3.6 Slavery in the age of reason

• History
• Middelbare school
• mavo, havo
• Leerjaar 2

Chapter 3.6 Slavery in the age of reason

Slavery

What is this lesson about?

European traders and settlers used the existing African slave trade to supply their plantations with a workforce. The slaves lived under horrible circumstances during their journey as well as on the plantations in the New World. The abolitionist movement successfully tried to end slavery.

Main Questions

1. How did the Europeans profit from the African slave trade?
2. Why did European settlers use slaves on their plantations?
3. How did the Triangular Trade work?
4. What were the conditions in which slaves were captured, transported and sold?
5. What was life as a slave on a plantation like?
6. Which circumstances eventually led to the abolishment of slavery?

Word Duty

KEY WORDS

Slavery: a system where people can own, buy and sell other people as property 

African slave trade: slave trade within the African continent 

Plantation farming: growing of crops which require a lot of manual labour on large plantations using slaves 

Dehumanising: treating people as less than humans, like animals or goods 

Transatlantic slave trade: European traders bought slaves in West-Africa and sold them to plantation owners in America 

Triangular trade: form of trade between three places where ships never travel empty 

Abolitionism: a movement of people questioning slavery and attempting to end it

At 2 June 2020 this cartoon was made. Which point is made by the creator of this cartoon? First write down what you see.

Since the dawn of written history, some form of slavery has always existed. The Greeks and Romans knew slavery.

However, in Western Europe at the start of the Early Modern Period (1500-1800) slavery did not exist. In these countries it was even illegal. How did the same European countries then become the world’s biggest slave traders and users of slavery during this period? 

And how did slavery work?

First, watch the video in the next slide....

Four Questions about the video "The Atlantic Slave Trade"

1.What crops were grown in the Americas that were labor-intensive and helped lead to the slave trade?

1. Corn, beans, and squash
2. Carrots, beans, and peas
3. Sugar cane, tobacco, and cotton
4. Corn, tobacco, and flax

2.Tribalism in Africa led to intense competition and warfare amongst tribes. Prisoners were sold into slavery and traded for manufactured goods, weapons, and rum. Which one of these goods was most valuable to tribes that looked to expand their power and influence in the region?

1. Weapons
2. Manufactured goods
3. Rum
4. None of it was helpful

3.Once Africans boarded the slave ships for the journey to the Americas, what percentage did not survive the six to eight week voyage?

1. 10%
2. 20%
3. 50%
4. 80%

4.In the video you hear that many captains of slave ships were "tight packers" (at 02.47 min.).
a.What does that mean?
b.Explain why they were tight packers?

In Africa and the Arabian world, slavery was a normal part of the economy. In this African slave trade (run mostly by Arab and some African traders), slaves were bought from poor families or captured. European countries started using African slave sellers to get their slaves in the Early Modern Period (1500-1800)

Write down a definition of slavery

In the 16e and 17e centuries, Spain, Portugal, England, France and the Dutch Republic conquered large areas of land in America. They turned these into plantation colonies. On these American plantations, they grew products like coffee, sugar and tobacco to sell in Europe. Many people were needed for this. First, native Americans were used as plantation workers. Sadly, they died in large numbers from diseases and bad working conditions. Then, the owners of plantations tried to attract European workers to America, but not many people wanted to make the dangerous journey. This shortage of workers for the plantations led traders to the African slave trade.

 

Elmina Castle was erected by the Portuguese in 1482 in present-day Elmina, Ghana (formerly the Gold Coast). It was the first trading post built on the Gulf of Guinea, so is the oldest European building in existence south of the Sahara. First established as a trade settlement, the castle later became one of the most important stops on the route of the Atlantic slave trade. The Dutch seized the fort from the Portuguese in 1637, and took over all the Portuguese Gold Coast in 1642. The slave trade continued under the Dutch until 1814; in 1872, the Dutch Gold Coast, including the fort, became a possession of the British Empire.

What was the main reason for traders and settlers to
turn to the African slave trade to get workers for their plantations?

In which country is Fort Elmina?

Which countries were for a time the owners of Fort Elmina?

