The Slave Trade

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The European colonists in America soon found the need for imported labour to work
on the sugar plantations and in the mines, and later on the tobacco and cotton
plantations. The Spaniards started using Negro slave labour in their West Indian
colonies early in the 16th century; and the Portuguese in the middle of the century
started sending slaves from Africa to Brazil. Other European nations soon joined in
this lucrative trade, and the slave trade became big business.
The trade went on until the 19th century, with Europeans of many countries taking
part in it - notably the British, French, Dutch and Danes as well as the Spaniards and
Portuguese. The British first engaged in the trade as agents providing slaves for the
Spanish colonies in 1562 - over 50 years before slavery itself was introduced into
British North America.
The traders operated from "factories" and forts established along the African coast,
mainly in West Africa, from where they exchanged European goods for gold, ivory
and slaves. By the end of the 18th century there were some 40 of these factories -
which sometimes changed hands as the nations competed with each other in the
trade. Altogether they were exporting perhaps between 70,000 and 80,000 slaves
annually.
The procurement of the slaves was sometimes by raids into the interior, or even
actual wars, but more usually by trading agreements with the local native rulers or
by providing them with military help against their African enemies. As the trade
expanded some African chiefs continued it with reluctance, but found it difficult to
withdraw. Some of the main European commodities supplied in exchange were guns
and gunpowder - and if an African chief stopped getting the guns he would be at the
mercy of more unscrupulous neighbours.
One of the worst features of the trade was the voyage to America. The slaveship
owners, in search of a bigger profit, packed more and more slaves into their vessels
- often on shelves across the holds which allowed no room to stand, or even to
kneel. The voyage lasted anything from three weeks to two months or more,
depending on the weather; and fever and hunger were often suffered in addition to
the appalling living conditions. Large numbers died before arrival.
It has been estimated that the total number of African slaves who reached America
and the West Indies in the course of the trade was about 9 to 10 million. It may well
have been more; and this does not include those who died on the voyage or those
who were killed in Africa in slaving raids or wars. Probably between a half and two
thirds of the total came from West Africa, most of the others from Angola and the
Congo, some from Mozambique.
Apart from the actual loss of manpower, the slave trade inhibited social and
economic progress in the African regions most affected. The trade degraded political
life, and encouraged the continuation of slavery in Africa; and while the European
nations were organising and inventing new means of production these Africans were
depending economically upon a trade which was totally unproductive - and which, by
the loss of the fittest members of the community, curtailed production.
Until late in the 17th century no one in Europe or the colonies seemed to see
anything wrong in the slave trade. Then the lead was taken by the Quakers in
England and North America in protesting against it. But it was another 100 years
before the British parliament, due mainly to the efforts of William Wilberforce, began
to consider abolition of the trade. It took Wilberforce 20 years to get Parliament to
agree; and in 1807 Britain ceased to engage in the trade. Denmark had already done
so. The other European nations followed, some less willingly than others. By 1850
the trade was almost ended. The last slave ship sailed in the 1880s.
Long before this both the British and the Americans (who became independent in
1783) started settlements in Africa for freed slaves the British in Sierra Leone in
1787, the Americans in Liberia ("the land of the free") in 1822. Both ventures, which
were organised by private associations, suffered a number of setbacks some financial
and some through the resentment of the local tribes due to the privileged status
given to the ex-slaves. The British base was Freetown, and British control was
gradually extended inland. Liberia was declared an independent republic in 1847.
Slavery itself was abolished by the European and American nations at various times
during the 19th century - by Britain in all her colonies in 1533, by the United States
in 1865 after the American Civil War, by Brazil (independent of Portugal since 1822)
in 1888. In Brazil the numbers of slaves had been substantially reduced during the
19th century, from nearly 2 million to about 700,000 at the time of abolition.
The subsequent history of the Negroes in the Americas is part of the history of those
countries rather than of Africa. Their contribution to Western music, singing and
dancing has been notable - for instance jazz and Negro spirituals, the latter made
world famous by the great American Negro singer Paul Robeson. And American
Negroes have provided a remarkable number of world champions in boxing and
athletics.
On the political side, one episode before the abolition of the slave trade and slavery,
should be mentioned. This was in the French colony of Saint Domingue in the West
Indies. During the Napoleonic Wars the slaves in Saint Domingue, led by Toussaint
L'Ouverture**, expelled the French and in 1804 established the Negro nation of
Haiti.
In the 19th century, while the Atlantic slave trade was dwindling, another slave trade
grew up in East Africa. The Arabs who ruled in Zanzibar and other places an the east
coast (see previous chapter), raided far into the interior for slaves, in partnership
with the Swahili traders. Some were sold to Arabian dealers, some to the French for
work in the Indian Ocean islands, some even to North America. However, by the
1880s this trade, like the Atlantic trade, had ceased.
* Manpower it includes women. Though the slaves were mainly male, there were
many women.
* Toussaint L'Ouverture, reputed to be the son of an African chief, was brought to
Saint Domingue as a slave and rose to the position of superintendent of other
Negroes on the plantation. He joined in a rebellion in 1791, and later raised and
disciplined a Negro army. He led a further insurrection in 1796. His armies defeated
a French force sent by Napoleon, but Toussaint L'Ouverture was captured and died in
a French prison.