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10 Introduction

Furthermore, through discussion of the papers before them, the partici-
pants were expected to examine the methods used to assess the new wealth
gained by economies outside Africa as a result of the slave trade. They were
requested to evaluate the growth of that wealth and the role of the slave trade
in the industrial development of the European countries, particularly at the
stage of the initial accumulation of capital. They were also asked to evaluate the
role of the slave trade in the industrial development of the receiving countries.
Lastly, the impact of the slave trade on the attitudes and structures of
the receiving countries was to be examined. In particular, a study was to be
made of the development of relations between the local population and the
new arrivals.
Many studies have been made of African cultural contributions to the
countries where the slaves were settled. The meeting was asked, first, to take
stock of such studies and, second, to examine the consequences of the cultural
mixture on attitudes and on the social and economic structures of the receiving
countries.

Ideological positions with regard to the problem of the slave trade

Although an outline of this aspect of the problem can be found in several

studies, it has never been dealt with in a systematic and exhaustive manner.

The experts were therefore requested to examine the ideological positions

(philosophical, religious or political, inter alia) underlying the problem of the

slave trade.

A study was to be made, in particular, of the positions of the Christian

churches and of Islam and of doctrinal developments within them, and of the

standpoints adopted by various political and philosophical schools of thought

on the slave trade and on slavery—especially all the abolitionist movements

of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries—both in the countries which orga-

nized the slave trade and in the countries which stood to gain from it.

Abolition of the slave trade, particularly in the Indian Ocean

A great deal of research has been carried out on what led to the abolition of

the slave trade and the stages through which it passed. The participants were

requested to review the issue.

In particular, they were invited to evaluate the role played by slaves'

uprisings in the abolition process itself, and the participation of slaves in

national liberation movements, especially in North and South America and the

Caribbean.

Special emphasis was to be placed on the Indian Ocean routes, which

have been less thoroughly studied than those across the Atlantic.