COMPARATIVE UNFREE LABOR SYSTEMS

1. COMPARATIVE UNFREE LABOR SYSTEMS A WORLD WIDE INSTITUTION THAT HAS PERSISTED SINCE THE BEGINNING OF TIME

2. A DEFINITION • Slavery • Refers to a situation where one human being is considered to be the property of another • A situation where a person is obligated to perform tasks for their owner without any choice involved • Earliest Records • Contracts from Sumer, Akkad, Babylon • Code of Hammurabi (ca. 1760 BC) • Elaborate rules, descriptions • Clearly slavery is an established institution

3. DOCUMENTS • Contract for the Sale of a Slave, Reign of Rim-Sin, c. 2300 BCE • Sini-Ishtar has bought a slave, Ea-tappi by name, from Ilu-elatti, and Akhia, his son, and has paid ten shekels of Silver, the price agreed. Ilu-elatti, and Akhia, his son, will not set up a future claim on the slave. In the presence of Ilu-iqisha, son of Likua; in the presence of Ilu-iqisha, son of Immeru; in the presence of Likulubishtum, son of Appa, the scribe, who sealed it with the seal of the witnesses. The tenth of Kisilimu, the year when Rim-Sin, the king, overcame the hostile enemies. • Hammurabi’s Code, c. 1760 BCE • 175. If a State slave or the slave of a freed man marry the daughter of a free man, and children are born, the master of the slave shall have no right to enslave the children of the free. • 176. If, however, a State slave or the slave of a freed man marry a man's daughter, and after he marries her she bring a dowry from a father's house, if then they both enjoy it and found a household, and accumulate means, if then the slave die, then she who was free born may take her dowry, and all that her husband and she had earned; she shall divide them into two parts, one-half the master for the slave shall take, and the other half shall the free-born woman take for her children. If the free-born woman had no gift she shall take all that her husband and she had earned and divide it into two parts; and the master of the slave shall take one-half and she shall take the other for her children.

4. UNFREE LABOR IN THE FOUNDATIONS PERIOD ALL LABOR WAS TO A GREATER OR LESSER DEGREE UNFREE

5. ANCIENT MEDITERREAN CULTURES • Slavery in ancient cultures was known to occur in civilizations • Ancient Sumer • All Mesopotamian cultures including the Persians • The ancient Hebrews had been slaves and kept slaves • Nomadic cultures kept slaves • Ancient Egypt and Nubia • Greece • Mycenaean Greece had slaves as indicated by Homer and Hesiod • Plato and Aristotle discuss it as it was widely accepted • 30% of the population even in “democratic” city states were slaves • Helots of Messina enslaved by Spartans; numbered 70% of population • Rome and its empire • Up to 1/3 of its population was slaves: warfare produced large markets, demand • Recorded in legal documents, literature, art, and religious scripture • Mine and galley slaves, agricultural slaves on plantations, gladiators, urban slaves • Many tutors were slaves, paid a wage and could purchase their freedom • Types • Debt-slavery • Punishments for crimes • Enslavement of prisoners of war • Child abandonment • Birth of slaves to children

6. DOCUMENTS • Aristotle: The Politics---On Slavery, c. 330 BCE • Let us first speak of master and slave, looking to the needs of practical life and also seeking to attain some better theory of their relation than exists at present. And so, in the arrangement of the family, a slave is a living possession, and property a number of such instruments; and the slave is himself an instrument which takes precedence of all other instruments.....The master is only the master of the slave; he does not belong to him, whereas the slave is not only the slave of his master, but wholly belongs to him. Hence we see what is the nature and office of a slave; he who is by nature not his own but another's man, is by nature a slave; and he may be said to be another's man who, being a human being, is also a possession. • Plautus, Menaechmi, Act V, 220 CEMessenio, a slave, soliloquizes: • Well, this is the proof of a good servant: he must take care of his master's business, look after it, arrange it, think about it; when his master is away, take care of it diligently just as much as if his master were present, or be even more careful. He must take more care of his back than his appetite, his legs than his stomach---if he's got a good heart. Just let him think what those good-for-nothings get from their masters---lazy, worthless fellows that they are. Stripes, fetters, the mill, weariness, hunger, bitter cold---fine pay for idleness. That's what I'm mightily afraid of. Surely, then, it's much better to be good than to be bad. I don't mind tongue lashings, but I do hate real floggings. I'd rather eat meal somebody else grinds, than eat what I grind myself. So I just obey what my master bids me; and I execute orders carefully and diligently. My obedience, I think, is such as is most for the profit of my back. And it surely does pay!

7. ANCIENT ASIA-PACIFIC • The Greek historian Arrian writes in his book Indica: • "This also is remarkable in India, that all Indians are free, and no Indian at all is a slave. In this the Indians agree with the Lacedaemonians. Yet the Lacedaemonians have Helots for slaves, who perform the duties of slaves; but the Indians have no slaves at all, much less is any Indian a slave.“ • With regard to castes, this state is both true and false • Castes performed the same functions as slavery but were not slavery • The big difference is they are not owned by another but they have societal obligations • These castes are not free to change their obligations or avoid them without problems • Yet estimated 8 – 10 million slaves in India in 1840 • East Asia • Ancient China? • Shang and Zhou had slaves but the importance declined • Slavery as an institution waxes and wanes in Chinese history • Peasants in Chinese history were often little better than serfs • Owed regular labor and taxes to the state and to their landlords • Slavery did however exist and was common until 1910 • Ancient Korea? • Almost all professionals were slaves • During Joeson Dynasty (1392 – 1910) 30 – 60% of population were slaves • Slavery was a form of punishment and hereditary • Different categories of slaves including government owned, privately owned • Government often gave slaves to elite as gifts • Slaves could be inherited as property • Southeast Asia and Polynesia • A large slave class existed in the Khmer Empire and built Angkor Wat • Many Siamese, Burmese provinces largely slave • Slaves kept amongst most Malayo-Polynesian societies • Hawaiians were a casted society with a slave class (outcast), some were sacrificed

8. DOCUMENTS • Yu Hyongwon, Korean Confucian Court Scholar, late 17th century, Treatise on Slaves • “I found that the name for slave first appeared when criminals were confiscated and enrolled as slaves for crimes they had committed. There was never a law in ancient times where someone innocent of a crime was forced to become a slave. In addition, the ancients never the penalty of those who had been enslaved for crimes to their descendants; how much less so if they were innocent of the crime.” • Baron de Montesquieu, French philosophe, 1748 • “At Aceh (Sumatra), everyone is for selling himself. Some of the chief lords have no less than a thousand slaves, all principal merchants, who have a great number of slaves themselves.

