SLAVERY AND SLAVE TRADE IN AFRICA
DEFINITIONS
1 SLAVE—a person owned by another person and who receives no payment for work he or she
does.The word slave comes from word Slav because because most slaves in the Roman empire were
Slavs.
2SLAVERY—condition of being slave
3SLAVE TRADE -,the system or practice of buying and selling of slaves.
TRIANGULAR SLAVE TRADE
It was slave trade across the Atlantic ocean.It was triangular in pattern,Europe—Africa—the new
world(Americas).
THE ORIGINS OF THE ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE
In the 15th century,Christopher Columbus ventured west from Spain,hoping to reach India from that
direction as the Portuguese had pioneered route around southern Africa then to India..
Christopher Columbus bumbed into a new continent hitherto unknown to Europeans
He believed that he had reached islands just outside India calling local people Indians.
It was later realized that Columbus had bumbed into a new continent altogether.
Spaniards occupied islands such Cuba and some central and south American territories,embarking on
mining and plantation agriculture.
In 1500 Alvares Cabral claimed Brazil for Portugal establishing mines and plantations
The British and the French occupied some New World islands as well as north America.
The Europeans who settled in the New World set up sugar,cotton,tobacco ,coffee plantations as well
as mines creating demand for labour.
The group that pioneered the Atlantic slave trade were the Portuguese.
The other groups realising how lucrative the slave trade had become followed example of
Portugal.These included Spaniards, Danes,Dutch,French and even Europeans who had permanently
settled in the Americas—Cuba,Brazil.
WHY THE TRANS ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE OCCURRED
1Demand for slaves in the New World.
The various European groups set up plantations and mines New World.Labour was in high
demand.Mining and plantation agriculture were Labour intensive activities as there was still limited
technology
2Suitability of Africans for slave Labour.
At first plantation and mine owners had used the American Indians as Labourers
They proved not strong enough to withstand rigours of mine and plantation Labour.Many had been
decimated by new diseases brought by European settlers,especially small pox.
European criminals were used but these proved unsuitable and in any case,they were not many
enough.
Hired European Labour was tried but that proved expensive and not many Europeans were prepared
to leave their homes.
Next option were Africans a)They came from tropical areas of Africa so they were better suited to
withstand American tropical climate as well as diseases such as malaria and yellow fever.
b)Many Africans had been agriculturalists in Africa so they were deemed well suited for hard life of
plantation agriculture.
3Profitability of slave trade.
It was profitable to both African sellers and European buyers due to high demand in the
Americas.European companies were formed for the purpose of buying and selling slaves to New
World mines and plantations. It was also profitable to the Africans who sponsored wars to capture
fellow Africans for selling as slaves.Slave trade was a quick means to make profit.,not time consuming
and laborious as for example agriculture.
4 Advanced boat/ship building.
By start of 15th century,Europe had control of the seas because of advanced ship building.The
Europeans were therefore able to establish colonies overseas and build ships suitable for
transportation of Africans across the Atlantic ocean and goods like sugar,coffee tobacco and cotton
from the Americas to Europe.
5 African involvement in slave trade
Prisoners were sold because of lack of jails in Africa.
It was easier for Africans to be involved in slave trade than involved in other laborious and time
consuming activities like farming and dangerous activities like ivory hunting.
Slaves could not be kept in some parts of Africa due to famine resulting in inability to feed local
slaves,prisoners of war and jailed criminals.For example, Bemba country had poor soils and could not
produce enough food to feed the above groups.
Slave trade was simply an African traidition .Some African sold slaves simply because it was a system
inherited from their ancestors..They believed disaster would strike if they abandoned ways of their
ancestors e.g. Dahomey.
Africans had appetite for European goods and exotic items such as
clothes,trinkets,alcohol,guns,gunpowder,beads,looking glasses,ceramics.
There were ethnic wars in Africa,which produced captives who needed to be gotten rid of.
Slave trade was a way of getting rid of social misfits—criminals,witches,wizards,debtors.
Slavery was a deep rooted institution in Africa and Africans got rid of excess domestic slaves through
slave trade.
