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Amerikanistik - Kultur und Landeskunde


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M.A. Alexander Täuschel
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Essay
Institution / Hochschule
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1,7

The Transatlantic
Slave Trade
Essay
This essay has been written as an elaboration of my presentation of the subject
"Transatlantic Slave Trade" in the seminar "Discourses of Slavery" in summer
term 2007. It is supposed to give essential information concerning the subject.
It involves investigations on how the Atlantic Triangle worked (goods,
pants, figures), the history of the Slave Trade with particular focus on the
'Middle Passage' (circumstances, figures) as well as negative and 'positive' long
term effects of the slave trade on the Americas and on Africa. It concludes with
an overview of important dates related to the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
2007
Alexander Täuschel
14.06.2007
1
The Transatlantic Slave Trade
Alexander Täuschel
E
SSAY
The Transatlantic Slave Trade
(1) The Atlantic Triangle
The idea of the transatlantic slave trade was initially developed by the Europeans in order to get
cheap labour to harvest cotton, sugar, and tobacco in the "New World". This Triangular Trade con-
sisted of three sea routs (building a triangle on the map) between the "New World", Europe and
Africa. The trade ships sailing along those routs carried goods each only produced in one of the
continents and not elsewhere, and were therefore considered highly valuable for the other conti-
nents and also highly profitable for the seamen.
This is how it worked: Europeans sent trading ships to Africa with cargoes of wool or cotton
materials, rum, brandy, iron bars, knives, axes, firearms, gunpowder etc. to be exchanged for po-
tential slaves being shipped to the Americas, there in exchange for cash, sugar, coffee, tobacco,
gold, and timber for sailing masts. With the ship bellies filled with those American goods, the slav-
ers sailed for their homeports in Europe.
American slavers also participated in this triangular trade, crossing the Atlantic with fish, whale
oil, candles, timber, and especially rum to exchange for slaves in Africa, which they took to the
West Indies in exchange for molasses. After trading their slaves, these American ships then voy-
aged back home with supplies to make into more rum.
According to Philip Curtin,
1
between 1500 and 1900, approximately 11.7 million people were
removed mostly from West (about 80%), Central, and southern Africa in the intention of settling
them as slaves in Europe, islands off the African coast or ­ the Americas, although 'only' 4.5 to 5
percent of them ended up in the United States. Only about 9.8 to 10 millions made it to their des-
tination; the rest perished in port, at sea, or upon arrival in a new land.
The number of people taken from their homelands varied over the centuries (and it also varies
from source to source):
§
From 1450 to 1600:
about 367,000 people
§
During the 17
th
century:
about 2 million people
§
During the 18
th
century:
about 6.133 million people (more than 50% of all)
§
After 1800
although the slave trade was outlawed in the US, an-
other 3.33 million people were removed from Africa.
It is worth noting that the total number parallels the nearly twelve million Africans who were
sent east- and northward by Arab slave traders during the much longer period of 650-1900.
1
Philip Curtin published these figures in his book The Atlantic Slave Trade in 1969, which was the first modern quantita-
tive study of the slave trade, according to Stewart (1996).
2
The Transatlantic Slave Trade
The following map (
source:
) depicts the forced movement of mil-
lions of enslaved Africans to the Americas over a span of four centuries. It is estimated that as
many as 15 million people were transported as slaves, with unknown numbers dying en route.
Almost all of the enslaved Africans worked as plantation labourers or else in mining, and most
of those in the Caribbean and Central and South America died from the harshness of the work and
the brutality of their living conditions. Only in North America did the slave population reproduce
itself, with individuals having a life expectancy equal to that of the white population.
The vast majority of the enslaved were youths between 10 and 24 years old. 56% were men,
30% were young women, and 14% were children. American demand rejected older slaves as diffi-
cult to train and unlikely to survive.
Slaves were taken from all classes of African society; many nobles among them. Many of them
lost their freedom after being taken prisoner during African wars. Up to 5% of enslaved Africans
died before they even left Africa, since the Portuguese crammed hundreds of slaves into dun-
geons, the so-called forts, where the slaves were kept until being taken away from their homeland
by ships. But many of them died because the loading process in the ports took up to six (!) months.
But also white men died both, on land and on sea due to poor conditions, inadequate food and
water, exhausting work, but most of them of tropical diseases. During their first year in residence,
some 60% of the European traders died in the foreign regions of the coast. Africa was therefore
called the 'white man's grave'.
All things considered, the Atlantic Slave Trade was one of the most devastating events in world
history.
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Beschreibung

Titel:
The Transatlantic Slave Trade
Veranstaltung:
Discourses of Slavery
Autor:
M.A. Alexander Täuschel
Jahr:
2007
Seiten:
10
Archivnummer:
V119297
ISBN (eBook):
978-3-640-22850-8
DOI:
10.3239/9783640228508
Dateigröße:
252 KB
Sprache:
Englisch

Schlagworte:
Transatlantic Slave Trade Discourses Slavery

Arbeit zitieren:

M.A. Alexander Täuschel, 2007, The Transatlantic Slave Trade, München, GRIN Verlag GmbH

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