9. ANCIENT AMERICAS • In Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica • The most common forms of slavery were prisoners-of-war, debtors • People unable to repay a debt could be sentenced to work as a slave • Wars were common and prisoners of war had their uses in society, religion • Warfare was important to the Aztec, Maya society • Wars on surrounding areas provided the victims required for human sacrifice • The Aztecs developed ceremonial wars called Flower Wars to acquire slaves for sacrifice • Most victims of human sacrifice were prisoners of war or slaves • Slaves also built temples • 84,000 people were sacrificed at 1487 temple inauguration • Slavery was not usually hereditary • Children of slaves were born free • Mayans over-slaving may have caused their own collapse • In the Inca Empire • Workers were subject to mita: they paid by work for the state • Each ayllu decided which family member did the work • It is unclear if this labor draft/corvée counts as slavery • Slave-owning societies of the New World • The Tehuelche of Patagonia • The Comanche of Texas • The Caribs of Dominica • The Tupinambá of Brazil • The fishing societies that lived along the coast from what is now Alaska to California • The Pawnee, The Klamath • Many of the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast • The Haida and Tlingit were traditionally known as fierce warriors and slave-traders • Slavery was hereditary and most slaves descended from prisoners of war • About a quarter of the population were slaves

10. SLAVERY AND RELIGIONS • Slavery and the Jews • It is condoned, even expected at times in the Torah • Jews themselves were enslaved by the Egyptians • Prisoners of war were frequently enslaved • Debt bondage was another commons source for slavery • It was illegal however to kidnap people for enslavement • After six years of work, a slave was to be manumitted • Slaves were freed every 50 years; could buy their freedom • Slave trade was discouraged as was selling children • Torah requires slaves to be treated fairly • Slaves could not be forcibly converted to Judaism • Slavery and Christianity • The Old Testament sanctions slavery • The New Testament does not condemn it • Pro-slavers and anti-slavery forces both used Bible to support their causes • Paul’s Letter to Philemon, 1st Corinthians: manumit your slaves! • Essences, who were likely close to early Christians denounced slavery • Many of the first converts to Christianity were slaves

11. DOCUMENTS • Exodus 21 • When you purchase a Hebrew slave, he is to serve you for six years, but in the seventh year he shall be given his freedom without cost. If he comes into service alone, he shall leave alone; if he comes with a wife, his wife shall leave with him. But if his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall remain the master's property and the man shall leave alone. If, however, the slave declares, 'I am devoted to my master and my wife and children; I will not go free,‘ his master shall bring him to God and there, at the door or doorpost, he shall pierce his ear with an awl, thus keeping him as his slave forever. “When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go free as male slaves do. But if her master, who had destined her for himself, dislikes her, he shall let her be redeemed. He has no right to sell her to a foreigner, since he has broken faith with her. If he destines her for his son, he shall treat her like a daughter. • Paul’s Letter to Philemon • I urge you on behalf of my child Onesimus, whose father I have become in my imprisonment, who was once useless to you but is now useful to (both) you and me. I am sending him, that is, my own heart, back to you. I should have liked to retain him for myself, so that he might serve me on your behalf in my imprisonment for the gospel, but I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that the good you do might not be forced but voluntary. Perhaps this is why he was away from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, no longer as a slave but more than a slave, a brother, beloved especially to me, but even more so to you, as a man and in the Lord. So if you regard me as a partner, welcome him as you would me.

12. CONTINUITIES FROM THE FOUNDATIONS PERIOD CASTE LABOR

13. CASTES DEFINED • Castes • A rigid social-labor system • Defined social culture and social class including dress, entertainment • In many cultures different castes spoke different languages or dialects of the same language • Predetermined occupation, proscribed occupations – no choice in occupation • Caste is inherited: changing of social status legally prohibited • Legally proscribed endogamy • Discouraged miscegenation • Political power was a reserved right of one caste • Legally defined social hierarchy set by law codes governing all aspects of life • Often based on religious scripture and traditions • Often based on skin color and ethnic heritage • Origin of the word • From Latin castus "pure, cut off, segregated“ • Term applied to Hindu social groups in 17th century • Comes from the Portuguese casta "breed, race, caste" • First used by the Portuguese to describe inherited class • Most famous examples • Indian Varna-Jati system • Mayan caste system • Spanish-Portuguese colonial caste system

14. THE INDIAN CASTE SYSTEM • The Indian or Hindu Caste System • The most famous of the caste systems and extremely complex • It seems to have originated with the Indo-Aryan invasion (warriors, priests, herders) • The system evolved where the Dravidians became dasas or enemies, conquered ones • While Aryans were fairer skinned, the Dravidians were very dark skinned • The Hindus do not speak of castes but varnas • Varna comes from the Sanskrit word for color • The Brahmins (teachers, scholars and priests) • The Kshatriyas (kings, warriors and all positions of public administration) • The Vaishyas (agriculturists , herders, merchants, and traders) • Shudras (service providers , semi-skilled, unskilled laborers – do not own land) • Each caste has caste duties and restrictions called dharma • Jatis • Within each varna are jatis or sub-groups based on occupation: there are thousands of jatis • Jatis can also be religious or geographical in nature • Surnames denote jatis: Gandhi means “green grocer” or Srivastava means “military scribe” • Dalits (Pariah, Outcaste) • Originally included foreigners, tribal peoples, nomads who were considered ritually unpure • Excluded from society • Colonial rule (British) may have intensified stratification, lessened any mobility • Caste System Among Non-Hindus • Jains, Buddhists deny caste but converts brought caste with them • Some Buddhists deny ahimsa – other Buddhists relegate them to a caste type system • Although Jains deny caste their jaats (jatis) have similar rules as a caste • Christians and Muslims often could not avoid the caste system • Converts to these faiths usually came from specific groups, geographies • More than 70% of Christians are Dalits but Catholics in Goa and Kerala came from higher caste groups • Arabs who settled in India have a higher caste than local converts – there is even an untouchable Muslim caste

