The atlantic slave trade

Mr. McCaskillThe Atlantic slave trade

Setting the stageSugar plantations and tobacco farms required a large supply of workers to make them profitable for their owners.European owners had planned to use Native Americans as a source of cheap labor.Therefore, the Europeans in Brazil, the Caribbean, and the southern colonies of North America soon turned to Africa for workers.This demand for cheap labor resulted in the brutalities of the slave trade.The cause of slaveryBeginning around 1500, Europeans needed workers so they began using slaves on plantations and farms.Slavery had existed in Africa for centuries.In most regions it was a relatively minor institution.In most African and Muslim societies, slaves had some legal rights and an opportunity for social mobility.The demand for AfricansAfter the colonization of the Americas, millions of natives died due to disease.As a result, Europeans began trading for African slaves to do work.The demand for Africans cont.The use of African slaves were perfect for several reasons:Many Africans had been exposed to European diseases and had built up some immunity.Many Africans had experience in farming and could be taught plantation work.Africans were less likely to escape because they did not know their way around the new land.Their skin color made it easier to catch them if they escaped and tried to live amongst others.Atlantic slave tradeBuying and selling Africans for work in the Americas became a huge business known as the Atlantic Slave Trade.By the time the Atlantic slave trade ended around the year 1870, Europeans imported about 12 million Africans to the Americas.During the 1600s, Brazil dominated the European sugar market.As the colonys sugar industry grew, so too did European colonists demand for cheap labor.More than 40 percent of all Africans brought to the Americas went to Brazil.The middle passageAfter being captured, Africans were shipped to be a part of a trade network.Along the way, millions of Africans died from untreated diseases, physical abuse, and suicide.The voyage that brought Africans to North/South America was known as the middle passage.Sickening cruelty characterized this journey.European traders packed Africans into the dark holds of large ships.In the end, roughly 20%-30% of the people on the ships never made it to the Americas.The triangular tradeAfricans transported to the Americas were part of a trading network, the triangular trade.Africans delivered other Africans to the Europeans in exchange for gold, guns, rum, and other goods.There, traders exchanged these goods for captured Africans.The Africans were then transported across the Atlantic and sold in the West Indies.Merchants bought sugar, coffee, and tobacco in the West Indies and sailed to Europe with these products.Upon arriving in the Americas, Africans usually were auctioned off to the highest bidder.

Slavery in the AmericasSlaves lived a very hard life.They worked long days and suffered many beatings.Slavery was a lifelong condition, as well as a hereditary one.Consequences of the slave tradeIn Africa, cultures lost generations of their fittest members.Countless African families were torn apart.Many of them were never reunited.The slave trade devastated African societies by introducing guns to the continent.Slavery todayToday there are more than 27 million people in slavery.We have more slaves in our world today than in any other time period in history.It is illegal in most of the world.However, slavery in our world today is not seen by most people.HOW TO STOP ITResearch organizations such asNot For SaleEnd Child TraffickingPolaris ProjectEnd Slavery NowNC-Stop