Slave raiding served other purposes eg training,morale for armies,getting people for human
sacrifices,getting people for domestic slavery.
Slaves were self transporting and could also be used to carry other goods to the coast.
ORGANIZATION OF THE ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE
The trade was triangular in pattern.,from Europe,then Africa then to the Americas,then back to
Europe.
European traders and companies would organize ships to sail to Africa with items like pots
pans,guns,alcohol,horses,beads,trinkets,jewellery and cloth.
Targeted commodities from Africa were slaves.However,Europeans would gladly receive some
valuable commodities such as gold and ivory.However,during the period,staple trade commodities
from Africa remained slaves.
METHODS USED TO ACQUIRE SLAVES .
1 Selling excess domestic slaves by Africans,
2 Slave merchants formed strategic alliances with powerful African groups for purpose of acquiring
slaves.
3 Kidnapping stray Africans hunting,fetching water,gathering firewood ,etc
4 Selling debtors,convicted criminals,perceived witches ,wizards.
5 The most common way acquiring slaves was raiding of weaker ,vulnerable groups by strong states
such as mandinka,Dahomey,Asante,.The anchorage of a ship was signal for Africans to go and raid
other Africans. Most Slaves came from Senegambia, Upper Volta ,Upper Guinea,Gold Coast,Slave
Coast.In fact the whole West African coast down to Angola became major region for supply of slaves..
6 Slaves given as tribute to rulers.
TRAVEL OF SLAVES .
Slaves were forced to march hundreds of km from the interior to the coast
To prevent escaping,they were chained together with goree(wooden shackles) and metal chains.
Sickly ,weak ones were abandoned to await death in unfamiliar territories.Some were axed or shot to
death.
At coast slaves were put into slave houses called barracoons where they were oiled and fed in
anticipation of quick sale
Slave riots were commonplace and resulted in brutal suppression
Elaborate negotiations were led by coastal middlemen,usually Afro-Europeans.
Having been sold,a slave was branded with a mark of his owner using hot iron with initials of his
owner.Branding was usually done on back or chest.
During sale slaves were subjected to humiliating body checks for deformities,mental defects and
greying hairs.
Then they would be tightly packed in ships for the Americas.
Sea journey was difficult for slaves.because—
a) Unfamiliar food eg cassava ,oats ,maize,depending on nationality of ships.
b) Fear believing crew were cannibals whose red wine was African blood and gunpowder
crushed bones of Africans.
c) Hot,crowded conditions.
d) Brutal suppression of riots
e) Diseases
f) Deaths
In the New World, slaves were placed in a pen.
They were washed and skins were oiled and sold at auctions.
They performed various acts to ascertain physical abilities…Europeans would use the money to buy
items like sugar,cotton,rum,tobacco,coffee whit they sold Europe for more profits.
EFFECTS OF SLAVE TRADE ON WEST AFRICANS
Positive
1)Some states rose and increased their political,military and economic power as a result of their
active participation in slave trade.They got firearms for defense and expansion and got goods which
enhanced status of ruling classes eg cloth,beads.Some items were used to reward subjects for loyalty
and service.Examples—Dahomey,states in Senegambia,Asante,Niger Delta trading Confedaracies
2) Some used wealth gained from,Slave trade itself,fees,tolls to gain positions of power in society.
3)Fage argues it acted as a check to political and social unrest by removing excess population fom
heavily populated between Ghana and Cameroon.It also reduced pressure on resources.
4) Slave trade became vital in areas which did not produce any other trdade ommodities.
5) Some historians argue that it acted as stimulus for development because areas where slave trade
was rampant are the most advanced economic zones in West Africa.
6) There had been arguments that slave trade acted as stimulus for population growth as areas where
slave trade was most rampant are most populated areas in West Africa today.
7)Agriculture was enhanced by the need to provide food to trade caravans in areas through which
they passed.
NEGATIVE EFFECTS
1)Slave trade left African continent underdeveloped and helpless to resist the next stage of European
domination-colonialism.
2)Slave raiding was violent and disruptive to normal economic and social activities.Homes
,villages,and towns were destroyed.The general atmosphere of insecurity undermined inter-regional
trade as well as orderly economic and cultural activities..