15. SKIN COLOR AND CASTE

16. IT’S A RELIGIOUS THING

17. DOCUMENTS • Manu Samhita (Law of Manu), Chapter 1, 87 – 91 , c. 200 CE • But in order to protect this universe He, the most resplendent one, assigned separate (duties and) occupations to those who sprang from his mouth, arms, thighs, and feet. To Brahmanas he assigned teaching and studying (the Veda), sacrificing for their own benefit and for others, giving and accepting (of alms). The Kshatriya he commanded to protect the people, to bestow gifts, to offer sacrifices, to study (the Veda), and to abstain from attaching himself to sensual pleasures; the Vaisya to tend cattle, to bestow gifts, to offer sacrifices, to study (the Veda), to trade, to lend money, and to cultivate land. One occupation only the lord prescribed to the Sudra, to serve meekly even these (other) three castes • Arrian: The Anabasis of Alexander, Book VIII India, first century CE • The Indians generally are divided into seven castes. Those called the wise men are less in number than the rest, but chiefest in honor and regard. For they are under no necessity to do any bodily labor; nor to contribute from the results of their work to the common store. Then next to these come the farmers, these being the most numerous class of Indians; they have no use for warlike arms or warlike deeds, but they till the land; and they pay the taxes to the kings and to the cities.The third class of Indians are the herdsmen, pasturers of sheep and cattle, and these dwell neither by cities nor in the villages. They are nomads and get their living on the hillsides, and they pay taxes from their animals.The fourth class is of artisans and shopkeepers; these are workers, and pay tribute from their works, save such as make weapons of war; these are paid by the community. The fifth class of Indians is the soldiers' class, next after the farmers in number. They practice military pursuits only. Their weapons others forge for them, and again others provide horses; others too serve in the camps, those who groom their horses and polish their weapons, guide the elephants, and keep in order and drive the chariots. The sixth class of Indians are those called overlookers. They oversee everything that goes on in the country or in the cities; and this they report to the King, where the Indians are governed by kings, or to the authorities, where they are independent. The seventh class is those who deliberate about the community together with the King, or, in such cities as are self-governing, with the authorities. To marry out of any class is unlawful -- nor must the same man practise two pursuits; nor change from one class into another, as to turn farmer from shepherd, or shepherd from artisan.

18. HISTORY OF CASTES • Casted societies are not limited to India • In Europe • Ancient Greece • Ancient Greek society was divided into free people and slaves • Only free, land owning, native-born men could be citizens • Only citizens were entitled to full protection of the law in a Greek polis • Spartan helots were best example: permanently enserfed population • Ancient Rome • Original Roman society had patricians and plebeians • Only patricians could hold offices of state • Patricians and plebeians could not intermarry • Medieval Society • In medieval Europe, the estates of the realm were a caste system • The population was divided into nobility, clergy, and the commoner • Commoners were divided into burghers, peasants or serfs, and the estateless • Originally based on occupation, estate became inherited, low social mobility • In Africa • Africa has casted societies based on tribes, occupations, and religions • Osu caste systems in Nigeria, Cameroon derived from indigenous religious beliefs, discriminate against "Osus" people as "owned by deities" and outcasts • Mande societies in West Africa have caste systems divided by occupation and ethnic ties. The Mande caste system regards the jonow slave castes as inferior. • Wolof and Fulani caste system in Senegal are divided into three main groups, the freeborn nobles, slaves and slave descendants, the outcast people of caste. • Sahrawi-Moorish society in Northwest Africa has tribal castes with the Hassane warrior tribes ruling and extracting tribute from the subservient tribes. Although lines were blurred by intermarriage and tribal re-affiliation, the Hassane were considered descendants of the Arab Maqil tribe Beni Hassan, and held power over Sanhadja Berber-descended zawiya (religious) and znaga (servant) tribes. The so-called Haratin lower class, largely sedentary oasis-dwelling black people, have been considered natural slaves. • Where different groups exist and skin color is a factor, caste is common

19. CASTES IN ASIA-PACIFIC • Caste in China • The 2nd Warring States or Three Kingdoms Period (220 – 589 CE) • The Southern and Northern Dynasties showed such a high level of polarization • Northerners and Southerners referred to each other as barbarians • Southerners were often not racially Chinese but Sinicized Hill peoples who wrote in Chinese • Several dynasties of Northern and especially Southern China (the East Jin, Song, Qi), had a social configuration divided mainly into two classes in along political and cultural lines • The dominant noble class, Shizu (literally "Noble Family") controlled most of the government offices and functions in the court. Most of the time they also had kinship ties to the Emperor • The other class, Hanmen ("The Austere Family") were largely excluded from all aspects of political, cultural life • The Mongol Yuan Dynasty • Yuan subjects were divided into four castes • Northern Han Chinese occupied the second-lowest caste • Southern Han Chinese occupied the lowest one • Ancient Hawaii was a caste society • People were born into specific social classes; social mobility extremely rare • Ali’i, the royal suuwop class • This class consisted of the high and lesser chiefs of the realms • They governed with divine power called mana • Kahuna, the priestly and professional class • Priests conducted religious ceremonies, at the heiau and elsewhere • Professionals included master carpenters, boat builders, chanters, dancers, genealogists, physicians, healers • Maka’inana, the commoner class • Commoners farmed, fished, performed simpler crafts • They labored not only for themselves and their families, but to support the chiefs and kahuna. • Kauwa, the outcast or slave class • They are believed to have been war captives, or the descendants of war captives • Marriage between higher castes and the kauwa was strictly forbidden • The kauwa worked for the chiefs and were often used as human sacrifices

20. CASTES IN THE AMERICAS • Amerindian Societies • Inca, Maya, Aztec, and other societies were casted • The major difference was between • Ruling elite (priest, warrior, ruler) • Peasants and slaves • Merchants (if they existed) and artisans formed an intermediate group • Intermarriage was prohibited and occupations determined by your caste • Portuguese and Spanish Casted Colonial Societies • Reasons for the Development of Casted Society (called castas) • Iberian societies were strongly feudal, hierarchical and rigid in social outlook • Transplanted to Americas as it had been used with conquered Iberian Muslims • After the 1520 conquest, miscegenation between European, Indian occurred • With the arrival of Africans, a similar pattern also occurred • Iberians developed social system based on racial hierarchies • Peninsulares: Whites born in Europe, come to Americas as senior colonial officials • Creoles: Whites born in the Americas to parents of European descent • Indians formed the second most numerous race in the Iberian colonies • Mestizos: People of mixed European-Indian descent • Castizo: People with one mestizo and one Spanish parent • Cholos or Coyotes: people with one mestizo and one Indian parent • Mulattos or Pardos: people with one European and one African parent • Morisco: people with one Mulatto and one European parent • Albino: one Morisco and one European parent • Zambos: mixed Indian and African descent • Negros: Africans

