History of the Slave Trade E-Book

Edoardo Albert

• Herausgeber: Fox Chapel Publishing
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Serie: Visual History
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Seitenzahl: 267

Beschreibung

The transatlantic slave trade is one of the most shameful chapters in human history. Between 1500 and 1900 it's estimated that around 12 million African men, women, and children were stolen from their homes by Europeans, before being forcefully transported thousands of miles across the Atlantic. Those who survived the horrific 'Middle Passage' would then be sold, often separated from their families, and put to work as enslaved labor on plantations throughout the New World. While this inhumane trade was eventually abolished in the 19th century, the scars still remain and the lasting impact is still being felt by communities around the world. In History of the Slave Trade, we seek to tell the story of the transatlantic slave trade – from its origins to its abolition. We discover the impact on Africa, the horrors of the Middle Passage, and what life was like for millions of enslaved people. We also look to explore the legacies of slavery and how the effects are still being felt in the modern world.

Leseprobe

HISTORY OF THE

EDOARDO ALBERT

HARETH AL BUSTANI

JOSEPHINE HALL

The Origins of the Slave Trade and Its Impacts

throughout History and the Present Day

©2023 by Future Publishing Limited

Articles in this issue are translated or reproduced from

History

of the Slave Trade

and are the copyright of or licensed to Future

Publishing Limited, a Future plc group company, UK 2022.

Used under license. All rights reserved. This version published by

Fox Chapel Publishing Company, Inc., 903 Square Street, Mount

Joy, PA 17552.

For more information about the Future plc group,

go to http://www.futureplc.com.

e-ISBN: 978-1-6374-1255-8

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

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[email protected].

WELCOME

T

he transatlantic slave trade is one

of the most shameful chapters in

human history. Between 1500 and

1900 it’s estimated that around 12

million African men, women, and children

were stolen from their homes by Europeans,

before being forcefully transported thousands

of miles across the Atlantic. Those who

survived the horrific ‘Middle Passage’ would

then be sold, often separated from their

families, and put to work as enslaved labor on

plantations throughout the New World. While

this inhumane trade was eventually abolished

in the 19th century, the scars still remain

and the lasting impact is still being felt by

communities around the world.

In this bookazine, we seek to tell the story

of the transatlantic slave trade – from its

origins to its abolition. We discover the impact

on Africa, the horrors of the Middle Passage,

and what life was like for millions of enslaved

people. We also look to explore the legacies of

slavery and how the effects are still being felt

in the modern world.

CONTENTS

THE

HUMAN

EXPERIENCE

52

A Journey in Chains

62

Life in Captivity

72

Impact on Africa

STORY

OF THE

SLAVE TRADE

14

Origins of the Transatlantic Slave Trade

18

The Jamestown Captives of 1619

28

Slavery in North America

40

Slavery in the Caribbean and South America

44

Britain’s Dark Past

Timeline of the Transatlantic Slave Trade

6

28

114

90

52

4

Images:

Getty Images (p20, p30, p92, p98), Alamy (p54, p64, p86, p116, p120)

FIGHT

FOR

FREEDOM

78

The Fight to End Slavery

84

Frederick Douglass: Slave to Statesman

90

Revolt and Resistance

96

The War to End a ‘Peculiar Institution’

102

Winning the War, Losing the Peace

LEGACY

&

IMPACT

108

The Long March to Freedom

114

The Land of the Free…?

118

Legacy & Lasting Impact

6

96

18

5

44

118

84

62

THE

TRANSATLANTIC

SLAVE TRADE TIMELINE

European economic development and the exploitation of resources

in the Americas fuelled the emergence of the African slave trade

SIR JOHN HAWKINS

ESTABLISHES

ENGLISH SLAVE TRADE

1562-69

Trade routes from England to Africa and the

New World

Conducting three voyages from England to Sierra Leone on the coast of

West Africa and then to the island of Hispaniola, Sir John Hawkins is the

first Englishman considered to be actively involved in the transatlantic

slave trade. His voyages establish the triangular trade route, standard for

more than two centuries. Ships depart ports in England and other European

countries laden with goods to be traded for slaves on the African coast.