3)Slave trade led to expansion and worsening of indigenous or domestic forms of
servitude/slavery.Previously,slaves could easily be assimilated into society but that became difficult
due to large numbers of slaves resulting from slave trade.Slave villages sprouted along slave routes to
provide food to armies and slaves enroute to the coast.Local slavery became more entrenched and
inhuman with conditions similar or even worse than those of slaves in the New World.
4) Slave merchants brought finished goods and that tended to eliminate or undermine the indigenous
industries.As a result industrial development of West Africa was impaired.
5) African productive capacity and economic creativity were undermined as able-bodied young men
and women were targeted.The old and very young were either killed or left to starve in the famine
that followed slave raids or wars.
6)Slave trade depopulated Africa as people were captured and sold,died during wars,died at the coast
and during voyages to the Americas.Those who arrived safely in the New World were not true
reflection of people lost to Africa as a result of slave trade.Demographic changes occurred much later
into 20th century in areas where slave trade was rampant.
7)African economic growth was impaired as goods brought did not add much value to African
economies—looking glasses,trinkets,rum,cloth,beads .Guns even increased warfare,disruptive to
normal economic activities.
8)Slave trade increased animosity and warfare amongst African groups,so they would not cooperate
economically and socially.
9)Slave trade was mainly responsible for late development of cash crop production in Africa.Africa
was not in a position to produce tobacco,sugar,cotton,which the Europeans acquired from the
Americas.Involvement of Africans in slave trade meant the were selling people,instead of agricultural
commodities.
10) Slave trade perverted African judicial system as Africans were sentenced to slavery for minor
offenses .
11) Slave trade debased and commodified Africans .The Lozi king Lewanika told Mambari traders that
he could not 'sell my people like cattle'
12) Social values such as respect for fellow human beings were undermined.
13) Africans were forced to to abandon their villages ,fleeing from predatory groups ,undermining
African productivity.
EFFECTS OF SLAVE TRADE ON THE AMERICAS
1)Expansion of plantation agriculture as result of availability of unpaid slave Labour
2) High profits for New World planters,selling coffee,sugar,tobacco,cotton and bananas.
3) There was continued deprivation of Ameri-Indians of their land as Europeans expanded land under
plantation agriculture.Many died of wars and alien diseases.
4) Peopling of the Americas with Africans,creating master-slave relations of production with planters
being masters and Africans being slaves.
5)There was monoproduction of some commodities in the Americas eg sugar in Cuba,.Some
concentrated on tobacco,coffee,bananas..They became vulnerable to price fluctuations.Concentration
on one commodity led to marginalization of other economic activities such as industry leading to
underdevelopment of Latin America with some countries known as” banana republics.”
6)There were class struggles with slaves employing tactics such as go-slow ,desertions,rioting,creating
independent republics/kingdoms.Slaves in Haiti rebelled against the French,establishing an
independent republic.
7) There was development of some industries associated with plantation agriculture eg rum from
sugar.
EFFECTS OF SLAVE TRADE ON EUROPEANS
1)The Europeans gained super profits,selling cheap goods to Africans,getting slaves who they sold in
the Americas.In the New World,they got items like coffee,sugar,tobacco,bananas and rum which they
sold in Europe for more profits.
2)Profits from slave trade were used to promote industrialization in Europe,especially textile industry
which was also enhanced by cotton produced by slaves in the New World.
3)Europeans gained massive wealth from slave trade which allowed them to gain upper hand over
other continents.Europe was able to conquer Africa,Asia,Australia and economically dominate Latin
America.
4)Europe became centre of world-wide trade.In expanding world economy,Europeans became
investors,bankers and profit takers.
5) European sense of morality was perverted as for centuries Europeans regarded sell of humans as
normal,acceptable and legitimate business.
6)European food changed.They drank tea and coffee from the Americas,sweetened with sugar from
the Americas and all produced by African slave labour.They also acquired potatoes from the Americas
which later thrived in Europe.
ABOLITION OF SLAVE TRADE
DEFINITIONS:Abolition; banning of something,or forcing something to stop.