21. MAYAN CASTES

22. CASTAS IN PRACTICE • Livelihood and Location • Whites • Tended to prefer mid-latitude climates, taking Indian lands to ranch • Peninsulares lived almost exclusively in the capital cities • Creoles migrated between their urban town homes and their ranching haciendas • Neither group could be an artisan or handle cash as it would impact social status • Mestizos • Tended to live in urban settings, towns near whites • Had a monopoly on small commerce, artisans in colonies • Africans, Mulattos • Tended to live in lower altitude, hot and humid climates • Their occupations were related to plantations, heavy labor, portage • Mulattos were the intermediaries between Whites, Mestizos, Blacks • Indians • Tended to retreat to marginalized lands not good for plantations, too high • Primary occupation was farming, weaving • Mestizos were the intermediaries between Indian elites and whites • All had distinctive, different clothing, language, entertainment • The best documents to study on this are caste paintings

23. VERTICAL ZONATIONCastes by Geography

24. CASTE PAINTINGS • Español con India, Mestizo • Mestizo con Española, Castizo • Castiza con Español, Española • Español con Negra, Mulato • Mulato con Española, Morisca • Morisco con Española, Chino • Chino con India, Salta atrás • Salta atras con Mulata, Lobo • Lobo con China, Gíbaro (Jíbaro) • Gíbaro con Mulata, Albarazado • Albarazado con Negra, Cambujo • Cambujo con India, Sambiaga (Zambiaga) • Sambiago con Loba, Calpamulato • Calpamulto con Cambuja, Tente en el aire • Tente en el aire con Mulata, No te entiendo • No te entiendo con India, Torna atrás

25. UNFREE LABOR FROM THE POST-CLASSICAL TO THE MODERN PERIOD SLAVERY

26. SLAVERY AND ISLAM • Slavery predates Islam in Arabia • The nomadic Arab tribes kept slaves • Majority of slaves were Ethiopian in origin • Minority were Caucasian origin • Slaves bought from Ethiopians, Byzantines, Persians • Abandoned children, kidnapping, sale of children permitted • Two types: children born to slaves, purchased slaves • Some females were bought and prostituted • The Quran and Slavery • Muhammad, His Companions bought, sold, traded slaves • Multiple references to slaves, slave women, concubinage • Also discusses kindness towards slaves, manumission • Accepts the institution of slavery • The word 'abd' (slave) is rarely used • More common ma malakat aymanukum ("that which your right hands own") • Lawful enslavement for unbelief, prisoners of war, birth in slavery • Cannot enslave a Muslim but not required to manumit a convert • Yet Islamic lands were the last to abolish slavery • In 18th century one-fifth of inhabitants of Istanbul were slaves • Slave markets in the Muslim world existed until late 19th and early 20th centuries • Many Muslim states did not abolish slavery until the mid-20th century • Even today Interpol keeps statistics on slaves in Muslim lands • Most common type of slave today is the concubine and the camel-boy jockey

27. Early Arab Slave Trade • The oldest of the slave trades: 14 centuries to 4 centuries • Avoid using the term Muslim for a trade which predates Islam • Began middle of 7th century ; exists today in Sudan, Mauretania • The Muslim Arabs took control of the Classical Slave Trade • Pre-Islamic Slave Trade • Upper Nile Slave Trade out of Nubia: slaves shipped to Egypt • Ethiopian slaves shipped across Red Sea to Arab ports • From cities such as Mecca and Medina, slaves moved to Fertile Crescent • Two of the first martyrs of Islam were Ethiopian slaves • Sumayyah bint Khabbab: she was killed when she failed to renounce Islam • Bilal was tortured by his master for his acceptance of Islam • This slave trade drew most of its people from Africa • To 9th Century C.E. • The Early Muslim Expansion • Muslims allowed to enslave infidels, apostates, polytheists, prisoners of war • War booty of expanding Muslims included rights to slaves • Initial Roles of Slaves • Plantation or agricultural work in some areas • Slaves generally directed towards service work in urban areas • Sign of wealth, respect to own a slave • Early Slave Revolts • Late 9th century Zanj Rebellion in Iraq • Many historic episodes

28. SLAVERY AND AFRICA • Elikia M’bokolo, African historian, from April 1998 interview with Le Monde Diplomatique. • "The African continent was bled of its human resources via all possible routes. Across the Sahara, through the Red Sea, from the Indian Ocean ports and across the Atlantic. At least ten centuries of slavery for the benefit of the Muslim countries (from the ninth to the nineteenth). Four million slaves exported via the Red Sea, another four million through the Swahili ports of the Indian Ocean, perhaps as many as nine million along the trans-Saharan caravan route, and eleven to twenty million (depending on the author) across the Atlantic Ocean" • 500 to 750 CE • Islam expelled Byzantines from North Africa, Egypt isolating the Christian states in Nubia, Ethiopia • Africa was dominated by Arab-Berbers in the north • Islam moved southwards along Nile, along desert trails into Nubia where it was resisted by the Christians • It moved westward along the coast of Africa (called the Maghreb or West) • The Sahara was thinly populated • But there had been city-oases living on a trade in salt, gold, slaves, cloth, and agriculture enabled by irrigation • They were ruled by Arab, Berber, Fulani, Hausa and Tuaregs. • Their independence was relative and depended on the power of the Maghrebi (Morocco) and Egyptian states • Africa During the Post-Classical Age • Sub-Saharan Africa West Africa was called bilad es sudan in Arabic, meaning land of the Blacks • This constituted the Sahel region running from the Atlantic to modern Sudan • It provided a pool of manual labor for North Africa, Southwest Asia, and Saharan Africa • Region was dominated by certain states: Ghana, Mali, Songhai, Kanem-Bornu • In Eastern Africa • The coasts of the Red Sea and Indian Ocean were controlled by native Muslims, Arabs were important as traders • The blending of the Arab and Bantu cultures would produce the Swahili Civilization • Nubia and Ethiopia had been a "supply zone" for slaves since Ancient times – it continued to be one • The Ethiopian coast particularly the port of Massawa and Dahlak Archipelago • Had long been a hub for the exportation of slaves from the interior even in Aksumite times • Most coastal areas were largely Muslim and the port itself was home to a number of Arab and Indian merchants • The interior remained Christian and warred with the Muslims of Somalia, the Ogden Desert and Eritrea