The slaves are then transported across the Atlantic Ocean via the notorious

Middle Passage and sold as laborers to plantation owners in the New World.

Completing the triangle, ships transport commodities such as cotton, sugar,

rum, tobacco, and coffee back to Europe.

The first known English slave

trader, Sir John Hawkins, also

established the transatlantic

triangular trade route

Portuguese slave traders pay

respects to an African king as

they ply their trade

THE PORTUGUESE

INITIATE

TRANSATLANTIC

SLAVE TRADE

1526

Trade route from

Africa to Brazil

SLAVES INTRODUCED

AT JAMESTOWN

August 20,

1619

Jamestown, Virginia

Sailing from the Caribbean, an English privateer, the White Lion, reaches Point

Comfort, now Hampton Roads, not far from Jamestown, Virginia, the first

permanent English-speaking colony in North America. They trade 20 African

slaves for food and other provisions. These are the first slaves imported to

Britain’s North American colonies. During a span of four centuries, an estimated

12 to 13 million enslaved Africans are brought to North and South America by

European traders to toil as field workers, house servants, and laborers.

MASSACHUSETTS

LEGALIZES SLAVERY

December

10, 1641

Boston, Massachusetts

A slave owner himself, Governor John Winthrop is a

principal author of the Massachusetts Bodies of Liberty,

the first collection of laws that legalize the institution of

slavery in North America. Samuel Maverick, an owner

of two slaves, had brought them to the English colony

in 1624, while the first slaves imported directly to

Massachusetts from Africa made their arrival in 1634.

In 1638, the slave ship Desire had brought enslaved

Africans from Barbados in the Caribbean, and these were

exchanged for members of the Pequot tribe captured in

New England and placed in bondage. Between 1755 and

1764, the number of slaves in Massachusetts rises to 2.2

percent of the total population.

KING JAMES I CHARTERS THE

COMPANY OF ADVENTURERS

OF LONDON TRADING TO THE

PORTS OF AFRICA

1618

London, England

Massachusetts governor John Winthrop

was a slaveholder and contributor to

laws legalizing slavery in the colony

Prominent Boston

landmark Faneuil

Hall was built by

slaver Peter Faneuil,

who conducted slave

auctions nearby

Image:

Jun/CC BY-SA 2.0 (Roman slaves)

In colonial Virginia, tobacco became

a lucrative cash crop. Slave labor was

instrumental in its production

T

HE

T

RANSATLANTIC

S

LAVE

T

RADE

T

IMELINE

From earliest recorded history, the

concept of slavery or involuntary

servitude has existed, transcending

cultural or ethical conditions and

enabling those who have exploited

human suffering to build immense

wealth and exert control over

subservient peoples.

With the emergence of social

classes, slavery developed in

Sumeria and Mesopotamia, even

being referenced in the Code of

Hammurabi as an institution with its

purpose and place in society. The

development of slavery in civilization

stemmed from the need for labor,

simply the performance of functions

that contributed to the augmentation

of wealth or the increase of status.

Slaves were either captured during

raids and transported to markets

to be sold as commodities, taken

prisoner during battles among rival

kingdoms or empires and cast into

bondage as the spoils of war, sold

or surrendered by next of kin to

serve a monarch or person of high

social status, or punished for some

egregious crime.

From 3,500 BCE forward, records

of slave enterprises in Sumeria

have survived. Biblical references

to slavery abound, particularly that

of the Hebrew people delivered

by God from bondage in Egypt.

Slavery cast its shadow across the

glory of the Roman Empire and the

magnificence of classical Greece.

Examples of slavery and involuntary

servitude in ancient China and

other Asian cultures attest that the

institution has not been confined

only to Western civilization, and that

the transatlantic slave trade was an

extension of a practice that predated

its horrors for centuries. Numerous

African kingdoms, in fact, held

slavery in high regard, even revered

the concept of enslaving

the vanquished of neighboring

empires following military victories.

