Ppt 2 capture middle passage-auction

Ppt 2 capture middle passage-auction

1. Why Africans for slavery?

2. Stage One: Obtaining Slaves
in Africa

3. Geography of Slavery
•Enslaved Africans mostly
came from the area
stretching from the
Senegal River in Africa to
Angola.
•Europeans divided the
area into five regions:
–Upper Guinea Coast
–Ivory Coast
–Lower Guinea Coast
–Gabon
–Angola

5. Stage One
•Ships left Europe loaded with goods, such as guns,
tools, textiles & rum.
•Crews with guns went ashore to capture slaves.
•Slaves were obtained by:
1. Kidnapping
2. Trading
3. People were given by chiefs as tributes (gifts)
4. Chiefs would send people who were in debt
5. Chiefs would send criminals through judicial
process
6. Prisoners of tribal wars were also sent.

6. The Atlantic Slave Trade

7. King Tegbesu of
Dahomy, made
around HK$3,000,000
from selling Africans
in about 1750.
Tegbesu is shown here
entertaining some
European slave traders.
Sale of
Slaves by
Tribal chiefs
Prisoners of Tribal Wars.
Kidnappings
Criminals
Royal Wives
Potential
plotters
against the
Tribal chief

8. Capture
•The original capture
of slaves was almost
always violent
•As European demand
grew, African
chieftains organized
raiding parties to
seize individuals from
neighboring societies
•Others launched wars
specifically for the
purpose of capturing
slaves

9. Goree, or Slave-Stick
A French naval officer, in the Angola region
in the late eighteenth century, describes how
slave traders used "a forked branch which
opens exactly to the size of a neck so the
head can't pass through it. The forked branch
is pierced with two holes so that an iron pin
comes across the neck of the slave . . ., so
that the smallest movement is sufficient to
stop him and even to strangle him”

10. Goree, or Slave-Stick

12. Forced Participation
African Chiefs did resist in the beginning;
however, they needed weapons for
defence.
The Europeans were too powerful;
therefore, any effort to resistance was
unsuccessful
If chiefs did supply slaves, they were
threatened to be taken as slaves.

13. History of African Slavery
•Most slaves in Africa were
war captives
•Once enslaved, an
individual had no personal
or civil rights
•Owners could order slaves
to do any kind of work,
punish them, and sell them
as chattel
•Most slaves worked as
cultivators

15. Captured slaves often had to trek hundreds of miles from the interior to the slave coast,
where the European slave ships awaited them. They were linked together in ‘coffles’,
iron, or shown here, wooden collars and clinking chains.

16. African Captives in Yokes

18. Slave Trade in the Congo

19. A dealer checks the condition of
newly arrived slaves for bad
teeth or grey hair.
PHYSICAL CHECKS
BRANDING
Once bought the slave was
then branded with the owner’s
initials or mark.
Most brands were of silver
because wounds healed
faster than those made with
iron.

20. •Slaves were held in
prisons along the west
coast of Africa.

•They were waiting to put
on slaves ships.
•Those that journeyed
from the interior and were
not fit for the ship were
left on the shores to die

21. Cape Coast Castle, W. Africa

22. Slaves on reaching
the coast and
awaitingthe arrival
of slave ships were
kept in slave
barracks called
‘barracoons’.
Shown below, are
other methods of
detaining slaves.

23. “Black” Gold for Sale!

24. Stage Two: Middle Passage

25. Stage Two: The Middle Passage
-Ships sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to the
Americas
-The journey took 8-10 weeks
-Some Africans tried to jump ship, refused to eat
and rebelled.
-Loss of a slave’s life was a loss of $ for the
sailors.

26. The Middle Passage

27. Aim: How did the Atlantic slave trade effect Africa?
Do Now: What is the legacy of Columbus?
The Horrors of the Middle Passage

28. The Middle Passage

29. Stage Two
“Loose packing” meant that the captains
would take on board fewer slaves in hope
to reduce sickness and death.
“Tight packing” meant that the captains
would carry as many slaves as their ship
could hold, as they believed that many
blacks would die on the voyage anyway

30. Aim: How did the Atlantic slave trade effect Africa?
Do Now: What is the legacy of Columbus?
Middle Passage
•This is the voyage that brought captured
Africans to the West Indies and later to
North/South America.
•Cruelty characterized this journey. The
Africans were packed into ships with
beatings.
•They suffered horrible disease and abuse.
•Many committed suicide by throwing
themselves overboard.

