Africa : What Part of Africa Did The Majority of Enslaved US Africans Come From?

Moo moo said:
% Total Imported Slaves
16th - 19th Centuries


U.S. > 6
Brazil > 38
British Caribbean > 17
Spanish Americas > 17
French Caribbean > 17
Others > 6

Distribution in %
Slaves in 1825


U.S. > 36
Brazil > 31
British Caribbean > 15
Spanish Americas > 11
French Caribbean > 4
Others > 2

These tables imply that, relative to other slave importing countries/colonies, slavery in the U.S. was not as harsh. For example, more Slaves were imported into Haiti, Cuba, and Jamaica than to the U.S. throughout the centuries. The difference is primarily due to Sugar -- almost 70% of all imported slaves into the Western Hemisphere were sent to the various sugar colonies and the working conditions in the sugar colonies were very harsh. Most slaves lived no longer than 10 years.... while U.S. slaves were "bred" and did not start to pick cotton until after the invention of Eli Whitney's cotton gin in 1793. After that, U.S. slaves were engaged at least 90% in this trade. Sugar did not exist in the U.S. South.

Europeans initially became familar with sugar as a result of the Crusades (Sugar Cane was grown in Palestine). The Europeans first cultivated sugar cane in Cyprus, Crete, and Sicily using White slave labor during the 12th to 15th Centuries. It was in these colonies that Europeans developed the institutional apparatus they later used in the Caribbean. The increasing demand for sugar led the Spanish and Portugese to islands off the African coast where they began to cultivate sugar cane using African slave labor.

By 1600 focus shifted to the New World and Brazil was temporarily the leading supplier of sugar. Spanish and Portugese monopolized sugar production until 17th Century when the British, French, and Dutch moved into the Caribbean and established sugar colonies (Haiti, French; Barbados and Jamaica, English; etc.).

The Yoruba were actually the last ones to arrive. The majority of Africans came from Central Africa (ie. the Congo). They were Bantu-speaking people. They came in great numbers during the early part of the tranatlantic slave trade. They tended to be more agricultural than the Yoruba. When the West African Empires were eventually sacked, the Yoruba and other West Africans were brought over as well. The Yoruba (and some other ethnicities) were a highly organized urban people and quickly took the the helm of the African population in the Americas and became the merchants of the African Groups. They established "cabildos" or clubs based on national origin in Cuba and Brazil.

If you can locate a copy of this book, it is worth the read The Oyo Empire C1600-1836: A West African Imperialism in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade (Modern Revivals in History) by Robin Law

The interesting thing is that Spain kept a good log of the areas from which they purchased captured africans. They only did this mainly because this was BUSINESS (censuses are another story). The Anglos were Protestant and more frugal in nature. They brought many Africans who were already adapted to the Caribbean. It was cheaper.

Research the "Amistad Affair".... the "Amistad" ship was doing business with another slave ship and was blown off course.

http://amistad.mysticseaport.org/library/misc/turnbull.cuba.html

http://amistad.mysticseaport.org/timeline/amistad.html

On another note, the Indigenous people did not DIE OFF. They were absorbed and gave rise to the "mestizo".... bastard children of the Spanish and Portuguese. Once they were conquered the culture almost disappeared. Africans came in because of Las Casas' defense of the Indigenous horros the Europeans committed. It was because of Bartolome de las Casas depiction of the horrors which the Spanish conquistadores did that caused Spain to decree that Africans should become the new source of free labor.... and even on the mixing of three different gene pools caused all the groups to infect each other with diseases never seen. Tainos gave Europeans and Africans syphillis. Europeans brought their "cold weather" diseases: influenza, measles, pleurisy and whooping cough. Africans brought their "warm weather" diseases with them such as smallpox, malaria, yellow fever, dengue fever, hookworm, and schistosomiasis (flatworm) and passed them on.

The Western Hemisphere was largely disease free. This was due to the fact that most of the original human inhabitants migrated during the Ice Ages over the Bering Land Bridge. They were relatively free of disease because they traveled in small groups and they had no domesticated animals so that they had no zoonotic diseases.

As far as their representation in the Spanish and portuguese censuses, many mestizos and natives also bought "white papers" to move to the top of the class hierarchy. There's a lot of information to pick apart there. It takes understanding the historical processes that set these things in motion. They did not simply die off just to disease. This is one reason why mtDNA studies today are showing different numbers then recorded by Imperialistic nations like Spain.


There is one thing that this article states that is wrong.

"Sugar did not exist in the U.S. south."

Yes it did. One of my great-great grandfathers was in the sugar refining business in Louisiana (near New Orleans). In fact, at one time Sugarcane was the dominant crop in Louisiana. This industry was revolutionized by Norbert Rillieux, a "Freeman of Color".
http://www.blackinventor.com/pages/norbertrillieux.html
 
EAST AFRICA

Fascinating history in this!

Thanks again sister Cherryblossom for bumping up this post.

I did not see anything here about EAST AFRICA though (not only Southeast Africa but northeast as well).

In the late part of this evil slave trade system in the AD 1800s, THE SPICE TRADE became heightened and trade between Arabs and the white western [anti-christian] government became even stronger.

My great-grandmother was stolen from East Africa during a time when there was a concerted effort to attack the people of Sudan occurred once again.

Many Black people from Africa became forced into this system and put down south in North America around this time too (in places where Slavery was not recorded on books) but did occur. Spice babies (little Black girls) were put high up in the trees in the tropical regions of the south to pick the fruits from the trees...
 
There are extensive shipping records regarding the origin of slaves to the Americas. It is true there were slaves from east Afrika, like Madagascar, for instance. The majority were from west Afrika, the whole west coast. Pan is correct. The Spanish and Portuguese controlled the trade. The Brits, etc. had to purchase through middlemen. Cuba was a huge marketplace. The slaves would be brought there and broken and then sold or taken to places like New Orleans for sale. Slaves in the caribean and Brazil lived an average of seven years. Since the buyers didn't have to pay a middleman, it was cheaper to work them to death and then buy a new one. In the U.S., slaves were more spendy, so buyers made the economic decision to breed slaves. Life was a bit less brutal. Slavery has always existed, but usually slaves still were treated as human beings, even like family. The advent of commercial slavery is particularly sickening. there were hundreds of different ethnic groups, but the ones who culturally dominated seems to have been the Bakongo, Fon, Yoruba.
My research is rather dated. hopefully someone has done more recent research and can give us more info.
 

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