Questions on Gilbert and Reynolds, Africa in World History

(NOTE THAT THIS COMES IN TWO DISTINCT FILES FROM ELECTRONIC RESERVES --BE SURE

YOU GET THE WHOLE READING)

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)?

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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 line on the map by hand, 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?

 

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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.

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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 Long Answer question may require a full and detailed paragraph to answer completely

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 -- 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 5)This is not a question that you can answer by scanning or "looking it up" in the reading. You must think about it.

 

EXTRA-CREDIT (up to thirty-five 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.