31. Slave Ship Plan

32. Aim: How did the Atlantic slave trade effect Africa?
Do Now: What is the legacy of Columbus?
The Voyage

33. “Coffin” Position:
Onboard a Slave Ship

34. Middle Passage
•Most ships provided slaves with enough room to sit
upright, but not enough to stand
•Others forced slaves to lie in chains with barely 20
inches space between them

35. Middle Passage
•Tight packing - belly to
back, chained in twos,
wrist to ankle (660+),
naked.
•Loose packing -
shoulder to shoulder
chained wrist to wrist or
ankle to ankle.
•Men and woman
separated (men placed
towards bow, women
toward stern).
•Fed once of twice a day
and brought on deck for
limited times.

36. Slave Ship Interior

37. Middle Passage
•Journey lasted 6-8 weeks.
•Due to high mortality rate, cargo was insured
(reimbursed for drowning accidents but not for
deaths from disease of sickness)
•Common to dump your cargo for sickness or
food shortages.
•Slave mutinies on board ships were common (1
out of every 10 voyages across the Atlantic
experience a revolt).
•Covert resistance (attempted suicide, jumped
overboard, refusal to eat).

38. Onboard the Slave Ship

39. Middle Passage
•Crews attempted to keep as many slaves alive as
possible to maximize profits, but treatment was
extremely cruel
–Some slaves refused to eat and crew members used tools to
pry open their mouths and force-feed them
–Sick slaves were cast overboard to prevent infection from
spreading
•During the early days of the slave trade, mortality rates
were as high as 50%
•As the volume of trade increased and conditions
improved (bigger ships, more water, better nourishment
and facilities), mortality eventually declined to about 5%

40. Middle Passage
•The time a ship took to make the Middle Passage
depended upon several factors including its point of
origin in Africa, the destination in the Americas, and
conditions at sea such as winds, currents, and storms.
•With good conditions and few delays, a 17th Century
Portuguese slave ship typically took 30 to 50 days to sail
from Angola to Brazil.
•British, French, and Dutch ships transporting slaves
between Guinea and their Caribbean island possessions
took 60 to 90 days.
•As larger merchant ships were introduced, these times
reduced somewhat

41. Middle Passage
•Crowded, unsanitary conditions
– Slaves rode on planks 66” x 15”
•only 20”– 25” of headroom
–Males chained together in pairs
–Kept apart from women and children
–High mortality rates
•One-third perish between capture and embarkation

42. Provisions for the Middle
Passage
•Slaves fed twice per day
–Poor and insufficient diet
•Vegetable pulps, stews, and fruits
•Denied meat or fish
•Ten people eating from one bucket
•Unwashed hands spread disease
•Malnutrition, weakness, depression, death

43. Sanitation, Disease,
and Death
•Astronomically high before 1750
–Poor sanitation
•No germ theory prior to early 20th century
•Malaria, yellow fever, smallpox, dysentery
•After 1750
–Faster ships
–Hygiene and diet better understood
–Early forms of smallpox vaccinations

44. African Women on Slave
Ships
•Less protection against unwanted sexual
attention from European men
•African women worth half the price of African
men in the Caribbean markets
•Separation from male slaves made them easier
targets
•Historian Barbara Bush
–Middle passage horrors depressed sex drives

45. Middle Passage Statistics
•10-16 million Africans forcibly transported across the
Atlantic from 1500-1900.
•2 million died during the Middle Passage (10-15%)
•Another 15-30% dies during the march to the coast.
•For every 100 slaves that reached the New World,
another 40 died in Africa or during the Middle Passage.