Slavery, therefore, is as old as

civilization itself, a symptom of the

human condition – and one of its

basest elements.

Of Human

Bondage

Slavery, or involuntary servitude,

has been an element of civilization

for thousands of years

Trudging along in chains, Roman

slaves are led toward an ancient

and uncertain future

Arriving at Jamestown, Virginia,

aboard the White Lion in 1619,

African slaves cower near the shore

ROYAL AFRICAN

COMPANY

CHARTERED

September

24, 1672

London, England

King Charles II grants a charter to the Royal

African Company, effectively a monopoly of the

English slave trade on the west coast of Africa

from the Cape of Good Hope to the western

reaches of the Sahara Desert. The Royal African

Company is led by the Duke of York, the future

King James II and brother of King Charles II.

Financed by numerous aristocratic investors,

the enterprise will transport more African slaves

to the Americas than any other in the history of

the transatlantic trade.

FIRST MAROON WAR

1728-40

Jamaica

While the Caribbean island of Jamaica is under Spanish

rule, slaves sometimes escape, reaching the mountains

and isolated areas, blending with indigenous peoples, and

maintaining a degree of freedom. However, after Britain

wrests control of Jamaica from Spain in 1655, revolts erupt

and the number of so-called ‘maroons’ increases. British

attempts to quell the unrest and control the entire island

escalate into the First Maroon War. Although Britain commits

substantial numbers of troops to the pacification effort, a

stalemate results in an agreement allowing the maroons to

live in certain areas without British interference. In exchange,

the maroons are to assist in returning escaped slaves and

protecting Jamaica from outside threats.

King Charles II granted his brother,

future King James II, leadership of

the Royal African Company

This armed Jamaican Maroon

is typical of those who opposed

British pacification efforts

The Broadway show

Drumfolk

was inspired by the events of

the Stono Rebellion

Jamaican Maroons fire on a

detachment of British soldiers

marching through the jungle

GRANVILLE SHARP INITIATES

LEGAL CHALLENGE TO BRITISH

SLAVE TRADE

1765

London, England

TOUSSAINT L’OUVERTURE

LEADS SLAVE UPRISING IN

SAINT DOMINGUE

1791

French Caribbean colony of Saint

Domingue

INVENTION OF THE

COTTON GIN

1794

Savannah, Georgia

STONO

REBELLION

ERUPTS

September

9, 1739

South Carolina

Jemmy, a literate slave also known

as Cato, leads a group of 20 slaves

in rebellion along the coast of

the South Carolina Lowcountry.

From the owner’s plantation

on the Stono River, Jemmy and

his cohorts grow to more than

80 in number, killing up to 25

colonists as they march toward

Florida, where the Spanish have

promised freedom to slaves who

escape the British. However, the

South Carolina militia meets the

escapees near the Edisto River

and suppresses the uprising,

killing 35-50 slaves.

SLAVE TRADE ACT

March

25, 1807

London, England

Largely due to the efforts of William Wilberforce and his associates, who had taken

up the cause of abolishing slavery in Great Britain 20 years earlier, Parliament passes

the Slave Trade Act of 1807. Although the act prohibits the slave trade in the British

Empire, it does not abolish the practice of slavery; however, Britain urges other

nations to consider abolishing its sanction of the slave trade as well. At the time the

act is passed, the slave trade remains one of the most profitable business ventures

in the Empire, although the institution is not formally ended in Britain until the

Slavery Abolition Act of 1833.

This poignant medallion became the

symbol of the British Anti-Slavery Society

William Wilberforce championed the

effort to abolish slavery in Great Britain

THE UNITED STATES BANS

AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE

1808

Washington, D.C.

