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