46. Revolt Aboard a Slave Ship

50. Resistance and Revolt at Sea
•Uprisings were common
–Most rebellions before sailing
–Some preferred death to bondage
–Justification for harsh treatment by slavers

52. African Captives Thrown
Overboard
Sharks followed the slave ships across the Atlantic!

53. Destination of Captives
•Caribbean 40%
•Brazil 40%
•Latin America 10%
•British North America 10%

54. Stage Three: Arrival in New
World, Auctions, and
Plantation Life

55. Stage Three
•Africans would be sold at auctions in the
Americas
•The ships’ captains would use the $ from
their sale to buy a 3
rd
cargo of raw
materials: sugar, spices or tobacco.
•They sold this for a further large profit in
Europe.
•In Europe, they would convert the raw
materials into finished product.

56. Arrival
•When the slave ship
docked, the slaves
would be taken off the
ship and placed in a
pen
•There they would be
washed and their skin
covered with grease,
or sometimes tar, to
make them look
healthy (and therefore
more valuable)
•They would also be
branded with a hot
iron to identify them
as slaves

57. Landing and Sale in the West
Indies
•Pre-sale
–Bathed and exercised
–Oiled bodies to conceal blemishes and
bruises
–Hemp plugs

58. Nineteenth-Century Engraving
This nineteenth-century engraving suggests the humiliation Africans
endured as they were subjected to physical inspections before being sold.

59. Seasoning
•Modify behavior and attitude
•Preparation for North American planters

60. Seasoning (cont.)
•Creoles
–slaves born in the Americas
–worth three times price of unseasoned Africans
•Old Africans
–Lived in the Americas for some time
•New Africans
–Had just survived the middle passage
•Creoles and Old Africans instruct New
Africans

61. Negros for
Sale?
•What is the first
thought you had
when you read
this?
•How would a
wealthy colonial
American have
looked at this?
•What would an
African think
when they saw
this?

62. Auctions
•Slaves were sold at
auctions
•Buyers physically
inspected the
slaves, to include
their teeth as an
indication of the
slave’s age
•Auctioneers had
slaves perform
various acts to
demonstrate their
physical abilities

64. Notice of a Slave Auction

65. Auctions
•“We were not many days in the merchant’s custody,
before we were sold after their usual manner... On a
signal given, (as the beat of a drum), buyers rush at
once into the yard where the slaves are confined, and
make a choice of that parcel they like best. The noise
and clamor with which this is attended, and the
eagerness visible in the countenances of the buyers,
serve not a little to increase the apprehension of terrified
Africans... In this manner, without scruple, are relations
and friends separated, most of them never to see each
other again. I remember in the vessel in which I was
brought over... there were several brothers who, in the
sale, were sold in different lots; and it was very moving
on this occasion, to see and hear their cries in parting.”
–Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano

67. First Slave Auction
New Amsterdam (Dutch New York
City - 17c)

68. Slave Auction in the Southern U. S.

69. Auctions
•There were 3 ways slaves were auctioned off:
1.Public Auctions:
- They put tar on the slaves to hide any sores
and cuts
- Slaves were inspected
- An auction to took place and the higher bidder
would get to purchase the slave.
- Bids were taken as long as an inch of a candle
burned.
- Slaves were branded
- Families were separated
- They were given a European name.

70. Inspection and Sale

72. Slave Master Brands

73. Auctions
2. Private Auctions:
-Similar to public auctions
-They were indoors and red markers would
be placed on the door to indicate an
auction.

75. Auctions
3. Scramble Auction:
-They would take place on the docks or on
the deck of the ship
-There would be a fixed price per head
-Slave owners would go in and grab who
they wanted to purchase.

77. Auctions
•American born slaves who had skills were
the most expensive
•African born slaves were less $, as they
had to be “broken in”
•Age, sex and skills determined the cost
•Slaves with a lot of scars were considered
too rebellious

78. 30 Lashes

79. Whipped Slave, early 19c

80. A Slave Lynching

81. Negro Hung Alive by Waist

82. The End of the Journey
•Survival
–One-third died
•Men died at a greater rate than women
–Adapted to new foods
–Learned a new language
•Creole dialect well enough to obey commands
–Psychological ~ no longer suicidal
•Africans retained culture despite the hardships
and cruel treatment
•Created bonds with shipmates that replaced
blood kinship

