TRANSATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE

This was the trade that existed between Europe. West Africa and the New Found lands (West Indies) across the Atlantic Ocean, It developed after the collapse of the Trans-Saharan Trade at the beginning of the 18^th century.

The trade started as early as 1441 when the first group of African slaves were taken from West Africa The first European nation to engage in slave trade in West Africa was Portugal. This trade was at first between West Africa and Europe and was on a very small scale because the Portuguese only needed slaves to the household work.

However, with the exploration and founding of North America, South America and the West Indies by the Spaniards, the number of slaves exported from West Africa increased tremendously. This was mainly as a result of the opening up of gold and silver mines as well as sugar and tobacco plantations and this caused a problem of shortage of labour since the native Red Indians were incompetitive as compared in the Africans. Moreover importing labour force from Europe would have been insufficient especially as they would not stand the climate and strain of working in the tropics.

Hence importing African slaves proved to he only effective solution, leading to the development of the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade.

ORGANIZATION OF THE TRADE

Initially, Portuguese opened registers for merchants wishing to engage in the trade. This served as a licence empowering the merchants to supply a specific number of slaves annually.

The trade is sometimes called the Triangular Trade because of its operation along triangular routes.

The first plan saw the transportation of goods which the Europeans exported from their countries to West Africa such as iron bars, brass and bronze, metal ware, cotton, guns etc

The second arm of trade was the "Middle passage" involving to the transportation of West African human cargo across the Atlantic Ocean destined for resale in the New World.

The third aim was from the Caribbean and America to Europe. Commodities carried were the valuable products from sugar, tobacco, rice and cotton plantations.

To facilitate slave trade, many parts, castles and other trading posts were built at selected centers along the Guinea coast. Europeans did not travel inland for slaves but depended upon Africans or, middlemen who bought the slaves mainly from the inland rulers.

Slaves from different territories held different characteristics. Some were regarded as more valuable than others. This depended on diligence, good naturedness and faithfulness to their masters.

On their journey, they were often fastened together and watched very closely to prevent their escape. Upon their arrival in the New World, they were examined by doctors. The strong and fit ones were not only sold hut were put on auction sales,

How the slaves were obtained in West Africa. Slaves were obtained in various ways: Criminals were sold as staves as a punishment by their African rulers; Others were free Africans captured during raids by the powerful kings; Sometimes domestic slaves especially at the King's courts were sold off as slaves; and Prisoners of war and debtors could be sold as slaves also.

EFFECTS OF SLAVE TRADE IN WEST AFRICA

The following are the social effects

There was death of thousands of people that led to reduced of population. It is estimated that between 30 and 40 million Africans were sold as slaves during the period of the trade.

The fact that mainly the young and energetic ones were sold as slaves led to poor quality population in most areas hindering social and economic development for example art and craft industry declined considerably,

Due to constant raids, misery and suffering became an institution in West Africa with bloodshed, death, destruction of villages, towns and property becoming common practices.

The raids and the general atmosphere of insecurity retarded the growth of African indigenous institutions such as traditional ceremonies, tribal social gathering among others.

It led to the growth of Negro race in South America.

POLITICAL EFFECTS

It led to the growth of trading states along the coast such as Bonny, Whydah, New Calabar among others in which the system of house rule was used whereby in new system, the former institution based on ones social standing as a basis of becoming a ruler, a slave could raise to the top or even become the head of the house.

The slave trade exterminated the expansion and accelerated the decline of the great states of Oyo, Benin, Dahomey and Asante in the 16^th and 17^th centuries. It led to the decline of these states because the rulers turned to this lucrative trade which in turn was characterized by raids and wars which weakened their states.

ECONOMIC EFFECTS

Slave trade affected the economic development of West Africa. People paid more interest to slave trade and very little was done in a way of agricultural development. This resulted into fall of agricultural produce and famine.

Slave trade shifted the attention of people from their indigenous works of pottery, smelting among other activities to slave trade and raiding thereby halting African economic innovations. However slave trade benefited some African traders, chiefs and societies and they became wealthy.

It also retarded the economic development of West Africa by taking away the resourceful young people who would have provided the necessary manpower to develop Africa.

THE ABOLITION OF SLAVE TRADE

Causes

Inspite of controversies over the circumstances which led to the abolition of slave trade and a time when it was a lucrative business, two views have been advanced to explain this phenomena namely, humanitarian and economic considerations.

HUMANITARIAN

One of the major advocates of this view is a British historian called Coupland. According to him, the beginning of the 18^th century had witnessed evangelical revival in Britain led by John Wisley.

