African Slave Trade

What do we envision when

we think of the African
Slave Trade?



African Culture prior to European
intervention
- Most people lived in small villages where life revolved
around family.
- Bonds of kinship existed where people of the same lineage
lived together.
- In these communities age carried rank, thus the elderly
were respected by all.
- The Clans were matrilineal meaning one traced his lineage
through his mothers side of the family. Chiefs were
selected by women and needed the consent of the elderly
to do things. Some groups believed in one god while
others believed in many. Some were converted to Islam.

Occupations Herding animals, farming crops, fishing,
hunting, others mined gold and silver and others were traders.
Is this the answer, or just what it is
in the media?
This is a typical American slave
auction, but how did they get here?

Who is doing the shooting?

Again, who is holding the guns?

What religion did Africans practice?

Slave Coffle

Overland march to the coast from
as much as 700 miles in the interior
of Africa.

Water route to the coast.

The Portuguese
Arrived in 1440s and began trading with
the Africans.
By the 1470s, they developed several
outposts in West Africa for constant
trading.
By 1480s, the Portuguese populated some
uninhabited islands off of Africa and set up
sugar plantations. At this time they began
trading for slaves.
Holding pen on the coast.

Castle on the African Coast.

Some of these structures still exist.


Waiting off the coast of Africa.

Ships wait off shore.

African kings traded humans for
finished goods.

Farewell to the African Coast.

Slave Trade
At first, the slave trade was limited. The Portuguese did
not need too many slaves. Village chiefs sold these war
captives to the Portuguese. The Portuguese slave trade
was later duplicated on a much larger scale by the
Spanish, French, Dutch and English as well as
Americans.
Slavery was strongly routed in African culture; however,
in Africa slavery did not always mean a lifetime of
servitude. Often, one could get out of being a slave by
marrying into the family who held them or being adopted
by that family. Others ran a way, thus escaping from
slavery.