83. Volume: How Many Slaves?

84. Volume of the Slave Trade
•Late 15
th
and 16
th
Century… 2,000 Africans
exported each year
•17
th
Century… 20,000 per year
•18
th
Century… 55,000 per year
–1780s… 88,000 per year
•All told, some 12 million Africans were
transported to the western hemisphere via the
Atlantic Slave Trade
•Another 4 million died resisting capture or during
captivity before arriving at their destination

85. Growth of African American
Population
1820 1.77 million13% free
1830 2.33 million14% free
1840 2.87 million13% free
1850 3.69 million12% free
1860 4.44 million11% free

87. Effects: Forms of Resistance
to Slavery

88. Forms of Resistance
•Work slowly
•Sabotage
•Runaway
–“Maroons” gathered together and built self-governing
communities
•Revolt
–Slaves outnumbered the owners and supervisors so
revolt was always a threat
–While causing much destruction, revolts were usually
able to be suppressed because the owners had
access to arms, horses, and military forces

89. Slave Resistance:
Passive and Active Resistance
•Breaking tools
•Faking illness
•Staging slowdowns
•Committing acts of
arson and sabotage
•Running Away
•Underground Railroad

90. Saint-Dominique
•The only revolt to
successfully abolish
slavery as an institution
occurred on the French
sugar colony of Saint
Dominique in 1793
•The slaves declared
independence from
France, renamed the
country Haiti, and
established a self-
governing republic in
1804
Francois-Dominique Toussaint was
one of the military leaders of the
Saint-Dominique revolt

91. Slave Revolts
•Late 18th Century slave
revolts erupted in
Guadeloupe, Grenada,
Jamaica, Surinam, Haiti,
Venezuela, Winward
Islands
•Within the United States
slave revolts were
common as well.
Richmond, Virginia,
Louisiana, Charleston,
South Carolina.
•Denmark Vesey
•The Amistad
•Nat Turner

92. Abolition Movement: Ending
Slave Trade and Institution of
Slavery

93. Ending the Slave Trade

94. The Ending of the Atlantic Slave
Trade
•Cruelties help end Atlantic slave trade
–English abolitionists
•Thomas Clarkson, William Wilberforce, and Granville
Sharp
•Moral crusade and economy less dependent on slave
trade
•Great Britain bans Atlantic slave trade in 1807
•Patrols African coast to enforce
•United States Congress outlaws slave trade in 1808
•Guinea and western central African kingdoms oppose
banning slave trade

95. Abolitionist Symbol, 19c

96. Abolitionists
•Former Slaves
–Olaudah Equiano
•Politicians
–William Wilberforce
•Religious Leaders
–John Wesley
•Revolutionaries
–Simon Bolivar

97. Olaudah Equiano (1745-1797)
1789  wrote and published, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of
Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa the African.

98. Former Slaves: Olaudah Equiano
•Equiano was originally from
Benin and was captured by
slave raiders when he was 10
•Spent 21 years as a slave and
was able to save up enough
money to buy his freedom
•In 1789 he published The
Interesting Narrative of
Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus
Vassa, the African, Written by
Himself
•Sold the book throughout
Britain, undertaking lecture
tours and actively campaigning
to abolish the slave trade

99. Politicians: William Wilberforce
•English philanthropist
elected to Parliament
in 1780
•Delivered a stirring
abolitionist speech to
the House of
Commons in 1789
and repeatedly
introduced the
Abolition Bill until it
passed in 1807

100. Slavery Abolished in the Britain
Empire
•1807 = The slave trade was abolished in the British
Empire, which meant that no slaves would be
carried from Africa in British ships.
•1834 = Emancipation Act stated that slaves under
6 years old were freed; field hands over 6 had to
work for their owners for 6 more years; house
slaves had to work for 10 more years.
•Britain gave 20 million pounds in compensation to
former slave owners and slaves received nothing.
•1838 all slaves were given complete freedom
•Slavery in the USA was not abolished until 1865

101. Religious Leaders: John Wesley
•Founder of the
Methodist Church
•Published
Thoughts Upon
Slavery in 1774
•On his deathbed
he was reading
Equiano’s
Narrative