SPAIN ABOLISHES THE

SLAVE TRADE

1820

Madrid, Spain

PARLIAMENT PASSES

SLAVERY ABOLITION ACT

1833

London, England

Images:

Alamy (Royal African Company logo, armed Jamaican Maroon, Drumfolk), Getty Images (Jamaican Maroons in jungle)

In this engraving slave

insurrectionist Nat Turner is

captured on October 30, 1831

T

HE

T

RANSATLANTIC

S

LAVE

T

RADE

T

IMELINE

NAT TURNER’S REBELLION

August

21-23, 1831

Southampton County, Virginia

Slave and preacher Nat Turner leads perhaps the most famous slave

uprising in American history. Armed with axes and clubs, Turner

and about 70 other slaves began their short-lived rebellion with a

murderous rampage, killing more than 50 White people. Although

the rebellion is put down at Belmont Plantation within days, Turner

remains at large for two months. He is captured and executed amid

a wave of retaliation in which approximately 160 Black people are

executed by the state of Virginia or murdered.

This woodcut depicts the events of the

Nat Turner slave rebellion in Virginia

SLAVES SEIZE THE

SHIP AMISTAD

1839

Atlantic, near coast of

North America

The fire engine house at Harpers

Ferry has been reconstructed on

the original site

BRAZIL BEGINS

ENFORCING LAWS

AGAINST SLAVE

TRADE

1850

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

DRED SCOTT DECISION

March

6, 1857

Washington, D.C.

Dred Scott, a slave whose owner transported him from the slave state of Missouri

to the free states of Illinois and Wisconsin, sues for his freedom after returning

to Missouri, asserting that since he had been transported to free territory he

was no longer a slave. After defeat in Missouri state court and US federal court,

the case is appealed to the US Supreme Court, which rules 7-2 against Scott.

In the landmark decision, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney writes that Blacks “are not

included, and were not intended to be included, under the word ‘citizens’ in the

Constitution. . .” and therefore could claim none of the rights of US citizens.

JOHN BROWN RAID

October

16-18, 1859

Harpers Ferry, Virginia

Abolitionist John Brown leads 22 men on a raid to seize

the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Previously

involved in other acts of anti-slavery related violence,

Brown and several of his men are trapped in the arsenal

fire engine house by US Marines under the command of

future Confederate General Robert E Lee. One Marine is

killed and another wounded, while ten raiders die, seven

are captured and five escape. Brown is convicted of

treason and executed on December 2, 1859.

LEFT Slave Dred Scott’s quest for

freedom reached the United States

Supreme Court

ABOVE Chief Justice Roger B. Taney

wrote the majority opinion in the

landmark Dred Scott decision

Slavery is, at its most elementary

level, the involuntary coercion or

detention of an individual to perform

some function for the benefit of

others. It has taken many names and

has been shrouded in circumstance

and suspect justification as well.

While some may have offered

the dubious argument that

slavery actually has benefitted an

enslaved people that otherwise

were disadvantaged and unable to

competently determine their own

future, others have contended that

the institution was a necessary tool

for the good of society. Therefore,

varied genres of slavery have

emerged across the millennia.

Slavery encompasses those who

were simply seized and sold, those

who were captured during wartime

and made to serve the victors,

and those whose families even

considered it a privilege to give their

children over to the ruling regime for

a lifetime of servitude.

Beyond these concepts, during

the colonial era, indentured

servitude allowed individuals to

seek their own fortune after paying

for passage to America with a

specified period of work, usually

seven years, for the benefit of

another. Prisoners, paying their

supposed debt to society, have

often been employed as laborers,

while those who have amassed

considerable debt and defaulted

have, at times, been sentenced into

bondage as a result.

Even today, slavery persists.

Although chains may not be visible,

millions of people, young and old,

are held against their will around

the world. Human trafficking for the

purposes of cheap labor and illicit

sex trade flourishes despite the

best efforts of government and law

enforcement to eradicate the age-

old scourge.