This revival among other things places emphasis on equality of all men before God and condemned slave trade and slavery as ungodly and inhuman. Moreover during the 18^th century especially after the successful French revolution, the idea of freedom and fraternity swept through Europe and all revolutionaries opposed the existence of slave trade. Even many religious bodies having been exposed to the evils of this trade all preached against it and denounced it in the name of God and humanity.

In England where these humanitarian movement were gaining foothold, a society known as the Abolition of Slave Trade Society was formed as early as 1817 and in 1823 it was transformed into the British Anti-slavery society under Gravinshire as the chairman. Other members included Thomson Clarkson. Powel Buston and William Wilberforce a member of parliament through whom the humanitarians influenced the parliament to outlaw slave trade and slavery.

With the use of the media, newspapers, pamphlets and even preaching in church, the efforts of humanitarians were rewarded when slave trade was declared illegal in Britain and slavery in 1833.

Admittedly, most of the humanitarians who agitated for the abolition of slave trade were genuine in their humanitarian demands. But all the same, to argue that slave trade was abolished on purely humanitarian grounds as Coupland has advanced, would be a distortion of history and historic facts.

Boahen, another historian has argued that if moral and humanitarian motives were along sufficient, then slave trade should have been abolished in around 1772 when the House of Commons passed a bill agreeing to the gradual abolition of slave trade would create a greater evil than it was intended to solve. So they believe that instead of totally abolishing slave trade, its motive remains weak.

ECONOMIC MOTIVES

According to William Wilberforce who is the chief exponent of the economic motive as the overriding motive behind the abolition of slave trade, slave trade was abolished because in Britain trade in human beings had become outdated and Britain now needed raw materials and marketing in West Africa rather than slaves.

It is worth noting that Britain was the first European nation to industrialize and hence came to be known as the Workshop of Europe. Having industrialized Britain's priority in Africa shifted from slaves to raw materials like cotton and palm oil. Therefore, this shipping of slaves from West Africa continued which would mean the loss of labour, production of the needed raw materials would continually experience acute shortages since their consumption was now increasing.

Closely connected to this argument is the fact that Britain needed markets where to sell her manufactured products. It was therefore argued that Africans should be treated as customers other than commodities. Moreover, the British West Indian Islands had by the end of the 18th century had more than the slaves they needed and were re-exporting the surplus to the West Indian Islands belonging to other nations.

Therefore, the abolition of slave trade would not entirely ruin Britain but would only ruin those countries whose economies were still dependent on slave labour.

The economic factor as the most overriding factor in the abolition of slave trade was strengthened by Professor Adam Smith. His argument was that free labour was cheaper and more productive than slave labour.

It is still worth noting that the abolition of slave trade was made possible in the British parliament because sugar barons had been replaced by a nucleus of industrial barons who now dominated the political scene of Britain. These strongly advocated for the abolition of slave trade and machines which would comfortably replace human labour. The industrial barons argued that the Triangular trade was outdated and instead of sailing to West Africa for slaves, they would go to West Africa with large amounts of English manufactured goods and return to England with palm oil. They further insisted that the slave trade interfered with the palm oil trading in West Africa because slavers were paid higher prices than the oil traders. It is therefore evident that by the end of the 19^th century, slave trade could no longer be the mainstay of the British economy. Although it is very tempting to stress that slave trade was abolished purely because of economic factors, the naked fact is that the abolition was due to a combination of humanitarian, economic and moral reasons.

We may therefore note that by a mere stroke of a pen, slave trade and slavery had been abolished in Britain and she took it upon herself to persuade other European nations to follow suit. However this was not an easy task because other European nations still reaped higher benefits from slave trade. Moreover they had been convinced beyond doubt that Britain had not abolished slave trade purely on humanitarian grounds but for economic reasons. They accused Britain of her hypocrisy and argued that their economies were still dependent on the trade.

However, since it is one thing to pass laws and another to enforce and implement them, the British government from 1807 in order to enforce these anti-slave trade and anti-slavery laws, sent her warships which patrolled the Atlantic ocean to search the British subjects still dealing in slaves. With its base in Sierra Leone and Ferdinand the British embarked on the tasks but made very little initial success. The Atlantic Ocean was too targe and the members of the navy suffered from tropical diseases so that it is believed that a tenth of them died.

Moreover the British slave traders used flags of other European countries. But all the same, the British navy captured some of the ships which were impounded and their owners tried. The punishments of those convicted increasingly became harsh and by 1842, it was a death sentence.

Britain having realized that other European nations had agreed to stop slave trade but took no step to abolish it, negotiated for reciprocal search treaties with these countries for example Spain and Portugal. By these treaties, these countries allowed their ships to be searched by the British navy and to capture such ships if found with slaves on board. In return the own naval ships would also stop and search British ships. The ships arrested would then be taken to Sierra Leone where a mixed commission court was established to try slave trade cases and liberate slaves.