Before a slave was bought from Arab or African traders, their body and teeth were inspected. After all, a healthy and skilled slave was worth a lot of money. They were sold like cattle, which was dehumanising. The living and travelling conditions of the slaves were als dehumanising. The traders treated the slaves as products. On the ship, they would be chained below deck without much room to move. Once a day they were let out on deck to get fresh air, because if they became ill they were worthless. But still slaves died during the journey.

Judging by the place where this ship
sank, who are the people on the
lifeboat?

The loss of the slaver "Luxborough Galley" in 1727, lost in the Atlantic Ocean, as part of the Triangular Trade between The Caribbean and Britain. Painting by John Cleverly the Elder, 1760

1. the crew
2. immigrants travelling to America
3. crew and slaves
4. Native Americans

Triangular trade

After a long and dangerous journey from Africa, the ships would arrive in Brazil, the Caribbean or North America. We call this the transatlantic slave trade. After delivering their cargo, the trade ships would take American products back to Europe, where they would sell these. With this money they would buy products to trade for slaves in Africa. This triangular trade made sure that the ships were never empty and therefore as efficient as possible.

 

Print shows sailor on a slave ship suspending an African girl by her ankle from a rope over a pulley. Captain John Kimber stands on the left with a whip in his hand. Published in London in 1792; attributed to Isaac Cruikshank.

source A

slaves are thrown overboard from the slaver "Zong" in 1781

http://umich.edu/~ece/student_projects/slavery/the_zong.html

Triangular Trade

True or false?
With the money of sold plantation products, Europeans bought weapons. They used these weapons to trade for African slaves.

1. True
2. False

Life as a slave in America

When they arrived in America, slaves would be sold at an auction. The more healthy and or skilled a slave was, the more they were worth. After being bought by one of the plantation owners, the slave would be his property until their death or until their owner decided to sell them. On the plantations there were more slaves than Europeans. To control the slaves, the owners set very strict rules. Breaking these rules meant that a slave would be punished severely. Punishment, torture and the death penalty were used to terrorise them and to make sure they would not rebel against their owners.

 

source B

Slave Auction, United States. From the book by Henry Bibb, "Narrative of the life and adventures of Henry Bibb, an American slave", written by himself (New York, 1849), p. 201.

Look at source B.
What does it tell you about slave families being sold?

1. families were kept and sold together
2. family members would be sold seperately

Explain your answer to the previous question
using information from source B.
(that means you need to describe what you can see in source B)

Do you think source B is a reliable (betrouwbare) source?
Explain your answer.

SOURCE A. An 18th century engraving of how a slave ship was loaded.

source C

An 18th century engraving of how a slave ship was loaded.

SOURCE D - Written in 1789 by Olaudah Equiano, who was kidnapped and enslaved aged 11, but eventually bought his freedom, settled in Britain and campaigned against the slave trade.

"The airlessness and the heat in the hold, added to the number of us (crowded so each had scarcely room to turn over) almost suffocated us. We sweated heavily; the air soon became unfit to breathe, and brought on a sickness among the slaves, many of whom died. 

Our wretched situation was made worse by the rubbing of the chains, now unbearable. The 

toilet buckets were full of filth and the children often fell into them and almost drowned. The shrieks of the women and groans of the dying made the hold a place of almost inconceivable horror."

 

SOURCE E

From a book about Surinam written by John Stedman who was with an army sent there in 1744 to crush a slave rebellion

A planter gets out of his hammock at dawn and goes to the porch around his house where breakfast is waiting for him. He is served by the most attractive of his young male and female slaves. After breakfast the overseer reports on which negroes deserted, died, fell sick, recovered, were caught, bought or born. 

Captured runaways or anyone who has been a slow worker, or broken any other rule, are brought up for 

punishment. Without being allowed to speak in their defence, they are hung from the beams of the porch, or a nearby tree and beaten with whips, while the master and overseer walk up and down talking.

The planter then walks or rides over part of his estate and, at ten, has another meal. He reads, plays chess or otherwise amuses himself until the heat of the day, when he goes to his hammock. 

He rises at about 3 o'clock, washes and eats another meal. At 6 o'clock the overseer returns and makes another report. There are more punishments. Then they decide on the work for the next day. 

Write down four words from source D that support source C .

source F

An engraving of a Surinam plantation, printed in 1820

Give two examples from source E that are supported by source F.