The abolition of slave trade had been attributed to various factors which include humanitarian(
moral,religious,),economic and British suppression efforts.
A-HUMANITARIAN
1 The attacks on slave trade did not earnestly begin in Britain and Europe until the 18th century when
ideas of brotherhood,equality and liberty were flourishing.The trade was attacked by such prominent
European philosophers(thinkers) as Rousseau,Montesqeuie and Burke.Renowned economists like
Adam Smith also condemned the trade.Also literary figures such as Samuel Johnson and Daniel Defoe
attacked the trade in human beings.
2) The people who were consistently and persistently attacking the slave trade were men and women
who shared humanitarian ideas and religious convictions of the period.These included religious
figures such as John Wesley,the founder of a religious movement called Methodism and a prominent
evangelist called Granville Sharp.Other prominent anti-slave activists included James Stephen and
Fowell Buxton.Perhaps the most prominent anti-slave activist was William Wilberforce,a brilliant
orator and devout evangelist who took the anti -slave campaign to parliament.He organized protest
meetings and wrote petitions.Another prominent abolitionist was Thomas Clarkson who visited
slaving ports,gathering evidence from sailors and merchants and collected slaving paraphernalia such
as leg shackles,handcuffs,thumbscrews and peculum oris (used in forced feeding).
3)Explorers also wrote of the evils of the slave trade eg missionary-cum-explorer David Livingstone.
4) Black communities in London also campaigned strongly against slave trade.Prominent campaigner
was a freed slave called Equiano.
5) Slaves themselves in the new world exposed evils of slave and slavery by rioting in ships and
plantations,committing suicide slow-downs ,malingering and self-mutilation.
6)Also there were anti-slaving movements in the New World eg Brazil and USA.USA civil war was
partly motivated by need to stop slavery in the south.
ECONOMIC CONSIDERATIONS FOR ABOLITION OF SLAVE TRADE
If humanitarian considerations alone had been the driving force towards abolition,slave trade could
have been stopped in 1792. In that year,the British House of commons voted for gradual abolition,not
immediate,wholesale abolition.Although the majority agreed with humanitarians on evils of the slave
trade,they felt there would be economic ruin for Britain and West Indian colonies if abolition was not
gradual.Britain followed a graduaiist approach to abolition -abolishing slave trade in 1807 and slavery
in 1833.Abolition was only effected and enforced after realisation that no ruin would befall the
British economy.Economic conditions became ripe for abolition:
1) West Indian planters had all the slaves they needed and were even re-exporting
some.Abolition would not ruin their economies.
2) The West Indian planters were concerned about the development of new plantations in
islands seized from the French and the Dutch which were fertile.The established west Indian
planters feared competition from new planters and hence opposed the slave trade.
3) There was overproduction and oversupply of sugar by Brazil and Cuba.Unsold sugar had been
accumulated in England and to make sugar production profitable in the West Indies,slave
trade had to be stopped.
4) The British government had refused t give royal accent to bills passed by states of
Virginia,Massachusetts and Jamaica to abolish or reduce the slave trade.The slave trade was
still a prop to t British economy at that time.It was when the trade had failed to become a
prop that abolition was approved and enforced.
5) There was great demand for unrefined sugar and raw cotton in Britain.Ship owners found it
more profitable carrying unrefined sugar and raw cotton from Brazil and USA respectively
than carrying slaves from Africa to the Americas.
6) The industrial revolution in Europe created demand for raw materials such as
groundnuts,palm oil,cotton which could be produced in tropical conditions of Africa.It was felt
that it could be more profitable to trade with Africans than to trade in Africans.Africans had to
remain in Africa in order to produce and avail the goods.
7) The industrial revolution created demand for markets for manufactured goods,so Africans had
to remain in Africa to provide markets for goods.Africans could now serve Britain more
profitably by supplying markets and raw materials than supplying labour to British colonies.
BRITISH ABOLITION AND SUPPRESSION EFFORTS
1Chief Justice Mansfield ,1772 declared that British law did not recognise slavery and as soon as a
slave set foot in Britain,he was free.
2 House commons voted for gradual abolition in 1792.
3 1807 ,a law was passed making it illegal for British subjects to be involved in slave trade.
