Am 214: The Atlantic Slave Trade

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Am 214 The Atlantic Slave Trade
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Plan of Lecture

• Introduction Zuraras account of arrival of
  slaves, Lagos, Portugal 1444
• Volumes and Dimensions of Slave Trade
• Pre Conquest Africa
• Participants African Sellers, European Buyers,
  American Planters, African Slaves
• The Middle Passage Olaudah Equaino
• Slave Mortality - The Brooks
• Resistance on Slave Ships
• The Slave Trade An African Holocaust?

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Zuraras Account of West African Slaves Lagos,
Portugal 1444

• On the next day those captives, placed
  together in that field were a marvellous thing to
  behold, because among them were some who were
  reasonably white, handsome and genteel others,
  not so white, who were like mulattoes others as
  black as Ethiopians, so deformed of face and body
  that it seemed to those who guarded them that
  they were gazing upon images of the lowest
  hemisphere.

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Volume and Destination

• Best source David Eltis, The Volume and
  Structure of the Transatlantic Slave Trade A
  Reassessment, William and Mary Quarterly , LVIII
  (2001), 17-46
• See also D.Eltis, S. Behrendt, D. Richardson and
  H. Klein, "The Transatlantic Slave Trade A
  Database on CD-ROM" (Cambridge University Press,
  1999

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Africa Pre Conquest
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Immense Ethnic Mix
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Queen Nzinga and Drummers, Kongo, 1670s
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Queen Nzinga prints

• Antonio Cavazzi (b. 1621) was an Italian priest
  who from 1654 to 1667 joined the Capuchin mission
  in what is today northern Angola after a visit
  to Europe, he returned to Angola, particularly
  the Kingdom of Kongo, where he remained from 1672
  to 1677. He died in Genoa in 1678. Cavazzi made
  this and other watercolors, the originals of
  which are in his manuscript, located in a private
  collection in Modena, Italy (see also "Cavazzi"
  for other images on this website). Cavazzi's
  drawings must be among the earliest known
  eyewitness sketches of African life by a European

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Soldiers, Kongo, 1670s
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Musicians, Kongo, 1670s
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Queen Nzinga and Entourage, Kongo, 1670s
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Ceremonial Procession, Kongo, 1670s
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Queen Nzinga and Entourage, Kongo, 1670s
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Magician, Kongo, 1670s
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African House Sierra Leone, late 17th century
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Manioc Preparation, 1722
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Clothes, Houses, Music, Gambia 18th century
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Male Circumcision Ceremony
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Coronation King of Whydah, April 1725
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Procession of the Serpent, Whydah, April 1725
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City of Loango, Angola, late 17th century
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Don Alvaro, King of Kongo, receiving Dutch
delegation, 1642
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Europeans in Slave Trade Merchants

• Merchant slave traders Pierre Cornut (banker)
  Browns of Rhode Island (whalers) Richard Oswald
  of London (troop provisions) Sir Alexander Grant
  (planter)
• Jean Barbot however unpleasant it was to be a
  slave in the Americas, it was better than to be
  one, or even a free man in Africa
• Gerard Mellior of Nantes At bottom, the blacks
  are naturally inclined to theft, robbery,
  idleness and treason.

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Europeans in Slave Trade Sailors

• Ships captains men of parts
• Surgeons
• Ordinary seamen
• John Newton The real or supposed necessity of
  treating the Negroes with rigour gradually brings
  a numbness upon the heart and renders those who
  are engaged in it too indifferent to the
  sufferings of their fellow creatures

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The Middle Passage

• Olaudah Equaino , An Interesting narrative
• Claimed he was an African boy from Ibo region of
  Nigeria, carried to America as a nine year old
  boy. May have been from South Carolina.
• The first object which saluted my eyes was the
  sea, and a slave ship, which was then riding at
  anchor These filled me with astonishment, which
  was soon converted to terror, when I was carried
  on board.

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The Slave Ship
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Selection of Slaves in Africa
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Europeans Haggling with African Traders
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Selection of African Slaves
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Being Sold into Slavery
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Slave Branding
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Slaves loaded onto ships
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Slaves loaded onto ship
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Slaves on slave ship
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Slaves on slave ship
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The packing of Slaves
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Slave Packing, the Brooks
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French drawing of slave transportation
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Slaves made to dance
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Slave shackles
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Slave Punishment Captain Kember
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Slave Rebellion
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Slave Rebellion
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Slave Sale, America
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The Slave Trade as an African Holocaust?

• Anne Frank Every night people are being picked
  up without warning and that is awful particularly
  for old and sick people, they treat them just
  like slaves in the olden days If it is as bad as
  this in Holland whatever will it be like in the
  distant and barbarous regions they are sent to?
  We assume most of them are murdered.