The Atlantic Slave Trade: Crash Course World History #24

Summary

This Crash Course episode delves into the grim reality of slavery, tracing its history from ancient civilizations to the Atlantic slave trade. It clarifies misconceptions about the capture of Africans, highlighting the role of African traders in the process. The script discusses the brutal conditions slaves faced, the economic motivations behind slavery, and its perpetuation through chattel slavery. It emphasizes the global complicity in this horrific institution and challenges the misuse of the term 'slave' in modern contexts.

Takeaways

• 📚 Slavery has a long history, dating back to the earliest civilizations, but it was not part of early human societies that relied on hunting and gathering.
• 🌍 The Atlantic slave trade involved the forced movement of 10 to 12 million African slaves to the Americas between 1500 and 1880CE, with about 15% dying during the journey.
• 📈 The majority of slaves were sent to the Caribbean (48%) and Brazil (41%), with only about 5% being imported into the United States.
• 🔄 Slavery was part of European history long before the transatlantic trade, with the first significant trade beginning after the 4th Crusade in 1204.
• 🌾 Slaves in the Americas were primarily used for cultivating crops like sugar, tobacco, and coffee, which were not essential for human sustenance, reflecting early consumer culture.
• 🔗 Europeans obtained African slaves through trade, not direct conquest, as African societies were too powerful to be easily defeated.
• 🔑 Slavery was an economic commodity, integral to the private wealth of many societies where land was commonly state-owned.
• 🚢 Conditions on slave ships were horrific, with an average of only four square feet of space per person, akin to being in a coffin.
• 🏺 Once in the Americas, slaves were treated like cattle, being branded and sold in markets, with their lives dominated by hard labor and fear.
• 🍭 The natural increase of the slave population in places like the U.S. was seen as beneficial by slave owners, as it meant more labor and potential for selling offspring.
• 🚫 Atlantic slavery was particularly brutal due to the chattel nature of the slaves, who were considered moveable property and completely dehumanized.

Q & A

What is the main topic of this Crash Course World History episode?

The main topic of this episode is slavery, specifically focusing on the Atlantic slave trade and its historical context.

How does John Green describe the tone of this episode compared to others?

John Green describes the tone of this episode as being 'light on the jokes' due to the serious and somber nature of the topic of slavery.

What percentage of the African slaves died during the journey from Africa to the Americas?

About 15% of the African slaves died during the journey from Africa to the Americas.

What were the primary destinations for the majority of African slaves?

The primary destinations for the majority of African slaves were the Caribbean, where 48% went, and Brazil, where 41% went.

How much of the total slave population was imported to the United States?

Only about 5% of the total slave population was imported to the United States.

What misconception about the capture of Africans does John Green address?

John Green addresses the misconception that Europeans directly captured Africans. In reality, Europeans obtained African slaves by trading for them with other Africans who had captured them.

What does John Green suggest is the root of the economic value of slaves in Africa?

John Green suggests that in many places, slaves were one of the only sources of private wealth because land was usually owned by the state.

What were the conditions like aboard the slave ships?

The conditions aboard slave ships were horrendous, with each slave having an average of four square feet of space, which was compared to the space a man has in his coffin.

What was the significance of the speed in harvesting and processing sugar cane?

Speed was incredibly important in harvesting and processing sugar cane because once cut, sugar sap can go sour within a day.

What was the average life expectancy for a Brazilian slave on a sugar plantation in the late 18th century?

The average life expectancy for a Brazilian slave on a sugar plantation in the late 18th century was 23 years.

What does John Green argue is the most accurate definition of slavery according to sociologist Orlando Patterson?

According to sociologist Orlando Patterson, the most accurate definition of slavery is 'the permanent, violent, and personal domination of natally alienated and generally dishonoured persons.'

Why does John Green criticize the misuse of the word 'slave' in political rhetoric?

John Green criticizes the misuse of the word 'slave' in political rhetoric because it is often used incorrectly to describe situations that do not equate to the historical reality and severity of slavery.

What historical event is mentioned as the beginning of the European slave trade?

The beginning of the European slave trade is mentioned as starting after the 4th Crusade in 1204, where Italian merchants imported thousands of Armenian, Circassian, and Georgian slaves to Italy.

What role did the Bible play in justifying the enslavement of Africans according to the script?

The Bible was used to justify the enslavement of Africans, particularly due to the moment in Genesis when Noah curses Ham, suggesting that Canaan would be the lowest of slaves to his brothers.

How does John Green describe the concept of chattel slavery?

