Questions
on Gilbert and Reynolds, Africa in World History
(NOTE
THAT THIS READING COMES IN TWO DISTINCT FILES FROM BLACKBOARD--BE
SURE YOU GET THE WHOLE READING)
LA=LONG ANSWER THAT WILL LIKELY A PARAGRAPH
MA=MEDIUM ANSWER THAT WILL LIKELY REQUIRE
THREE TO FOUR SENTENCE
SA=SHORT ANSWER THAT WILL REQUIRE NO MORE
THAN A SENTENCE
1) [MA] How does the etymology (noun: the origin of a
word or part of
a word, or a statement of this and how it has arrived
at its current
form and meaning.) of the English word for “slave”
reveal the origin
of most of Europe’s slaves before 1440?
2) [LA] According to Thornton, how and why did the availability
(or
scarcity) of land and people foster the growth of slavery
in Africa
before the rise of Trans-Atlantic slave trade. Use your
own words.
3 ) [MA] What two developments in the middle of the 15th
century both
obliged and allowed Europeans to switch from enslaving
the populations
of the Black Sea cost in Eastern Europe and start purchasing
slaves
from Africa?
4)
[SA] Before 1700, what was the most important product
the
Portuguese imported from Africa?
5)
[SA] (two part question) (A) What did the Portuguese buy
in the
African kingdom of Kongo to sell to the African states
in what is now
Ghana? (B) What did the Portuguese import from those states?
6)
[SA] (TWO QUESTIONS) (A) If hatred had
driven Europeans’ choice of
which people to enslave, who would have been the most
logical
population for them to enslave in the 15th and early 16th
centuries, when New
World slavery began?
(B) And how many Europeans came to the
New World as outright slaves
(rather than as simply indentured servants or immigrants)?
Questions on Davis, Challenging the Boundaries of
Slavery, pp. 17 - 19
(they are, however, VERY small pages)
7 ) [10 points] TWO PART QUESTION:
(A) Using an atlas and the information
provided by Davis on p.18 ,
indicate on the attached map the places from which Europeans acquired
slaves between 1204 and 1400 (ignore Mingrelians, Ciracsians,
and
Tatars -- but note that the map in the Tignor reading
will NOT help
you in the slightest -- if you think it will you are not
reading
closely enough).
(B) Using an atlas (or google maps) and
the information provided by Davis on p.18,
indicate on the same map the places to which Europeans
sold slaves
between 1204 and 1400 (ignore “other Mediterranean
markets”). So, you
should have lines indicating sources of slaves and markets
for those
slaves.
You can either draw the lines on the map by hand
and submit in person in our next face-to-face class, or
you can draw them
digitally and submit with the assignment
8 ) [MA]Explain how and why the slave trade that delivered
10,000
slaves to Florence, Italy between 1414 and 1423 was different
from or
similar to the slave trade that eventually transported
Africans to the
New World? That is, what aspects of the trade made the
two systems
similar or dissimilar?
Questions on 36 - 39 of John Thornton's Africa and
Africans in the
Making of the Atlantic World
9 ) [MA] As the author recounts, in 1645 Boston city sent
a letter to
an African leader on the west coast of the continent,
a copy of which is preserved in Boston. Using Thornton's
description of the letter and the reasons the City Fathers
wrote it, write your own 12-sentence imagined version of that letter. Your letter, however,
should reflect Thornton's arguments
in the entire reading from pp. 36-39, including (A) the different advantages
of European and West African naval craft and the consequences
of those differences
and (B) the cause and consequences of
"customs and other duties" associated with the
slave trade.
Questions From Tignor, Worlds Together, Worlds Apart
1o)
[SA] When European slave traders first began their trade
in
Africa, were they introducing a new form of commerce to
the Continent?
Why or why not? USE YOUR OWN WORDS.
11) [SA] The high number of males among the enslaved Africans
in the
trans-Atlantic trade is partially explained by the demand
of European
planters for male labor, and partly by what other factor
that was
internal to Africa?
(
KEEP A COPY OF YOUR ANSWER TO THIS QUESTION, IT WILL BE
USEFUL TO
YOU FOR YOUR UPCOMING SLAVE TRADE PAPER)
12) [LA] The slave trade certainly destroyed some African
societies. But the trade also helped BUILD some of the
most famous and revered African societies in the continent's
history. Explain, using examples, how the slave trade
had this paradoxical impact on Africa. You can make your
answer stronger by providing an example for each outcome
(wreck & build) and explain how your example supports
your point--likely, cl/ev/wa will be the best way to do
so.
This LA question will certainly require a full and detailed
paragraph to answer completely. Be sure to explain BOTH
impacts on African societies.
USE YOUR OWN WORDS.
( KEEP A COPY OF YOUR ANSWER TO
THIS QUESTION, IT WILL BE USEFUL TO
YOU FOR YOUR UPCOMING SLAVE TRADE PAPER)
13)
This question refers to this chart.
The chart displays the relative percentage of the value
of goods Europeans exchanged for slaves when purchasing
slaves from African elites. This data has been collected
from the many, many account and log books from the transatlantic
slave trade that have been preserved. Along the top, you
will see the chart has been divided up by region of Africa
and then "total" which refers to the whole of
the West African coast. Along the side, the chart lists
various goods. So, textiles made up--for example--77 percent
of the value of all goods Europeans traded for slaves
on the "Gold Coast" region of West Africa (now
largely the modern Africa country of Ghana). "SPIRITS"
refers to distilled alcohol.
QUESTION: Considering the whole of West Africa
(the "total" column) and using the commodities chart,
answer these two questions: (A) did weapons and alcohol
make up a significant share of the goods exchanged in
the slave trade? (B) What goods represented were the most
important ?
KEEP A COPY OF YOUR ANSWER TO THIS QUESTION, IT WILL BE
USEFUL TO YOU FOR YOUR UPCOMING SLAVE TRADE PAPER)
14) [LA] THIS QUESTION IS WORTH TWICE AS MUCH AS THE OTHER
LA QUESTIONS.
Plantation
slavery in the American South in the 1850s-- wherein slaves
produced commodities like cotton for sale on the market
-- was often referred to at the time as the South's "peculiar
institution."
The use of the word "peculiar" implied that
American slavery was unusual or different from the normal
pattern of human experience.
Using the Tignor's discussion of "Africa's
New Slave-Supplying Polities," assess how "peculiar"
in the world at the time was slavery in the Americas and
Caribbean and why? If it was peculiar, in what ways was
it peculiar?
HINTS
FOR ANSWERING THIS QUESTION:
1)
Be sure that you answer the question using the Tignor
reading (Worlds Together, Worlds Apart pp. 131 - 136)
2)
Be sure that within the Tignor reading, you zoom
in on the passage re: "Africa's New Slave-Supplying
Polities" on pages 135 - 136
3)
Keep in mind the question asks about slavery and NOT the slave trade.
4)
you are looking for evidence that the form of slavery
in the American South in 1850 (chattel slaves on
plantations producing goods like cotton) was either
peculiar or not peculiar relative to other societies
at the time.
5)This
is not a question that you can answer by scanning
or "looking it up" in the reading. No
part of the reading directly answers the question
You must think about information presented in the
reading and recombine that evidence in a new fashion.
In short, this question requires YOUR thought.
|
EXTRA-CREDIT
(up to 15 extra points)
In
a five paragraph essay, explain why race & racism
were or were not the primary forces behind the rise of
the slave trade. Be sure to use evidence from the Gilbert,
Davis, and the textbook readings. Be sure to have at least six points of evidence for
your argument and to identify your claim/evidence/warrant structures.