29. AFRICA, 975 – 1450 CE

30. DOCUMENTS • The 9th century Muslim author Al-Jahiz, an Afro-Arab and the grandson of a Zanj (Bantu)slave, wrote a book entitled Risalat mufakharat al-Sudan 'ala al-bidan ("Treatise on the Superiority of Blacks over Whites"), in which he stated that Blacks: • "...have conquered the country of the Arabs as far as Mecca and have governed them. We defeated Dhu Nowas (Jewish King of Yemen) and killed all the Himyarite princes, but you, White people, have never conquered our country. Our people, the Zenghs (Negroes) revolted forty times in the Euphrates, driving the inhabitants from their homes and making Oballah a bath of blood. Blacks are physically stronger than no matter what other people. A single one of them can lift stones of greater weight and carry burdens such as several Whites could not lift nor carry between them. They (Zanj) are brave, strong, and generous as witness their nobility and general lack of wickedness." • Al-Jahiz also stated in his Kitab al-Bukhala ("Avarice and the Avaricious") that: • "The Zanj say to the Arabs: You are so ignorant that during the jahiliyya you regarded us as your equals when it came to marrying Arab women, but with the advent of the justice of Islam you decided this practice was bad. Yet the desert is full of Zanj married to Arab wives, and they have been princes and kings and have safeguarded your rights and sheltered you against your enemies. You have never seen the genuine Zanj. You have only seen captives who came from the coasts and forests and valleys of Qanbuluh, from our menials, our lower orders, and our slaves. The people of Qanbaluh have neither beauty nor intelligence. Qanbaluh is the name of the place by which your ships anchor.."

31. AFRICAN SLAVERY • Slavery in African cultures • More like indentured servitude • Slaves were not chattel nor enslaved for life • Slaves were paid wages, able to accumulate property • Could buy own freedom, could achieve social promotion • Some even rose to the status of kings • Little difference between slaves, free peasants, feudal vassals • Used primarily in agriculture; paid tribute in crops and services • Slaves were more an occupational caste as bondage was relative • But ownership of slaves was a sign of wealth and influence • Ethiopian and Eritrean slavery were essentially domestic • Slaves served in the houses and were not employed to any significant extent for productive purpose. • Slaves regarded as second-class members of their owners' family: they were fed, clothed, protected • Slaves generally roamed around freely and conducted business as free people • Slaves had complete freedom of religion and culture • Women were taken as sex slaves • Slaving in Africa: Those Who Sold and Those Who Captured • Ashanti of Ghana and the Yoruba of Nigeria had economies largely depending on the trade • Many like Nyamwezi of Tanzania served as intermediaries making war to capture Africans • The Slave Trade out of Africa • Berbers and Arabs: controlled the flow of slaves out of Africa in North Africa and East Africa • Europeans • Europeans could not work for long in many parts of Africa due to the deadly diseases which killed them • Europeans had to rely on native rulers, states to obtain slaves • European officials in Africa often supported, installed rulers agreeable to their interests • They favored one African group against another to deliberately ignite chaos and continue their slaving activities

32. HOW WIDESPREAD WAS SLAVERY? • Slavery and Select African States • In Senegambia between 1300 and 1900, close to one-third of the population was enslaved • Ghana, Mali, Songhai about a third of the population were slaves • In Sierra Leone in the 19th century about half of the population consisted of slaves • In the 19th century: ½ the population enslaved among Duala, Igbo, kongo, Kasanje, Chokwe • Among the Ashanti and Yoruba a third of the population consisted of slaves • The population of the Kanem (1600–1800) was about a third-slave • It was perhaps 40% in Bornu (1580–1890) • Between 1750/1900 from 1/3 to 2/3 of entire population of Fulani jihad states consisted of slaves • ½ population of Sokoto formed by Hausas in the northern Nigeria was slave in 19th century • Between 65% to 90%population of Arab-Swahili Zanzibar was enslaved. • Roughly half the population of Madagascar was enslaved • Towns and ports involved in the slave trade • North Africa: • Tanger (Morocco); Marrakesh (Morocco) • Algiers (Algeria); Tripoli (Libya) • Cairo (Egypt) ; Aswan (Egypt) • West Africa • Aoudaghost (Mauritania) • Timbuktu (Mali); Gao (Mali); Bilma (Niger) • East Africa: • Bagamoyo (Tanzania) ; Zanzibar (Tanzania); Kilwa (Tanzania) • Sofala (Beira, Mozambique) • Horn of Africa • Assab (Eritrea) ; Massawa (Eritrea) ; Nefasit (Eritrea) • Zeila (Somalia) ; Mogadishu (Somalia) • Arabian peninsula • Mecca (Saudi Arabia) ; Zabid (Yemen); Muscat (Oman); Aden (Yemen) • Socotra (Indian Ocean)

33. CHARACTERISTICS OF TRADE • The Trade • Focused on the slave markets of the Middle East and North Africa • People traded were not limited to a certain color, ethnicity, or religion • Included Arabs and Berbers especially in its early days. • Later during 8th, 9th centuries • Most of the slaves were Slavic Eastern Europeans, Scandinavians • People from surrounding Mediterranean areas especially Christians from Iberia, Italy • Persians, Turks, peoples from the Caucasus mountain regions • Black African origins. • Later toward the 18t h and 19th centuries slaves increasingly came from East Africa • Characteristics • Women favored over men: 2 to 1 is estimate • Slaves used primarily as urban, domestic slaves especially porters, households, concubines • Lesser numbers used as agricultural, plantation slaves, eunuchs, slave soldiers • The Numbers • 11 to 18 million black African slaves crossed Red Sea, Indian Ocean, Sahara • Between 9.4 to 14 million Africans went to the Americas in Atlantic trade • Out of Europe: 15th to 19th Century • Berber, Arab pirates controlled North Africa • Their ships raided coasts, captured ships: later suppressed by US, UK in late 1810s • Miguel Cervantes was the most famous of these slaves • Between 1 and 1.25 million Europeans enslaved (“White Slaves”) • Ottoman Turks, Tartars of Black Sea sold hundreds of thousands into trade