Identities of

slavery

This haunting image titled ‘The

Slave Market’ depicts the despair

of those sold into bondage

Slavery and involuntary servitude

have existed in numerous forms

through the centuries

Abolitionist firebrand John

Brown led the ill-fated raid

on the federal arsenal at

Harpers Ferry, Virginia

EMANCIPATION

PROCLAMATION

January

1, 1863

Washington, D.C.

In the midst of the Civil War and following the

tenuous strategic victory on the battlefield of

Antietam, President Abraham Lincoln issues

the Emancipation Proclamation, ostensibly

freeing the slaves held in territories then

in rebellion against the United States. The

proclamation does not free slaves in the

border states of Maryland, Kentucky and

Missouri, which remain in the Union, and

since the rebellious territories are not fully

under Union control, the document serves

primarily to add another dimension to the

war. Now, not only is the conflict being

prosecuted to preserve the Union, but also

to end the institution of slavery in the United

States.

President Abraham Lincoln

issued the Emancipation

Proclamation on January 1, 1863

Representative James Mitchell

Ashley of Ohio had proposed a

Constitutional amendment to

abolish slavery in 1863

The 13th Amendment was just

the first of three amendments

to be established following the

end of the American Civil War

MAJOR CONFEDERATE

ARMIES SURRENDER,

EFFECTIVELY ENDING

AMERICAN CIVIL WAR

1865

Appomattox Court House

Virginia; Bennett Place,

Durham, North Carolina

UNITED STATES

ABOLISHES SLAVERY

December

6, 1865

Washington, D.C.

The 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution is

ratified by 27 of the 36 US states, abolishing slavery and

involuntary servitude in the country unless as punishment

for a crime. The amendment had been initially proposed

on April 8, 1864 and passed the Senate by a vote of 38 to

6. However, it failed in the House of Representatives with

a tally of 93 in favor and 65 against, 13 votes short of the

two-thirds majority required for passage.

Members of the US House of

Representatives celebrate the

ratification of the 13th Amendment

JUNETEENTH

COMMEMORATES

END OF SLAVERY

June

19, 1865

United States

PORTUGAL ENDS

LAST SLAVE ROUTE

TO AMERICAS

1870

Lisbon, Portugal

BRAZIL BECOMES

THE LAST COUNTRY

IN THE AMERICAS

TO END SLAVERY

1888

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Image:

MamaGeek/CC BY 3.0 (John Brown Fort)

T

HE

T

RANSATLANTIC

S

LAVE

T

RADE

T

IMELINE

Scars on the back of a slave

named Gordon are indicative

of the brutality of slavery

14

44

18

28

40

12

STORY

OF THE

SLAVE TRADE

14

Origins of the Transatlantic Slave Trade

18

The Jamestown Captives of 1619

28

Slavery in North America

40

Slavery in the Caribbean and South America

44

Britain’s Dark Past

From the origins to abolition, discover the history

of the transatlantic slave trade

Images:

Getty Images (p16, p20, p30), Alamy (p42, p46)

13

W

hen Francisco de Rosa looked

out on the New World from the

deck of the Santa Maria de la

Luz, the mariner was satisfied

with a job well done. Setting out from Arguim,

a tiny island off the coast of what is now

Mauritania in West Africa, de Rosa had crossed

the Atlantic and made it safely to Puerto Rico

with a valuable cargo. Among the goods he

carried to sell on the other side of the Atlantic

were at least 54 African slaves.

De Rosa’s voyage in 1520 was the second

known to have been undertaken by a slave ship

that sailed direct from Africa to the Americas;

he may also have commanded the first slave

crossing a year earlier, in which at least 60 slaves

were transported. They were among the first

voyages in a horrific trade in human beings.

By the time that transatlantic slavery came to

an end 400 years later, more than 12 million

Africans had been forcibly shipped across the

ocean. This is the story of the transatlantic slave

trade’s murky beginnings.

