The Trans Atlantic Slave Trade Continued

Hello one, hello all~!

Hopefully life is treating you well and your mind is fresh and ready for another dive into Jamaican history. Shall we begin? Read on reader!

George Morland’s ‘Slave Trade’ mezzotint (1814) after John Raphael Smith’s original watercolour (1788)

Photo: Alamy

Let's not break with tradition now, we need to balance the introduction picture with something cathartic, so before I begin the main part of this article, let's quickly lay our eyes on the pepper to the salt.

Satirical print concerning the abolition of the slave trade (1789)

Photo: William Dent

Continuing from where we left off, the entrance of the other Europeans, and particularly the British to the stage would massively accelerate the slave trade. To use business terminology, it was transformed from a small to medium sized enteprise to a conglemerate. To use football terminology, a transformation from League One to the Premier League.

Another comparison using basketball you say? The difference between the American Basketball Association and the National Basketball Association. A burger vs. chicken, rice and peas, Falmouth vs. Kingston - is everyone on the same page as me?

By the 17th century, the slave trade would be at its most vigorous. New crops such as indigo, tobacco, coffee, and cocoa would continue to increase demand for African slaves as their sale was extremely lucrative.

Region Sold To	Total Disembarked
Brazil (South America)	4.7 million
Rest of South America	0.9 million
Caribbean	4.1 million
North America	0.4 million
Europe	10,000

The slave trade enabled the immoral entrepreneur and opportunist to make a fortune for himself and secure the finances of his descendants for generations. From the Africans, it took a fortune- it took their dignity and self-esteem, it took their traditions and their beliefs. Trans-Atlantic Slavery had an unparalleled impact, the likes of which are still being felt today on a personal, communal, cultural and continental socioeconomic level.

With millions of able-bodies Africans captured, transported, or killed after military action, many places would suffer famine. The old and very young were often killed or left to starve. Of those captured, many would die in the long, forced marches to the West African coasts and through the Sahara Desert to the north (see The Middle Passage).

Quick facts

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Between, 1662 and 1807, the British purchased ~3,415,500 Africans, of which 2,964,800 survived the middle passage to be sold into slavery in the New World. A number only 400,000 less than the Jamaican Island’s entire Population and more than double the population of Birmingham, the second largest city in the United Kingdom.

The slave trade undermined and subverted traditional values and social relationships. Whilst slavery was common practice within Africa prior to trade with Europe, the arrival of the Europeans introduced a continental outlet for an international industrial operation.

Most nations and groups would sell prisoners that were acquired during conflicts, but many predatory regimes developed amongst states and communities which caused a regression, with some going as far as organising and undertaking specialised military campaigns to capture more slaves for the Atlantic trade.

The death toll, the economic disruption and the environmental destruction that resulted from wars and slave raids were extremely high. The losers of the wars would be sent into slavery, slavery was the reason for wars, and wars whose conception was not due to slavery, would suffer its losers the depravity of enslavement.

Europeans intervened in regional politics to prevent the rise of centralised states that could meaningfully hamper their operations. Highly regulatory European trading companies established forts and slave factories along Western Africa which caused civil unrest in participatory African nations.

Relationships between kingdoms, ethnic groups, religious communities, castes, soldiers, peasants, rulers and subjects, and the enslaved and the free, were transformed and destroyed. Many communities abandoned their homes and moved as far away from slaver’s routes as possible, expending all their energy to hide and defend themselves rather than on their development and progression.

Remember the Papal Bull that we mentioned in the previous article?

Nations and regions relinquished their ancestral religions and adopted Christianity in the hopes it would save them from white slavers. Guess what? -It never! No prizes to you if you guessed correctly.

All these factors transpired in the African population, and African economic and technological development stagnating for centuries. The Europeans left the continent disorganised, underdeveloped and vulnerable, and shaped the continent into what it is today.

British opposition to slave trade - Slavery Abolition Act 1833

Photo: OpenNaukri

The British Empire had been a major player within the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade and it would also play a pivotal role in its abolition. When slavery was eventually abolished by the British, French and the United States in the early 1800s, Brazil, Cuba and Puerto Rico became the main destinations for enslaved Africans.

It may also be worth noting here that although Portugal is reported as being the first European Country to abolish slavery, this title is fickle as initially the ban on slavery was limited to only Portugal and it's Indian colonies. It would not be until later that a more encompassing ban on slavery would be enforced within Portugal and all its colonies.

Although Spain had officially abolished slavery in 1811, it's colonies in Cuba and Puerto Rico rejected the ban. It would not be until the late 1840s that the deportation of Africans would reduce. Slavery in Puerto Rico would continue for another three decades, and was finally abolished on March 22, 1873. In Cuba, the institution would persist until 1886, when it was abolished by a Spanish royal decree. That's only ~6 generations ago!

The Ex-Portuguese Colony of Brazil would be the last to stop the cruel practice. On May 13, 1888, Brazilian Princess Isabel signed Imperial Law number 3,353 which abolished slavery in all its forms.

Carriers	Captives	Percentages
English	2,468,000	40.5%
Portuguese	1,888,000	31.0%
French	1,104,000	18.1%
Dutch	349,000	5.7%
North American	206,000	3.4%
Danish	66,000	1.0%
Other (Swedish, German etc.)	10,000	0.2%
Total	6,091,000

Table: Nationality of Ships Engaged in The Atlantic Slave Trade - 1701 - 1800

Unable to trade legally, slavers would continue to smuggle African slaves into the United States. At the same time, thousands of Africans who were rescued from slave ships would be forcibly settled in the Caribbean, Sierra Leone or Liberia. For some, the sight of rescuers meant their doom, as some Slavers, with extraordinary cruelty would toss large numbers of bound slaves overboard, leaving them to drown to save themselves from the authorities.

The slave trade was a high-risk enterprise. Slavers could be killed attempting to raid locales (unfortunately not enough of them were killed!). People (the commodities) could escape, be murdered, commit suicide, fall ill, fall victim to epidemics, or succumb to natural disasters.

As goods were exchanged in lieu of payment in captives, traders could disappear with their payment without ever producing the slaves stipulated in the contract (boo hoo!). No facilities were in place to protect against commercial dishonesty given the nature of the trade and no international legal system existed to protect against the extraordinary violations of human rights.

​Quick facts

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Only Portugal transported more Africans than the British

The thieves, kidnappers, plunderers, slavers and degenerates that called themselves traders, entrepreneurs and colonists took advantage of African political troubles, religious differences, legal technicalities, and economic crises to amass immense wealth and in doing so took advantage of and ruined the lives and cultures of helpless individuals and nations respectively. In doing so they caused irreparable damage to them and their descendants, damage which is felt to this day.

Wrapping Up

- British involvement would greatly accelerate the slave trade.

- High value crops such as Indigo, Tobacco, Coffee, Cocoa and Sugar would continue to increase the demand for African slaves.

- The slave trade took away African people’s dignity, self-esteem, traditions and beliefs.

- African society was destroyed by European influence. Relationships between kingdoms, ethnic groups, religious communities, castes, soldiers, peasants, rulers and subjects, and the enslaved and the free, were transformed and destroyed.

- Many African nations were reduced to self-presevation and unable to pursue development or progression.

- Slavery would be abolished within many nations by the early 1800s with Britain playing a large role.

And to finish on a positive note, the following picture depicts how it should always been, and how I dream of the future to be:

Racial Unity

Photo: Ascend

Thanks for joining me today and having a good read (or at least I hope it was a good read)! In the next article we are going to talk about the Middle Passage, a lesser spoken part of The Africans journey to the New World.

See you next time!