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Become Legendary
BEGINNINGS OF SLAVERY IN THE AMERICAS

PART I:

Predict why colonists in the Americas needed slaves.

Why did so many Native Americans die when the European colonists came to the Americas? List
two reasons.

Read the 1st paragraph under the Subtitle: The Need for a New Labor Force

Circle the correct choice.

A result of the European exploration on the Native American population was that:

a.) Many Native Americans became wealthy

b.) Many Native Americans died from diseases
c.) Native Americans and Europeans were able to co-exist peacefully.
d.) Native Americans helped the Europeans explore.

Primary Source Quotation:

Spanish author Fernandez de Oviedo reported in 1548 about the destruction of the Native
Americans in Hispaniola: Of the estimated 1 million natives of the island in 1492, “there are not
now believed to be at the present time… five hundred persons left.”

Make a conclusion about the effect European diseases and European attitude towards the Native
Americans had upon the indigenous population.

In North America the Native American population north of Mexico was about 10 million when
Columbus arrived. This number would drop to less than a million. The drop in the native
population played a major role in the need for an alternative labor force.

Why did the Europeans need an alternative labor force in the Americas?

Recall: Why did the Europeans need labor at all? What did they use human labor for? Use cash
crops, plantations, and encomienda system in your answer.

Read paragraph 1 and 2 on page 59. The paragraph begins with Plantation agriculture was…

Who suggested that the colonists should use enslaved Africans as slave laborers?

Part II: The Slave Trade

In 1510 the Spanish government legalized the sale of slaves in its colonies. The first full cargo ship
of Africans arrived in the Americas eight years later. Over the next century, more than a million
enslaved Africans were brought to the Spanish and Portuguese colonies in the New World. The
Dutch and English also became active in the slave trade.

Middle Passage

Most enslaved people were captured in the interior of Africa, often by Africans who profited by
selling slaves to Europeans. The captives were chained around the neck and then marched to the
coast. This journey could be as long as 1,000 miles.

The Middle Passage was the voyage across the Atlantic Ocean that enslaved Afrcans were forced to
endure. Africans were packed like cargo in the lower decks of the slave ships. The slaves were
crammed together into spaces about the size of coffins.

Imagine this journey. Describe some emotions you are feeling.

By observing the map below, identify where the following goods ended up:
Ex: Whale oil, lumber, furs: From Boston and NY to England

Slaves: From____________ to ____________

Rice silk, indigo, tobacco: From ___________ to ___________

Manufactured goods: From___________ to ____________

Rum and gunpowder: From_________ to _______________

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Look at the map in your text books on page R 6. It is all the way at the back of your textbook.
Label on the map above the countries that received slaves from Africa.

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are needed to see this picture.