Slavery
- slavery had been going on for a very long time
- it can be dated back to the time of Ancient Egypt
- one of the biggest roles of slavery was in Ancient Rome, they had to row food for the population in the latifundias
- many historians compare the Atlantic Slavery Trade to the Holocaust
- started int he mid 16th century and continued up until the 19th century
- current estimate of the number of slaves that were actually shipped across the Atlantic is roughly 12 million even though historians think that many more were purchased but died
- Triangular Trade
- a trading network that was established in the late 16th century to early 19th century
- consisted of the New World(including West Indies), Old World, and Africa
- best exports
- Africa-slaves
- Old World-manufactured goods
- New World-cash crops (tobacco)
- Middle Passage
- event/setting of sending the slaves across the Atlantic to Colonial America
- conditions were terrible- ex. no bathrooms and close quarters
- some slaves often would even commit suicide by either not eating or jumping off the ships and generally would drown
- if a slave would starve to death, the captain would make friend or family members of the slave eat the liver and heart of the dead slave
- around 15% to 20% of the slaves that were shipped over the Atlantic died on the journey there
- dead slaves would be thrown overboard to help avoid disease
- how they were captured?
- many of the slaves were actually sold into slavery by other Africans. the reason for this is due to the fact that the European explorers would bribe the Africans with manufactured goods like alcohol and guns
- generally the European explorers would conduct the coast raids, but they wouldn't go inland into the jungle
- once captured, they would walk to the coast and wait for ships. this would sometimes take months for ships to appear
- they would be restrained to avoid the slaves escaping which is very inhumane
- also the Europeans would take a variety of slaves form different villages. The reason for this is that Africa has many different languages so it was impossible for them to communicate
- Colombian Exchange
- focuses more the trade network for the Old World to the New World
- named after Christopher Columbus
- many different food from each side were exchanged which benefited both sides
- positive for both side, but it brought diseases to both sides, too
- animals from Old World, cash crops from New World
- Causes and Effects
- biggest cause for slavery is that Colonial America was expanding very quickly and the colonist did not have the man power to keep up
- effects:
- African villages would struggle because they were losing their hunters and gatherers
- spread of disease
- Racial Superiority
- Colonists became lazy
- the economy boomed in the South
- effects:
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