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Atlantic slave trade

Fact: Because the negative effects of slavery on the economies of Africa have been well documented, namely the significant decline in population, some African rulers likely saw an economic benefit from trading their subjects with European slave traders.

MLA citation: Lovejoy, Paul E. Transformations in Slavery : A History of Slavery in Africa. Vol. 3rd ed, Cambridge University Press, 2012.

ISBN: 9781107002968

Quote: This conception of who could be enslaved served the interests of the external market, and it enabled the political ascendancy of some Africans as rulers and merchants on the continent. Phase 3

Ipsen, Pernille. “The Christened Mulatresses”: Euro-African Families in a Slave-Trading Town.”

The William and Mary Quarterly, vol. 70, no. 2, The Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, 2013, pp. 371–98, doi:10.5309/willmaryquar.70.2.0371.

This source describes the benefits of African women marrying European slave traders. By marrying these men, African women were able to increase their social ranks, gain access to better resources, and improve the quality of life for their children. The article also explains how Euro-African families were also protected from violent and stressful slave-trading environments during the Atlantic Slave trade.

Nwokeji, G. U. “African Conceptions of Gender and the Slave Traffic.” The William and Mary

Quarterly, vol. 58, no. 1, Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, 2001, pp. 47–68, doi:10.2307/2674418.

This source describes how Africa placed a high value on African women. Additionally, it explains how Africa’s conception of gender helped shape the Atlantic slave trade. The article also explains the impact of interregional differences between Africans on the slave trade.

Phase 4

Fact 1 Paragraph: "By marrying European men, christening their children, and sending them to the church school at the Danish fort, Fort Christiansborg, Euro-African women claimed a particularly powerful position in the racialized social hierarchy of the Atlantic slave trade, and as they claimed these intermediary positions they helped reproduce this same racial hierarchy, which would limit the freedom of so many other people in the Atlantic world. Yet Euro-African families were not just taking advantage of their intermediary position to widen their opportunities; they were also reacting to life in a violent and stressful slave-trading environment."

Fact 1 Summary: Many African women married European men in order to increase their social status, gain access to higher quality European goods, increase their protection against the ongoing slave trade, and ensure an easier life for themselves and their families overall.

Fact 2 Paragraph: "Women could be sold for more in domestic African slave markets, whereas men commanded higher prices in markets supplying the Atlantic. Women thus constituted the large majority of slaves in Africa. A recent survey of available price data in African regional markets confirms this hypothesis. The discovery of the high value Africans placed on women is especially helpful in suggesting that African conceptions of gender helped shape the structure of the Atlantic slave trade."

Fact 2 Summary: During distribution throughout Atlantic markets, African men were traded as slaves, but for more domestic labor, African women became the primary form of commerce and would be placed at a greater value in this particular field.

Article Sections:

Early on in the Atlantic slave trade, it was common for the powerful elite West African families to "marry"-off their women to the European traders in alliance, bolstering their syndicate. The marriages were even performed using African customs, which Europeans did not object to, seeing how important the connections were. '''Additionally, many African women willingly married European men to increase their social status, gain access to higher quality European goods, and increase their protection against the ongoing slave trade to better ensure an easier life for themselves and their families. '''

A vast amount of labour was needed to create and sustain plantations that required intensive labour to grow, harvest, and process prized tropical crops. Western Africa (part of which became known as "the Slave Coast"), Angola and nearby Kingdoms and later Central Africa, became the source for enslaved people to meet the demand for labour. '''Moreover, during distribution throughout Atlantic markets, African men were traded as slaves, but for more domestic labor, African women became the primary form of commerce and would be placed at a greater value in this particular field. '''