African Cultures Before 1500African Cultures Before 1500

The Main IdeaThe Main Idea

Trade was a major factor in the development of African societies south of the Sahara.

Reading FocusReading Focus

• What powerful West African trading kingdoms arose between 300 and 1500?

• How did trade shape kingdoms in East Africa?

• How did African society change as a result of the slave trade?

West African Trading Kingdoms West African Trading Kingdoms Trans-Sahara TradeTrans-Sahara Trade

• Despite the danger, trading caravans have crossed Sahara since ancient times.

• African interior had gold and ivory; Arabs from North Africa traded salt from mines.

• Great trading empires thrived in the grasslands near the Niger River.

• Desert traders also brought Islam to West Africa.

GhanaGhana• Earliest West African trading

state (arose around 300 C.E. )

• Located on a gold and salt route

• Grew wealthy and powerful

• History passed down through oral tradition

• Did not convert to Islam

West African Trading West African Trading KingdomsKingdoms

MaliMali• Mansa Musa most famous ruler

• People of Mali were Muslims.

• When Mansa Musa made a pilgrimage to Mecca, the outside world knew of Mali’s wealth.

West African West African Trading KingdomsTrading Kingdoms

West African West African Trading KingdomsTrading Kingdoms

Songhai Songhai • This kingdom became larger than

Ghana or Mali.

• Askia Muhammad, most famous Songhai ruler, encouraged Muslim learning.

West African West African Trading Trading

KingdomsKingdoms

Coastal KingdomsCoastal Kingdoms

• By 1300, the settlement of Benin became a powerful state.

– Grew rich from foreign trade

– Famous for its brilliant artists

• Farther south, the kingdom of Kongo was growing.

– Thrived by trading salt and palm oil

Benin Benin

Trade Important to Trade Important to GrowthGrowth• East Africans traded with

Egypt, India, and the Middle East.

• East African trading ships sailed the Red Sea and Indian Ocean.

• East Africa had gold, cinnamon, rhinoceros horn and tortoise shell. They also shipped enslaved Africans.

• They bought porcelain, silk, and jewels from India and China.

Kingdoms of Kingdoms of East AfricaEast Africa

From 1500 to 1800, Africans lived under a variety of political systems, ranging from small-scale societies to expansive monarchies. Powerful kingdoms emerged in every region.

Kingdoms of East Kingdoms of East AfricaAfrica

Arabian InfluenceArabian Influence• Arabia was a strong influence along East

African coast.

• Arab merchants settled in coastal cities and brought their customs and Islam.

• New culture and new language (Swahili) developed in East Africa.

• Trade between the coastal Swahili city-states and Indian Ocean trading partners was regulated by monsoon winds that blow in a southwesterly direction between November and March and in a northeasterly direction between April and October.

• African rulers were wealthy and had lavish lifestyles.

• Strong families were central to African society.

• People were loyal to those with the same lineage.

• Men and women could be enslaved if they were captured in war, found guilty of a crime, or were in debt.

• Slaves could work their way to freedom in most African societies.

African Society & the Slave TradeAfrican Society & the Slave Trade

African Society & the Slave TradeAfrican Society & the Slave Trade

• Atlantic slave trade began in the sixteenth century as a response for the demand for cheap labor. Europeans viewed the black Africans as inferior.

• Planters demanded more laborers for their plantations.

• African merchants helped supply slaves to traders in exchange for the traders’ business. African rulers supplied slaves in exchange for European firearms.

• Others who supplied slaves wanted to help weaken rival African leaders.

The Atlantic Slave Trade BeginsThe Atlantic Slave Trade Begins

• Europeans captured people during conflicts with North African Muslims.• European traders conducted slave raids and kidnappings.• The Portuguese began the slave trade, but by the 1600s the English, French, and

Dutch were heavily involved, too.

The Portuguese in West The Portuguese in West AfricaAfrica

• Nature of slavery changed when Europeans arrived in Africa.

• Portuguese established large-scale farms, or plantations, first in Africa, then in Caribbean islands and in the Americas; later the Spanish, British, French, and Dutch did the same.

• Plantations were labor-intensive. First Native Americans were used for labor, but diseases and working conditions took a heavy toll.

African Society & African Society & the Slave Tradethe Slave Trade

African Society & the Slave TradeAfrican Society & the Slave Trade

• Atlantic slave trade continued for 400 years.• Historians estimate that 20 million Africans were sent to the Americas.• Many others were sent to other parts of the world. Many died

en route.

