A global economy has occurred for thousands of years. Empires
sought new ways to contribute to their economic coffers by trading and
bartering with other cultures. But European powers wanted to find their own
trade routes to make more money but lacked the means to make those gains come
to fruition. With the established practice of forced servitude throughout
historical societies, surrounding the Mediterranean and other cultures, a very
important element and a socially acceptable occurrence, before, during and
through to the eventual end of slavery, it seemed the perfect solution to the
economic dilemma. Even through the "positive" economic value of the
slave trade that some individuals have tried to justify, others have morally
argued that surviving the Middle Passage was an unbearable experience for those
individuals who were sold and forced to live a life of slavery for over five
centuries. The argument remains, which side helped to end the institution of slavery, capitalism or ideology?
By the
1300s, sugar plantations were one economic venture established in the coastal
areas along the Mediterranean Sea. Unfortunately due to the size of these
plantations, the amount of sugar produced was small and could not meet the
European demands. The Spanish and Portuguese then began building plantations on
the islands off the western coast of Africa and building. These plantations would
begin to feel the need for an external labor force. Around the same time trade
between Africans and Europeans began with the Portuguese and Prince Henry. At
the height of European exploration, individuals like Prince Henry the Navigator
went out in search of items of high value and ways to expand the powers of the
home country. When Henry first brought back several
Africans and a small amount of gold dust back to Portugal,
people began to see the economic reasons behind future voyages. It posts along
the Gold Coast of Africa, which they knew to be a source of gold that reached
as far north as the Muslim territories in northern Africa. With the interest in
bringing gold home, and additional interests in other African goods like ivory
and pepper, the Portuguese established their first colony by building Elmina
Castle in present-day Ghana thus beginning the European stronghold in colonial
Africa.
With the
help of established trading relationships with local African merchants,
European traders would continue to see the need to use Africans for slave
labor. Because of the increasing demand for plantation goods in Europe, namely
sugar, production of those goods became immensely profitable. Besides sugar
production, the Portuguese and Spanish also began to see other trade
opportunities in the area of slave labor that they had begun to use in Africa. With the increase in prices and
profits of the plantations, the slave trade began to expand and eventually became the most
profitable investment for several European states, helping to build a stronger
economy, more than any other European trading ventures at this point in world
history.
With the
discovery of the "New World", the Portuguese and Spanish would begin
to build colonies in this new world, including the Caribbean and the Americas.
The building of plantations in the Americas and the Caribbean began in the 15th
and 16th centuries. Those early plantations would grow tobacco and cotton to send
back to Europe. It was not until the 17th century that sugar was introduced to
the islands by the Dutch arriving from Brazil. This new and extremely desirable
crop led to a major boom
plantation owners called for a larger labor force. So some
will argue that, while the use of forced servitude was already in use for
various cultural reasons, the major boom in the slave trade came from the
European demand for produced goods. The indigenous populations in the newly
settled lands were unreliable. Many died from diseases brought to them from the
Europeans. Already using the forced servitude of native cultures, many like the
Arawak Indians, were destroyed. So the next group of people that were sought to
replace the indigenous populations were indentured workers. Individuals, mostly
men, were promised a new life abroad,
free passage to this new life and tracts of land at the end of their service.
But sugar plantations required hundred of acres of land which left little land to
promise to these future workers. Rumors of cruelty amongst overseers and
masters
also began to deter future men. Of the Europeans, many were
not accustomed to the hot and humid climate of the Americas and the Caribbean islands
and would begin to suffer from tropical diseases. And after the stories that
returned home, many also realized that what waited for them in the New World
was not enough of an enticement to travel there so they too became an
unreliable source of labor. European powers made the connection between the
lack of a work force with a shortage in the profits of the state sponsored
shipping companies who transported the crops to Europe. So they had to look
elsewhere for labor. Traders began to exploit the trading relationships with
the local merchants or African kings that had already been established along
the coast of Africa. These merchants and kings wanted what the Europeans could
provide them and all they had to trade were
people. Another way to purchase slaves would be from slave
traders. These raiders would kidnap or dupe individuals from rival nations and
get them aboard slave ships. Eventually military campaigns were organized by
the Europeans to capture Africans for the sole purpose of using or selling them
into slavery. Soon after the use of
enslaved Africans in the new colonies, Europeans began to realize that Africans
were already acclimated to the hot and humid conditions of the islands and were
more capable of surviving the harshness of it. Because of this, they began to
show a preference for them. Also, Europeans soon learned that Africans were
immune to some of the European diseases that led to the demise of the many
various indigenous peoples of the Caribbean and other areas claimed by
Europeans.
For years individuals involved in the slave trade argued
against the misunderstandings of their business. They argued for the economic
necessity of the buying and selling of individuals as slaves. The birth of
slavery has been attributed to economic necessity. The continuation of slavery
for several centuries has been the greed of Europeans and plantation owners.
