AP World History

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6. Economic Transformations

Transatlantic slave system

most profound and enduring human consequences of all of commercial ties linking early modern world in global network of exchange

1500-1866

took estimated 12.5 million people from African societies

shipped them across Atlantic in Middle Passage

deposited 10.7 million of them in Americas where they lived out often-brief lives as slaves

about 1.8 million (14.4%) died during the crossing

countless others perished in process of capture and transport

steeped in violence, coercion, brutality

forceful capture and repeated sale

beatings and brandings

chains and imprisonment

rebellions and escapes

lives of enforced and unpaid labor

broken families

humans treated as property

transformed societies

within Africa: disrupted some societies, strengthened others, corrupted many

elites enriched themselves, enslaved were victimized almost beyond imagination

Americas: added African diaspora to European and Native American peoples

injected issues of race

introduced elements of African culture

religious ideas

musical and artistic traditions

cuisine

profits of slave trade and labor of enslaved Africans enriched European and Euro-American societies

practice of slavery contributed to racial stereotypes of Europeans

slavery became metaphor for social oppression different from plantation slavery

wage labor for workers

imperial domination for colonial people

patriarchy for feminists

In context

Other slave systems

widespread practice of owning and exchanging humans

before 1500: Mediterranean and Indian Ocean basins were major arenas of Old World slave systems; southern Russia was source of victims

African societies both practiced slavery themselves and sold slaves

operated largely within Islamic world and initiated movement of Africans beyond the continent

trans-Saharan slave trade long funneled African captives into Mediterranean slavery

East African slave trade from at least 7th brought Africans to Middle East and Indian Ocean

Many forms

Indian Ocean: slaves often assimilated into societies of owners, lost distinctive identity (unlike North America)

children sometimes inherited slave status, sometimes free

gender preference

Islamic world: preference for female slaves 2:1 (domestic settings)

transatlantic slave system: males 2:1 (plantation labor)

not all had degraded positions

some in Islamic world gained prominent military or political status

most premodern slaves worked in owners’ households, farms, shops

smaller numbers in large-scale agricultural or industrial enterprises

Americas

distinctive

immense size, centrality to economies of colonial America

lots of plantation agriculture

slave status inherited across generations

little hope of eventual freedom

contradiction between slavery and social values affirming human freedom and equality

nowhere else except maybe ancient Greece

racial dimension

Atlantic slavery came to be identified wholly with Africa and “blackness”

Mediterranean world and sugar

origins of Atlantic slavery

until Crusades, Europeans knew nothing of sugar; relied on honey and fruit

learned sugarcane and sugar-making from Arabs

established plantations within Mediterranean and later various islands off West Africa

“modern” industry (perhaps first)

huge capital investment

substantial technology

factory-like discipline among workers

mass market of consumers

slavery as source of labor for sugar plantations

immense difficulty and danger

limitations attached to serf labor

general absence of wageworkers

Slave populations

Mediterranean: initially Slavic-speaking peoples from Black Sea region

“Slav” became basis for “slave” in many European languages

1453 (Ottoman Turks seized Constantinople): supply of Slavic slaves cut off

Portuguese mariners exploring coast of West Africa for gold

found alternative source of enslaved peoples

when sugar, later tobacco, cotton plantations took hold in Americas, Europeans already had links to West African source of supply

religious justification: in 1452 the pope granted kings of Spain and Portugal permission to take unbelievers and reduce them into slavery

Africa became primary source of slave labor for plantation economies of Americas

largely through process of elimination

Slavic peoples no longer available

Native Americans quickly perished from European diseases

marginal Europeans (poor, criminals) were Christians and supposedly exempt

European indentured servants were expensive and temporary

agreed to work for fixed period in return for transportation, food, shelter

“benefits” of Africans

skilled farmers

some immunity to tropical and European diseases

not Christians

relatively close at hand

readily available through African-operated commercial networks

Racism

relationship between slavery and European racism long debated

controversial view: racial stereotypes were transmitted from Muslims to Christians

for centuries, Muslims drawn on sub-Saharan Africa as one source of slaves

developed a form of racism

Black people were “submissive to slavery, because Negroes have little that is essentially human and have attributes that are quite similar to those of dumb animals” (Ibn Khaldun, 14th-century Tunisian scholar)

also could have origins in European culture

England: process of conquering Ireland made Irish seem rude, ignorant, beastly

these perceptions transferred to Africans enslaved on English sugar plantations in West Indies

slavery and racism soon went hand in hand

better able to tolerate brutal exploitation by imagining them as inferior race or not human

In practice

chief cause: European demand for slaves

Control

point of sale on African coast to use on plantations in European hands

within Africa: point of capture to sale on coast was African hands

European demand elicited African supply

slave trade largely with Europeans waiting on coast

ships

fortified settlements

purchased slaves from African merchants and political elites

Europeans did try to exploit rivalries to obtain lowest cost

firearms also may have increased warfare

Europeans generally dealt as equals with local African authorities

almost nowhere did they attempt outright military conquest

African sellers

sought goods in exchange for slaves

European and Indian textiles

cowrie shells (widely used as money in West Africa)

European metal goods

firearms and gunpowder

tobacco and alcohol

various decorative items (like beads)

connected with commerce in silver and textiles

issues were resolved with negotiation

precise mix of goods African authorities desired

number and quality of slaves to be purchased

price of everything

Slaves

for slaves, anything but a normal commercial transaction

seized in interior

sold several times on the harrowing journey to coast

sometimes branded

held in squalid slave dungeons while awaiting transportation

millions of Africans underwent this over the four centuries of the slave trade

numbers varied considerably

16th: fewer than 3000

Portuguese were as much interested in African gold, spices, textiles

Asia: became involved in transporting goods (including slaves) from one African port to another (”truck drivers”)

17th: slave trade became highly competitive

British, French, Dutch contested Portuguese monopoly

1700-1850: high point

plantation economies for Americas boomed

⁠

Origins

geographically: West and South-Central Africa

present-day Mauritania in north to Angola in south

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