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THE TRANS-ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE

DEFINITION
 This is a commercial system to recruit forced labour from Africa and escort to
America and Europe
 West Africa is the most hard hit region in Africa
 West Africans were escorted to the Americas and Europe as slaves.
 Africans were regarded as objects to be bought
 Slave trade, that is, is buying and selling of human beings was a violation of all
morals and human principles
 It is the worst ever calamity to be fell the African people.
 Many European and American commodities such a sugar, tobacco, cotton and a
number of precious metals were produced by slaves in Africa for allowing capitalist
expansion of Europe
 In most cases Europeans brought goods in exchange of human beings
 The trans-Atlantic slave trade enhanced the living standards of many Europeans and
Americas and at the same time it contributed to the misery and underdevelopment
of millions of Africans and destroyed their traditional values and institutions

FACTORS WHICH LED TO THE RISE OF TRANS ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE

1) Part of the answer lies in the discovery of the Americas and the rise of plantation
agriculture
 America’s climate produced different commodities which were in demand in
Europe e.g. Virginia tobacco, rice and indigo (a form of dye)
 America provided land for agriculture, Europe provide the capital, organisation
and demand for raw material while Africa provided cheap labour in the form of
slaves
 At first Europeans tried to bring labour from Europe but these proved unreliable
as they were expensive and not readily available.
 The other alternative was to use indigenous Indians but they proved less
adaptable to systematic agricultural labour and were highly susceptible to
European diseases
 Most of them died from European diseases e.g. small pox, syphilis and
agricultural labour and also from various wars which were associated with the
pacification of areas.
 Some Indians fled and Spaniards found the export of the Africans to the New
World as the solution to the labour problem.
 As more mines were opened and plantations set up the demand for slaves
increased.

2) The scientific racist attitudes towards blacks

 It was generally argued that blacks (African) people were fit for manual labour
 It was also argued at Africans were cheap and more productive in the different
conditions of America

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3) The existence of unfree systems of labour in African societies also contributed to

the slave trade
 The African chiefs had the final say in all the work that was to be done.
 Therefore, the Africans did not resist being sold into slavery

SLAVERY AND SLAVE TRADE IN WEST AFRICA

West Africa suffered more from slavery than any other part of Africa. The Portuguese were
the first to capture slaves in the Africa and transport them across the Atlantic Ocean in
1518.
Britain, France, Netherlands and Spain also joined the trade and by the 18 th century Britain
was the leading buyer of slaves in West Africa. The most affected areas include Senegambia,
the Upper Guinea Coast, Sierra Leone, Gold Coast, Volta River Basin up to Benin and
Cameroon up to Angola, Niger Delta and Yoruba land.
There were various ways of capturing slaves :
a) Raiding –many slaves were killed in the process
b) Warfare- this increased wars and made life insecure
c) Kidnapping
d) Collecting tribute
e) Purchasing or exchange
f) Disposing of criminals.
 Given the fact that the majority of slaves were captured through war, raids and
tribute. Millions of Africans died in the process while they fought for freedom. Slave
gathering expeditions were disruptive of the day to day running of African cities.
Slave traders offered African middleman manufactured items such as cloth,
armaments, guns and gunpowder, spirits and tobacco .
 These goods are better described as shoddy, useless consumables or “assorted
rubbish” to use Walter Rodney’ (1972) phrase.
 Most of the goods were rejects of Europe, second hand goods or even intended to
cause harm and chaos among African societies especially spirits and guns.
*Guns--for promoting warfare and killing each other. The policy is persued up to this
day where the divide and rule tactic is employed.
*Spirits--to cause moral and social decay.
 These goods were exchanged for highly able-bodied Africans in their youth stages
especially between the ages of 15 and 35.
 These include the most active population of any country and slave raiders favoured
men.
 A.G. Hopkins (1973:122) is of the view that “two thirds of the slaves exported were
males. It is possible that their removal might have affected female occupational
roles. This might have affected the population growth rate”.
 Slavery among the Africans benefited chiefs, headman, clan leader and professional
traders for example Susu, Mandinka, Hausa, Fulani, Dioula, Ashanti.