102. Revolutionaries: Simon Bolivar
•Inspired by George
Washington and
Enlightenment ideas,
Bolivar took up arms
against Spanish rule in
1811
•Freed slaves who joined
his forces
•Provided constitutional
guarantees of free status
for all residents of Gran
Columbia (Venezuela,
Columbia, and Ecuador)

103. Timeline for Abolition of the Slave
Trade
•1803: Denmark abolishes slave trade.
•1807: Britain abolishes slave trade.
•1807: U.S. passes legislation banning slave trade, to take effect 1808.
•1810: British negotiate an agreement with Portugal calling for gradual
abolition of slave trade in the South Atlantic.
•1815: At the Congress of Vienna, the British pressure Spain, Portugal,
France and the Netherlands to agree to abolish the slave trade (though
Spain and Portugal are permitted a few years of continued slaving to
replenish labor supplies).
•1817: Great Britain and Spain sign a treaty prohibiting the slave trade:
Spain agrees to end the slave trade north of the equator immediately, and
south of the equator in 1820. British naval vessels are given right to
search suspected slavers. Still, loopholes in the treaty undercut its goals
and the slave trade continues strongly until 1830.

104. Slavery Continues
•Abolishing the
slave trade did not
end slavery
•British ships
patrolled the west
coast of Africa to
halt illegal trade
•The last
documented ship
that carried slaves
across the Atlantic
arrived in Cuba in
1867

105. Timeline for Abolition of Slavery
•1813: Gradual emancipation adopted in Argentina.
•1814: Gradual emancipation begins in Colombia.
•1823: Slavery abolished in Chile.
•1824: Slavery abolished in Central America.
•1829: Slavery abolished in Mexico.
•1831: Slavery abolished in Bolivia.
•1833: Abolition of Slavery Act passed in Britain which
results in complete emancipation by 1838.
•1842: Slavery abolished in Uruguay.
•1848: Slavery abolished in all French and Danish colonies.
•1851: Slavery abolished in Ecuador.

106. Timeline for Abolition of Slavery
•1854: Slavery abolished in Peru and Venezuela.
•1863: Emancipation Proclamation issued in the U.S.
•1863: Slavery abolished in all Dutch colonies.
•1865: Slavery abolished in the U.S. as a result of
the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution and
the end of the Civil War.
•1871: Gradual emancipation initiated in Brazil.
•1873: Slavery abolished in Puerto Rico.
•1886: Slavery abolished in Cuba.
•1888: Slavery abolished in Brazil.
•1960s: Slavery abolished in Saudi Arabia and
Angola

107. Emancipation Proclamation
•Issued by President Lincoln after
the Federal victory at Antietam
•“That on the first day of January,
in the year of our Lord one
thousand eight hundred and
sixty-three, all persons held as
slaves within any State or
designated part of a State, the
people whereof shall then be in
rebellion against the United
States, shall be then,
thenceforward, and forever
free…”

108. Impact of Emancipation Proclamation on
Confederate Diplomatic Efforts
•“… the feeling against slavery in England
is so strong that no public man there
dares extend a hand to help us… There is
no government in Europe that dares help
us in a struggle which can be suspected of
having for its result, directly or indirectly,
the fortification or perpetuation of slavery.
Of that I am certain”
–William Yancey, Confederate politician

109. Why did the slave trade end?

110. Slave Exports and Profits
•Early 18th Century - 36,000 per year
•During 1780’s - 80,000 per year
•Between 1740-1810 - 60,000 captives/year on
average.
•17th Century - slave sold in the Americas for
about $150\
•Slave trade illegal in Britain in 1807, US 1808,
France 1831, Spain 1834.
•Once declared illegal prices went much higher.
1850s prime field hand $1200 - $1500 (about
$18,00 in 1997 dollars).

