Hello and welcome to today's history lesson.

My name is Mr. Merrit, and I'll be guiding you through today's lesson.

So let's get started.

Today's lesson is looking at the transatlantic slave trade.

And by the end of today's lesson we'll be able to recall that between the 16th and 18th centuries, many enslaved West Africans were transported to the Americas and forced to work on plantations.

In order to do that, we need to use some key terms. And our key terms for today are transatlantic slave trade, plantation, enslaved person and indentured service.

The transatlantic slave trade was the trade from the 16th to 19th centuries that transported enslaved African peoples to the Americas.

A plantation is an area of land on which certain crops are grown using forced labour.

An enslaved person is a person who has been forced to work without pay, lose their freedom, and become the property of another person.

And sources often refer to them as slaves.

And indentured servitude is a system where someone is made to work without pay for a set period of time.

Today's lesson will consist of three separate learning cycles.

And our first learning cycle is looking at Africa before the transatlantic slave trade.

So, let's get going.

Now, the transatlantic slave trade was a cataclysmic event which derailed significant parts of Africa, and from which many African nations are still feeling the effects of today.

Prior to the transatlantic slave trade, the west coast of Africa, which was affected by the slave trade to a much greater extent than other areas of Africa, was a diverse region of large empires such as the Songhai and smaller, tight-knit communities such as the Igbo.

The region boasted examples of complicated artworks like the Benin Bronzes, which there's an example of which is on the screen now in front of you, as well as engage in literature such as the Anansi stories of the Ashanti people.

There was also a thriving education system exemplified by a man called Ahmed Bâba, who in the 16th and 17th centuries wrote more than 40 books on topics as diverse as astronomy, history and theology from his homes in Morocco and Timbuktu.

And he himself also had a personal library of more than 1500 books, which was an extraordinary number for this time period.

The richest man to have ever lived, a man called Mansa Musa was the emperor of Mali in the 14th century.

And just give you an idea of just how rich Mansa Musa was, he managed to single handedly collapse the economy of Egypt due to his generous of gold to the merchants there.

as he passed through on his way to Mecca.

Mansa Musa, who was just being generous and refused to haggle with any of the merchants in Cairo as he passed through, just gave them all the gold he wanted.

He handed out gold on the streets to people as well.

He gave out so much gold that the price of gold collapsed because there's so much in the market.

It took about 12 years for Egypt's economy to recover from Mansa Musa's generosity.

Now, many nations in Africa were also very outward looking as well.

Islam was the dominant religion of North and West Africa, as well as significant parts of East Africa as well.

Although other pre-Islamic religions still existed as well.

And this opened up an enormous trade network stretching through Europe, the Middle East, and into Asia as well.

And on the screen in front of you is a bit of an idea about some of the trade routes available to the Islamic world at this point in time.

Along this trade network passed gold, salt, knowledge and enslaved people.

Slavery had existed in Africa for hundreds of years before the transatlantic slave trade as it had in almost every society on earth.

Slavery in Africa, however, differed from that of slavery in the transatlantic slave trade.

Slavery in Africa at this point in time was a minor part of the economy.

And enslaved people were generally treated respectfully.

Obviously it differed from culture to culture.

Some cultures relied more heavily upon slavery, whereas others didn't.

And some are more respectful of their enslaved people than than others were.

In general though, enslaved people were treated better in Africa than they were during the transatlantic slave trade.

And just gonna put it into context a little bit, a lot of slaves in Africa wore the same clothes as their masters.

They ate the same food and they slept in the same room.

Slavery in Africa was not for life, and some formerly enslaved people became extremely powerful.

And a really good example of that would be a man called Sakura, who in the late 13th century rose from enslavement to the position of mansa of the Mali Empire.

So the mansa was their term for the emperor.

So he went from an enslaved warrior all the way up to become the emperor of the whole Mali empire.

Not all West African peoples engaged enslavedry though, and some actively fought against it, such as the Crew and the Mossai.

Although many of these people eventually adopted the practise of slavery in order to keep up both technologically and militarily with their slave trade and neighbours after European traders upset the balance of power in the region.

Right, let's have a quick check for understanding now.

So I'd like you to choose two words to describe West Africa before the transatlantic slave trade.

And then I'd like you to explain why you've chosen your words.

So pause the video while you do this and I'll see you again in just a moment.

Okay, welcome back.

I hope you got on fine with that task.

Let's think what you could have said then.

So for me, I said my two words would be rich and developed.

