active resistance which consisted of running away and planning rebellions. Most commonly rebellions failed. There are many reasons for this, for example, European military on the island had access to firearms, European soldiers were better trained and more expertly led, it was very hard to keep hold of the Caribbean islands for a long time if rebellions were successful.
-Examples of rebellions on slave ships would be la Amistad in 1839. Ship was carrying in sleeved Africans to a Spanish owned plantation in Cuba. During the journey a group of Africans escaped where they were held on the ship and killed many of the crew and taking control of the ship. They were late to recaptured and sent to court.
