Slavery and Triangle Trade

Triangle Trade

European Background

• Portuguese started African slave trade in 1441

• First Africans in Hispanola in 1505 • 1450-1850 ~12 million Africans

sent to Americas

Why Africans?• Native Americans dying off Some degree of disease

resistance• No muskets and gunpowder• Africans participated in trade by enslaving others,

selling debtors and criminals, and kidnapping• Skilled workers

– Knew how to extract precious ore from mines– Familiar with soils and crops

• Not familiar with the land—making escape less likely

Portuguese Slave Trade• The Portuguese

population was too small to provide a large number of colonists.

• The sugar plantations required a large labor force.

• Slaves filled this demand. Europeans and

Africans Meet to Trade

Slave Trade and Sugar• Portuguese crop

growers extended the use of slave labor to South America.

• Because of this, Brazil would eventually become the wealthiest of the sugar-producing lands in the western hemisphere.

European Slave Trade

Plantations• The first was established by the Spanish on

Hispaniola in 1516.

• Originally the predominant crop was sugar. In addition to sugar, plantations produced crops like tobacco, indigo, and cotton.

• In the 1530s Portuguese began organizing plantations in Brazil, and Brazil became the world’s leading supplier of sugar.

Plantations• Labor intensive= HARD WORK

• Relied almost exclusively on large amounts of slave labor supervised by small numbers of European or Euro-American managers.

Brazilian sugar mill in the 1830s

Justification- Why?• Slavery made development of the

New World profitable $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $

$ $ $

Slavery Expands• In 1518, the first shipment of slaves went

directly from West Africa to the Caribbean where the slaves worked on sugar plantations.

• By the 1520s, the Spanish had introduced slaves to Mexico, Peru, and Central America where they worked as farmers and miners.

• By the early 17th century, the British had introduced slaves to North America.

Impact of Slave Trade on the Americas

•Diverse Culture- Cultural Diffusion- Africans brought part of their culture (like music food, traditions, Language) to the Americas.

•Made Latin American colonies (Brazil) wealthy

Exportation• Trip called the

Middle Passage• 5000 miles, 3 wks.

to 3 mos.• 20-25% died• Strip Africans’ self

respect and self identity

The Middle Passage

The Middle Passage

Slave Master Brands

Inspection and Sale