The slave trade within the African continent 157were on the whole only a fleeting source of joy to them, for the imperatives of
their existence or the whims of their masters could separate them from each
other or from their children. And yet there is no evidence of revolt. It may be
that it seemed futile to attempt anything of the kind, although it would appear
that individual escapes were not infrequent. At any event runaway slaves made
no attempt to form armed gangs to take their revenge or free their brothers who
were still in captivity.
Ordinary female slaves were not allowed to do private work. They were
permanently at the beck and call of their masters' wives. A child born of ordi-
nary slave parents automatically acquired the privileged status of household
slave. He could neither be sold nor maltreated, and was usually given the
same upbringing as the master's own children. Nor could his mother be sold
until she had weaned him.
As we have already said, we cannot give an accurate appraisal of the
extent of the domestic slave trade. Apart from a few references in accounts by
travellers, there are no texts giving detailed information on the subject. From
a certain time on, the internal trade was probably practised on a very large
scale since it served both as a reservoir for the export trade and as a form of
currency in commercial transactions at home. It even contributed to the devel-
opment of household or domestic slavery. We do not know exactly how it
operated or how it compared in volume to the export trade.
It would perhaps not be presumptuous to suggest that the height of the
internal slave trade was between the end of the eighteenth century and the
middle of the nineteenth. By the middle of the eighteenth century, the slave-
trading nations of Europe had already organized themselves in readiness for
the large-scale export of slaves overseas. The slave trade then went deep into
the forest and mountain areas which were as yet untapped. As a result, even
remote communities became involved in the trade.
The slave trade engendered a permanent state of internecine conflict.
Drawn into its web, the local rulers spent most of their time at war. Plunder,
theft, rape, capture of human beings and animals became the order of the day.
The air was rent with the wails of the victims.
This atmosphere of violence, hatred and terror affected the spiritual and
moral values of society. The ancestral moral virtues were flouted daily. The
rulers were no doubt conscious of the danger, but the cogs of the infernal
machine made short work of their better thoughts and drove society on to its
downfall.
It was for this reason that the Muslims resorted to armed combat to
defeat the despotic regimes, in the hope of restoring a more equitable society.
They took the offensive as from the end of the eighteenth century. In 1776 came
the establishment of theocratic rule in Fuuta Tooro. A few years later, Usman
Dan Fodio was victorious in Nigeria, and Ahmadou Cheikou in Massina. In