Despite its relative proximity, the African

continent beyond the Mediterranean coast was

little known to Europeans at the turn of the 15th

century. Only when Castilian and Portuguese

seafarers began to understand the regular

patterns of the Atlantic’s currents and winds

could they begin to explore to the south in small

but maneuverable caravels. Castilians began

the conquest of the Canary Islands in 1402;

Portuguese explorers discovered the uninhabited

islands of Madeira in 1419, the Azores in 1427 and

Cape Verde in 1456.

The new islands had a climate and fertile

soil that were perfect for the production of wine

and sugar, and were soon settled by pioneering

colonists. However, the hard, manual graft

required to carve a living on the islands was

reserved for others. Although the native Canary

Islanders, the Guanches, were an ideal source

of labor, it was a limited pool of workers. An

alternative source of labor was soon found.

In addition to mapping the waters of the east

Atlantic, navigators moved down the coast of

Africa, pushing beyond the previously known

limit of Cape Bojador to reach Cape Blanco in

1441, the Bay of Arguim in 1443, and Cap-Vert in

1444. There they stumbled across a centuries-old

trade network in which West African states sold

slaves to Arab merchants who transported them

across the Sahara to North Africa.

The profits of the trans-Saharan slave trade

meant that the West Africa that the Europeans

discovered was extremely affluent. By the 14th

century the Mali Empire had grown larger than

Western Europe. When its leader Mansa Musa

visited Cairo on his hajj pilgrimage in 1324, his

procession reportedly included 60,000 men, of

whom 12,000 were slaves carrying gold bars to

pay his way. So vast was his fortune that Musa’s

party inadvertently caused inflation as prices

rocketed in response, devaluing gold for more

ORIGINS

OF THE

TRANSATLANTIC

SLAVE TRADE

Uncover the little-known genesis of history’s darkest trade

Written by Scott Reeves

S

TORY

OF

THE

S

LAVE

T

RADE

14

The transatlantic slave trade was born when

Europeans trafficked enslaved Africans across

the Atlantic as labor in the New World

Image

: Alamy

15

O

RIGINS

OF

THE

T

RANSATLANTIC

S

LAVE

T

RADE

in Europe or the island colonies of the east

Atlantic. By 1455 up to 800 slaves a year were

being transported from Arguim to Portugal;

by the turn of the century some 81,000 slaves

had been transported from the African coast on

Portuguese ships and as much as ten percent of

the population of Lisbon may have been African

or of African descent.

The use of Africans as labor in Europe and

her colonies provided a steady but small flow of

slaves from West African trading ports. However,

demand for slaves rocketed after the first

explorers returned from the other side of the

ocean with tales of vast, unclaimed lands.

When Christopher Columbus discovered

Hispaniola – the island containing modern

Haiti and the Dominican Republic – in 1492, it

was probably home to hundreds of thousands

of indigenous inhabitants, the Taíno. However,

Spanish colonization was violent. Any natives

who opposed the conquerors were mercilessly

cut down, while European diseases for which

the Taíno had no immunity cut through the

population; the first smallpox epidemic in

Hispaniola and Puerto Rico may have claimed

the lives of around two-thirds of the native

population. Within just 30 years, the number

of natives plummeted by around 85 percent. By

1514, according to a Spanish census, there were

only 26,000 Taíno left under Spanish control.

The rich gold mines and agricultural fields that

the Spanish had discovered in the New World

would be useless if there was nobody to work

in them.

It was a situation repeated across the

Caribbean – millions of native inhabitants of the

islands may have died in the first two or three

decades of Spanish expansion. With no local

workforce, slaves were shipped from the west

coast of Africa to Europe, and from there onto

the New World. The first African slaves known to

have landed in the Americas reached Hispaniola

in 1502, while four African slaves are known

to have been shipped from Europe to Cuba in

1513. The Spanish had lost one workforce; their

solution was to ship another in from the other

side of the ocean.

