Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade

World History 1 Project (~2 months late).

What was the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade?

The large-scale enslavement of Africans, primarily from the west, and south-east, and their subsequent transport across the Atlantic to the Caribbean, South America, and the U.S. Large swaths of Africa, Europe, and the American continents participated. It lasted from approximately 1526 to 1867 and is estimated to have displaced over 12 million Africans. It happened because Africa needed resources, and the Americas needed labor to support their plantations. Africa would give America people, that would end up producing the food that made it's way back to Africa.

What are you looking at?

This is a map of all notable ports during the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. The orange dots went to North America, the green dots went to the Caribbean, and the red dots went to Brazil. The dot's size represents the size of the port and the number of people who moved through there. From largest to smallest, the dot sizes are 453,027, 148,515 – 453,027, 39,877 – 148,515, and 0 – 39,877. Some things that surprised me with the map are: How concentrated the ports in Brazil are, and the stray ports on the east coast of Africa, and even India.

Graph Analysis

This graph shows the number of people who left for or arrived at each area on the map. I chose this to highlight the atrocious conditions on slave ship. You can see that a good amount of the enslaved people who were taken from Africa didn't make the journey.

One Ship's Journey

In 1817, a ship from Portugal called the Bonfim left on a trip, from Cabinda, a city in modern-day Angola. Its captain was João Batista Coelho. Its crossing of the Pacific lasted for 27 days, and they arrived on the 5th of August somewhere in the Bahia region of Brazil. 640 enslaved people were taken on the Bonfim, and only 502 arrived in Bahia. Bahia was the first (and only) disembarkation location, so the slave mortality rate was 22%.

"The Manner in which the Slaves are procured."

This a primary source from 1788. It explains how captains only move ashore for the purchasing of these so-called "unhappy wretches". After getting permission from the local traders, they go to examine the slaves and determine their value. These trading times generally happen every 6 weeks. According to this account, generally, the slaves were adult men, with rarely more than a third being women or children. This is because the adult men sell a the highest price. Still, no one is off limits for being sold (except for women so pregnant they will give birth on the journey) as long as the price is "proportional". In addition, he says that around 40-200 slaves are purchased each time. He then goes on to say "There is great reason to believe, that most of the negroes shipped off from the coast of Africa, are kidnapped. But extreme care [is] taken by the black traders to prevent the Europeans from gaining any intelligence of their modes of proceeding."

"Primary Sources From The Transatlantic Slave Trade"

This piece was co-authored by a bunch of enslaved people around the time of the late 1800s after slavery had been abolished in much of the Americas. Only the first two pertain to the trade itself, and not the experience in the Americas.

Advantages/Disadv-antages of Qualitative/Quantit-ative Data

In my opinion, it is great to mix data types like this because it leads to the most comprehensive understanding of the slave trade. The Qualitative aspects help you come to terms with the horrors that people experienced. It makes everything feel more real, and more affecting. Then the Quantitative data helps you come to terms with the scale of what happened. Every dot on the map represents thousands of people who experienced this same thing.

What was the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade?

The large-scale enslavement of Africans, primarily from the west, and south-east, and their subsequent transport across the Atlantic to the Caribbean, South America, and the U.S. Large swaths of Africa, Europe, and the American continents participated. It lasted from approximately 1526 to 1867 and is estimated to have displaced over 12 million Africans. It happened because Africa needed resources, and the Americas needed labor to support their plantations. Africa would give America people, that would end up producing the food that made it's way back to Africa.

What are you looking at?

This is a map of all notable ports during the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. The orange dots went to North America, the green dots went to the Caribbean, and the red dots went to Brazil. The dot's size represents the size of the port and the number of people who moved through there. From largest to smallest, the dot sizes are 453,027, 148,515 – 453,027, 39,877 – 148,515, and 0 – 39,877. Some things that surprised me with the map are: How concentrated the ports in Brazil are, and the stray ports on the east coast of Africa, and even India.

Visualizing the slave trade like this is important, because it makes it easier to wrap

Graph Analysis

This graph shows the number of people who left for or arrived at each area on the map. I chose this to highlight the atrocious conditions on slave ship. You can see that a good amount of the enslaved people who were taken from Africa didn't make the journey.

