Atlantic Slave Trade Real

The Atlantic Slave Trade started a little before 1500, when the Portuguese began exploring the African Coast. It eventually became a major part of the New World culture. There was a lot of manual labor to be done in the New World, and the Europeans needed a cheap way to do it. They turned to Africa, and African slaves.

Where were the slaves from?	How were the slaves taken to the Americas?
On the west coast of Africa, there is a stretch of land below the Sahara Desert, but on the Atlantic Ocean, known as the "Slave Coast". It is known this way because of the large number of slaves taken from here to be shipped off to the New World (approx. 15 million). On the map below, it is highlighted in a tan color. Slaves were taken from almost anywhere in Africa that was willing to sell slaves. However, the Slave Coast was the main trading area.	There were many stages of a slave's journey to the New World. First they would be captured in tribal warfare, or found by a slave trader. They would then be kept in a fortress or another place that could hold hundreds of people. They would be kept there until a slave ship arrived. When the slave ship came, the slaves would be put onto the ship and taken across the ocean.
www.cnn.com/2000/fyi/news/09/ 13/african.dna.testing/	ama.africatoday.com/ conferences_m.htm
This place was ideal for Portuguese, Spanish, and British traders because it is close to the New World, and the natives had no problem with throwing people into slavery (the Trans-Saharan slave trade had been going on for centuries).	The journey from Africa to the New World was called the "Middle Passage". The conditions on the slave ships were horrific. The slaves were stuffed into the lower decks at 133% of the ship's capacity. Down here, it smelled of bodily fluids, blood, and death. There were no bathrooms for the slaves to use, and they were only allowed on the deck for about 1 hour a day. The rest of the day they spent chained up. Up to 20% of the slaves died before even reaching the Americas.
Who were the traders?	Where did the slaves go, and how were they used?
Many slaves were first captured by other Africans, and then held until they were sold to the European traders. The Africans would trade their slaves to the Europeans for manufactured goods, such as beads, clothes, and later, guns. The slaves that the Africans gave to the Europeans were usually captured in tribal warfare or by illegal means.	There are no actual numbers left to tell how exactly how many slaves went to each country. But there are very good estimates. As shown in the map below, only about 1/20 of the slaves went to the modern day United States. The largest number of slaves went to the Caribbean (about 1/2). The individual country that received the most slaves was Brazil (about 1/3). However, today the second largest population of African Americans in the Americas is in the United States. The largest population of African Americans today is in Brazil.
exploringafrica.matrix.msu.edu/ .../B/stu_7Bactivityone.html	www.africanhertour.org/ story/map_a.html
The first Europeans to trade for African slaves were the Portuguese. They were the first to travel down the coast of Africa, so they were the first to get the idea to trade for African slaves. The Spanish soon picked up on this idea, and became a major part of Trans-Atlantic Trade to the Caribbean. The last major group to find the slave trade was the British. Although they started later than the Portuguese and Spanish, after about 1700 they were the largest slave trading country.	Slaves were used to do the dirty work in the New World. This consisted almost exclusively of growing crops. Plantation owners made a living by selling most of their crop to traders. When the plantation owners needed cheap labor to work in their fields, they first tried to use the natives. This ended up not working at all. The natives were not immune to the same diseases as the Europeans, and they soon died of diseases such as smallpox, bubonic plague, and measles. Since the Africans were immune to some of the same diseases, and didn't tire as much under the sun as the natives, they were better workers. Some of the crops they grew were: sugar, coffee, cocoa, rice, indigo, tobacco, and cotton. For the most part, these crops were left as raw materials and shipped back to Europe.
Click here to learn more about the Slave Trade	Click here to see a movie about the Slave Trade
Bibliography: http://www.scaruffi.com/politics/slavetra.html http://web.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/timelines/htimeline3.htm http://www.bartleby.com/67/885.html www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1narr1.html http://history.binghamton.edu/hist130/docs/timelin3.htm http://www2.worldbook.com/features/features.asp?feature=aajourney& page=html/bh017.html&direct=yes	Other Interesting facts and numbers: Only 50% of the slaves taken by the Europeans in Africa became good workers in the Americas. The rest died, or were in no condition to work. 15 million total slaves were sent to the Americas. Revolts occurred in many Caribbean countries, which ended up with the Africans seizing control of the country. This was because in many countries, the Africans outnumbered the Europeans! However, this did not happen in the U.S. because Europeans outnumbered the Africans by far. Europeans first encountered sugar in the Crusades. They liked it so much that it became the main product that was produced in the Caribbean.

Links