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TRANSITION TO LEGITIMATE TRADE

 Legitimate-trade in simpler terms was a shift from trading in humans to trading in

commodities such as vegetable oil, timber, gold, groundnuts, ivory etc. These are
products which were considered legitimate or lawful.
 This so called transition to legitimate trade was not abrupt as for the first half of the
19th century legitimate trade and slave trade co-existed.
 Therefore, the slave trade was abandoned for another mode of exploitation which
Europeans termed legitimate trade.
 The legitimacy of the so called legitimate trade is however questionable.
N.B: WAS IT FAIR?
Were the products brought to Africa beneficial to the Africans?
Did the commodities improve the quality of life of the Africans?
 Palm oil was used in making soap and lubricants on railways and in manufacturing
candles.
 Historian’s thought that, “it was easier for ordinary individuals to take part in selling
palm oil in large quantities and the slave trade. They say that palm oil could be
produced by large numbers of peasant families whereas the profit of the slave trade
tended to go mainly to the ruling class.” (Isichei:1977:15)
 This theory that the palm oil trade was democratic is only partly true.
 According to the Isichei (1977:152), “palm oil production was very laborious and
sometimes dangerous, but brought very small returns to the individual involved”.
 Real profits were made by the transporting wealthy merchants who employed slave
labour.
 In 1810, 1000 tonnes of palm oil were exported to England.
 By 1855 this had risen to 40 000 tonnes.

Transition to groundnuts in Senegambia

 An economy in which slaves were exported, was replaced by an economy in which
the slave was employed in farming or in collecting and transporting agricultural
products.
 In Senegambia the local climate was conducive for groundnuts production thus the
transition was quick as slaves were easily replaced by groundnuts as an export
commodity.

Factors which facilitated the transition from slave trade to legitimate trade

 Changes in the transport sector

 The export of products was necessitated by a revolution in ocean transport which
occurred in the second half the 19th century.
 This was the changeover from sailing ships to steam ships. The transportation of
goods became convenient and quick with the revolution in the transport industry.

 Transport problems
 Legitimate products wanted to be transported to the coast for export but slaves
were self-transporting and could be obtained anywhere where man lived.

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 Participation in legitimate trade therefore, depended on the availability of export

crops or products and also closeness to navigable rivers.
 The navigable rivers of the Niger, the Lower Kwa lbo River and the Niger tributaries
enabled oil to be easily transported.
 However, Dahomey only had one navigable river thus there were transitional
challenges in the state. In the Niger Delta states it was easy as the small delta creeks
were navigable and easily facilitated the transportation of palm oil for export.

 Availability of export substitutes

 There were desperate searches for suitable export commodities in the Gold Coast.
Supply of gold remained static and it was only in the 1880s that an adequate export
cocoa crop was found.
 In Senegal, gum trade declined because of rival supplies from Egypt and also because
of chemical substitutes.
 Timber was easily exhausted.
 Rubber boomed in the late 19th century but could not compete with Asian plantation
and inexpert tapping destroyed the trees.

ABOLITION
Questions to answer
1) Why was the slave trade abolished?
2) Who was behind its abolition and why?
3) Did slave trade really end or it was just replaced by the so-called legitimate trade?

There is still a great deal of controversy over the circumstances that led to the abolition
of the slave trade. Some historians attribute the abolition to purely humanitarian or
moral and religious considerations while others like Erick Williams argue that the slave
trade and slavery were abolished mainly for economic reasons. Some recent scholarly
works have shifted attention from a single causal factor to the study of complex factors
that led to the abolition. Such historians maintain that the abolition came about as
result of many factors including economic and humanitarian factors.

1. The slave trade was partly abolished both for humanitarian and economic
factors.
 It was condemned by both philosophers and economists such as Rousseau and
Adam Smith as well as evangelists such as John Wesley.
 Many people who attacked slavery were men who were personally committed to
the evangelists and humanitarian ideals.
 Church men wanted to spread Christianity among Africans. Evangelicals argued
that slavery was evil because it contravened the law of God according to which “
all men should be brothers under the fatherhood of God” (Afigbo: 128).

