There were a umber of peoples speaking a variety of languages living there. ; Below the Gulf of Guiana the grassy landscape came to be dominated by the Bantu people. The Bantu left Nigeria 2000 years earlier. They slowly migrated South and East conquering the Pygmies and San. Most of the Africans who came to America came from the Guiana region. It was a land of tropical forest and small-scale agriculture. ; This area had been inhabited thousands of years before the Europeans arrived. During the 1 lath century many of the regions inhabitants had converted to Islam. ; In the upper Guiana the so-called Rice
Coast, Gambia, Senegal, and Guiana the people fished and farmed rice in the swamplands. ; To the South was the grain region (Freetown, Sierra Leon) It was a lightly populated area with only one harbor. The people farmed and raised livestock. Both of these regions supplied large numbers of slaves to the Americas. ; Most of the slaves who came to North America came from Lower Guiana. Most came from the Cape Palms region. ; A flourishing trade existed between Upper Guiana and the Mediterranean Muslims. ; Europeans traded salt, dates, silk, and cotton cloth ; Africans traded ivory, gold, and slaves.
The slaves were generally household servants, prisoners of war, or criminals. After a war the Africans would generally keep the women and small children but because Of the possible threat they posed men were generally sold away into slavery. Upper-class Middle Eastern traders wanted African slaves to serve as household servants. ; Three Kingdoms ruled Africa from 900-1600 Ghana, 900-11 O, Mali, 1300-1400, & shanghai 1469-1550 ; Ghana 900-1 100 Western African Kingdom ; They were a an agricultural peoples until long droughts destroyed their crops. They also had animals like, weep, cattle, and other animals.
They were also known as traders. Their chief trading city was Kombi Sales. ; By 1 000 the Muslims had controlled the city. They introduced camels to the traders. Shania’s king converted to Islam and then began a massive military buildup. Ghana established a lucrative trade with the Muslim countries Of Arabia. Ghana received wheat, fruit, sugar, textiles, brass, pearls, and salt. Ghana traded ivory, slaves and gold. Shania’s king taxed the trade creating huge wealth for himself. ; Shania’s kingdom extended over most of North Africa ; King Tutankhamen was the best known king.
He elected taxes and used the money to build a castle which he fortified and decorated with sculptures, pictures, and decorated windows. ; King Tutankhamen ruled Ghana from 1037 to 1075. Each day he held court and allowed his people to tell him what was good and bad about his kingdom. He was a master politician who kept his enemies close. He built a huge palace which was designed to protect him. It had a prison to house political opponents, a tomb housing the remains of his predecessors. ; Ghanaian practiced several religions. The grounds had temples where people worshipped native gods.
The empire was lead by kings, rinses, governors, generals, judges, etc. Along with other skillful doctors, engineers, architects, artists, mathematicians, and farmers. Gold and iron brought wealth to the empire. Iron use revolutionized the social and military systems. ; Mali ; The Mammalian empire lasted from 1230-1468. After Ghana was defeated by the Almonds several nations competed to control northern Africa. In 1235 Mankind, under the leadership of Sundials, defeated Joss at the Battle of Grain. Sundials then formed the kingdom of Mali.
Mankind is where we get Madding from. ; Mali literally means, “Where the Emperor resides. Mali was very similar to Ghana even though it was larger than Ghana. It stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the Niger River. It had a population of over 8 million. ; Sundials conquered the gold mines of Hangar making his kingdom wealthier than Ghana. After Sundial’s death Mali became a nominally Moslem nation. ; Mall’s leaders used family ties with local chiefs to remain in control. ; Commerce, bureaucracy and scholarship were very important to holding the empire together. Mall’s major city was Timeouts, which had been founded in the 1 lath century next to the Niger River close to the Sahara. Walt (Northwest) region and Gao Eastern region were also great commerce and cultural cities. ; Timeouts was the most important city. It was a hub of trade where gold, slaves, and salt was traded. It attracted intellectuals and traders from all over the eastern world. It was a center of Islamic study with several mosques 150 Islamic schools, a law school, and many book sellers. It was known for its tolerance.
Though Mali enslaved war captives they offered both religious and ethnic tolerance. ; Mans Mums (1312-1327) was Mall’s most renowned King. He is most noted for his pilgrimage to Mecca in 324-1325. He took 60,000 people with him. When he arrived in Egypt with a hundred camel loads of gold which he distributed freely. The Arabs were shocked by his generosity and wealth. He gave away wealth that his country could have used for development. ; The people were nominally Muslim. When Sunnis All drowned Saki’s Muhammad Torture takeover. He expanded the kingdom northward into Mali and eastward into Hausa land.
