Reactions to the problem
of the slave trade:
an historical an ideological study
1Michèle Duchet
The problems of trading and dealing in black slaves, and slavery as such, can
clearly not be dissociated: the various anti-slavery movements indeed also
denounced the inhumanity of the traffic in human beings that drained ever-
increasing numbers of blacks from Africa over to America and the West
Indies. The petition submitted to the French National Assembly in 1790 by
the Amis des Noirs (Friends of the Black People) refers to both ' the slave
trade and slavery ', and this is true of most of the works quoted,^2 if only because
the initial step towards stamping out slavery was to put an end to the slave
trade. But experience has proved that it was perfectly possible to abolish one
without doing away with the other, whence the persistent resurgence of slavery.
They can therefore be seen as two distinct forms of human exploitation which
are probably closely linked but must not be confused. Indeed, they never were
in the minds of those who fought either to preserve or abolish them. I shall
try to explain why this was, and review the arguments put forward and the
interests at stake.
It would be impossible here to relate the whole history of the slave trade^3
but a few relevant facts must be recalled. The Spaniards were the first to take
black slaves across to the New World at the beginning of the fifteenth century.
But it was particularly from the seventeenth century onwards, with the devel-
opment of the great plantations—especially in Brazil—and the sugar economy,
that the slave trade really reached its zenith. It is estimated today that some 9
to 12 million Africans were embarked on the slave ships in the period from the
fifteenth to the end of the eighteenth century, the yearly average being 60,000.
The mortality rate on these vessels was high, but the profit to be made was such
(300 per cent) that this traffic was a significant factor in that era of capital
accumulation which preceded the Industrial Revolution. The slave trade was
profitable for two reasons: not only was this triangular traffic a source of
rapid enrichment for those who were involved in it, but it also brought pros-
perity to the colonies with the steady flow of labour it provided. For the first
of these two reasons, countries to which a particular colony did not even belong
could be seen to invest in the slave trade there, as did the Dutch in Brazil.^4
For the second reason, companies were founded with the backing of the various