John Green describes chattel slavery as a term historians use to indicate that slaves were move-able property, highlighting the dehumanizing aspect of this form of slavery.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Introduction to Slavery in World History

John Green introduces the topic of slavery, emphasizing its gravity and historical significance. He clarifies that slavery is as old as civilization, with the Atlantic slave trade moving 10 to 12 million Africans to the Americas between 1500 and 1880 CE, of which 15% died during the journey. The Caribbean and Brazil received the majority of slaves, with the U.S. importing only about 5%. Green also notes the European history of slave trade since the 4th Crusade, and the economic underpinnings of slavery, where slaves were valuable commodities and a source of private wealth. He dispels the misconception that Europeans captured Africans directly, highlighting instead the African role in capturing and trading slaves to Europeans in exchange for goods.

05:01

🔗 The Economic and Social Dynamics of Slavery

This section delves into the economic rationale and social implications of slavery. Green explains that understanding the economics of slavery is crucial to grasping its tragedy. He describes the appalling conditions on slave ships and the subsequent treatment of slaves in the Americas, including being sold in markets and branded like cattle. Slavery's role in cultivating non-sustaining crops like sugar, tobacco, and coffee for pleasure rather than necessity is also discussed. Green emphasizes the importance of recognizing slaves as both human beings and economic commodities, and he touches on the brutal labor conditions, particularly in sugar cultivation, which often led to injury and amputation.

10:05

🌍 The Global Impact and Misconceptions of Slavery

Green addresses the global nature of slavery, discussing the misconception that it was solely a European or American phenomenon. He points out that slavery has existed in various forms throughout history, with different levels of power and influence among slaves. The concept of chattel slavery, where slaves are treated as movable property, is highlighted as particularly horrifying in the context of the Atlantic slave trade. Green also critiques the misuse of the term 'slavery' in political rhetoric and provides a definition by sociologist Orlando Patterson, which emphasizes the dehumanization and 'social death' of slaves. He concludes by discussing the historical models of slavery that contributed to the development of Atlantic slavery, including Greek, Roman, Judeo-Christian, and Muslim influences.

🕊 Reflections on the Legacy of Slavery

In the final paragraph, Green reflects on the collective responsibility for the tragedy of Atlantic slavery, urging viewers not to place blame solely on one group. He emphasizes that various civilizations throughout history have participated in and justified the enslavement of others. Green acknowledges the complexity of this history and the need to confront the uncomfortable truth that many of our ancestors considered it acceptable to treat fellow humans as property. The video concludes with credits for the production team and an invitation for viewer engagement, while Green ends with a reminder to 'be awesome'.

Keywords

💡Slavery

Slavery is a system in which individuals are treated as property and are forced to work without compensation. In the context of the video, it refers to the historical practice of owning human beings, particularly the transatlantic slave trade involving the forced movement of African people to the Americas. The script discusses the scale of this trade, the conditions of slaves, and the economic and social implications of slavery as a central theme.

💡Atlantic Slave Trade

The Atlantic Slave Trade refers to the forced transportation of African people to the Americas between the 16th and 19th centuries. The video script highlights the staggering numbers involved, with 10 to 12 million African slaves being moved, and the high mortality rate during the journey, emphasizing the scale and inhumanity of this historical tragedy.

💡Chattel Slavery

Chattel Slavery is a form of slavery where slaves are considered personal property, movable and transferable like any other commodity. The script explains that Atlantic slavery was particularly horrifying because it was chattel slavery, dehumanizing the enslaved by treating them as objects rather than as human beings.

💡Economics of Slavery

The Economics of Slavery pertains to the economic systems and incentives that perpetuated the institution of slavery. The video script discusses how slaves were a form of property and a source of private wealth, particularly in places where land was state-owned. It also touches on the economic demand for slave labor in cultivating crops like sugar, which were not necessary for sustenance but were part of a consumer culture.

💡Dehumanization

Dehumanization is the act of depriving a person of their individuality and treating them as less than human. In the script, it is explained as a key aspect of slavery, where slaves were viewed as mere commodities rather than as human beings with inherent dignity and rights.

💡Sugar Cultivation

Sugar Cultivation refers to the farming of sugar cane as a cash crop, which was a significant industry in the Caribbean and Brazil during the era of slavery. The video script notes that African slaves were made to work in the cultivation of sugar, which was labor-intensive and brutal, with slaves often working long hours under harsh conditions.

💡Plantation

A Plantation is a large-scale agricultural estate, typically associated with the mass use of slave labor for the production of a single commodity. The script mentions that the Romans invented the concept of the plantation, and it was later used in the Americas for the production of crops like sugar, which relied heavily on the labor of enslaved people.

