HISTORY STUDY GUIDE
SLAVERY
THE TRANS-ATLANTIC TRADE
T he transatlantic slave trade was an oceanic trade in
African men, women, and children which lasted from the
mid-sixteenth century until the 1860s. European traders
loaded African captives at dozens of points on the African
coast, from Senegambia to Angola and round the Cape to
Mozambique.
T he trans-Atlantic slave trade occurred within a broader
system of trade between West and Central Africa,
Western Europe, and North and South America. It was
called the trans-Atlantic trade/the triangular trade as
when it wentfrom Europe to Africa to North America
then back to Europe it created a triangle.Throughoutthe
triangular trade, goods were passed on to every country
these good were…
●Great Britain sent cloth, guns/ammunition, and
manufactured goods to Africa.
●Africa sent slaves and spices to the Caribbean and
America.
●The Caribbean sent iron, lumber, sugar, rum,
tobacco, cotton, and other crops to Great Britain.
WHY WERE AFRICANS PREFERRED AS SLAVES
●Indigenous people were prone to sickness and often
suffering from tropical diseases whereas Africans
were excellent workers resistant to diseases.
●Africans were excellent workers who were strong
and could work for long hours.
●Moreover they already had extensive experience in
agriculture and livestock. For this reason, the
European empires thought they were ideal to be
slaves.
●Lastly the Africans could not easily escape because
they had no geographical knowledge of the new
land.
The Middle Passage
What was it?
T he Middle Passage was the name given to the part of
the triangular trade that went between Africa and the
Americas. It could take 40 days to get there and
sometimes even longer if there was bad weather.
How were the slaves stored?
L oose packlying on their backs, stored
shoulder-to-shoulder
OR
Tight packStored so close together that each slavehad to
lie on their side and face the person next to them. There
was absolutely no room to move.
What would it be like on board?
T he slaves would find it very difficult to move around
because they were chained together.
ost slaves would suffer from sea sickness. Once a day
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they would be taken onto deck to get some fresh air.
T hey would be forced to dance with whips so that they
would get some exercise.
hile the slaves were up on deck the sailors
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would go below deck to wash out the hold. The place
where the slaves were kept would be covered in sick and
excrement. It was said that you could smell a slave ship
coming from five miles away.
hile the slaves were on deck they had the best chance
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of escaping. But it was very difficult.
Can you think of why?
S ome slaves would commit suicide by throwing
themselves over board. Sometimes if the ship got caught
up in bad weather they could run out of food. If this
happened slaves were often thrown overboard so that
they wouldn't have to be fed.
Slave Auction
nce in the Americas, slaves were sold, by auction, to the
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person that bid the most money for them. It was here
that family members would find themselves split up, as a
bidder may not want to buy the whole family, only the
strongest, healthiest member.
S lave Auctions were advertised when it was known that a
slave ship was due to arrive. Posters like the one pictured
above would be displayed around the town.
hen the slave ship docked, the slaves would be taken
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off the ship and placed in a pen like this one. There they
ould be washed and their skin covered with grease, or
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sometimes tar, to make them look more healthy. This was
done so that they would fetch as much money as
possible. They would also be branded with a hot iron to
identify them as slaves.
T here were two main types of slave Auction:
1. Those that sold to the highest bidder
2. Grab and go Auctions
T he slaves would be brought from the pen, in turn, to
stand on a raised platform so that they could be seen by
the buyers. Before the bidding began, those that wished
to, could come up onto the platform to inspect the slaves
closely. The slaves had to endure being poked, prodded
and forced to open their mouths for the buyers.
T he auctioneer would decide a price to start the bidding.
This would be higher for fit and young slaves and lower
for older, very young or sickly slaves. Potential buyers
would then bid against each other. The person who bid
the most would then own that slave. The picture below
shows a slave being auctioned to the highest bidder.
Life of a Slave in Plantations
Southernplantation in the South during the 1800swas
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like a large farm usually growing crops such as cotton or
tobacco. Unfortunately, slaves were used to work on the
plantations and the work was extremely difficult. The
slaves were treated harshly because the white plantation
owners believed theAfrican-Americanslaves were
inferior to whitepeople.
Each workday began when it was dark and ended when it
was dark. In between, the slaves, including children as
young as five or six years old worked on the plantation.
The elderly slaves were forced to work as well. On some
of the plantations the slaves would not be fed breakfast
until two or three hours of work was completed. There
was no lunch, and the next meal would not be eaten until
many hours later.
The slaves were only given enough food to keep them
alive, which means there were no special snacks or
meals. An entire week's ration may include corn, fat, and
some bacon. Others may receive bread, flour, some
v egetables, and some buttermilk. It was not a nutritious
diet and many became sick and died due to malnutrition.
The slaves were not permitted to take breaks and if they
did stop and rest, the overseer, who supervised the
slaves, would punish them. The overseer carried a whip
and would beat the slaves if they stopped working or
were not working hard or fast enough. The slaves were
afraid of the overseer and hated him.
The day in the fields would end about 12 to 15 hours
later when they returned to their cabins, which were
usually a single room made from logs, and were not built
very well, leaking when it rained or snowed. There was
no furniture, the floors were dirt, often turning to mud,
and they slept on a pile of rags or straw, often without a
blanket.
However, even though they were extremely tired, they
still had to prepare evening meals, care for their children,
repair and sew clothing, and much more. The slaves slept
very little working from dawn to dusk or later every day
except Sundays, their only day of rest. Usually two other
free days were given to the slaves: Christmas and the 4"
of July. On some days off, slaves might plant gardens or
go fishing, which may help supplement their diets.
Some of the slaves on larger plantations worked as
c arpenters, house workers, blacksmiths, and other kinds
of craftsmen. The house slaves could be male or female,
but slave women did the cooking, cleaning clothes,
washing, milking, child care, and many other chores each
day. Slave men may also take care of the horses, drive
carriages, and keep gardens, but they worked seven days
a week and constantly were on call.
Some of the house slaves were permitted to live inside
the plantation house, and were often treated better than
those who worked on the land. They could also eat the
leftovers made for their masters. However, they were
treated just as badly as those in the fields if they did
something wrong or did not work hard enough.