2. Anti-slavery movements were established e.g. British Anti-Slavery Movement

with leaders such as Granville Sharp, William Wilberforce, Thomas Clarkson and
a former Ibo slave called Olauda Equiano (Okwaonga) Gustavas Vasa the African.
 Olauda was a Nigerian kidnapped and sold into slavery.

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 These people organized and conducted mass public lectures to arouse public
opinion against the trade until their aims were achieved by the abolition of the
slave trade around 1807 and eventually slavery around 1833.
 Their lectures evaluated the evils of the slave trade and also the rewards from
the development of African natural resources i.e. legitimate trade.
 However, if moral and humanitarian pressure alone has been sufficient the slave
trade would have been abolished in 1792.
 The fact that the British parliament agreed to abolish the slave trade in 1807 and
slavery in 1833 indicates that considerations other than humanitarian ones were
more important.

3. Erick Williams and other West Indian historians championed the economic
motivations for the abolition of the slave trade by the British.
 Williams argued that from as early as the 18th century British West Indian
plantations did not compete with French, Spanish and Brazilian plantations.
 In other words British West Indian planters began to support the campaign for
the abolition of the slave trade because they were alarmed by the competitive
development of the new fertile French and Dutch colonies.

4. Economists for example Adam Smith argued that slave labour was inherently
inefficient, unproductive and wasteful.
 These economic thinkers propagated and popularised the idea that free trade,
free competition and free labour were more profitable than rigidly regulated
trade and forced labour.
 Slavery was forced labour therefore; the slave could not give his or her best
because he was made to work against his / her will.
 In Britain the largest slave trading nation the new order of industry and
commerce was also beginning to overshadow the interest of the West Indian
slave owners who had for a long time bean a powerful group in parliament.
 As more and more manufacturing machines came into use the demand for more
raw materials increased and many industrialists as well as humanitarians began
to argue that instead of exporting Africans to America, African labour could be
more profitably employed in Africa to produce commodities such as palm oil,
groundnuts, and cotton and then manufactured good could be sold in African
markets.
 Thus, missionaries were first sent to Africa as if they were apologists of slavery
but in reality they wanted to pave a new way of exportation of Africans for the
benefit Europe.
 This is how the so called legitimate trade was born and it was replaced later on
by imperialism or colonialism.
 The old system of exploitation was old fashioned. Europeans had found new
ways of exploiting Africans i.e. legitimate trade.
 The slave trade was therefore outdated and had to be abolished.

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5. The slave trade destroyed itself

 By the middle of the 18th century surplus capital, part of which came from the
slave trade had helped to bring about the industrial revolution in Britain. This
later spread to other parts of Europe.
 This application of science and technology to industries made it easier and
quicker to turn raw materials into manufactured goods.
 Raw materials were needed in the industries. Thus it was realised that it was
indeed profitable to abolish the slave trade and move on to legitimate trade in
palm oil, vegetable oil, rubber, cotton, timber, ivory, minerals etc. which were all
abundant in West Africa.
 This sis supported by Boahen (2005:111) who pointed out that, “ The slave trade
was abolished largely because it had become more profitable to seek in West
Africa raw materials and markets rather than slaves”.

EFFECTS OF THE TRANS ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE ON WEST AFRICA

This is a subject which according to A.G Hopkins’ words “has provoked a number of
vehement and usually condemnatory historical judgements.” Following the publication
of Walter Rodney’s book How Europe underdeveloped Africa(1972) it became widely
acceptable that the slave trade retarded economic growth or development in Africa, it
prevented the development of a gestating indigenous revolution and that it laid the
foundation for the underdevelopment of Africa. Rodney explained how this could have
happened by arguing that;

I. He argued that slave trade was associated with insecurity. Slaves were often
captured through raiding and warfare.
II. Through the importation of inferior goods which he called “assorted rubbish”. These
were goods of no economic value as far as development was concerned.
III. Through the exportation of inventors and labourers. Somehow this tends to
exaggerate the impact of the slave trade though.

