The Transatlantic Slave Trade
Shortages of native people to work in New World - led to slaves brought from Africa
- Worked on cotton and sugar plantations, in mines or as domestic servants in Central, South or later North America.
Portugal controlled the Atlantic slave trade
- First brought Africa slaves to sugar plantations
- They had the contact to supply slaves to Spanish plantations in New World
- They shipped slaves to their own plantations in Brazil
- 12.5 million salves - shipped from Africa to North and South America between 16th and 19th centuries
- They were taken on board, stripped naked and examined from head to toe by the captain or surgeon
- About 1.8 million died on the way (the Middle Passage)
- conditions on board were appalling (awful)
- Men were packed together below the deck, they were chained for most of the voyage
- The space was so cramped, they were forced to crouch or lie down
- Women and children were kept in separate quarters, sometimes on deck
- Allowing limited freedom of movement
- Also exposed them to violence and sexual abuse from the crew
- The air in the hold was foul and putrid
- Seasickness was common and heat was oppressive
- The lack of sanitation and suffocating conditions meant there was a constant threat of disease
- Epidemics of fever, dysentery (the "flux") and smallpox were frequent
- Captives endured these conditions for about two months, sometimes longer
- In good weather, captives were brought on deck in midmorning and forced to exercise
- They were fed twice a day and those refusing to eat were forced fed
- Those who died were thrown overboard