Transatlantic Slave Trade

Question 1

What is the Transatlantic Slave Trade?

Answer 1

The trade of enslaved persons from Africa across the Atlantic Ocean.

Question 2

What is forced migration?

Answer 2

The forced movement of peoples out of Africa.

Question 3

What is the Middle Passage?

Answer 3

The forced movement of peoples out of Africa. Specifically referring to the passage across the Atlantic Ocean on slave ships.

Question 4

What is a colony?

Answer 4

A country or area under the full or partial political control of another country, typically a distant one, and occupied by settlers from that country.

Question 5

What is the purpose of a colony?

Answer 5

Colonies were a way for the mother country to engage in the practice of mercantilism, or increasing their power by creating a source for exports and raw materials.

Question 6

Who has control of a colony?

Answer 6

A colony is a country or area under the full or partial political control of another country, typically a distant one.

Question 7

What colony in the Americas is responsible for the highest number of forced migration from Africa?

Answer 7

Brazil

Question 8

What European country controlled Brazil?

Answer 8

Portugal

Question 9

What was the primary trade in Brazil?

Answer 9

Sugar

Question 10

What is the purpose of slavery?

Answer 10

Labor

Question 11

Why did colonial societies have social hierarchies predicated (based) on race?

Answer 11

Control, colonial societies that relied on slave labor had to maintain a high amount of control in order to continue exploiting that labor. In an effort to justify who had to provide labor and who didn’t the idea of race began to be used as an excuse for enslavement. Race was defined differently in different places.

Question 12

What are reparations?

Answer 12

Repair

Question 13

What are the steps needed in order to provide reparations?

Answer 13

Recognition - Recognize the harm done.
Research - Research relevant parties and the impact of harm.
Relevant Payment - Tailor repayment to address the specific harm caused, or the needs caused by that harm.
Education/Re-education - Educate/Re-educate the general population of the event and the harm done.

Question 14

Why did some Africans kidnap other Africans for the purpose of trading with Europeans? Cite at least two reasons

Answer 14

1. Slavery already existed in Africa, so the demand from Europe led to the development of an organized trade
2. At the time, there was no concept of being African because loyalty was to a specific Kingdom or society.
3. Africans needed firearms to protect themselves, especially when Europeans were selling firearms to their enemies, and slaves were the only way to acquire firearms.

Question 15

Name 3-5 African rulers that resisted the slave trade and the name of their kingdoms.

Answer 15

1. King Afonso of the Kongo
2. King Agaja Trudo of Dahomey
3. Queen Njingha of Ndongo (in modern Angola)
4. Donna Beatriz Kimpa Vita of the Kongo
5. Abd Al-Qadir from Senegal

Question 16

How did the force migration of people impact the place where they came from and the place they were brought to?

Answer 16

The place they were brought from was depopulated of its working-age people, which would have a negative impact on their economy

The place they were brought to would receive free labor, which would have a positive impact on their economy.

Question 17

By the century it was estimated that ____% of Lisbon was of African descent.

Answer 17

10%

Question 18

What year were the first Africans slaves taken from Europe to the Americas?

Answer 18

1503

Question 19

What year were the first Africans slaves taken from Africa to the Americas?

Answer 19

1518

Question 20

How was the transatlantic slave trade different from prior forms of slavery?

Answer 20

1. The Scale and Scope - millions of Africans were taken as slaves far away from their homes, instead of the domestic type of slavery that existed before.
2. Chattel slavery - the slavery was permanent and applied to the offspring of the slaves, and also was based on race. Slaves were property that could be bought and sold like animals.

Question 21

Who was Olaudah Equiano?

Answer 21

Equiano was a kidnapped African, who later learned to read and write. After obtaining his freedom he wrote a book that described his experience on a slave ship. This is one of the few sources that describe the Middle Passage, especially from the perspective of an enslaved person.

Question 22

How does Equiano compare what he so on the slave ship to slavery in his own country?

Answer 22

He said it was so horrible that he would rather have traded places with the meanest (worst) slave in his own country.

Question 23

Who was King Afonso?

Answer 23

In 1490, the Portuguese converted the son of a Kongo king to Christianity and then helped him take his father’s throne. The new king, born Nzinga Mbemba, was renamed Afonso. King Afonso started with a good relationship with the Portuguese but soon realized that his relationship with Portugal had extremely negative consequences.

