Warm Up

1
Warm Up

• What do you see in this painting?
• What message do you think the artist was trying
  to convey here?
• What do you already know about this topic?

Middle Passage - Viola Burley Leak, 1997
2
Voices from The Transatlantic Slave Trade

• Essential Questions
• Why is it important to study the history of
  slavery?
• Why have humans throughout history enslaved one
  another?

3
Trans-Saharan Slave Trade
Other captives were shipped north across the
deserts of northwest Africa to the Mediterranean
coast (to Morocco). Africans were purchased
there to work as servants in Spain, Portugal, and
other countries. By the mid-1400s, Portuguese
ship captains were trading slaves along the west
coast of Africa for working on sugar plantations.
What do you think Trans-Saharan refers
to? Between the 10th 14th century, African
captives were sold in Islamic markets around the
area of present day Sudan. Many of these slaves
were female, sold for servants or concubines.
4
Transatlantic Slave Trade
Now that we understand what the Trans-Saharan
slave trade was, what do you think
Transatlantic refers to?

• In 1492, Columbus landed in the New World,
  linking Europe The Americas

• Spanish adventurers arrived in the following
  years, enslaving Native Americans to search for
  gold and silver.

• The Natives were weakened by disease,
  malnutrition, Spanish cruelty so the
  Spanish decided to use Africans.

• Around 1520, the first African slaves arrived in
  the Americas off of Portuguese ships.

5

• Based on this map, what do you think the Triangle
  Trade Route was?
• How do you think each continent was affected by
  this trade?
• What impact did slavery have on colonial
  economics?

Triangle Trade Route
6
The Middle Passage

• Middle Passage ship crossing for African slaves
  to the New World
• What do you think life would have been like on a
  slave ship?

7

• Several hundred slaves were packed below deck on
  stacked wooden platforms.
• These platforms were covered with excrement,
  blood, and filth and caused many infections and
  diseases.
• Slaves were confined by leg irons while on the
  ship and were often tortured with whip beatings.
• Many slaves committed suicide by jumping
  overboard or refusing to eat.

• As the journey typically took several
  months15-20 of the slaves died on the ship
• Estimates claim 2-4 million slaves died on the
  Middle Passage

8
Slavery in the Southern Colonies

• Those surviving The Middle Passage were auctioned
  off
• In the 18th century, the ideal slave (male,
  strong, young, healthy) was worth how much in
  todays money?
• 11,630-23,200
• 40 of slaves before the American Revolution
  passed through South Carolina and were often put
  to work in its rice fields

9
Slavery in the Southern Colonies

• There was no harder or more unhealthy work than
  the rice fields
• Ankle deep or mid-leg in water which floats an
  oozy mud, and exposed to a burning sun which
  makes the air hotter than human blood those poor
  wretches are in a furnace of stinking putrid
  vapor
• 2 out of 3 African-American children on rice
  plantations failed to reach their 16th birthday
  (malaria, harsh working conditions)

10
Copper Sun

• About a 15 year old African girl, Amari, and her
  experiences with the slave trade
• Historical Fiction Work of fiction, but events
  of the story are based on fact
• Author spent 10 years researching its content
• Written by Sharon Draper, 2006
• Grand-daughter of a slave
• Setting 1738 (slave trade in full swing)
  African village, then South Carolina
• What kinds of things do you think Amari will
  experience that you learned about today?