💡Social Death

Social Death is a concept that refers to the loss of a person's social connections and status, effectively erasing their social existence. The video script uses this term to describe the experience of slaves who were removed from their native cultures and societies, suffering a form of death that was social rather than physical.

💡Hereditary Slavery

Hereditary Slavery is a system where the status of being a slave is passed down from one generation to the next. The script explains that this concept was used to justify the enslavement of Africans, suggesting that their descendants were also destined to be slaves.

💡Slave Revolts

Slave Revolts refer to uprisings or rebellions by enslaved people against their captors. The script mentions the Zanj Revolt in 869CE as an example of a significant slave revolt, indicating the resistance and struggle for freedom by enslaved individuals.

💡Cultural Misconceptions

Cultural Misconceptions are incorrect or oversimplified beliefs about historical events or practices. The video script addresses common misconceptions about the capture of Africans by Europeans, clarifying that Europeans obtained slaves through trade with African groups who had first captured them.

Highlights

Slavery is deeply rooted in human history, with the Atlantic slave trade involving the forced movement of 10 to 12 million African slaves from 1500 to 1880CE.

Approximately 15% of African slaves died during the transatlantic journey due to inhumane conditions.

Slaves were treated as commodities and bought and sold in markets, similar to cattle.

The majority of slaves, 48%, were sent to the Caribbean, and 41% to Brazil, with only about 5% imported to the U.S.

Europeans obtained African slaves through trade with African captors, not by direct conquest.

Slaves were a significant source of private wealth in many regions where land was state-owned.

The economic value of slaves was tied to the consumer culture that sought pleasure over sustenance.

Conditions on slave ships were appalling, with an average of only four square feet of space per person.

Surviving slaves in the Americas were often branded like cattle upon purchase.

Slaves performed a wide range of labor, from housework to skilled crafts, with the majority working in agriculture.

The life expectancy of a Brazilian slave on a sugar plantation in the late 18th century was only 23 years.

In contrast to Brazil, slave populations in British colonies and the U.S. began to increase naturally.

The concept of chattel slavery, where slaves are moveable property, was central to Atlantic slavery.

Slavery's brutality was justified by various historical and religious beliefs, including the idea of natural slaves and hereditary status.

Atlantic slavery was a culmination of millennia of dehumanizing the 'other' and viewing them as lesser beings.

The responsibility for Atlantic slavery is not confined to one group but is a shared historical tragedy.

Crash Course is produced by a team including Stan Muller, Danica Johnson, Raoul Meyer, and Thought Bubble, emphasizing collaboration in education.

The show encourages audience interaction through comments and suggestions for future content.

Transcripts

Hi, my name is John Green, this is Crash Course World History and today we're gonna talk about slavery.

Slavery is not funny. In fact, it is very near the top of the list of things that aren't

funny, so today's episode is gonna be a little light on the jokes but, I'm gonna help you

understand what pre-Civil War Americans often euphemistically refer to as "the peculiar institution."

[Intro Music]

Slavery is as old as civilization itself, although it is not as old as humanity thanks

to our hunting and gathering foremothers, but the numbers involved in the Atlantic slave

trade are truly staggering.

From 1500 to 1880CE somewhere between 10 and 12 million African slaves were forcibly moved

from Africa to the Americas and about 15% of those people died during the journey.

I know you're saying that looks like a very nice ship, I mean my God, its almost as big

as South America, yeah, not to scale, and those who didn't die became property; bought

and sold like any commodity.

Where Africans came from and went to changed over time, but in all 48% of slaves went to

the Caribbean, and 41% to Brazil, although few Americans recognize this, relatively few

slaves were imported to the U.S, only about 5% of the total.

It's also worth noting that by the time Europeans started importing Africans into the Americas,

Europe had a long history of trading slaves.

The first real European slave trade began after the 4th Crusade in 1204; the crusade

that you will remember as "The Crazy One". Italian merchants imported thousands of Armenians,

Circassian and Georgian slaves to Italy. Most of them were women who worked as household

servants but many worked processing sugar, and sugar is of course a crop that African

slaves later cultivated in the Caribbean.

Camera 2 side note; none of the primary crops grown by slaves--sugar, tobacco, coffee--is

necessary to sustain human life. So in a way, slavery is a very early by-product of a consumer

culture that revolves around the purchase of goods that bring us pleasure, but not sustenance.

You are welcome to draw your own metaphorically resonant conclusions from this fact.

One of the big misconceptions about slavery, or at least when I was growing up, is that

Europeans somehow captured Africans, put them in chains, stuffed them on boats and then

took them to the Americas.