And the reason I chose rich is because the empire of Mali in West Africa was ruled by the richest man we ever lived, Mansa Musa.

And the reason I said developed is because the region had sophisticated arts and culture, a strong education system, and highly developed trade routes.

If you've got two different words to me, that's absolutely fine as long as you can justify them.

That's what I'm looking for here.

Let's move on to our next check for understanding now.

I'd like you to choose two regions that African communities traded with before the transatlantic slave trade.

So you can say Asia, Australasia, Europe, or South America.

So choose two of those now.

Okay, if you chose A and C, then very well done.

Those are the correct answers.

Right, let's go for our first task for today.

So I've got a source on the screen in front of you there, and I'd like you to identify two aspects of the source and explain what they can tell historians about Africa before the transatlantic slave trade.

So just gonna put that into context a little bit now.

Source A is part of the Catalan Atlas, which was created in Spain in 1375.

It shows Mansa Musa down at the bottom there, who's the emperor of Mali, and he's decorated in gold and he's welcoming a trader who's just next to him there as well.

Mansa Musa was the richest man who has ever lived.

The author of the Catlan Atlas never journeyed to the Mali empire, but he did read the accounts of people who did.

So think about two aspects of this source, I think about what they can tell us about Africa before the transatlantic slave trade.

So pause the video whilst you do this, and I'll see you again in just a moment.

Okay, welcome back.

Hope you got on fine with that task.

Let's think what you could have said then.

So you could have said that one aspect of Source A tells historians that parts of Africa, like Mali, were very wealthy before the transatlantic slave trade.

The source shows this as, although the author never visited the Mali empire themselves, they've drawn Mansa Musa so that his size dominates a significant portion of the map.

Furthermore, Mansa Musa is shown with a large gold crown and is holding gold objects.

The author would not have portrayed him this way unless they thought that Mansa Musa was worthy of this kind of attention, likely due to his status as the richest man who had ever lived.

Another aspect of Source A tells historians that trade was a notable feature of the African continent before the transatlantic slave trade.

The source shows this as Mansa Musa is pictured greeting a trader who, like Mansa Musa, is also much larger than other aspects of the drawing.

This suggests that trade was another element of the continent that the author wanted to draw people's attention to and emphasises its importance to Africa's economy.

If you've pulled up two different aspects of the source to comment on, that's great.

As long as you've backed it up justification.

That's the key aspect here.

Let's move on to our next learning cycle then, which is looking at the reasons for the transatlantic slave trade.

So the transatlantic slave trade originated due to a need for labour on the plantations of the American colonies.

Prior to the transatlantic slave trade, the most common form of labour on plantations was indentured servitude.

And this came in two forms. The British sent some of their criminals to the American colonies to work as indentured servants for an average of around about seven years.

It differed based on the crime, but the average of seven years there.

Whilst other people agreed to pay for their boat rides to the American colonies through indentured servitude for an average of between three and six years.

Depending on the sort of deal they could strike, be anywhere from three to six years.

Now these are the averages.

There are some much higher, some much lower than that end.

Some less honest plantation owners might keep these indentured servants in indentured servitude for an extended period of time.

But generally speaking, this was the situation in the American colonies at this point in time.

Between the 1610s and 1765, somewhere between 50 to 120,000 convicts were sent to the American colonies.

So it was a significant number.

In each of the 13 British colonies between the 1630s and 1765, somewhere between 50 to 66% and between half and two thirds of all European immigrants were or had been indentured servants.

So, indentured servitude was a really, really big reason why people migrated to the American colonies at this point in time.

However, at any one time, the number of free labourers, those that aren't in indentured servitude, outstripped the number of indentured servants, meaning that plantation owners usually had to pay workers to tend their crops.

There were plenty of people who used to be indentured servants who continued doing the same sort of jobs they had done when they were servants.

But this time for pay.

In order to increase profits, plantation owners were eager to find cheap forms of labour.

Life on the plantations was difficult, the climate was much hotter and more humid than in Britain.

And new diseases were present.

The number of people willing to become indentured servants declined as word spread back to Britain about the nature of the work.

And from the end of the 15th century, the Spanish had used enslaved people in their American colonies extensively to mine for precious metals, which had the effect of making the Spanish exceedingly rich.

At first, indigenous Americans, Native Americans were forced into slavery.

But their lack of immunity to European diseases meant that the death rate among these enslaved peoples was extraordinarily high.

Enslaved people transported from West Africa were also used by Spanish colonies in the Caribbean.