Question 24

In King Afonso’s letter to King John III of Portugal what does he ask for?

Answer 24

In Afonso’s 1526 letter to King John the III of Portugal, the king of Kongo appeals to the king of Portugal to end the slave trade.

Question 25

In Afonso’s 1526 letter to the Portuguese King, what does he describe happening in his kingdom?

Answer 25

1. The King’s loyal officials (vassals) are no longer loyal because the Portuguese are providing them with more goods than the King.
2. The people desire the goods of the Portuguese and are selling their own people and others as slaves, which is depopulating his kingdom.

Question 26

Approximately how many people forcibly migrated from Africa during the Transatlantic slave trade?

Answer 26

9 million

Question 27

Approximately how many people were forced to migrate from Africa to South America?

Answer 27

4 million

Question 28

4. What trades encouraged the rise of slavery, particularly across the Atlantic?

Answer 28

Slave trade and the Sugar trade

Question 29

Name 3 impacts of the Transatlantic slave trade on Brazil named in the documentary.

Answer 29

1. Brazil imported almost half of all the slaves brought from Africa, which is significant because Brazil still has a multi-racial population with the second largest black population in the world.
2. Brazil has a culture that includes many traditions with African roots, like Capoeria and Candomble.
3. The impact of the Transatlantic slave trade is that many black people still live in poor neighborhoods.

Question 30

Why does the Maya de Santo throw popcorn on the ground during Carnival in Brazil?

Answer 30

The Maya de Santo throws popcorn on the ground to symbolize offerings to the Yoruba gods to assure a peaceful carnival.

Question 31

Name one example of cultural diffusion in the Brazil documentary

Answer 31

Candomble is an example of cultural diffusion because the blacks brought African gods to Brazil and mixed it with Catholicism.

Question 32

Why does Brazil refer to itself as a “racial democracy”?

Answer 32

Brazil refers to itself as a racial democracy because it claims that it is the first country to end racism.

Question 33

What is the difference between racial categories in America and Brazil

Answer 33

In America, anybody who has one drop of African blood is considered black. However, in Brazil, your race depends on how people see you because they have lots of racial categories. The system of categorizing race could be from Brazil’s long history of racial mixing.

Question 34

What country imported both sugar cane and slavery to Brazil? Why?

Answer 34

Portugal imported sugarcane and slaves to Brazil to work on the largest sugar plantation economy in the entire world. This was because the Portuguese could easily import slaves from Africa because of the shorter distance.

Question 35

What is Capoeira? What is its significance?

Answer 35

Capoeira is an activity that is part martial arts and part dance. However, the slaves could be punished if they were caught practicing martial arts. Capoeira is significant because it allowed the slaves to disguise their self-defense training as dancing.

Question 36

What is Candomble? What does it tell us about culture in Brazil?

Answer 36

Candomblé is a religion created in Brazil and is based on the gods that the slaves brought from Angola, Nigeria, and Dahomey. This tells us that culture in Brazil comes from the mixing of many cultures and ethnicities.

Question 37

Why were free black populations in 18th century Brazil integrated? Why were free black populations in America segregated?

Answer 37

The free black population in 18th-century Brazil was integrated due to the shortage of Portuguese women. The free black population in America was segregated because white people were less willing to have relationships with black people.

Question 38

Who was Chica DaSilva?

Answer 38

Chica DaSilva was an 18th century slave and the partner of a white diamond merchant. When she was freed by her partner, she became one of the wealthiest women in Minas Gerais.

Question 39

10. Why do you think Freyre has academic notoriety, but Querino does not?

Answer 39

Querino did not think Brazil needed Europeans because Brazil had already been civilized by Africans. He did not have academic notoriety because when everyone was trying to whiten Brazil he was saying that black was the key component of Brazilian identity.

Question 40

Who was the last country to abolish slavery?

Answer 40

Brazil

Question 41

Name 5 impacts of the Slave Trade on African societies.

Answer 41

1. Depoplation - population of Africa remained stagnant until the 19th century
2. Social relations were restructured and traditional values were subverted
3. Political regimes that were predatory developed
4. More conflict between kingdoms
5. Disorganized continent was vulnerable colonization

Question 42

What was the effect of the slave trade om the Americas?

Answer 42

1. African culture became part of Brazilian society, but race was not used to defend slavery in Brazil
2. racism and hierarchy was used to justify slavery in the United States
   3.