34. DOCUMENTS • In 14th century North Africa, the Arab historian Ibn Khaldun wrote in his Muqaddimah: • When the conquest of the West (by the Arabs) was completed, and merchants began to penetrate into the interior, they saw no nation of the Blacks so mighty as Ghana, the dominions of which extended westward as far as the Ocean. The King's court was kept in the city of Ghana, which, according to the author of the Book of Roger (El Idrisi), and the author of the Book of Roads and Realms (El Bekri), is divided into two parts, standing on both banks of the Nile, and ranks among the largest and most populous cities of the world. The people of Ghana had for neighbors, on the east, a nation, which, according to historians, was called Susu; after which came another named Mali; and after that another known by the name of Kaukau ; although some people prefer a different orthography, and write this name Kagho. The last-named nation was followed by a people called Tekrur. • The people of Ghana declined in course of time, being overwhelmed or absorbed by the Mulaththemun (or muffled people; that is, the Murabites), who, adjoining them on the north towards the Berber country, attacked them, and, taking possession of their territory, compelled them to embrace the Muslim religion. The people of Ghana, being invaded at a later period by the Susu, a nation of Blacks in their neighborhood, were exterminated, or mixed with other Black nations. • From these interactions and conquest arose a slave trade with the interior of Africa along the Sahel region.

35. ARAB SLAVE TRADE OUT OF AFRICA • Facts about the slave trade • People captured, transported, bought, sold by many actors • The trade passed through a series of intermediaries • Enriched both local Muslim aristocracy and Arab merchants • Slavery fed on wars between African peoples and states • Moroccan conquest of Ghana, rise of African Muslim states began process • Wars gave rise to an internal slave trade • The conquered owed tribute in form of men, women reduced to captivity • In the 8th and 9th centuries CE • Caliphs tried to colonize African shores of the Indian Ocean • Merchants and governments initiated commercial purposes. • Sultans in Cairo sent slave traffickers on raids • Against the Christian Nubian states • Against the Black pagan villages of Darfur • The Trade of Slaves out of Africa • Supply Zones vs Ports or Portals • Supply zones were areas where merchants obtained slaves • Ethiopia, Nubia, Darfur, Interiors of East Africa • Transition zones along Sahel and West African forests • Slaves were then shipped to a port or portal to leave region • Caravans left sahel cities: Timbuktu, Gao • Journeyed from oasis to oasis across Sahara to Mediterranean ports • Swahili Ports to Red Sea Ports or to Persian Gulf or to India • Slaves used to carry goods on caravans; they were then sold, too • Slave Markets in Market Towns of Key Cities • Slaves were often bartered for objects of various different kinds • In the Sudan: they were exchanged for cloth, jewelry, iron artifacts, salt • In the Maghreb, they were swapped for horses • In the desert cities, lengths of cloth, pottery, Venetian glass beads, dyestuffs, jewels • The trade in black slaves was part of a diverse commercial network • Even gold coins and cowrie shells were used as money

36. INTERRELATED TRADES Salt, gold, & slaves across the Sahara

37. Later Arab Slave Trade • Comparisons with Atlantic Slavery • Slaves in Muslim lands had a certain legal status • Had obligations to as well as rights over the slave owner • Slavery recognized, elaborately regulated by Sharia law • Emancipation of slaves was recommended but not compulsory • Slaves tended to be used as soldiers, servants and not for agriculture • Position of the domestic slave in Muslim society was in most respects better than in either classical antiquity or the nineteenth-century Americas • Economic situation of such slaves were no worse than and even in some cases better than free poor members of the same society.[ • Political Power: The Slave Soldier • Examples • Arab sultans used slave soldiers • Came to favor Turkish slaves • Mameluks in Post-Classical Arab World • Slave soldiers • Often of Turkish, Slavic, Circassian origins • Slaves converted to Islam and served the sultan • Over time became a powerful military caste within Islam • The Ghulams of Persia were another example • The Turkish Janissaries were the last example • The army of the Sultan of Morocco was largely slave • Slave Sultanates of Egypt, Delhi

38. DOCUMENTS • James M. Ludlow: The Tribute of Children, 1493 • The advice of the vizier was followed; the edict was proclaimed; many thousands of the European captives were educated in the Muslim religion and arms, and the new militia was consecrated and named by a celebrated dervish. White and black face are common and proverbial expressions of praise and reproach in the Turkish language. Such was the origin of these haughty troops, the terror of the nations. They are kept up by continual additions from the sultan's share of the captives, and by recruits, raised every five years, from the children of the Christian subjects. Small parties of soldiers, each under a leader, and each provided with a particular firman, go from place to place. Wherever they come, the protogeros assembled the inhabitants with their sons. The leader of the soldiers have the right to take away all the youth who are distinguished by beauty or strength, activity or talent, above the age of seven. He carries them to the court of the grand seignior, a tithe, as it is, of the subjects. The captives taken in war by the pashas, and presented by them to the sultan, include Poles, Bohemians, Russians, Italians, and Germans. These recruits are divided into two classes. Those who compose the one, are sent to Anatolia, where they are trained to agricultural labor, and instructed in the Muslim faith; or they are retained about the seraglio, where they carry wood and water, and are employed in the gardens, in the boats, or upon the public buildings, always under the direction of an overseer, who with a stick compels them to work. The others, in whom traces of a higher character are discernible, are placed in one of the four seraglios of Adrianople or Galata, or the old or new one at Constantinople. Here they are lightly clad in linen or in cloth of Saloniki, with caps of Prusa cloth. Teachers come every morning, who remain with them until evening, and teach them to read and write. Those who have performed hard labor are made Janizaries. Those who are educated in the seraglios become spahis or higher officers of state. Both classes are kept under a strict discipline. The former especially are accustomed to privation of food, drink, and comfortable clothing and to hard labor. They are exercised in shooting with the bow and arquebuse by day, and spend the night in a long, lighted hall, with an overseer, who walks up and down, and permits no one to stir. When they are received into the corps of the Janizaries, they are placed in cloister-like barracks, in which the different odas or ortas live so entirely in common that the military dignitaries are called from their soups and kitchens. Here not only the younger continue to obey the elders in silence and submission, but all are governed with such strictness that no one is permitted to spend the night abroad, and whoever is punished is compelled to kiss the hand of him who inflicts the punishment.

