AP World History POD #11 – Transatlantic Slave Trade

1. AP World HistoryPOD #11 – Transatlantic Slave Trade Gold Coast & Slave Coast

2. Class Discussion Notes Bulliet – “Africa, the Atlantic, and Islam”, pp. 520-525

3. Assessing the Slave Trade • “Any assessment of the Atlantic system’s effects in Africa must take into consideration the fact that some Africans profited from the trade by capturing and selling slaves. They chained slaves together or bound them to forked sticks for the march to the coast, then bartered them to the European slaves for trade goods. The effects on the enslaver were different from the effects on the enslaved. Finally, a broader understanding of the Atlantic system’s effects in sub-Saharan Africa comes from comparisons with the effects of Islamic contacts.” (Bulliet, p. 520)

4. Slave Trade in Africa • African kings and merchants sold slaves and goods at many coastal cities, but the growing slave trade did not lead to substantial European colonization • Although slaves were the most valuable export from Africa, gold, ivory and timber were still important • African merchants were very particular about the goods they would accept, if the quality was not good or in demand locally European merchants found it very difficult to make a profit • Africans were interested in acquiring textiles, hardware, and guns • Both Europeans and Africans would engage in “shady” business practices in an attempt to gain the best deal

5. Cost of Slaves • African bargaining power increased as the demand for slaves in the New World grew • In addition, slaves were in high demand in Africa • The cost for purchasing a slave began to double and even triple or quadruple in the 18th century

6. Slave Traders • African governments demanded that European slave merchants observe local African trading customs and procedures • The slave merchants were prohibited from taking control of African territory (they had no real interest in this as it was the slaves that earned profits) • Slave merchants had to pay local kings large customs duty before they were allowed to engage in the slave trade • Rivalries developed between the European nations involved in the trade

7. Bight of Biafara • “Using a network of markets and inland routes, regional merchants supplied supplied European slave traders at the coast with detbors, victims of kidnapping, and convicted criminals. As the volume of the Atlantic trade along the Bight of Biafra expanded in the late eighteenth century, some inland markets evolved into giant fairs with different sections specializing in slaves and imported goods. In the 1780s an English ship’s doctor reported that African merchants collected slaves at fairs in the interior and that groups of twelve hundred to fifteen hundred enslaved men and women were then sent to the coast from a single fair.” (Bulliet, p. 522)

8. Atlantic Slave Trade • The majority of the African slaves were men who were desired for their physical strength for labor on the North and South American plantations

9. Islamic Slave Trade • Most African slaves in the Islamic world were soldiers and servants • Unlike the Americas, most of the African slaves taken to the Islamic world were women who served wealthy families as concubines, domestic servants and entertainers • The Trans-Saharan slave trade also included a much greater number of children

10. Slave Trade & African Population • Even at the peak of the slave trade in 1700, sub-Saharan Africa’s overall population remained very large • Localities that contribute heavily to the slave trade, such as the lands near the Slave Coast, suffered acute losses • The ability of a population to recover from losses was related to the proportion of fertile women who were shipped away. The fact that Africans sold fewer women than men into the larger Atlantic trade somewhat reduced the long-term demographic effects of this larger trade. (Bulliet, p. 525)