Now, in 1562, John Hawkins became the first Englishman to engage in the transatlantic slave trade when he captured around 300 people from the west coast of Africa and sold them in the Caribbean.

Hawkins' profits from this enterprise was so high that the College of Arms made him a coat of arms with an enslaved person atop it.

And the excitement over the amount of profit that he made also inspired other people and managed to get them involved as well.

And a really good example would be Queen Elizabeth I, who publicly stated that she found slavery detestable, and yet she helped to finance his second slave trading expedition because she also wanted in on the sort of profits that John Hawkins was making.

The first enslaved people in an English colony though did not appear until the 20th of August, 1619.

And it was around about 20 or so Africans were exchanged for food in the Jamestown Colony by Portuguese traders.

Under Charles II and James II, his brother, the English slave trade really took off.

They didn't take long from this first exchange with a really, really kickoff.

And between 1680 and 1688, so that eight year period, the Real African Company, which was a company effectively just involved in the slave trade, and it was the two brothers, James and Charles, who were heavily involved in the running of it.

They transported 60,000 enslaved people from Africa to the American colonies in just eight years, which is an extraordinary number of people.

Britain soon became the largest slave trading nation in Europe, and it generated an estimated 60 million pounds between 1761 and 1808.

And this is through the slave trade directly, but also through these secondary industries that benefit from the slave trade, so things like dock workers who are outfitting the slave ships or that sort of industries there.

In any case, the slave trade made Britain one of the richest countries in the world.

Now, it should probably point it out that the first Africans to arrive in the Jamestown Colony were actually classed as indentured servants rather than as enslaved people.

Having said that, though, the status of Africans quite quickly changed.

In 1640, a West African man had been brought from his home to the Americas to work on a plantation by the name of John Punch.

And two white indentured servants alongside him ran away from their master on a Virginia plantation.

And after being caught, their case went to courts.

The two white indentured servants were sentenced to four more years of indentured servitude, so potentially doubling the amount of time that they spent as an indentured servants.

John Punch, however, was sentenced to a life of indentured servitude.

So he effectively, this was the first official enslaved person in the English colonies.

The status of Africans fell further in 1662 when a Virginia Court ruled that children whose parents were enslaved were also born as enslaved people.

This is a situation that had not existed in Africa.

So under African slavery, if you were an enslaved person and you had a child, that child was not an enslaved person themselves.

But from 1662 onwards in the American colonies, that situation had changed.

Well, let's have a quick check for understanding now.

So the arrival of Europeans in West Africa, something, the numbers of enslaved people traded in Africa.

So I'd like you to find the phrase which best completes that sentence.

So could you say it significantly increased, it slightly increased, or overall decreased? So choose your option now.

Okay, if you chose A, then very well done.

That's the correct answer.

Let's have another check for understanding now.

why did the English want to trade African people in the transatlantic slave trade? Was it to work on plantations? Was it to join the army? Or was it to work as sailors and navigators? So choose your option now.

Okay, if you chose A, then well done.

That's the correct answer as well.

Right, let's go for our next task for today.

I'd like to explain two reasons why indentured servitude was unable to last for long in the American colonies.

So pause the video while you complete this task and I'll see you again in just a moment.

Okay, welcome back.

Hope you got on okay with that task.

Let's think what you could have said then.

So you could have said one reason why indentured servitude was unable to last for long in the American colones is that conditions on the plantations were hard.

And as a result, the number of people who agreed to the terms of indentured servitude reduced as time went on.

This meant that plantation owners had to use paid labourers to work on their plantations, which reduced the amount of money the plantation owners would've made.

As a result, plantation owners looked for a cheaper form of labour.

Another reason why indentured servitude only would last for long in the American colonies is that the transatlantic slave trade was immensely profitable for Britain.

Between 1761 to 1808, Britain generated 60 million pounds from this trade.

The more enslaved people that could be used in the plantations, the bigger the profits.

Britain transported more enslaved Africans to the Americans than any other European nation.

So there was a diminishing need for indentured servants in the American colonies.

So hopefully your answer follows a similar format to mine.

I've given my reason, and I supported it with specific details and explained how that detail supports the point that I was making.

So if you've got that sort of format, then you're onto to a real winner.

Right, let's now move on to our third and final learning cycle for today, which is looking at the impact of the transatlantic slave trade.

So life for enslaved people on the plantations, generally speaking, was short and brutal.

The British practised chattel slavery, which is the idea that one person has total ownership of another.

And African enslaved people were treated as things to be owned rather than people.

And again, this differs to how slavery was viewed in Africa, where they were treated with far more respect.