39. 20TH CENTURY SUPPRESSION • The 19th Century • No slavery abolitionist movement in Muslim world • Abolition within Muslim world fueled by Western abolitionism • But as Westerners abolished slavery, demand for slaves rose • Many Muslims protested, resisted as slavery was allowed in Sharia • Since Quran was state law: what Quran permits is legal! • First Abolitions • European powers ended slavery in their colonioal territories • Often fought wars against slavers, slavery with local Muslim rulers • Sudan Madhist state, war with Oman-Zanzibar, French West Africa are examples • Evidence of 19th, 20th c. Slave Trade and its suppression • English travelers in Arabia noted large number of Africans • Arab merchants bought, sold Chinese, Malays as slaves in East Indies • Slavery permitted in Ottoman Empire until outlawed in 1908 • After World War I, UK, France pressure Muslims to abolish • 1925: Slaves still bought, sold in Saudi Arabia (Wahabi Influence) • British pressure Saudi Arabia in 1927 to end trade • Pressured Saudi Arabia to end slavery in 1936 • Constant evidence that slavery exists on fringes of Muslim society

40. SLAVERY AND EUROPE • Western, Northern, Eastern Europe • Very common at end of Classical Age • St. Patrick sold as a slave only to return to Ireland • Church, many rulers issued bulls, orders to end slave trade • Slavery declined as serfdom spread: no need for slavery • Christians could not be enslaved • Influential slave trade from pagan Slavic lands to Mediterranean • Word slave itself comes from sklabos meaning “Slav” • Monopolized by Jews selling Slavs to Cordoba • Ended with Christianization of Slavic lands • Iberians had slaves, plantations on Azores, Canaries c. 1450 • English Plantations in Ireland treated Irish very much like slaves • Slavery in the Crusader States • Crusaders in the Holy Land inherited slaves, added prisoners of war • Acre became a major slave market • Western Muslims (Iberia, Sicily) • Constant warfare between Christians , Muslims produced prisoners of war • Iberian slave trade linked into North African slave trade and routes • Serfdom Compared • Serfdom in medieval Europe was separate and distinct from chattel slavery • Serfs were tied to the land and obliged to work the land for their lord • They were not chattel property: serfs could not be bought or sold • Usually could not be removed from their land, absent criminal or civil violations • Could be used as soldiers which most Christians avoided doing with slaves

41. B LACK SEA SLAVERY • The Byzantines • Maintained Roman definitions of slavery especially manumission, purchasing of freedom • Slaves: descendants of enslaved mothers, debt slavery, prisoners of war • The Vikings • Kept slaves called thralls – thralls were cheaper than cattle • A child born of a thrall woman was a thrall • But a child born of a free woman and thrall man was free • Enslaved Franks, Anglo-Saxons, Celts; used slaves to colonize Iceland • Slave trade was a cornerstone of Viking Rus-Byzantine commerce • Spread of Catholicism to Scandinavia ended slavery • The Khazars • Turkish tribe converted to Judaism, formed powerful commercial state • Provided Slavic slaves to markets in Byzantine Empire, Caliphates • Kievan Rus, Muscovy, and Golden Horde • The slaves were usually classified as kholop • Master had unlimited power over life: he could kill him, sell him, or use him as payment upon a debt • The master was responsible before the law for his kholop's actions. • Slavery a result of capture, selling oneself, being sold for debts, crimes, marriage to a kholop • Until 10th c. the kholops represented a majority among the servants who worked lordly lands • Slavery remained a major institution in Russia until 1723 • 1382: Golden Horde sacked Moscow, carrying off thousands of inhabitants as slaves. • For centuries the Khanates made raids on Russian principalities for slaves and to plunder towns • In Crimea about 75% of the population consisted of slaves • The Black Sea • Remained an active slaving area long after slavery abandoned in West • Mongols, Tartars, Russians, Genoese, Venetians actively engaged in slave trade

42. DOCUMENTS • Justinian’s Code, 6th century CE • We ordain that slaves, or tributaries, or inquilini shall remain with their lords. For, when, dismayed by a fear of Ioss, each landowner begins to drive away those who are unknown to him, the will to flight will not be with the slaves; for no one deserts his lord knowing that there is nowhere a refuge for him as a fugitive. But either each one will employ those known to be free men, or will dismiss him who feigns freedom, fearing that he will be liable to those punishments which are ordained by the law. If, therefore, any known fugitive be found anywhere, his detainer shall bring to our fisc twelve pounds of silver, but we decree that to him whose slave he is he shall bring another of the same value in addition to that same fugitive. • Lest there be any further doubt, if any one is descended from a bondwoman and a slave or adscripticius and a female slave, who is (and this might be worse fortune) either of bond or of servile rank, we decree that those things which were provided in former laws for such offspring, born of bondwoman and freeman, shall be left in their present state, and the offspring procreated from such connection shall be of bond status. But if any one were born either of a slave and a bondwoman or of a female slave and a bondman, he should follow the condition of his mother and be of such condition as she was, either slave or bondwoman; which rule has hitherto been observed only in cases of marriage between free and servile. For what difference is evident between slaves and adscripticii when both are placed in the potestas of a lord and he is able to manumit a slave with his goods and to expel from his dominion an adscripticius with land?

43. BLACK SEA TRADE ROUTES

44. A NEW SLAVE TRADE BEGINS • State Formation and Warfare in Africa • Portuguese arrived just as many cultures began large state development • State formation accompanied by warfare • Europeans bought slaves who were captured in warfare between African states • Some Africans made a business out of capturing other Africans and selling them • Enslavement became a major by-product of war in Africa • Some states expanded through deliberately making war to obtain slaves for European nations • Slavery formed an important element of political life which the Europeans exploited • Criminals punished by enslavement became prevalent as slavery more lucrative • Convicts were sold, used in local domestic slave market • The Slave Trade was redirected • Originally the slave trade went north into the Trans-Saharan Slave Trade • Europeans provided a large new market and redirect an existing trade • People living around the Niger River transported from these markets to coast • Sold at European trading ports in exchange for muskets, manufactured goods • The Atlantic slave trade peaked in the last two decades of the 18th century • Europeans rarely entered the interior of Africa • On land African kings controlled the slave trade • Local diseases were very deadly on Europeans • Local African kings fiercely guarded their territories, slave markets • The Special Case of Kongo and Ndongo (Angola) • The environment in this part of Africa was hospitable to Europeans • However a very powerful and old state – Kongo – dominated the area • Portugal acquired slaves by cooperating with Kongo, who was frequently at war with its neighbors • Portuguese alarmed by Kongo (converted to Catholicism, had large army, sent diplomats to pope) • Portugal established a colony in Angola: played Kongo, its main rival Ndongo off against one another • Eventually Portugal conquered Ndongo enslaving warriors, free citizens, nobility • Of 50 million Africans sent into slavery, 50% died in Africa due to warfare