On August 18. 1518, King Charles I of Spain

made the new transatlantic slave trade ruthlessly

efficient when he issued a new document that

authorized the transportation of slaves direct

from Africa to the Americas. The charter

allowed Lorenzo de Gorrevod, a trusted advisor

and member of the king’s council of state, to

transport “four thousand Negro slaves both male

than a decade after his visit. Emperor Askia

the Great of the Songhai Empire completed a

similarly opulent hajj more than a century later,

while the Kingdom of Kongo was an affluent

trading state of half a million people with an

impressive capital at M’banza-Kongo.

It was tales of such prosperity and gold that

drew European explorers to the African coast

like moths to a light, eager to trade with the

rich rulers. In 1445 the Portuguese established

a trading post on a small island in a sheltered

bay just off the coast of modern Mauritania.

Arguim gave the merchants a base from which

they could acquire gold and other commodities,

including slaves, who could fetch a decent price

“Demand for slaves rocketed after the first

explorers returned from the other side of the

ocean with tales of unclaimed lands”

Africa’s other

slave trade

Slavery was already endemic in African societies

when European explorers first came down the

west coast. Slaves may have been punished for

a crime or debt or were members of a rival tribe

who had been captured in war or kidnapped

by a raiding party. However, African slaves may

have held a different status to those who were

unfortunate enough to be chattel slaves on the

other side of the Atlantic – they may have had

some rights, like owning property and holding

public office. When Islam began to spread into

Africa in the 7th century, Muslim traders began

to range south in search of new markets and

partners. Pioneers discovered routes through

the Sahara Desert that passed life-preserving

oases, often concluding their journeys at

Sijilmasa or Kairouan in modern Morocco

and Tunisia. Thousands of slaves were taken

across the desert each year for use as workers,

domestic servants, and concubines in North

Africa and the wider Islamic world.

Arab slave traders bought and

transported African slaves for

centuries before the European arrival

Slaves were usually captured

by fellow African tribes

S

TORY

OF

THE

S

LAVE

T

RADE

16

NORTH

AMERICA

SLAVE CENTERS

1.

ARGUIM

One of the first European slave

trading bases off the coast of

Africa, established in 1445.

2.

SAO TOME

An island trading base that was

a hub for slaves trafficked to the

Americas from the Kingdom

of Kongo.

3.

ELMINA

CASTLE

Built in 1482, the slave-holding

castle is now the oldest European

building south of the Sahara.

4.

CANARY

ISLANDS

The earliest European demand for

African slaves arose from a need

for workers in the island colonies

of the east Atlantic.

5.

HISPANIOLA

The first known African slaves

in the Americas arrived in

Hispaniola in 1502 after a

circuitous passage via Europe.

6.

SAN MIGUEL

DE GUALDAPE

Founded in 1526 by Lucas

Vázquez de Ayllón, the 600

colonists of the first Spanish

attempt to colonize the mainland

included a number of slaves.

N

W

E

S

slaves crossing the ocean would grow and grow.

British slave ships would soon eclipse the deeds

of their Iberian predecessors, transporting

millions of slaves in the 18th century.

The scars of the slave trade still remain

today. While slave labor in the colonies

helped European powers to become rich,

industrial nations, the African population

and economy stagnated and fell behind the

rest of the world. Ever-increasing European

demands meant that slave-trading African

rulers needed to have a growing, ready supply

of slave labor, triggering raids and wars that

unsettled the continent and left a legacy of

tribal conflict and civil wars. An African

diaspora exists throughout North and South

America, but long-held racial prejudices have

simmered well beyond the end of the slave

trade and into the 21st century, especially in

the United States. The ill effects of the 400-

year transatlantic slave trade were unintended

consequences of the Age of Discovery.

and female” to “the Indies, the islands, and the

mainland of the ocean sea, already discovered or

to be discovered” by ship “direct from the isles of

Guinea and other regions from which they are

wont to bring the said Negroes.”

The charter was a reward to de Gorrevod

for good service, a chance to make a fortune

by granting him the first chance to profit from

a new trade route, but he had no intention of

involving himself directly in human trafficking.

