African Slave Trade

African Slave Trade

The Slave Trade The systematic exploitation of labor without consent, and/or to the possession of human beings as property.

Slaveryis a system under which people are treated aspropertyto be bought and sold, and areforced to work.Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation. Historically, slavery was institutionally recognized by most societies; in more recent times, slavery has been outlawed in all countries, but it continues through the practices ofdebt bondage,serfdom,domestic servantskept in captivity, certain adoptionsin which children are forced to work as slaves,child soldiers, andforced marriage.Slavery is officially illegal inall countries, but there are still an estimated 20 million to 30 million slaves worldwide.

The Atlantic slave traders, ordered by trade volume, were: thePortuguese, theBritish, theFrench, theSpanish, theDutch Empire, and theUnited States.They had established outposts on the African coast where they purchased slaves from local African tribal leaders. Current estimates are that about 12 million Africans were shipped across the Atlantic, although the number purchased by the traders is considerably higher.Slavery in the ColoniesBegan in 1619 only 12 years after the first white men arrived

Was common in the South, but also prevalent in the North

Not only were the slaves expected to serve for life, but so were their children, and their childrens children

There were no laws that protected them

African Slave Trade To Help EconomyWhat really started the push toward importing slaves to the America was the growing of tobacco. It generated a huge profit, but required a lot of work.

Slaves also helped produce rice and sugar that were also sold for a huge profit.

Industrial Revolution and Slave TradePrior to the 1790s there was not a lot of cotton production since it was very labor intensive

In 1793 cotton gin was created ,which separated the seeds from the cotton made it much faster

Slaves were needed, however, to grow and pick the cottonLed to a huge increase in the number of slaves

Why Import Slaves when the Native People were There?The Native American population quickly fell by 90% due to the bad treatment and disease leaving many Europeans settlers concerned that there would be no one left to help with the work

The Europeans, in consultation with the Pope, thought it was important to focus on converting the Native Americans who remained to Christianity rather than forced labor

They were also good at escaping, and coming back with friends to punish those who enslaved themThe CapturePeople were captured along the West Coast of Africa

Kings and merchants in the area would help in exchange for beads, guns, and alcohol

Families would be torn apart people would go to the field for the day and when they returned their families would be gone

Taken For the Slave MarketLife on the Slave ShipsTo maximize profits as many slaves as possible were put onto a ship

It is believed that an African could be captured and brought to America for about $25 and sold for $150

The journey would take about 2 months - -where there was almost no space, sanitation, food, or water

12M are believed to have made the journey and 1.5 M are believed to have died on the way (about 12%)

Life on Slave Ships One captain wrote to our great Amazement about 100 men slaves jumped over board. His sailors rescued two-thirds of the, , but the others would not endeavor to save themselves, but resolvd to die and sunk directly down.

Another captain, John Newton, later wrote the hymn Amazing Grace in response to his experience.

Diagram of a slave ship from the Atlantic slave trade. From an Abstract of Evidence delivered before a select committee of the House of Commons of Great Britain in 1790 and 1791.Being SoldOnce arrived, Slaves would be sold in an auction

This is another point where families would be separated from each other

How actually they were Treated?Poor conditions for the slave. Historian Patrick Manning noted that by 1820 about 10 million Africans had made the journey to American and only 2 million Europeans. The treatment and conditions, however, made it so that there were actually 12M people of European decent living in America and 6M of African.

People who were slaves were owned and there children were owned and there childrens children were owned. They could be abused, sold, and worked to death and no one would protect them.

"Am I Not A Man And A Brother?" 1787 medallion designed for the British anti-slavery campaign

Sojourner TruthThe daughter of enslaved Africans born around 1799 in New York

When she was just nine years old she was sold to a new owner without her family

They were very cruel to her, and she remembers saying that she was beaten with a bundle of rods

She fell in love with a slave from a neighboring farm, but her master was so concerned that she would have children with a slave he did not own that he beat him to death

She was later forced to marry another slave who she did not love

Harriet TubmanBorn into slavery in 1820 in Maryland

When she was six years old her master hit her in the head so hard that she suffered seizures and other neurological issues for the rest of her life

In 1849 her master died and she was worried she would be separated from her family. She escaped and made 13 more missions to rescue 70 more slaves

The route she took, filled with lots of hiding places and people who were willing to risk their lives to take them in, is known as the underground railroad.

