Atlantic Trade in Enslaved

Africans
 When enslaved Africans were introduced on the
plantations in the Caribbean there already
existed systems of enslavement in Africa

 Slavery probably existed from the time man

settled in large groups

 Between 100 to 900BC slave societies existed in

North Africa where the Arabs transferred their
system of enslavement to societies in North
Africa
 As Islam spread to West Africa so too did the
trade in enslaved persons

 Thus organised trade in human cargo developed

between West African societies and Arab states.

 When the Portuguese, Spanish and later Dutch

required enslaved labour, they were already
aware that there was the possibility of tapping
into that Trans Sahara trade.
Trans Saharan Trade Routes
 The Portuguese, being in such close proximity to
Africa, logically became the first Europeans to
consistently import enslaved African labour.

 This trade was spearheaded by the Henry The

Navigator.

 By 1482 the Portuguese had built the fort at

Elmina (in Ghana) which facilitated the Trans
Atlantic trade in enslaved Africans
Elmina Castle, 1668
 STRUCTURE OF THE TRADE IN
ENSLAVED AFRICANS & THE
EXPERIENCES OF THE ENSLAVED
 The Trans Atlantic Trade in enslaved Africans was
not the first form of enslavement

 It differed qualitatively from the other systems

 The first distinction is that the other systems of

enslavement were not synonymous with a
certain race, ethnicity, religion.

 When Africans came across the Atlantic, they

were the only group enslaved.
 Enslaved persons in the C’bean were enslaved for life and
this status was transferred to their children

 Only in exceptional cases did enslaved persons in the

C’bean not spend their entire lives enslaved

 Enslaved people in the Caribbean were considered chattel;
they were the property of an individual who could pass
them on in a will, or sell with other household items

 The cultivation of sugar was partly responsible for the

difference in the structure of the slave system that
developed in across the Atlantic.
 Structure of Trade in Enslaved
Africans
 The slave trade was very well organised

 There were three main areas of the organisation:

 Sourcing prospective slaves from the interior

 Coastal arrangements

 The Middle Passage

Stage 1 The Interior
 Africans and Europeans acted as middlemen

 They sourced prospective slaves from among

 prisoners of war
 individuals who were already enslaved
 those persons who were indebted
 by raiding villages and kidnapping
 creating criminals
Stage 2 The Coast

Slave Market on West Coast of Africa

 Africans were taken to the coast

 The trek to the coast required the support of kings and

chiefs through whose territories the trek was made

 At the coast there were forts established by Europeans,

each headed by an agent/factor

 Captured persons were battered for textiles, iron bars,

utensils, tobacco, alcohol

 The forts were used to house the enslaved until a ship

arrived
 When a ship was contracted the captives were
prepared; they were medically examined, branded
and shackled

 The ships arrived with goods and it was necessary to

convert them for shipping the human cargo

 Spaces of apprx 5 feet were created for each

individual

 Some ships carried as many as 700 captives

THE CAPTION READS: PLAN SHEWING THE STOWAGE OF 130 ADDITIONAL
SLAVES ROUND THE WINGS OR SIDES OF THE LOWER DECK BY MEANS OF
PLATFORMS OR SHELVES (IN THE MANNER OF GALLERIES IN A CHURCH) THE
SLAVES STOWED ON THE SHELVES AND BELOW THEM HAVE ONLY A HEIGHT OF
TWO FEET 7 INCHES BETWEEN THE BEAMS AND THE FAR LESS UNDER THE
BEAMS
Stage 2 The Middle Passage

The Middle Passage was one leg of the Triangular

Trade: From the coast of West Africa across the
Atlantic to the Caribbean
 The Middle Passage was a horrific journey
across the Atlantic

 The journey lasted between 5 weeks and 3

months

 The captives were fed rice, millet, cornmeal,

yam, manioc/plantains and water
 The captives were fed rice, millet, cornmeal,
yam, manioc/plantains and water

 They were made to jump on deck as a means

of exercise with the whip as a threat

 Captives were kept below deck and allowed

out 3 times a day to be fed and exercise
Below Deck
 Overcrowded Lower Deck

In order that the largest possible cargo might be carried, the African captives were
wedged horizontally, chained to low-lying platforms stacked in tiers, with an average
individual space allotment of 6 feet by 16 inches wide (183 by 41 cm). Unable to stand
erect or turn over, many slaves died in this position.
 From the time of their capture, the captives
resisted

 During the Middle Passage some

 Committed suicide

 Revolted/mutinied

 Engaged in hunger strikes

Attempted Mutiny
 Causes of Death

 Many died

 Disease (dysentery,  Poor sanitation

fever, small pox,
measles)  Poor nutrition

 Poor medical knowledge  Mutiny

 Overcrowding  Depression

 Suicide
 Difficult to estimate the deaths

 Death rate
 20% during early period 17th to early 18th century

 5% between the late 18th and early 19th century

 Even the deaths among the crew was high: “Of

the slave-ship crews that embarked from
Liverpool in 1787, less than half returned alive.”
 Even the death rate among the crew was high

 There is much debate over the actual

numbers of captives that made the crossing

 P. Curtin (1969): 8 million over apprx 360 yrs

 J. Inikori (1976): 15 million
 Patrick Manning*(1998): 12 million
transported; 10.5 million arriving alive in the
Americas
 * The historian and NOT the PM of T’dad & Tobago