The chains and ships bit is true as is the America part if you define America as America

and not as 'Merica, but Africans were living in all kinds of conglomerations. From small

villages to city-states to empires and they were much too powerful for the Europeans to

just conquer. And in fact, Europeans obtained African slaves by trading for them.

Because trade is a two-way proposition, this meant that Africans were captured by other

Africans and then traded to Europeans in exchange for goods; usually like metal tools or fine

textiles or guns; and for those Africans, slaves were a form of property, and a very valuable one.

In many places, slaves were one of the only sources of private wealth because land was

usually owned by the state.

And this gets to a really important point; if we're gonna understand the tragedy of slavery,

we need to understand the economics of it; we need to get inside what Mark Twain famously

called "a deformed conscience." We have to see slaves both as they were, as human beings,

and as they were viewed, as an economic commodity.

Right, so you probably know about the horrendous conditions aboard slave ships, which at their

largest could hold 400 people. but it's worth underscoring that each slave had an average

of four square feet of space. That is 4 square feet. As one eye-witness testified before

Parliament in 1791, "They had not so much room as a man in his coffin."

Once in the Americas, the surviving slaves were sold in a market very similar to the

way cattle would be sold. After purchase, slave owners would often brand their new possession

on the cheeks, again, just as they would do with cattle. The lives of slaves were dominated

by work and terror, but mostly work.

Slaves did all types of work, from housework to skilled crafts work, and some even worked

as sailors, but the majority of them worked as agricultural laborers. In the Caribbean

and Brazil, most of them planted, harvested and processed sugar, working ten months out

of the year, dawn until dusk.

The worst part of this job, which is saying something, because there were many bad parts,

was fertilizing the sugar cane. This required slaves to carry 80 pound baskets of manure

on their heads up and down hilly terrain.

MFTP:"Mr. Green, Mr. Green! ...Isn't there a poop joke in there somewhere?"

John Green: No, me-from-the-past, because this whole thing is too depressing!

When it came time to harvest and process the cane, speed was incredibly important because

once cut, sugar sap can go sour within a day. This meant that slaves would often work 48

hours straight during harvest time, working without sleep in the sweltering sugar press

houses where the cane would be crushed in hand rollers and then boiled. Slaves often

caught their hands in the rollers, and their overseers kept a hatchet on hand for amputations.

Ugh.....I told you this wasn't going to be funny.

Given these appalling conditions, it's little wonder that the average life expectancy for

a Brazilian slave on a sugar plantation in the late 18th century was 23 years.

Things were slightly better in British sugar colonies like Barbados, and in the U.S., living

and working conditions were better still. So relatively good that, in fact, slave populations

began increasing naturally, meaning that more slaves were born than died.

This may sound like a good thing, but it is of course it's own kind of evil because it

meant that slave owners were calculating that if they kept their slaves healthy enough,

they would reproduce and then the slave owners could steal and sell their children. Or use

them to work their land, either way, blech!

Anyway, this explains why even though the percentage of slaves imported from Africa

to the United States was relatively small, slaves and other people of African descent

came to make up a significant portion of the U.S. population. The brutality of working

conditions in Brazil, on the other hand, meant that slaves were never able to increase their population

naturally, hence the continued need to import slaves into Brazil until slavery ended in the 1880s.

So I noted earlier that slavery isn't new, it's also a hard word to define. Like Stalin

forced millions to work in the gulags, but we don't usually consider those people slaves.

On the other hand, many slaves in history had lives of great power, wealth, and influence.

Like remember Zheng He, the world's greatest admiral?He was technically a slave, so were

many of the most important advisors to Suleiman the Magnificent. So was Darth Vader!

But Atlantic slavery was different and more horrifying, because it was chattel slavery,

a term historians use to indicate that the slaves were move-able property.

Oh, it's time for the open letter?

An open letter to the word slave.

But first lets see what's in the secret compartment today. Oh. It's Boba Fett. Noted owner of

a ship called Slave One. And apparently a ballet dancer. (Singing) Do do doloo do do doo...

Stan: That's a fine approximation of ballet music.

(Laughter) John: Thank you Stan.

Alright, dear slave, as a word. You are over used.

Like Britney Spears, I'm a Slave 4 U, no you're not! Boba Fett's ship, Slave One, a ship can't be a slave!

But more importantly slave, you are constantly used in political rhetoric, and never correctly!

There's nothing new about this,witness for instance, all the early Americans claiming

that paying the stamp tax would make them slaves. And that was in a time when they knew

exactly what slavery looked like!