Very unfortunately, the reciprocal search treaties proved equally ineffective because the slave ships would not he arrested unless slaves were found on ward. The ship owners avoided being arrested by throwing their human cargos in the ocean at the approved of the British warships. For instance in 1839, it is reported that a Spanish ship by the name Rapid threw overboard 125 slaves while undergoing pursuit of the British navy.

Britain therefore in order to remedy the loopholes of the reciprocal treaties came up with the equipment treaties by which ship found with slaving equipment such as hand cuffs and chains could be arrested and convicted.

Spain signed an agreement in 1833, Portugal in 1842 and U.S.A in 1862. Though in effect these treaties did not entirely eliminate the slave trade, these measures reduced the number of ships still engaged in the transport of slaves. It is believed that between 1825 and 1865 about 1287 ships were captured.

However, Britain realized that as long as slavery was allowed to continue in America, West Indies and Africa, the demand for slaves would continue and the slave trade was bound to flourish.

Accordingly, Britain abolished slavery in British West Indies in 1833. The British government paid 28 million pounds as compensation to slave owners. Other European nations followed Britain's example of abolishing slavery in their overseas colonies. France did so in 1848, Spain in 1867 and Brazil in 1888. In the U.S.A a civil war broke out between the northern states where slavery had been outlawed in 1863 and the southern states where the institution of slavery was rampant. However in 1865, the northern states won the war and in the same year slavery became illegal in U.S.A.

As regards the African continent, it is worth noting that the humanitarians in Britain had come to the conclusion that the surest way to exterminate the trade was to attack it at its grass root level i.e. the interior of West Africa. They strongly advocated that through God-fearing, Christianity, Western education and civilization. It was now an opportune moment for missionaries to go into the interior of Africa and preach brotherhood and fraternity now that their European brothers were no longer enslaving Africans.

On top of that the campaign against slave trade in West Africa fell on sympathetic ears of missionaries who also became convinced that evangelization of West Africans would help eradicate slave trade and slavery at the same time create social conditions favourable for the promotion of legitimate trade.

REASONS AS TO WHY SLAVE TRADE LASTED LONG

By the 18^th century slave trade had become the backbone of the economies of the European nations as well as the coastal kingdom of West Africa. Slave trade had offered employment facilities to the ship manufacturing industries for example at Bristol and Liverpool in England. Besides ship manufacturing, even those who were engaged in the buying transporting and selling got employed in the process.

The trade was so very profitable that nobody would want to quit it easily.

More to that slave trade was considered indispensable for the continued growth and prosperity of European economy and the New World. The plantation economy of the New World for example was entirely based on this trade.

Besides, until the end of the 18th century, the social conditions in Europe were not so far different from the slave trade conditions. Child labour was still common. In a large number of industries in Europe, execution of criminals for petty crimes was still common.

British criminals were sold to planters in U.S.A and flogging was still used as a measure of disciplining soldiers. If therefore such acts were stilt acceptable in Europe, then why not Africa?

There was also a question of national prestige and independence. Many countries especially those which were demanding for their independence such as Brazil, regarded the actions of the British government and the searching of their ships by her navy as interfering with their sovereignty and independence.

Slave trade was also a profitable venture to many people especially the Europeans who profited a great deal from the trade. Those who could help stop the trade were the very people who had vested economic interests in its continuation. There were the capitalists and others were controlled slaves in the companies engaged in the trade, there were slave owners of the plantations in the New World, among others.

The principle of the rights and liberties of individuals were not yet fully appreciated in Europe or elsewhere by the vast majority who participated in the trade. In Africa itself, inhuman acts like human sacrifice were acceptable by society though not without a degree of horror and disapproval.

It was not unlikely that the African people regarded the selling particularly of the condemned slaves as a lesser of evils, as indeed a blessing from the point of view of the victim.

EFFECTS OF THE ABOLITION OF SLAVE TRADE IN WEST AFRICA

It led to the formation of the countries of Sierra Leone and Liberia for the resettlement of freed slaves.

It facilitated the introduction of legitimate trade as a substitute to slave trade

Slave trade and its horrors had called for the coming of missionaries who after its abolition stayed to evangelize Africans, teach them Western education and civilization, but on the other hand they started to undermine their political independence.

The abolition of slave trade in a way disrupted the economic development of some West African societies who were solely dependent on slave trade and could not easily adjust to legitimate trade.

It facilitated the European occupation of West Africa.

It created a period of peace, security and settled life and people again engaged in agriculture and craft industry, all facilitating economic development.

After their emancipation, the freed slaves who were resettled in West Africa were in most cases of mixed blood and this led to the upbringing of the Negro race in West Africa especially due to inter-marriage.

The abolition of slave trade created the need for a substitute and thus necessitated the establishment of legitimate trade.