1861: America Goes to WarThe United States was highly divided about whether slavery should be legal11 states that wanted to keep slavery tried to secede from the Union.

Abolitionist Movement in the USAfter the American Revolutionary War established the United States, northern states began to pass legislation abolishing slaveryThe first was Pennsylvania in 1780Massachusetts wrote its own constitution that declared all men are equalThe Emancipation ProclamationIn 1862 Abraham Lincoln used special powers the president is allowed in war to free the slaves

African Americans were allowed to fight for the Union Army

He urged everyone to gain freedom in peace

The proclamation went into effect on January 1, 1863It was not clear whether their freedom would continue after the war

Abraham Lincoln's position on slavery was one of the central issues in American history.

The Gettysburg AddressIn just 3 minutes, President Lincoln delivered one of the most famous speeches in the world

It was delivered on November 19, 1863 on the battlefield of Gettysburg where the North won a big victory in July of that year

Defined the war as an effort to continue what America had set out to do in the revolution create a government of the people, by the people, for the people.In 1865 the South SurrendersGeneral Lee (of the South) surrender to General Grant (of the North)

The war produced 1,030,000 casualties620,000 soldier death50,000 civilian deaths60,000 lost limbs

Sadly, 5 Days After Lincoln AssassinatedOn April 14, 1865 Abraham Lincoln became the first US president to be assassinated

The assassination was carried out by John Wilkes Booth, who wanted to revive the Confederate fight. Reconstruction AmendmentsTo ensure that the slaves remained free after the war, three amendments were made to the constitutionThe thirteenth amendment, ratified in 1865, abolished slaveryThe fourteenth amendment, ratified in 1868, ensured the equal protection of the law to allThe fifteenth amendment, ratified in 1870, gives all men the right to voteWomen dont get the right to vote until the 19th amendment is passed in 1920

Jim Crow LawsState and Local laws in the United States enacted between 1876 and 1965 in the Southern States

Tried to argue that it created a separate but equal status for the African Americans

Racism

RacismBathrooms

Water Fountains

Restaurants

Schools

Buses

Rosa ParksIn 1955 Rosa Parks, tired from a long day of work, refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white man

She was arrested, and her act turned into a famous protest called the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

After 381 days the city passed an ordinance (by order of the Supreme Court) that allowed blacks to sit in any seat on the bus.

Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights using nonviolent civil disobedience.Martin Luther KingMartin Luther King was instrumental in organizing the Montgomery Bus Protest

When he was physically attacked for supporting the protest, he gave the following speech to 300 angry black men who gathered outside his home to fight back.

King ArrestedKing was later arrested for his involvement with the boycott. He commented on the arrest by saying I was proud of my crime. It was the crime of joining my people in a nonviolent protest against injustice.

Gains National FameIt is the Montgomery Bus Protest that made MLK a national player

In 1963 he made his famous I have a dream speech in front of the Lincoln memorial

In 1964 he won the Nobel Peace Prize for combating racial inequality through nonviolence

The civil rights movement was a series of worldwide political movements for equality before the law that peaked in the 1960s. In many situations it took the form of campaigns of civil resistance aimed at achieving change by nonviolent forms of resistance. In some situations it was accompanied, or followed, by civil unrest and armed rebellion. The process was long and tenuous in many countries, and many of these movements did not fully achieve their goals although, the efforts of these movements did lead to improvements in the legal rights of previously oppressed groups of people.

New LegislationCivil Rights Act of 1964Outlawed major forms of discrimination (including women) in accessing public facilities (including schools)

Voting Rights Act 1965Ensures fair voting practices

Assassination of MLKHe was assassinated on April 4, 1968 in Memphis Tennessee

After his death he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal

In 1986 Martin Luther King Day was declared a national holiday in the US

Where is America Today?Still racism in AmericaOne of the biggest problems with the criminal justice systemAccording to the NYT Texas has carried out 470 executions since 1976 . Only ONE was for the death of a black personIn 2011 Illinois abolished the death penalty out of fear that it was too racially biased to be fair

But Doing Better

Modern Slavery In 2002, the U.S. Department of State repeated an earlier CIA estimate that each year, about 50,000 women and children are brought against their will to the United States for sexual exploitation. There are twenty-seven million humans in slavery today, which is a greater number than at any other point in the world's history. Slavery exists in the forms of sex trafficking, domestic servitude, factory and farm slavery, and child soldier slavery, but is not limited to these forms