From Empires to Bondage: Bringing Africans to the Americas

3 Main Empires

• Ghana• Mali • Songhay• Three areas are of great importance because

so many enslaved Africans hailed from these places.

Ghana

• West Africa (eastern Senegal, southwestern Mali, southern Mauritania)

• Camel revolutionized trade• Kumbi Saleh (center of important trade

connecting West Africa to the Mediterranean countries)

• Gold/Salt

Mali

• Includes parts of Nigeria, Guinea forests• Mansa Musa attracted attention with wealth

from Ghana’s gold/salt mines• Elaborate mosques built in Timbuktu, Jenne,

Gao• Timbuktu (highly respected

intellectual/commercial center)

Songhay

• Niger Region/Mali Empire• Sonni Ali• Used his Hajj to connect with scholars and

other heads of state/strengthen the empire & expand Islam into West Africa

• Standardized trade, policed trade routes, instituted bureaucratic system of government

Slavery in Africa

• Property of the chief family• Enslaved as a penalty for a crime• Captured in war• Human sacrifices• Without the same rights and privileges accorded to free

members• (With Muslim invasion)purchasing more common than

capturing• Men (military/domestic services)• Women (harem)• Not as harsh as in the Americas

Launching the European Slave Trade

• Henry the Navigator (Portuguese Prince) • 1444 (1st voyage that resulted in the capture of

240 Africans in Lisbon)• Within 10 years (imported 1,000 a year)• Captives converted to Christianity • Portuguese ruled slave trade for nearly a

century• Demand for slave labor increased with the

cultivation of sugar

African Slavery in Latin America and the Caribbean

• 1502 (1st African slaves to arrive to Hispanola)• Sugar mill• Given little food to eat/find in between hours• Africans helped build the New World by working as

bricklayers, plasterers, and blacksmiths. They also planted, maintained crops, attended animals and cooked & cleaned

• Spain/Portugal established the economic framework tying slave labor to industrial enterprises

Dealing with life as a slave in the New World

• 1. White elite• 2. Mestizos• 3. Mulattos• 4. Native Americans• 5. Africans

– Ladinos (AfricaSpain)– Bozales (Africa Americas)– Criollos (born in the Americas)

• Received Spanish names. Last names are omitted – Ex: Jose Angola

• Marriage was acceptable/Mixed was not• Zambos• Greater cultural retention (population imbalance)

Seeking Freedom

• Granted freedom by masters– Freed elderly, loyal slaves & children– Slaves purchased freedom

• Cimaroones (escapees who formed Maroon communities in remote areas)

• Yanga (first and well known group in Mexico)

Founding of Black America

• 1619-Jamestown, VA (official arrival of Africans into the US) 20+/-

• 1649-300 lived in VA• Treatment like indentured servants• 1640 (John Punch) • 1662-VA statute-mothers status determined

child’s freedom• 1661 (MD) 1667 (VA) Christian coversion didn’t

change slave status

Why Africans?

• Native Americans (unsatisfactory)• Dark skin• Strong, adept at agriculture• Labor was accessible and affordable

Triangular Trade

• 1. Shipment of goods left England(London, Bristol, Liverpool) for Africa

• 2. In West Africa, goods were swapped for captured Africans who journeyed to the Americas

• 3. In Americas, Africans were unloaded and replaced with hot commodities (molasses, rum, sugar, etc) before heading back to England

Triangular Slave Trade

• http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ism/slavery/triangle.aspx