ch 14: economic transformations: commerce & consequence...

The Slave Ship, originally entitled Slavers Throwing overboard the Dead and Dying—Typhoon coming on, is a painting by British artist J.M.W. Turner, 1840.

YouTube: Crash Course WH - Atlantic Slave Trade

CH 14: Economic Transformations: Commerce & Consequence

Atlantic Slave Trade

Olaudah Equiano The Journey to Slavery

"The Slave Ship" by British artist J. M. W. Turner, 1840.

In this classic example of a Romantic maritime painting, Turner depicts a ship, visible in the background, sailing through a tumultuous sea of churning water and leaving scattered human forms floating in its wake.

YouTube: Khan Academy - Turner, Slave Ship (Art History)

The Middle Passage Mid-18th cent. painting of slaves held below deck on a Spanish slave ship illustrates horrendous conditions of the transatlantic voyage

Interior of Slave Ship: This detailed drawing of the interior of a slave ship shows how the "cargo" was arranged to maximize capacity.

The Middle Passage

1. What was distinctive about the Atlantic slave trade? 2. What did it share with other patterns of slave owning and slave trading? 3. What explains the rise of Atlantic slave trade? 4. What roles did Europeans and Africans play in the unfolding of the Atlantic slave trade? 5. In what different ways did the Atlantic slave trade transform African societies?

This 18th cent. French painting shows the sale of slaves at Goree, a major slave trading port in what is now Dakar in Senegal.

A European merchant & an African authority figure negotiate the arrangement, while the shackled victims themselves wait for their fate to be decided.

Compare English & Spanish Colonies.

European merchants waited on board their ships or in fortified port cities to purchase slaves from African merchants & elites.

African slavery in the New World ★ Differed fundamentally

from past instances of slavery in world history

★ Clearly racially based & plantation economies were driving force

Those who were captured & enslaved by other African peoples were seen to be outcasts & foreigners, often prisoners of war, within local villages.

House of Slaves, Senegal: Goree Island in Dakar, Senegal now stands as a memorial to the Atlantic Slave Trade. For many years, it housed slaves before they were loaded onto ships bound for the Americas.

Long-term impact on West Africa: Economic stagnation & political disruption

★Without a strong role in the Afro-Eurasian trade Africa: unplugged from world trade

★ Sand routes & Islamic trading networks simply destabilized & collapsed as Europeans sailed around the continent.

★ Elimination of Islamic & North African “middlemen” created a transfer of wealth to Western Europe & devastated the economy & culture of Africa & later Islamic world*

*mostly Ottoman Empire ★ Opened the door to corruption,

slavery, & later colonization of Africa.

Slave Market Memorial: These statues of chained slaves in Tanzania stand as a memorial to the old slave market.

St. George's Castle, Ghana: Tourists explore holding cells once used to hold slaves before they were shipped off across the Atlantic.

European slavers point of view:

To Europeans slave traders, Africans were ideal slaves because: ★ Immune systems could handle many tropical & European

diseases. ★ Came from a largely agricultural society. ★W. Africa was relatively close to Brazil & Caribbean by sea.

How should we distribute the moral responsibility for the Atlantic slave trade?

Mankind - History of all of us Episode - Treasure, min. 32:21 - 39:00

Queen Nzingha a Mbande (c. 1583-1663)

17th cent. queen of the Ndongo & Matamba Kingdoms of the Mbundu people in southwestern Africa.

Mankind: The Story of All of Us, Episode 8, Treasure.