111. Effects/Impact: Legacy of
Slavery

112. Legacy of Slavery
Agriculture
Rice
Sweet Potatoes
Herding
Basketry
Working Style
(cooperative labor)
Planting (heel to toe)
Food
Spices (red pepper,
sesame, cajun)
Okra, black eyed peas
Rice
Dishes
Gumbo, jambalaya
Ash and hot cakes
Sweet potato pie
Music
Banjo
Drum
Blues/Jazz
Call and response
Spirituals
Religion
Call and response patterns
Emotional services
Multiple spirits and souls
Voodoo
Tales and Words
Trickster takes (Anansi
the Spider, Brer Rabbit,
Bugs Bunny)
Words like bogus, bug,
phony, yam, tote, gumbo,
tater, jamboree, jazz.
Creole Language

113. Impact of Slave Trade in Africa
•Mixed
–Some states like Rwanda largely
escaped the slave trade through
resistance and geography
–Some like Senegal in west Africa
were hit very hard
–Other societies benefited
economically from selling slaves,
trading, or operating ports
–As abolition took root in the 19
th

Century some African merchants
even complained about the lose
of their livelihood
•On the whole, however, the
slave trade devastated Africa
“Door of No Return” on
Goree Island off the coast
of Senegal

114. Impact of Slave Trade in Africa
•The Atlantic Slave Trade
deprived Africa of about
16 million people and the
continuing Islamic slave
trade consumed another
several million
•Overall the African
population rose thanks
partly to the introduction
of more nutritious food
from the Americas
Peanuts were one of several crops
introduced to Africa from the
Americas

115. Impact of Slave Trade in Africa
•The slave trade distorted African sex ratios
–Approximately 2/3 of all exported slaves were male
•Slavers preferred young men between the ages
of 14 and 35 to maximize investment potential
and be suitable for hard labor
•The sexual imbalance in some parts of Africa
such as Angola encouraged polygamy and
caused women to take on duties that had
previously been the responsibility of men

116. Impact of Slave Trade in Africa
•The slave trade
brought firearms to
such African societies
as Asante, Dahomey,
and Oyo and this
increased violence
•In the 18
th
Century,
Dahomey expanded
rapidly, absorbed
neighboring societies,
and fielded an army
that was largely a
slave-raiding force

117. African Diaspora
•The slave trade sent millions of
Africans overseas this created a
scattering of individuals
•Survivors struggled to hold on to their
culture
•African people and their culture of
food, music, dance, and tradition was
spread across a wide area.

118. African Diaspora
•Obviously, the main contribution slaves brought
to the western hemisphere was an incredible
amount of labor, without which the prosperous
new societies could not have developed
•However they brought other contributions as
well:
–Slaves built hybrid cultural traditions made up of
African, European, and American elements
–Influenced language by creating tongues that drew on
several African and European languages

119. Gullah
•For several reasons, Africans,
both as slaves and free, enjoyed
a relative amount of self-
sufficiency in the Sea Islands off
of South Carolina
•Their culture maintained much of
its original characteristics as it
encountered American culture
•For example, most of the Gullah
vocabulary is of English origin,
but the grammar and major
elements of pronunciation come
from a number of West African
languages

120. Gullah
•beat on ayun: “mechanic”; literally, “beat-on-iron”
•troot ma-wt: “a truthful person”; literally, “truth mouth”
•hush ma-wt: “hush mouth”; literally, “hush mouth”
•sho ded: “cemetery”; literally, “sure dead”
•tebl tappa: “preacher”; literally, “table-tapper”
•ty oonuh ma-wt: “Hush, stop talking”; literally, “Tie your
mouth”
•krak teet: “to speak”; literally, “crack teeth”
•i han shaht pay-shun: “He steals”; literally, “His hand is
short of patience”

121. African Diaspora
•Impacted on cuisine by
introducing African foods to
Caribbean and American
societies
–For example, combined African
okra with European-style sautéed
vegetables and American shellfish
to make gumbo
•Introduced rice cultivation to
tropical and subtropical regions
•Fashioned distinctive crafts such
as pottery and baskets
Sea Island basket

122. African Diaspora
•Many slaves were either Christians when they
left Africa or converted to Christianity after their
arrival in the western hemisphere
•Their Christianity was not exactly like European
Christianity and made considerable room for
African traditions
–Associated African deities with Christian saints
–Relied heavily on African rituals such as drumming,
dancing, and sacrificing animals
–Preserved their belief in spirits and supernatural
powers and made use of magic, sorcery, witchcraft,
and spirit possession