It wasn't for life.

They were given the same sort, their needs were met in the same sort of way as their master's needs as well.

Enslaved people in the Americas were expected to work from sunrise to sunset six days a week.

Punishments were harsh, often involving beatings and mutilations.

And the life expectancy for an enslaved person on a plantation was just 26 years old.

An estimated 12.

7 million Africans were transported to the Americas between 1526 and 1867, with an estimated 10.

7 million surviving the horrendous journey across the Atlantic Ocean, that's known as the Middle Passage.

So we estimate around about two million people died on that voyage across the Atlantic Ocean.

'Cause that was a particularly awful part of the transatlantic slave trade.

It didn't get much better if you survived it, but just the journey there was horrific in and of itself.

This enormous transfer of generally fit and healthy adults reduced the ability of West African nations to grow along their projected lines, to grow along the way that they would expect it to be growing if they had all of their population within their borders.

It also altered the nature of many West African societies to become dependent on European weaponry in order to either raid neighbouring communities whom we can sell to slavery or to defend themselves against other such raiders.

Many of the enslaved people originated from different parts of West Africa, and so they had different languages, they had different customs, and understandably, they tried to keep these alive in their new settings.

In order to communicate with each other, a hybrid language known as plantation Creole developed using a mixture of English and various African languages.

Similar blends also occur with other aspects of life such as music and dance.

And traditional African religions merged with Christianity, which all enslaved people were expected to adopt, to produce Christian-derived religions such as santeria and voodoo.

These languages, cultural traditions and religions, they've all formed an important part of the identity of millions of people in the Americas as well as across the rest of the world today.

So if we are looking for a silver lining, as desperate as it is to try and look for a silver lining in this sort of situation, we can point to this generation of new culture, which a lot of people look fondly upon today.

Having said that, it's in comparison to the amount of suffering that these African people faced under the the transatlantic slave trade.

It's a very, very slim silver lining.

Okay, let's go for another check for understanding now.

So what is the definition of chattel slavery? Is it that one person has to perform services for another person for a set period of time? Is it that one person has to work for another person to pay off a debt? Or is it that one person has total ownership over another person for the rest of their life? So choose your option now.

Okay, if you chose C, then very well done.

That's the correct answer.

And let's have another check for understanding now.

A true or false statement here.

Enslaved Africans lost all sense of their cultural identity when they were transported to the American colonies.

Is that true or is that false? Make your choice now.

Okay, if you chose false, then very well done.

That's the correct answer.

But let's justify that now, why is that a false statement? Is it false because enslaved Africans were encouraged to retain their culture when they reached the American colonies? Or is it false because elements of different African cultures survived and merged together to create something unique? So make your choice now.

All right, if you chose B, then well done.

That is the correct answer.

Right, let's go for our final task for today.

I'd like you to choose three of the following factors and write a sentence for each explaining how they contributed to the creation and development of the transatlantic slave trade.

So there are seven factors on the screen there.

There are war, religion, government, economic resources, science and technology, ideas, and key individuals.

Choose three, explain how your chosen three contribute to the creation development of the transatlantic slave trade.

Pause the video whilst you do this, and I'll see you again in just a moment.

Okay, welcome back.

I hope you got okay with that task.

Let's think what you could have said then.

So I chose economic resources.

And I said that the transatlantic slave trade made Britain one of the richest countries in the world due to it being the largest transporter of enslaved people in Europe.

I also chose governments, and I said that Queen Elizabeth I financed the second English slave trading expedition.

And Charles II and then later James II were both heavily involved in the Royal African Company, a major transporter of enslaved African people.

I also chose key individuals, and I said that John Hawkins was the first Englishman to engage in the transatlantic slave trade.

And the excitement over the amount of profit he made in spite others to also get involved.

If you chose different factors to myself to discuss, then that's absolutely brilliant.

You can now use the examples that I've given you if you have a need to as well.

So that's just great.

Right, let's summarise today's lesson now.

So before the transatlantic slave trade, Africa was a prosperous and diverse continent.

The rapid growth of the transatlantic slave trade destabilised the African continent.

More than 12 million enslaved Africans were transported to the Americas, primarily to work on plantations.

Conditions on the plantations were extremely difficult and enslaved people suffered greatly.

The mix of peoples from different parts of Africa led to a blend of language and customs that live on to this day.

Thank you very much for joining me today.

Hopefully you've enjoyed yourself.

Hopefully you learned something, and hopefully I'll see you again next time.

Bye bye.