The Slave Trade

1450 – 1800

African / New World/Atlantic System/Christian / Old World/Muslim
Motivation/
Justification for Slave Trade / More laborers=More land
Cheap Agricultural Work
Enhanced status
Increased wealth/power of elites
Trade Slaves for textiles, hardware, guns / Need for cheap labor for New World Colonies-plantations and mines
Enslaving non-Christians was sanctioned.
Africans already enslaved other Africans / Already part of Muslim tradition-Enslaving non-Muslims was sanctioned
Cheap labor
Need for soldiers
Who were enslaved? / Females:
agricultural workers,
cotton spinning, dyeing
Domestic chores
Powerful African men kept female slaves wives or concubines=symbols of male wealth
Males: farmed,herded animals, porters, rowers, craftsmen, miners,
Most Prisoners of War-Sold for Wealth / More males
Some females
Prisoners of African Wars
Debtors, victims of kidnapping, convicted criminals
Refugees from droughts: men, children, women / More women and children
Role/Status of Enslaved / Some male slaves held high status as soldiers & confidants of high officials
Few women slaves assumed power/influence
But there was an all-female soldier elite in Kingdom of Dahomey / Brutal conditions
Provided labor for sugar plantations, mining of precious metals.
Considered property-could be bought and sold
Did not integrate into “White Society” / Could convert to Islam
Could improve status
Could integrate into society
Soldiers
Servants
Who Benefited? / African Elites / Europeans; colonies, merchants, ship owners, manufacturers
Led to rapid expansion of West capitalism in 17th & 18th centuries / Muslim Rulers & Elites: Soldiers for armies & women as symbols of wealth & status
Social Impact / Cut off from kinship group
Some slaves viewed as dependents –integrated into family group
Children of slave owners by their slaves could not be sold or killed
After 3 or 4 generations, could shed slave status / 8 million transported to Americas
Acute losses in localities / 2 million exported to North Africa and Middle East.
Spread of Islam
Harems, royal households, and armies
Some believe Islam helped regulate slavery thus limiting its abuses
Increased incidence of emancipation
Others argue that it contributed to slavery
Economic Impact / Contributed to powerful African states dependent on slave trade / Essential to economic success / Not essential to economy

Diff:

African slavery more benign, opportunity to integrate into kinship groups eventually

Atlantic slavery much larger, institutionalized will become racist

Muslim slavery more females but many men for soldiers

Similar:

Need for labor: Muslim and Atlantic

Path to wealth: Atlantic and African

Compare and contrast New World European Christian slavery with Old World Muslim slavery in terms ofMOTIVATION AND IMPACTon Africa