The rights granted to him were subcontracted

and resold a number of times until they fell into

the hands of a Genoese merchant, Domingo

de Fornari; two Castilian merchants, Juan de

la Torre and Juan Fernandez de Castro, and a

Seville-based Genoese banker, Gaspar Centurion.

They arranged for various seafarers to carry out

the work of transporting 4,000 African slaves

from one side of the Atlantic to the other. At

least four voyages took place, in 1519, 1520 – the

voyage under the command of Francisco de Rosa

– May 1521 and October 1521. Each departed from

Arguim and landed in Puerto Rico, although

it is likely that other ships carried slaves from

Arguim to Hispaniola. There were also at

least six slave voyages from Cape Verde to the

Caribbean between 1518 and 1530.

By 1522 direct slave voyages had begun

from another starting point: the island of São

Tomé some 2,000 miles along the African

coast, opposite what is now Gabon. Among

these voyages was a ship carrying 139 slaves

that voyaged across the Atlantic in 1522, and

another with as many as 248 in 1529. The first

enslaved Africans to reach mainland North

America arrived in 1526 as part of an ill-fated

Spanish attempt to colonize San Miguel de

Gualdape, while African burials at a cemetery in

Campeche, Mexico, suggest that African slaves

may have been shipped to Central America

almost as soon as Hernán Cortés had subjugated

the Aztec and Mayan empires.

The transatlantic slave trade was born. From

relatively humble beginnings, the number of

Images:

Getty Images (African tribes, map)

17

SLAVE

ROUTES

Besides the transatlantic slave triangle, there were also slave routes prior to

European colonization of the Americas, such as the Arab trade across the Sahara

The

transatlantic triangle

The early transatlantic slave

trade arose from other, older slave

trading networks

1.

TRIANGULAR

TRADE BEGINS

The first part of the triangular trade

saw European manufactured goods

taken to Africa where they could be

exchanged for slaves.

2.

MIDDLE PASSAGE

The infamous leg of the slave trade,

the six to eight week voyage across the

Atlantic saw slaves kept in cramped

and unsanitary conditions, with much

loss of life.

3.

CLOSING

THE TRIANGLE

The raw materials produced by

slaves on plantations – cotton,

sugar, rubber and tobacco – were

shipped back to Europe’s factories.

1

1

2

3

1

2

3

5

6

2

3

4

AFRICA

SOUTH

AMERICA

EUROPE

OTHER ROUTES

1.

TRANS-

SAHARA

700-1900

Muslim traders used oases in the

Sahara Desert to transport slaves

from the Wagadou and Mali

Empires to the Arab kingdoms in

modern Morocco and Tunisia.

2.

CRIMEAN

KHANATE

700-1900

The Crimean successors of the

vast Mongol Empire traded with

the Ottoman Empire, supplying

them with captured prisoners

from eastern Europe and

northwest Russia.

3.

VARANGIAN

VOLGA

800-1100

Vikings who lived in northern

Europe enslaved Slavs in their

raids along the Volga River

and sold them in the south to

Byzantine or Muslim buyers.

THE

J

AMESTOWN

CAPTIVES

OF

1619

Discover how the unexpected arrival of enslaved Africans

sheds light on the early years of colonial slavery

Written by Scott Reeves

18

S

TORY

OF

THE

S

LAVE

T

RADE

18

I

t was probably hot and swelteringly

humid, a typical summer day on the mid-

Atlantic seaboard, when the ship sailed

into Port Comfort and dropped anchor in

the James River in late August 1619. Although

flying a Dutch flag, the privateer, carrying a

letter of marque allowing it to attack Spanish

and Portuguese traders, was undeniably

English. It had an English name, White

Lion, was owned by Robert Rich, the Earl of

Warwick, and sailed under a Cornish captain.

Their destination was Jamestown in Virginia,

the colony’s biggest and most important

settlement.

The ship’s visit was recorded by John Rolfe, a

colonist better known to history as the husband

of Pocahontas, the Native American princess who

had died two years before in 1617. Rolfe noted

that John Jope, the captain of the White Lion,