4 Britain outlawed slavery in her empire,1833.
5 Britain used international fora to persuade other nations to adopt her abolition agenda.At
Vienna 1815,Britain persuaded European statesmen to make a declaration against slave trade.At
Aix lla Chapelle,1818 Britain unsuccessfully persuaded other nations to agree to have their ships
searched for slaves.
6 Britain signed abolition enforcement treaties with other European nations and USA.Britain
persuaded France and Brazil to stop slave trade.Britain also signed reciprocal search treaties wi
Spain and Portugal.The search treaties were expanded to include capture of ships with slaving
equipment-the equipment treaties.
7 Britain was instrumental in setting up Courts of Mixed Commission in Freetown,Sierra Leone to tr
captured slaving ships.
8Britain sent naval squadron to patrol the Atlantic ocean looking for ships with slaves.The squadron
captured slaving ships,freed slaves.Its activities were later extended to east African coast.
9 Britain signed abolition enforcement treaties with West African rulers eg chiefs of
Cameroon,rulers of Creek Town,Duke Town,Bonny,.A treaty was signed with east African rulers
like Sultan of Zanzibar.
10) Britain encouraged missionaries and legitimate traders to venture into the interior to
persuade Africans to embrace Christianity,legitimate commerce and agriculture.
11) Britain set up coastal settlements where freed slaves could be settled eg Freetown in Sierra
Leone.
EFFECTS OF ABOLITION
1ABOLITION of slave trade found favourable responses from many parts of Europe Other
countries .Other countries also enacted abolition laws.Nations like France and USA sent patrol
ships to suppress slave trade.A Court of Mixed Commission was set up in Freetown,Sierra Leone to
try and punish captured slaving ships.
2Despite efforts to stop it the trade actually continued into second half the 19th century ,through
defiance by Africans and smuggling bt Europeans.
3 There was promotion of Christianity and western culture in West Africa.There was belief that
Slave trade was a sin against God which needed to be atoned for by spreading Christianity and
western education to Africa.Wesleyan missionary society sent merchants and preachers to Sierra
Leone.Other missionary societies active in West Africa included Church Missionary society,Bremen
Missionary Society,Basel Evangelical Mission,Society of French mission.The societies built
churches,spread gospel and encouraged legitimate trade and agriculture.
4 There was promotion of legitimate trade and agriculture as substitutes to slave trade.They
introduced crops ,set up experimental farms.New skills were imparted in production of
commodities like coffee,cotton and cocoa.
5 Missionaries brought education,and devoted effort to linguistic studies.African languages-
Ga,Twi,Temne,Yoruba,Hausa and Efik were all reduced to writing.Schools and colleges were built.
6) A new African was produced educated and Christian with foreign tastes in clothes,music,food
,naming,marriage practises and religion
7)Abolition created an economic vacuum to be filled with what became known as legitimate trade
involving items such as rubber,palm oil ,groundnuts,timber ,cotton and gum which were great
demand in Europe.
8) Abolition created conflict amongst Africans:Christian vs ATR,Christian vs Muslim,educated vs
uneducated
9) Some areas struggled to adapt to the demands of the new trade eg Bonny whose access to her
trading empire was cut off by emergence of Opobo,Asante whose gold was tampered with by the
coastal Fante middlemen. Coffee from Liberia was affected by cheap Brazilian coffee,gum fro
Senegal was affected by cheap Egyptian gum.Rubber from the forest belt suffered from
overtapping and competition from cheap Malayan rubber.
10)Some areas successfully adapted to demands of the New trade – Dahomey and Niger delta city
States with their palm oil,Senegambia ,with her groundnuts.
11)Explorations were done deep into African interior to determine navigability of African rivers
such as Niger and Benue.
12) Africans were decommodified as they were regarded as human beings capable of producing
trade goods.
13)Colonies were founded to settle freed slaves -Liberia,Sierra Leone.
14 Coastal areas were annexed to enforce abolition-Porto Novo,Gold Coast,Lagos,Cotonou
15) There was increased European involvement in African affairs culminating in colonization.
TEE-JAYZ