Taxes, as I have mentioned before, can be very useful. I, for instance like paved roads.

But even if you don't like a tax, it's not slavery. Here, I have written for you a list

of all the times it is okay to use the word slave, oh, it is a one item long list!

Best Wishes, John Green.

So what exactly makes slavery so horrendous? Well, definitions are slippery, but I'm going

to start with the definition of slavery proposed by sociologist Orlando Patterson.

It is "the permanent, violent and personal domination of natally alienated and generally

dishonoured persons." According to this definition a slave is removed from the culture, land

and society of his or her birth suffers from what Patterson called "social death".

Ultimately then, what makes slavery slavery is that slaves are de-humanized. The Latin

word that gave us 'chattel', also gave us 'cattle'.

In many ways Atlantic slavery drew from previous models of slavery, and took every that sucked

about each of them and combined them into a big ball so that it would be the biggest

possible ball of suck.

Stan am I allowed to say suck on this show? (pause) Nice.

Now to understand what I'm talking about we need to look at some previous models of slavery.

Lets go to the Thought Bubble.

The Greeks were among the first to consider otherness a characteristic of slaves. Most

Greek slaves were Barbarians and their inability to speak Greek kept them from talking back

to their masters, and also indicated their slave status.

Aristotle, who despite being spectacularly wrong about almost everything was incredibly

influential, believed that some people were just naturally slaves, saying "It is clear

that there are certain people who are free, and certain people who are slaves by nature,

and it is both to their advantage, and just, for them to be slaves"

This idea, despite being totally insane, remained popular for millennia. The Greeks popularized

the idea that slaves should be traded from far away, but the Romans took it to another level.

Slaves probably made up 30% of the total Roman population, similar to the population of America

at slavery's height. The Romans also invented the plantation, using mass numbers of slaves

to work the land on giant farms called latifundia, so called because they were not fun.

The Judeo-Christian world also contributed as well, and though we are not going to venture

into the incredibly complicated role that slavery plays in the Bible because I vividly

remember the comments section of the Christianity episode, the Bible was widely used to justify

slavery. And in particular the enslavement of Africans, because of the moment in Genesis

when Noah curses Ham, saying "cursed be Canaan, the lowest of slaves shall he be to his brothers".

This encapsulates the two ideas vital to Atlantic slavery: 1. that slavery can be a hereditary

status passed down through generations, and 2. that slavery is the result of human sin.

Both ideas serve as powerful justifications for holding an entire race in bondage. Thanks Thought Bubble.

But there were even more contributors to the ideas that led to Atlantic slavery. For instance,

Muslim Arabs were the first to import large number of Bantu speaking Africans to their

territory as slaves. The Muslims called these Africans Zanj and they were a distinct and

despised group, distinguished from other North Africans by the colour of their skin.

The Zanj and territory held by the Abbasid staged one of the first big slave revolts

in 869CE, and it may be that this revolt was so devastating that it convinced the Abbasid

that large scale, plantation-style agriculture on the Roman model just wasn't worth it.

But by then they'd connected the Aristotelian idea that some people are just naturally slaves

with the appearance of Sub-Saharan Africans. The Spanish and the Portuguese, you no doubt

remember, were the Europeans with the closest ties to the Muslim world because there were

Muslims living on the Iberian Peninsula until 1492. So it makes sense that the Iberians

were the first to these racist attitudes towards blacks.

And as the first colonizers of the Americas and the dominant importers of slaves, the

Portuguese and the Spanish helped define the attitudes that characterized Atlantic slavery,

beliefs they'd inherited from a complicated nexus of all the slave holders who came before them.

In short Atlantic slavery was a monstrous tragedy, but it was a tragedy in which the

whole world participated, and it was the culmination of millennia of imagining the other as inherently

lesser. It's tempting to pin all the blame for Atlantic slavery on one particular group,

but to blame one group is to exonerate all the others, and by extension ourselves.

The truth that we must grapple with is that a vast array of our ancestors, including those

we think of as ours, whoever they may be, believed it was possible for their fellow

human being to be mere property.

Thanks for watching, I'll see you next week.

Crash Course is produced and directed by Stan Muller, our script supervisor is Danica Johnson,

this show is written by my High School history teacher Raoul Meyer and myself, and our graphics

team is Thought Bubble.

Last weeks Phrase of the Week was "Cinnamon Challenge", I hate you for that by the way.

If you want to suggest future Phrases of the Week you can do so in comments, where you

can also guess at this week's Phrase of the Week or ask questions of our team of historians.

Thanks for watching Crash Course, and as we say in my home town, don't forget to be awesome.