History Lesson 2 Transatlantic Slave Trade

Pre-European West Africa

• West Africa had a rich and varied history and culture before European slave traders arrived.
• Peoples of West Africa had diverse political arrangements, including kingdoms, city-states, and other organizations, each with their own languages and cultures.
• The empire of Songhai and the kingdoms of Mali, Benin, and Congo were large and powerful, with monarchs heading complex political structures governing hundreds of thousands of subjects.
• In other areas, political systems were smaller and weaker, relying on agreements between people at the village level.
• The balance of power between political states and groups was constantly changing, similar to 16th century war-torn Europe.
• West Africans produced fine luxury items in bronze, ivory, gold, and terracotta for both local use and trade.

Transatlantic Slave Trade

• Black Zanjs were captured in slave raids and marched to slave markets in the Arab world.

American South and Slavery

• America was a colony of England, and the Industrial Revolution led to a need for more raw materials.
• The climate in America was suitable for crops like sugar, tobacco, and cotton, which were in high demand.
• Paid laborers were too expensive, and the indigenous people had largely been wiped out by disease and conflict.
• The indigenous people also did not like the settlers and moved away, leading to a labor shortage.
• The work on plantations was labor-intensive, making it profitable to own and control workers.
• This led to the use of slaves in the American South.

Native Americans

• Thousands of years before Christopher Columbus' arrival, a different group of people had already discovered America.
• By the 15th century, an estimated 50 million people were already living in the Americas.
• Of these, around 10 million lived in the area that would become the United States.
• Over time, these migrants and their descendants adapted to their environments and pushed south and east.