He centralized the administration, instituted taxation to replace tribute, and established an elaborate bureaucracy. He was a devout Muslim who used his influence to spread the religion. He established diplomatic relations with Egypt and Morocco. ; His 1497 pilgrimage to Mecca included 500 cavalry men and one thousand infantry, and 300,000 pieces of gold 100,000 of which he gave as gifts in Islamic cities along the way. ; He expanded the Universe¶y’ of Sensors at Timeouts. It became a center for in theology, law, mathematics, and medicine. Muhammad Torture was deposed by his family.
By then he was old, blind, and senile. ; After Torture was ousted Asia Add became the next great leader. He ruled from 1549-1582. By the late 1 sass Portugal and other Europeans began to encroach on the gold trade. They encouraged kings in Morocco to challenge the West Africa rulers. ; In 1591 Morocco’s king sent a mercenary army of 1,500 Spanish soldiers armed with muskets and canons to attack Gao, Gangways capital. Only 1,000 of the soldiers survived the march across the Sahara however, they massacred the Shanghai elite Calvary which was armed with bows and lances.
They sacked the city and then turned to other areas. ; They then attacked the University of Sensors. They burned the library, and arrested the faculty, including Mad Baby the world’s leading intellectual at that time. The destruction of the university at Sensors is en as the end of African hegemony. ; Africa and the Americas Mans Mums who ruled from 1312 to 1337, was known for his trip to Mecca in 1324. He took such a large amount of gold that he shocked the people. He spent lavishly and had to borrow money to get home. This gained international attention.
We also have records that ABA Baker the King of Mali from 1305-1312 sent two trade expeditions across the Atlantic. The first expedition consisted of 200 ships only 3 returned. The second consisted of 2,000 ships one captained by ABA Baker himself. No ships returned. ; Black people were among the first people to explore hat became the New World. Pedro Alonzo In, identified as Black, arrived with Columbus. There were several Blacks who traveled with Balboa, Pence De Leon, Cortez, and Mended on their explorations. There were other Africans who appropriated lands for the Spanish Crown.
Assistance, cleared land for Spanish settlers which is today called Arizona and New Mexico. A Black Frenchmen named Jean Baptists Point du Sable, explored the Great Lakes region and eventually established a trading post on Lake Michigan called Chicago. ; The significance of this is we find out the potential of the 10 million Africans imported here had it not been for the establishment of chattel slavery. ; Slavery in Africa ; As researchers in Black Studies we must first ask questions of Africa. There was slavery in Africa. It was generally the consequences of military defeat.
However, it was not merely as inhumane as the peculiar institution in the Americas. ; Islamic slave holders had laws which regulated their treatment of slaves. They were responsible for the wellbeing of the slaves. In non-lilacs regions slaves had legal protections also. Slaves were allowed in the army and could gain their freedom through gallantry. In Africa the Bio people incorporated enslaved people into their tribe. In Africa even though slaves could not eat with free people, they did no more work than free people. Slaves were allowed to own slaves. ; Some tribes used slavery as punishment.
People who were convicted of grievous crimes like adultery, kidnapping, or murder could be sold into slavery as an alternative to the death penalty. ; Slaves worked with their owners in agricultural areas. ; Aloud Quinoa wrote that European slavery differed greatly from traditional African slavery. Quinoa wrote “O, ye nominal Christians! Might not an African ask you learned you this from your God? ” ; Slaves were traded as far east as Indonesia and Malaysia. The slaves were traded for silk, spices, gold, and silver. Nearly 2 million slaves were traded in this trade.
East African Slaves were traded to Egypt, Persia, Arabia, and India. They generally traded young men and not women because they wanted the women as workers and wives. ; By 1 500 the Portuguese were trading slaves from East Africa. The Portuguese traded slaves to the Spanish to Brazil and other areas of South America. The Portuguese sold slaves to Argentina and Uruguay also. This East-African slave trade persisted until the 1 8th century. ; As the slave trade expanded Africans were traded up and down the Atlantic coast. They remained in a lower-class Status for generations.
