KEY IDEA166 i
CHAPTER
18 Systems of Slavery
IN THIS CHAPTER
Summary: As the Columbian Exchange united the Eastern and Western
hemispheres across the Atlantic Ocean, the exchange of human beings cre-
ated a new interaction between Africa and the Western Hemisphere. Slave
systems, already a part of life in African kingdoms, became a part of life in
the Western world. The result was the unifi cation of three cultures—African,
European, and American—in the Americas.Key Terms
impressment* Middle Passage*
indentured servitude* triangular trade*The Beginnings of the Atlantic Slave Trade
Portugal’s quest for gold and pepper from African kingdoms brought it into contact with
systems of slave trade already in existence in Africa. The subsequent development of the
trans-Atlantic slave trade was an extension of trade in human beings already carried out by
Africans enslaving fellow Africans. The slave trade within Africa especially valued women
slaves for use as household servants or as members of the harem.
The long-existent trans-Saharan trade had already brought some African slaves to the
Mediterranean world. In the mid-fi fteenth century, Portugal opened up direct trade with
sub-Saharan Africa. Portuguese and Spanish interests in the slave trade increased when
they set up sugar plantations on the Madeira and Canary Islands and on São Tomé. The
fi rst slaves from Africa arrived in Portugal in the mid-1400s. Europeans tended to use
Africans as household servants.