AfricanSlaveTrades

African Slave Trades: Atlantic, Mediterranean, Indian Ocean : 

African Slave Trades: Atlantic, Mediterranean, Indian Ocean

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Basic Data Geography Chronology Numbers Why buy slaves? (economics) Africa Why here? Impact and memory Receiving zones African population African culture

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Chronology and Numbers* *all somewhat approximate Atlantic: 1450-1860 11-12 million Mediterranean: 700-1900 6-7 million Indian Ocean (and Red Sea) 800-1900 2-3 million

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Economics 1. Atlantic Plantation system: SUGAR, coffee, rice, indigo, tobacco, cotton Mediterranean to New World Caribbean, Brazil Triangular trade (+ India) Navigation: “Middle Passage”

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Economics 2: Mediterranean Domestic service concubinage eunuchs Military service agriculture (Sahara, Nile Valley)

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BLACK SERVILE MILITARY FORMATIONS IN ISLAMIC REGIMES* *numbers reported in “literary” sources Iraq (Abbasid Caliphate) : 768-941 Egypt (various dynasties): 877-1865 990-1169 (Fatimids), 30-40,000 Black troops 1516 (Mamluks) 12,000 1865 (Muhammad Ali dynasty) 13,800 Tunisa-Libya 800 (Aghlabids) 5,000 1016+ (Zirids) 30,000 Slaves purchased to create black army Morocco 1212 (Almohades) 10,000 in Spanish campaign 1680-98 (Mulay Ismail) 14-50,000 Abid (black army) Spain (al-Andalus) 970-1002 Ummayad Caliphate of Codova) 1,000 black infantry

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Economics 3: Indian Ocean Domestic Military (Yemen, Gulf, India-”Habshi”) Agriculture (Gulf; “Zenj rebellion” Basra 869–883) *Pearl Fishing (Gulf) Dhow (sailing craft) crews

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Africa: why here? Not only sources (“Slavs,” Caucasus, Balkans, Mediterranean Europe, indentures) Geography: Old World accessiblity + iron age culture + disease immunities Market logic (?) Low population (uneven) Desire for imported goods (see below) Alternative exports: GOLD, ivory, tropical hardwoods

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Impact on Africa Demography: loss vs. capacity (new Atlantic food crops: maize, cassava, peanuts) Local use of slaves Land/population ratios (“wealth in people”) Military (slave raiding) “Legitimate trade “ production and transport Import goods “Luxury” consumer goods (cloth, beads) Weapons (HORSES, sword blades, armor, GUNS) “Currency”: cowry shells Tools: machetes iron bars impact on African manufacture (mixed)

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African Memory of the Slave Trade “Jihad” against “Kaffirun” “Witchcraft discourse” (see Iroko) Resistance (settlement patterns, runaway local slaves) Silence (vs. Alex Haley, Roots) Tourist sites: Gorée Island (Senegal), Cape Coast Castle (Ghana), Ouidah (Benin)

La Maison des Esclaves, Gorée Island (Senegal), : 

La Maison des Esclaves, Gorée Island (Senegal),

Cape Coast Castle, Ghana: 

Cape Coast Castle, Ghana

“Door of No Return,” Ouidah: 

“Door of No Return,” Ouidah

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Receiving zones: New World U.S. vs. Brazil/Caribbean U.S.: under 10% of slave trade, high population, less explicitly “African” cultural impact Brazil/Caribbean: 90+% of slaves lower population (Brazil “mulatto category), very explicit “African” culture Why different demographic patterns? Sugar vs. other labor/climate regimes (2/3 male imports) acculturation (?) Culture debates: “survivals” vs. creolization/hybridity language (creoles/”Ebonics” vs. AAVE) Religion: style vs. Yoruba/Fon orisha cults (Santeria, Voudon, Condomblé)

Oxum Bahia (Brazil): 

Oxum Bahia (Brazil)

Santeria Altar Havana: 

Santeria Altar Havana

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Receiving zones: Islamic World Generally less visible Demography of migrations: numbers, intensity, gender, disease/climate Demography of deployment (domestic vs. labor projects) Miscegenation -> recognition (succession), manumission (um walid) Culture: North African cults (Gnaoua, Essaouira tourism)

Bibliography: 

Bibliography Austen, Ralph A. African Economic History: Internal Development and External Dependency (London: James Currey, 1987). *Austen, Ralph A., The Trans-Saharan World: Africa’s Great Desert as a Highway of Commerce and Civilization (NY: Oxford, forthcoming) Clarence-Smith, William Gervase (ed.). The Economics of the Indian Ocean Slave Trade in the Nineteenth Century (London: Cass, 1989) *Curtin, P. Rise and Fall of the Plantation Complex (Cambridge, Cambridge U. Press, 1998). Fenoaltea, Stefano. "Europe in the African Mirror “The Slave Trade and the Rise of Feudalism," Rivista di storia economica XV, no. 2 (August 1999), 123-165. **Gomez, Michael. Reversing Sail : a History of the African Diaspora  Cambridge: Cambridge U. Press, 2005. *Hunwick, John O. and Eve Trout Powell. The African Diaspora in the Mediterranean Lands of Islam. Princeton: M. Wiener, 2002. Savage, Elizabeth (ed.), The Human Commodity: Perspectives on the Trans-Saharan Slave Trade (London: Cass, 1992). *Thornton, John. Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World (ambrdie:P Cambridge U. Press,1998) William and Mary Quarterly, LVIII, 1 (2001) “New Perspectives on the Atlantic Save Trade”