African American History’ 1492-1877 ; What role did Africans play as explorers? ; When Columbus landed in the Bahamas on October 12, 1492, one of his most important assistants was an African named Pedro Alonso Nine. In 1494 when Spain established its first establishment on Cuba African soldiers and explorers were among the first settlers. Africans had became a recognized part of Spanish and Portuguese life as a result of the trade developed between 733 and 1492. Some of the Africans had acquired wealth and position in Spain and Portugal. Many of the first Spanish explorers were Afro-Spanish soldiers, explorers, and sailors. Many of the conquistadors who conquered the Aztec, Mayans, Incas, and southwestern Indians were Franchises. Most of these people were not singled out for their race. ; When Fiasco Ounce De Balboa discovered the Pacific Ocean, his top assistant was Influx De Llano, an Afro-Spanish explorer. Every major Spanish explorer had an Afro-Spanish member of his team. Cortes, Vales, Alveolar, Pizzeria, Major, Coronado, Narrate and Caber De Vacant all had Afro-Spanish assistants. ; The most famous Afro-Spanish explorer was Assistance (Little Steven) who explored Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. It is important to understand that when you study Africans in the America’s you have to start with exploration and not slavery. The first Africans were not slaves. They were Franchises. Blacks who lived in Spain or Portugal. ; The Middle Passage Numbers ; The trans-Atlantic slave trade began in 1502 and lasted until 1888. The overwhelming majority of the laves transported during that period went to the Spanish and Portuguese colonies in the Caribbean and South America. In 1619, the English got their first Africans and later decided to utilize them as a labor source.
By the end of the slave trade between 9 and 12 million Africans had been shipped. ; This trade became known as the middle passage and cost the lives of at least 4 million Africans. Of those who did arrive 33 percent went to Brazil ( 2,451 ,OHO), 22. 5 % to the British Caribbean (1 20. 3 % to the French Caribbean 1 1. 7 % Spanish America (871 ,OHO), 6. 7 % Dutch Caribbean (400,000), 5. % British North America (400,000), . 4 % Danish Caribbean (28,000). ; African American History ; Two centuries before Columbus the Portuguese established a slave trade in Lisbon. They used the Guiana coast as their headquarters.
During the last half of the 15th century they were trading about 1 ,OHO slaves a year. ; By 1 502 slaves were being traded from Africa to Hispanic and on to the New World. The institution of slavery was started in the America’s not in Europe. ; African slavery developed in stages. There were attempts to use others first. Native Americans were the first work force. However, they refused to work and they died off in astounding numbers. Next there was an attempt to use indentured servants from Europe. They could not get enough workers that way and they were not good workers.
They were generally lower-class Whites who wanted to rise the social ladder. ; By 1444 Portugal was sending Africans to Europe. Spain also began to import Africans. A dangerous game began as Spanish and Portuguese sailors began to raid West African coastal countries like Senegal, Guiana, Ghana, and the Ivory Coast to kidnap Africans to sell to wealthy Europeans. By 1449 there were 900 Africans in Portugal lone. This resulted in a backlash from Europeans who were afraid that the Africans might strike back and also there Were those who did not like the large number Of Africans in Europe. As result, the Spanish began to send their Africans to their colonies in the Caribbean. ; At the same time the period of the enlightenment was beginning and Europeans began to express concern about some of the more inhumane activities they engaged in. ; Therefore, slavery as an institution began to die out in Europe. ; African slavery in the New World began in force after 1517, after a Catholic cleric named, Bishop Bartholomew De Lass Cocas, who was working with Native American tribes in Haiti begged King Charles II of Spain to stop using Indians as slaves.
He did this because of his concern, for Native Americans after witnessing the high mortality rate amongst Native American slaves and also the mistreatment they suffered. ; He asked that each Spanish colonists get 12 Africans to be used as slaves. He did this out of mercy for the Indians. He did not considered the consequences to the Africans. He would later denounce his decision asked to have it rescinded. However, he was too late the African slave trade had begun in force. In Brazil the Portuguese were making huge profits off the European demand for sugar.
As a result they were desperate to find labor. ; When the Spanish began to open sugar plantations in the Caribbean, slavery began to expand into those areas. By 1510 Spain was importing slaves into the Caribbean. This was anew and harsher form of slavery. ; This was a new form of slavery not seen before in the world. This was a slavery based upon race. The slaves were employed as agricultural workers and not soldiers, even though they were generally young males. ; The slaves were divorced from the human family ND viewed as chattel (personal property), and not afford the rights of human beings. These slaves became a commodity Of trade and therefore lost their humanity. Neither the church nor the state established rules to govern the treatment of these slaves. ; The Assents ; Both the Spanish and the Portuguese trade their slaves under contracts to private companies. In 1518 Spain gave this private monopoly a name, the Assents. (contract). The profits were so great that by 1550 the British, French and Dutch had joined the slave trade. During the early 1 7th century the Dutch drove the Portuguese out of the West
African Coast and became the major slave trading country. For the rest of the century most slaves who came to America came on Dutch ships. ; With the development of other cash crops like, tobacco, cotton, indigo, and rice the demand for slaves increased even more. ; As England developed its colonies in the West Indies they expanded the slave trade.
