Africans in the Atlantic World

By: Alyssa AlkobyAFAS 200

Finding New Lands & Labor

Africans and the Conquistadors: Africans accompanied the conquistadors on their exploration of the southwestern parts of the United States. The Africans helped them claim the land and lives of the native American peoples.

Demand for Slave Labor: Europeans became interested in exploiting the natural resources in this new world. European conquers enslaved Indians making them work in mines and agriculture fields. Unfortunately disease carried by Europeans wiped out the entire native population. They needed Africans to make up for the deficiency of Indian labor. Plus the Africans were already familiar with the cultivation of these crops because they had worked with those crops before .

From Indenture to Slavery: England more then other nations attempted to use white indentured labor, but ultimately this proved unsatisfactory. “Indentured Servitude” meant that a laborer agreed to serve a master for a term of years after which he or she would gain freedom and ideally a grant of land. Many of the white slaves went so far to sue masters for illegal detention, also many ran away. Blacks presented so few of the difficulties the white laborers caused them. Also Africans slaves cost less. In a period when economic consideration dominated colonial policy this calculation made New World slavery a fixed institution.

Trading in Slaves

Acquiring Slaves: Slaves were mostly obtained through negotiation although slave raids by Europeans did occur. Europeans’ sales of guns cause new levels of havoc and civil strife among Africans, ensuring that rising numbers of slaves were captured for the transatlantic market.

Africans in the Slave trade: Africans were both perpetrators and victims of the Atlantic slave trade. Europeans followed strict rules of protocols for trade negotiations. They consulted doctors when uncertain about age or physical condition.

Slave Trade Challenges: Europeans ran into costly delays. They would bring goods that weren't desired leaving them unable to find a sufficient number of slaves at a single trading post. The ship might be compelled to call at four or five ports in order to purchase as many as five hundred slaves.

The Trauma of Capture : They could not understand the white people, their complexions differed so much from the Africans. They believed they were going to be eaten by them. Enslaved Africans offered stiff resistance to their capture , sale and transport across the Atlantic.

African Resistance: Would jump off the ships into the ocean and drown themselves or into the mouths of sharks just to avoid enslavement of the new world. They also attacked the slave ships or attempted to rescue captives.

The Middle Passage

A Profitable Trade: More slaves on the ship meant more profits: hence few traders could resist the temptation to wedge a few more in. The slave trade was one of the most important sources of European wealth in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. From African slave trade Europeans income had a steady increase throughout the centuries. Approximately 12.5 million slaves were transported to the New World.

Slavery in the Caribbean

The Spanish Monopoly: They had control over the Caribbean because of the prior claim done by the popes actions in 1493.African slaves produced very desirable staple crops which caught other countries eyes.

Loss of Spanish Control: They lost all claim to Denmark, Dutch Republic, France, and England which all acquired their own respective lands. They gained control by their sneaky monopoly of slave trade in the Caribbean's New World territory.

Living Conditions: Deaths became extremely high due to improper food, disease, intolerable working conditions, suicide, and far more males then females. The Caribbean did not become a place of residence but merely a temporary source for wealth.

Slave Codes Punishment: The African population quickly came to outnumber whites. The Caribbean promoted the enactment of slave codes to regulate the African Americans on the British Plantations. This prohibited slaves from leaving plantation. If they revolted back they were severely whipped or branded.

Punishment: Suspend Slave from tree by a rope and tie iron weights around his or her neck

Slave Revolts : Cruel punishment towards the African slaves only made them revolt. they terrorized the whites which made Britain sign treaties with the maroons during the 1700s. Conspiracies, uprising and revolts were happening everywhere.

Seasoned Slaves: Time proved that slaves adjusted to climate, disease and food. Slaves were regarded as seasoned within 3 or 4 years and were shipped out to other islands.

Slavery in Mainland Latin America

Mexico: Demand for slaves in mainland increased. More then 60,000 Africans entered Mexico during the first century conquest. The Mexican market was a veritable paradise for slave traders. At one point there was about 120,000 slaves.

Central America: The number of slaves was never larger then 10,000 but the slaves were a considerable source of trouble for the Spanish. The Guatemala City found it impossible to subdue them so slaves became free and developed into substantial citizens.

South America: The largest concentration of blacks were in the viceroyalty of New Granada. New Granada's ports became the largest slave markets in the New World off the Caribbean.

The Viceroyalty of Peru: Served as a market from which Andean planters and herders purchased black workers, some arriving from Panama and others came directly from Africa and around Cape Horn. They also had two currents converging on Peru.

Uruguay & Argentina: Large plantations of blacks lived here. There was about seven African societies that lived there.

Brazil: 44,000 Africans arrived annually here. Africans were largely responsible for the increase in total population. Brazil had the largest percentage of slaves brought to the new world.

Uprisings & Revolts: One of the most notable bids for freedom in the New World occurred in brazil in the seventeenth century.

Slave Societies in the Americas

The Catholic Church: Scholars argued for pivotal role of Catholic Church in shaping the slaves experience in Latin America. Priests insisted that slaves became baptized. Reading was open and optional for them. Owners were not permitted to work slaves on Sundays.

Intermarriage: Choices for white men in South American colonies were limited. Interracial marriage was frowned upon greatly. Most of the time slaves could not get married, it was not really an option. The consent by their owner however, was the only way for a slave man and women to share the equivalent of a marital relationship.

Works Cited

Franklin, John Hope, and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham. From Slavery to Freedom. New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2010. Print.

Jiménez, Michael. "What Is Atlantic History." CPAS Newletter, 2001. Web.

<www.marcusrediker.com/Articles/what_is_atlantic_history.htm>.

Smithsonian Institution Libraries. "Web of Connections.” http://www.amhistory.si.edu/. Smithsonian National Museum of American History, 2011. Web.