One individual, James Makittrick Adair wrote a pamphlet in 1790 arguing against
the abolition of slavery. He did argue for the more ethical treatment of slaves
but not the emancipation of them. In his pamphlet, Adair describes the
treatment of the slaves in a sort of handbook written to support those
plantation owners in the British sugar colonies. Adair claims that
"whether the Africans are more healthy and longer lived in their native
country, than after their transportation to our sugar colonies, has never been
ascertained; nor whether a state of slavery is injurious to health or
longevity."(Adair, 1790). He also describes in several sections how slaves
are to be provided for, treated when ill or even punished when they do not
follow the rules of the plantations or the colonies. Mr. Adair's interpretation
is an interesting one for the economic justification of the abuse and forced
servitude of a group of people.
Howard
Temperley talks of the affects of the of slavery on the economic markets of the
time and who he believed had the final word. As far as the economics were
concerned, "British withdrawal did lead to an
increase in the foreign slave trade from which the colonies of Britain's rivals
did profit; the abolition of slavery did lead to a drastic falling off in
production, prices did rise, consumption did decline, and in the end Britain
did, despite strenuous protests from the abolitionists, turn to Cuba and
Brazil, whose imports of slaves from Africa did, in
consequence, rise." (Temperley, 1977) But Temperley also argues that basic
economics also led to the end of slavery because of the overproduction of
certain goods that were coming from the plantations led to a surplus of goods
while the outlawing of slavery led the European economy in the opposite
direction.
Others
objected to slavery from an ideological and moral standpoint. Life aboard a
slave ship was a horrific experience. Once aboard, Africans had a sense of what
was happening and tried to revolt before setting sail. Unfortunately, those
revolts were quickly put down. Others attempted to flee overboard and would
rarely make it back to shore. Life under deck was much worse for those
enslaved. Many ship captains packed the men, women and children very tightly,
depending on how much cargo was aboard. Men were shackled to two or three other
men, which would make moving around nearly impossible. Women and children would
not be subjected to shackles, and would oftentimes be allowed up on deck.
Unfortunately this freedom would make the women the victims of rape by the
captains and other crew members. Below deck there was little or no ventilation
or sanitation, allowing slaves to lie around in feces, urine, vomit and even
other dead bodies. These conditions would allow for the quick spread of
infectious diseases or suffocation. Food and clean drinking water were scarce
as well. It was also the horrid conditions that led to almost as many slaves
died en route as made it to their destinations. (Cohn, 1985) After almost three hundred years of slave
trade, and the large numbers of human cargo casualties, governmental concern
won out and many took steps to ensure the safety, but only thinking of safety of their crew. Eventually,
improvements in naval and health practices, due to governmental regulations,
allowed for overall conditions in the transatlantic slave trade to improve. But
even after those regulations, conditions on board were still tight. The
"Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade", of which famous
abolitionist Thomas Clarkson was a member, created a diagram of an actual slave
ship, the Brookes. Using the projected numbers and loading plan of the ship,
they were able create a diagram of how slaves would be packed on the ship, even
after regulations were instituted to make things more comfortable onboard. As
some have said, there is no gore to upset the casual viewer but the diagram
requires the viewer to use his or her imagination to understand the conditions onboard.
Tom Lubbock argued in his article that the abolitionist society's diagram,
"Stowage of the British Slave Ship "Brookes" Under the Regulated
Slave Trade" is "...a landmark in the understanding of visual
propaganda. It manages to communicate, at a glance, an incontestable evil. It
could carry its message into the minds of those who weren't willing or able to
read the committee's carefully mustered petitions and witness statements"
(Lubbock, 2007). This type of visual propaganda aided in the goal of abolitionist
groups throughout Europe and the Americas. But even after surviving the “Middle
Passage,” and the conditions aboard slave ships like the Brookes, slaves would
be facing a life of hard work and short life expectancy. The slave trade “also
reflected the capacity of American sugar plantations, mineral-extraction
operations and other users of slave labor to consume the lives of Africans”
(Richardson, 2011). So the improvements and overall capacity of the slave
traders would continue to supply the continually growing number of slaves wanted in order to
replace those previously lost during the sea voyages or during their life in
the New World and the slave trade would not see a legal end until 1807. It is
an interesting argument to note that those individuals who argue against the economic necessity of slavery are those who
hold no economic stake in its continued usage. (Temperley, 1977)
Dr.
Alexander Falconbridge was a British doctor who traveled on four slave ship
voyages, as a surgeon, between the African coast and the Caribbean in the later
part of the 18th century. After his many travels and experiences, Dr.
Falconbridge would eventually became an abolitionist. He wrote a book in 1788
in which he describes the many experiences of others and himself during his
service. Falconbridge is able to give testimony that many Africans were forced
into slavery by kidnapping. He was able to hear about several stories, told to
him through interpreters, from the slaves about being kidnapped and sold to
black traders. He is also able to give specific details about the experiences
of the several Africans and how the slave trade process operated. According to
his experiences, once aboard the slave ships, the captains would ask the
Africans several questions regarding their age and health and thoroughly
inspect them. If the individuals pass the questions and inspections, they are
purchased. If they do not pass, they are rejected. Falconbridge notes that "the traders
frequently beat those Negroes which are objected to by the captains, and use
them with great severity. It matters not whether they are refused on account of
age, illness, deformity, or for any other reason" (Falconbridge, 1788). It
would suggest, from the eyewitness accounts of Falconbridge, that the slave trade was indeed a system of hardships and misery for the
Africans who were kidnapped and sold into slavery.
