THE MOST DETAILED RECENT HISTORY OF THE SLAVE TRADE
Historian Hugh Thomas (1931- 2017) wrote in the Introduction, As a result of [my] interest, stretching back half a lifetime, I decided to write my own history of the slave trade Further, it was the slave merchants themselves men who often never saw slaves for profited from their sale, who interested me The slave trade was, of course, an iniquity. All the same, its study can offer something for almost everyone. If one is interested in international morality, one can ask how it is that, in the seventeenth century, several Northern European countries hesitated wo little before abetting a revival on a large scale of an institution which had nearly been abandoned in the region by the year 1100.
Thomas notes that by the mid-15th century, The Portuguese soon began to buy rather than kidnap slaves These events on the West African coast introduced the Portuguese to the Muslim merchant Although they were described as Moorish by the Portuguese, many of them were black The slaves whom these merchants had to offer the Portuguese were no doubt usually captives of war, or in raids The attitude of Africans to transactions of this kind with the Europeans can only be guessed when African kings or others sold prisoners of war, they looked on the persons concerned as aliens, about whose identity they did not care, and whom they might hate. For there was no sense of kinship between different African peoples.
In 1496, Columbus himself returned to Spain with thirty Indians whom he hoped go dispose of as slaves but the queen ordered her chief adviser on matters relating to the Indies, to delay the sale once more, till the legal implications could be settled In the late 1490s, Columbus was thinking of sending back to Spain four thousand slaves a year He explains The ideal sugar plantation seemed to be about 750 acres The enterprise was carried out with, say, 120 slaves On such properties black African slavery appeared to be the best kind of labor White laborers was less amenable than Africans, less strong, and were considered less suitable for tropical conditions These were widely held views, but they were myths: many white men have worked hard in heat in the South of the United States and Queensland, as well as in Puerto Rico, Barbados, and elsewhere in the Caribbean. He observes, Africa was not just a silent participant in the supply of slaves to two distant European empires. The overthrow of the great Songhai empire by a Moorish army had immeasurable consequences for the international market in slaves The consequence was that, quite independent of the growing European demand, every day there were more slaves available in the interior of Africa slaves abounded, and not just for the benefit of Europeans many slaves were obtained through kidnapping or trickery, even if the kidnappers or tricksters were usually Africans The high prices offered for slaves by Europeans also encouraged the African monarchs to raid each others land. (Pg. 144-146)
For a time [16th-17th centuries], in both Spain and Portugal, the slave trade was dominated by Jewish conversos Yet these men had formally become Christians. The Inquisition may have argues, and even believed, that many of them secretly practiced Judaism but it would be imprudent to accept the evidence of the Holy Office as to their guilt.
At the end of the eighteenth century, this coast was dominated by the powerful King Kpengla of Dahomey [present-day Benin] The story of the familys capture of authority is intimately linked with that of the slave trade, which was in the 1780s by far the biggest economic activity of the kingdom Kpenglas father, Tegbesu, who sold over nine thousand slaves a year, chiefly to the French and Portuguese, was estimated as having an annual income which far exceeded that of the richest merchants of Liverpool and Nantes. (Pg. 353-354) Later, he adds, the kings of Dahomey more than once appealed to their European trading partners for arms to enable them to carry out the raids on their northern neighbors which alone could provide the slaves needed to fill the European boats.
Fairs where slaves would be bought and sold, and which were available to the coastal peoples, thrived long before the coming of the Europeans to the coast of Africa Slaves in the Muslim world had some undoubted advantages. They alone were socially mobile in the society concerned Slaves could even own slaves, and some slaves participated in slaving expeditions None of this affected the Atlantic slave trade directly, but the presence in the African interior of a vast slave society encouraged coastal monarchies, whether or not they were Muslims, in their own slaving activities Slaves were, of course, harshly treated in African before they were bought by Europeans. He states, the discussion leading to the Declaration of Independence included critical talk of the slave trade, and Jeffersons first draft of that document contained a condemnation of King George III The Articles of Confederation were in the end silent on the question of the slave trade.
, Western European philanthropists talked much of persuading Africans to exchange the slave trade for other commerce How could the peoples of West Africa who had been used to selling slaves to Anglo-Saxons build a new life? Dealing in salt was one possibility But it could not be a real rival to the trade in slaves.
He summarizes, The reason why the Atlantic slave trade lasted so long is that, in the Americas, the Africans proved to be admirable workers, strong enough to survive the heat and hard work on sugar, coffee, or cotton plantations on in mines, in building fortresses or merely acting as servants Many black slaves had experience of agriculture and cattle. Both indigenous Indians and Europeans seemed feeble compared with them. That was why European slaves were never tried out in the America.