• The strongest young people were taken, the future leaders.• Slave raids discouraged people from planning for the future.• The slave trade interrupted normal political and economic

development because of the loss of population.

The Impact on African SocietyThe Impact on African Society

• The slave trade divided Africans from one another.• Young African men were hired by slave traders as kidnappers.• Rulers warred against their own people and neighbors in order to gain

captives for the trade.

Reading FocusReading Focus

• Where did the Atlantic slave trade originate?

• How did slavery evolve in the American colonies?

• What were the consequences of the slave trade?

Main IdeaMain Idea

Between the 1500s and the 1800s millions of Africans were captured, shipped across the Atlantic Ocean, and sold as slaves in the

Americas.

The Atlantic Slave TradeThe Atlantic Slave Trade

The Trans-Atlantic Slave TradeThe Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade

African slaves were forcibly captured in raids and kidnappings in the interior of Africa and taken to the coast. After they were sold to European traders, the slaves were transported across the Atlantic to work on sugar plantations in the New World.

• Slavery has existed in many parts of the world• People forced into slavery came from different walks of life• Farmers, merchants, priests, soldiers, or musicians; fathers and mothers, sons and

daughters.

Origins of the Slave TradeOrigins of the Slave Trade

Trade NetworkTrade NetworkCaptured Africans became

part of network called the triangular trade

• First leg of triangle, ships carrying European goods to Africa to be exchanged for slaves

• Second leg, Middle Passage, brought Africans to Americas to be sold

• Third leg carried American products to Europe

• Some slave traders from Americas sailed directly to Africa, not following triangular route

The Middle PassageThe Middle Passage

Slaves in the “Coffin Position” Below DeckSlaves in the “Coffin Position” Below Deck

The Middle PassageThe Middle Passage

Slave AuctionsSlave Auctions • Once in the Americas, slaves were sold, by auction, to the person that bid the most money for them. – It was here that family members would find

themselves split up, as a bidder may not want to buy the whole family, only the strongest, healthiest member.

– Slave Auctions were advertised when it was known that a slave ship was due to arrive.

• When the slave ship docked, the slaves would be taken off the ship and placed in a pen.– There they would be washed and their skin

covered with grease, or sometimes tar, to make them look more healthy.

– This was done so that they would fetch as much money as possible.

– They would also be branded with a hot iron to identify them as slaves.

• Slave traders carried captive Africans throughout the Americas• Spanish—Caribbean sugar plantations; Portuguese—Brazil; English—West Indies

but also to colonies in North America. • England dominated the slave trade by end of 1600s

Slavery in the ColoniesSlavery in the Colonies

Slaves Working in a Brazilian Sugar MillSlaves Working in a Brazilian Sugar Mill

Many slaveholders lived in constant fear of rebellion by angry slaves who could no

longer take harsh treatment they

faced on plantations.

Slavery in the Slavery in the ColoniesColonies

• Slaves had to meet own basic needs at end of workday

• Cooking, mending, tending the sick fitted in around work for slaveholder

• Living conditions harsh

• Physical, degrading punishment inflicted for minor offenses

Living ConditionsLiving Conditions

ResistanceResistance• Slaves coped with inhumane

conditions many different ways

• Some resisted by trying to keep cultural traditions alive

• Others turned to religion for strength, hope

• Some fought back by slowing work, destroying equipment, revolting

• Some able to flee, establish communities of runaways

Slaves Considered PropertySlaves Considered Property• Laws in Americas considered enslaved

Africans to be property slaves had no rights and no freedoms

• Slaveholders controlled most conditions under which they lived

• Often enslaved people endured brutal treatment, abuse

• 400 years of Atlantic slave trade devastated West African societies

• Estimates of 15 to 20 million Africans shipped to Americas against will

• Millions more sent to Europe, Asia, Middle East

• Human cost enormous

– Countless died in transit

– Millions deprived of freedom

– Descendants doomed to lives of forced servitude

Effects of the Slave TradeEffects of the Slave Trade

Cost of Slave TradeCost of Slave Trade

Spread of CultureSpread of Culture• As result of slave trade, people of African descent spread throughout Americas,

Western Europe• The spreading of Africans around the world called the African Diaspora

• Eventually led to spread of African culture—music, art, religion, food—throughout the Western World

EconomiesEconomies• Forced labor of Africans did enrich other parts of world• Labor of African slaves built economies of many American colonies• Their knowledge of agriculture contributed to growth of rice industry in southern

English colonies