African Colonization & the Slave Trade

The Portuguese were the first Europeans to thoroughly explore the west coast of Africa

Arrived beginning in the 1440s…50 years before Columbus discovered the New World

European Exploration

They were looking for gold, geographic knowledge, Christian allies, perhaps a new route to Asia.

They were NOT looking for slaves

1441, two captains brought 10-12 Africans back to Portugal as exhibits

One of the Africans was a tribal chief, who negotiated his release in exchange for other Africans on the next voyage – they were then used as slaves

Slaves were property…not looked at as people or human beings

Within 10 years, thousands of slaves had been transported to Portugal and Portuguese islands

By the start of the 1500s, roughly 200,000 Africans had been transported to Europe

The First Captures

The discovery of the New World (North America) created a new market for slavery

1600’s – Slaves transported to American colonies

Why blacks but not other whites or natives?◦Whites used as indentured servants◦Indians were tough and resourceful…they knew

the land and they fought back◦Africans were torn from their homes, their

families, their country, their way of life…they were regarded as completely helpless

The New World

Africans were often captured from their inland villages by other Africans, then given to Europeans

Why not by Europeans?◦ They didn’t know the land◦ Many Africans were prisoners of war, captured during

battles between warring tribes

Marches to the Coast

After their capture, Africans were marched to the coast where trading posts and harbors had been established

March to the sea could last months and cover thousands of miles

Shackled around the neck under whip and gun

Death marches – 4 out of every 10 died

Those who were too weak to carry on were left behind to die

Some were killed, but a dead African is worth less than one that’s alive

Marches showed the Africans’ complete helplessness in the face of a superior force

Once on the coast, the Africans were kept in small cages until they were picked and sold

Had to be thoroughly examined by the ship’s surgeons (don’t want anyone getting the others sick)

Slave Markets

Branded on the chest like cattle when sold

Thrown back in their cages for 10-15 days until they were put on the ships

“As the slaves came down from the inland country, they are put into a booth or prison near the beach, and when the Europeans are to receive them, they are brought out onto a large plain, where the ship’s surgeons examine every part of everyone of them…men and women being stark naked. Such as are allowed good and sound are set on one side…marked on the breast with a red-hot iron, imprinting the mark of the French, English, or Dutch companies. The branded slaves after this are returned to their former booths where they await shipment, sometimes 10-15 days…” – from Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States

Slaves chained together in the dark, wet slime of the ship’s hull

Essentially packed on top of each other Spaces not much bigger than coffins, which

is fitting considering about 1 of 3 died on ship

On Board the Ships

Sailors would hear horrible noises from below, open the hatches and find slaves in different stages of suffocation

Many died, many killed by other slaves in a desperate attempt to breath

Slaves would jump overboard…better to drown than stay on the ship and suffer

Many slaves refused to eat, hoping to die…but they were force fed (can’t sell a dead slave)

Many slaves refused to eat, hoping to die…but they were force fed (can’t sell a dead slave)

One observer said “a slave deck was covered with so much blood and mucus that it resembled a slaughterhouse”

There were a number of slave rebellions on board, but in the end the guys with the guns win out

“The height, sometimes, between decks was only eighteen inches; so that the unfortunate human beings could not turn around, or even on their sides, the elevation being less than the breadth of their shoulders; and here they are usually chained to the decks by the neck and legs. In such a place the sense of misery and suffocation is so great, that the Negroes…are driven to frenzy.”

– from Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States

About 20 African slaves arrive in Jamestown 1619◦ (slaves in Spanish Florida around 1519)

Jamestown settled by the British in 1607 The colony had troubles surviving…by 1610

only 60 of the original 900 settlers were still alive

tobacco was introduced to the colony in 1617, became a cash crop, and helped Jamestown survive and thrive

Slaves in America

Jamestown needed laborers to clear the land and cultivate the crops◦ used Africans as slaves

by 1800, 10-15 million African slaves in America

Estimated that Africa lost 50 million human beings to slavery and death at the hands of slave traders and plantation owners in western Europe and America…these are and were considered the most advanced countries in the world