1 Demographic impact.
 Has been labelled as the number’s game.
 Millions of Africans were shipped across the Atlantic.
 Even though historians are not well agreed on the actual number of Africans
affected by the slave trade, generally the numbers range between 10-100
million.
 W. Rodney makes a very good observation as he attacks slavery and slave trade
apologists by reminding them to take note of Africans:
 Who died during the raids and wars.
 Died during transportation from the interior to the coast.
 Died on transit in the ships where conditions were in humane.
 Were displaced by the wars and raids.
 Thus A.G Hopkins referred to the slave trade as “the greatest migration of all
times”.
 These migrations retarded development as evidenced by the fact that in the late
19th century and in the early 20th century when the African economies were

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expanding rapidly there was a serious shortage of labour in many parts of Africa.
Thus development could have been faster if the slave trade had not retarded
population growth.

2 Growth of nation states

 Foreign trade encouraged the expansion of some states such as Dahomey and
Oyo and also changed their structure and as a result contractual relationships
become more important.
 The Africans managed to export their produce e.g. palm oil, groundnuts, timber,
gold, gum etc. and gained a greatly in foreign commerce. In 1750 for example the
king of Dahomey had a gross revenue of about 250 00 Pounds from overseas
sales of slaves.
 Most of this was used to acquire cloth, hardware and salt which helped to raise
living standards.
 However the “terms of trade... exploited or cheated Africans” (Hopkins:
1973:120).
 Africans exported quality raw materials in return for “shoddy goods” as
evidenced by poor quality guns and often sub-standard products.
 The foreign imports also led to the decline of local African industries.
 European products were of low quality and therefore, very cheap thus African
products were wiped from the market.
 Thus, the so-called international trade failed to act as an engine of growth in
West Africa.
 The guns from international trade were severely limited, quantitatively,
qualitatively, geographically and socially.

PAST EXAMINATION QUESTIONS

1. Assess the relative importance of the factors that contributed to the decline of the
slave trade in either West Africa or East Africa. (Nov 2004 CAMB / NOV 2013 CAMB)
2. How and why were Dahomey and the Niger Delta States able to make the transition
from the slave trade to legitimate trade quickly and successfully? (Nov 2003 CAMB
or Nov 2010 ZIMSEC).
3. Examine the problems experienced in the transition from the Trans-Atlantic Slave
Trade to legitimate trade in West Africa. Account for the ultimate success of the
transition. (NOV 2004 ZIMSEC).
4. Explain the survival of the overseas slave trade and of domestic slavery in East and
West Africa in the second half of the 19th century. (Nov 2005 CAMB).
5. Why was the transition from the slave trade to legitimate trade accomplished with
speedy and efficiency in either Dahomey or in Opobo in the Niger Delta? (Nov 2006
CAMB).
6. Why did the slave trade, from and within East and West Africa, continue into the
second half of the 19th century? (Nov 2007 CAMB).
7. What lasting effects did the slave trade have upon the states and people of West
Africa? How far did the transition to legitimate trade affect the economic and social
development of that region. (Nov 2009 CAMB).

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8. What difficulties, both within and external to East Africa, delayed in the ending of
the slave trade in that region? How were these difficulties overcome? (Nov 2010
CAMB).
9. What challenges did African states meet in trying to adjust to the changes brought
about by the abolition of the slave trade? How successfully were these challenges
addressed.
10. With what success did West African states meet the challenges created by the
abolition n of the slave trade? (Nov 2009 ZIMSEC).
11. With reference to specific examples explain why and show how some West African
states managed and others found it difficult to make the transition from slave trade
to legitimate trade. (Nov 2011 ZIMSEC) .
12. By what means, and with what success, was the slave trade suppressed in West
Africa? (Nov 2012 ZIMSEC)
13. How and why, were some West African states able to make the transition from slave
trade to legitimate trade relatively quickily and successfully? (JUNE 2013 ZIMSEC).
14. “Failure to get a substitute was the main obstacle to the abolition of the slave trade
in West Africa.” How far do you agree with this statement? ( Nov 2013 ZIMSEC).

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