45. DOCUMENT • John Wesley, founder of Methodism and abolitionist, Thoughts Upon Slavery, 1774 • In what manner are they procured? Part of them by fraud. Captains of ships, from time to time, have invited Negroes to come on board, and then carried them away. But far more have been procured by force. The Christians, landing upon their coasts, seized as many as they found, men, women, and children, and transported them to America. It was about 1551 that the English began trading to Guinea; at first, for gold and elephants' teeth; but soon after, for men. In 1556, Sir John Hawkins sailed with two ships to Cape Verd, where he sent eighty men on shore to catch Negroes. But the natives flying, they fell farther down, and there set the men on shore, "to burn their towns and take the inhabitants." But they met with such resistance, that they had seven men killed, and took but ten Negroes. So they went still farther down, till, having taken enough, they proceeded to the West Indies and sold them. It was some time before the Europeans found a more compendious way of procuring African slaves, by prevailing upon them to make war upon each other, and to sell their prisoners. Till then they seldom had any wars; but were in general quiet and peaceable. But the white men first taught them drunkenness and avarice, and then hired them to sell one another. Nay, by this means, even their Kings are induced to sell their own subjects. So Mr. Moore, factor of the African Company in 1730, informs us: "When the King of Barsalli wants goods or brandy, he sends to the English Governor at James's Fort, who immediately sends a sloop. Against the time it arrives, he plunders some of his neighbours' towns, selling the people for the goods he wants. At other times he falls upon one of his own towns, and makes bold to sell his own subjects." So Monsieur Brue says, "I wrote to the King," (not the same,) "if he had a sufficient number of slaves, I would treat with him. He seized three hundred of his own people, and sent word he was ready to deliver them for the goods." He adds: "Some of the natives are always ready" (when well paid) "to surprise and carry off their own countrymen. They come at night without noise, and if they find any lone cottage, surround it and carry off all the people." Barbot, another French factor, says, "Many of the slaves sold by the Negroes are prisoners of war, or taken in the incursions they make into their enemies' territories. Others are stolen. Abundance of little Blacks, of both sexes, are stolen away by their neighbours, when found abroad on the road, or in the woods, or else in the corn-fields, at the time of year when their parents keep them there all day to scare away the devouring birds."

46. MAPPING THE SLAVE TRADE

47. GEOGRAPHY OF THE TRADE • Where did most slaves originate • The civil war in Kongo furnished the first large amounts of slaves; Ndongo, Angola • The Niger River's Igbo-inhabited region: tiny states which warred with one another • West African Forest Region: the rise of Dahomey, Oyo, Ashante saw great warfare • Slave Market Regions and Participation • Eight principal areas used by Europeans to buy, ship slaves to Western Hemisphere • The number of slaves sold to the new world varied throughout the slave trade • Certain areas produced far more slaves than others • Between 1650 and 1900, 10.24 million African slaves arrived in the Americas • Slaving Regions • Senegambia (Senegal and The Gambia): 4.8% • Upper Guinea (Guinea-Bissau, Guinea and Sierra Leone): 4.1% • Windward Coast (Liberia and Cote d' Ivoire): 1.8% • Gold Coast (Ghana and east of Cote d' Ivoire): 10.4% • Bight of Benin (Togo, Benin and Nigeria west of the Niger Delta): 20.2% • Bight of Biafra (Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon): 14.6% • West Central Africa (Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola): 39.4% • Southeastern Africa (Mozambique and Madagascar): 4.7% • Port factories • After being marched to the coast for sale, slaves waited in large forts called factories • Around 4.5% of deaths during the transatlantic slave trade occurred here • About 820,000 people died in African ports such as Benguela, Elmina and Bonny

48. SLAVE TRADE REGIONS

49. DOCUMENTS • Manikongo (King of Kongo), Nzinga Mbemba Affonso, letter to the King João III of Portugal in the 1500s • “Each day the traders are kidnapping our people—children of this country, sons of our nobles and vassals, even people of our own family. This corruption and depravity are so widespread that our land is entirely depopulated. We need in this kingdom only priests and schoolteachers, and no merchandise, unless it is wine and flour for Mass. It is our wish that this Kingdom not be a place for the trade or transport of slaves. Many of our subjects eagerly lust after Portuguese merchandise that your subjects have brought into our domains. To satisfy this inordinate appetite, they seize many of our black free subjects.... They sell them. After having taken these prisoners [to the coast] secretly or at night..... As soon as the captives are in the hands of white men they are branded with a red-hot iron.” • King Gezo of Dahomey said in the 1840s: • “The slave trade is the ruling principle of my people. It is the source and the glory of their wealth…the mother lulls the child to sleep with notes of triumph over an enemy reduced to slavery…”

50. ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE • The Atlantic Slave Trade also known as the Transatlantic Slave Trade • The trade of primarily African people supplied to the colonies of the New World • Occurred in and around the Atlantic Ocean • It lasted from the 16th century to the 19th century • Most slaves were shipped from West Africa and Central Africa • Taken to the New World (primarily Brazil and Caribbean) • Generally slaves were obtained through coastal trading with Africans • Most historians estimate that between 9.4 and 12 millionAfricans arrived in the New World • The Atlantic slave trade is divided into two eras: 1st and 2nd Atlantic Systems • The First Atlantic system • The trade of African slaves to, primarily,South American colonies of the Portuguese and Spanish empires; • It accounted for only slightly more than 3% of all Atlantic slave trade. • It started in about 1502and lasted until 1580 when Portugal was temporarily united with Spain • The Portuguese traded slaves themselves • Spain relied on the asiento system awarding merchants from other countries the license to trade slaves to their colonies • During the first Atlantic system most of these traders were Portuguese, giving them a near-monopoly during the era • The Second Atlantic system • Was the trade of African slaves by mostly English, Brazilian, French and Dutch traders • The main destinations of this phase were the Caribbean colonies, Brazil and North America • Resulted as European countries built up economically slave-dependent colonial empires in the New World • By the Numbers • Slightly more than 3 percent of the slaves exported were traded between 1450 and 1600 • 16% percent of African slaves were exported in the 17th century • More than 50% of the slaves were exported in the 18th century • The remaining 28.5% in the 19th century