In addition, far fewer people were taken to North America than the Caribbean and Brazil. Part of the reasoning for this is that plantations in the Caribbean and Brazil had terrible working conditions. The life expectancy there was only 23, so they needed far more replacements than North America did. However, because people were living longer in North America, they would often have kids. These kids would almost always get enslaved themselves. Which one is more horrifying, I do not know.

One Ship's Journey

In 1817, a ship from Portugal called the Bonfim left on a trip, from Cabinda, a city in modern-day Angola. Its captain was João Batista Coelho. Its crossing of the Pacific lasted for 27 days, and they arrived on the 5th of August somewhere in the Bahia region of Brazil. 640 enslaved people were taken on the Bonfim, and only 502 arrived in Bahia. Bahia was the first (and only) disembarkation location, so the slave mortality rate was 22%.

You can look at the markers on the map for the embarkation and disembarkation locations.

"The Manner in which the Slaves are procured."

This a primary source from 1788. It explains how captains only move ashore for the purchasing of these so-called "unhappy wretches". After getting permission from the local traders, they go to examine the slaves and determine their value. These trading times generally happen every 6 weeks. According to this account, generally, the slaves were adult men, with rarely more than a third being women or children. This is because the adult men sell a the highest price. Still, no one is off limits for being sold (except for women so pregnant they will give birth on the journey) as long as the price is "proportional". In addition, he says that around 40-200 slaves are purchased each time. He then goes on to say "There is great reason to believe, that most of the negroes shipped off from the coast of Africa, are kidnapped. But extreme care [is] taken by the black traders to prevent the Europeans from gaining any intelligence of their modes of proceeding."

This source demonstrates the awareness of everyone involved in what was happening, and the devaluing of human life.

Unfortunately, I cannot figure out how to properly format a bibliography entry in ArcGIS, but you can see one at the very bottom.

"Primary Sources From The Transatlantic Slave Trade"

This piece was co-authored by a bunch of enslaved people around the time of the late 1800s after slavery had been abolished in much of the Americas. Only the first two pertain to the trade itself, and not the experience in the Americas.

Our first Author, Quobna Cugoano, talks about his capture, and how he was kidnapped by people "of his own complexion". He then gives his impression that people who keep slaves in his country treat them somewhat okay. Compare this to his exprerience in the Americas, about which he says "that all the poverty and misery that any of the inhabitants of Africa meet with among themselves, is far inferior to those inhospitable regions of misery which they meet with in the West Indies, where their hard-hearted overseers have neither regard to the laws of God, nor the life of their fellow men." He then says that the Africans, slaves or not, are thought of as barbaric, due their their willingness to sell their own kind.

Next, Olaudah Equiano details his experience on a slave ship at 10 years old. He described the air in the hold of the ship as "unfit for respiration" and "pestilential". This compounded with the humidity of the weather and the crampedness below deck. He states that soon, he got so sick that they had to keep him on deck at all times. They would often be kept without food for multiple days, and during the journey to the Americas, three of the passengers jumped overboard, preferring death over slavery.

Advantages/Disadv-antages of Qualitative/Quantit-ative Data

In my opinion, it is great to mix data types like this because it leads to the most comprehensive understanding of the slave trade. The Qualitative aspects help you come to terms with the horrors that people experienced. It makes everything feel more real, and more affecting. Then the Quantitative data helps you come to terms with the scale of what happened. Every dot on the map represents thousands of people who experienced this same thing.

Primary Sources

Falconbridge, Alexander. “An Excerpt from a 1788 Account Describing the Capture and Kidnapping of Africans as Part of the Slave Trade. | DPLA.” Dp.la, 2015, dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-transatlantic-slave-trade/sources/316.

Cugoano, Quobna, and Olaudah Equiano. Primary Sources from the Transatlantic Slave Trade the Capture. Negro Universities Press, 1969, pp. 1–2, www.lew-port.com/cms/lib/NY19000328/Centricity/Domain/135/Primary%20Sources%20Slave%20Trade.pdf.