The History Book

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Europeans to ship slaves from West

Africa. By the 16th century, the

Portugese were bringing slaves

in huge numbers to Brazil to work

on sugar cane plantations. Brazil

remained the biggest destination

for the import of African slaves

until the outlawing of the trade.

The first English slaving expeditions

took place in the 1560s, in which

merchants bought captured slaves

from African rulers. During the 17th

century, with the increase of English

colonization, the market for African

slaves grew and the Royal African

Company took full advantage of it.

Triangular trade

The transatlantic slave trade soon

became part of a larger triangular

trading network, in which ships

took slaves from Africa to the

Americas; refilled the holds with

goods to transport to Europe; then

took European manufactured goods

on to Africa for sale, completing the

triangle. Ships carried commodities

such as sugar, molasses, and coffee

from the Caribbean to England;

rice, indigo, cotton, and tobacco

from the southern colonies in North

America; and furs, timber, and rum

from the northeast. On the England-

to-Africa leg, they carried a range

of items including cloth, guns, iron,

and beer. Goods such as ivory and

gold were carried directly from

Africa to Europe, not as part of the

triangular trade but still bolstering

the system.

The trade network brought

huge profits to plantation owners

in the Americas, and to English

manufacturers, as well as to the

merchants who dealt in the slaves

and other goods. Port operators,

West African leaders who sold

slaves, bankers who loaned money

for expeditions, and even English

factory workers whose jobs

depended on raw materials

imported from abroad, all benefited.

As a key part of this trading

network, the slave trade made

possible the rapid rise of Western

capitalism in the 18th century. Even

factories some distance away from

England’s trading ports became

involved. A notable example was

the business of arms manufacture,

which was based in the English

Midlands at population centers such

as Birmingham, conveniently close

to supplies of iron. Some 150,000

guns, mostly made in these Midland

factories, were exported to West

Africa every year; almost all of them

THE FORMATION OF THE ROYAL AFRICAN COMPANY

Tobacco from Virginia was in great

demand in Europe. Planters shipped

their products directly to their home

countries and used the profits to buy

African labor and European goods.

were then exchanged with African

merchants for slaves. English cutlery

from Birmingham and Sheffield was

also traded in the same way. So

many people had vested interests

in the triangular trade that it

became difficult for European

politicians even to criticize the

system, let alone abolish it.

The number of people who were

enslaved and traded was vast. It

has been estimated that by the

time the slave trade was outlawed

in Britain in 1807, British merchants

had forced some 3 million Africans

into lives of slavery in the Americas.

Unknown numbers of people did

not even reach America, but died

en route in the appalling conditions

on board the slave ships. It is likely

that even more were carried by

Portuguese traders bound for Brazil;

ships from other nations carried

smaller numbers. Some historians

have estimated the total number at

around 10 million; others put the

figure still higher.

I herded them as

if they had been cattle

toward the boats.

Diogo Gomes,

Portuguese explorer (1458)

The shrieks of the women,

and the groans of the

dying, rendered the whole

scene of horror almost

inconceivable.

Olaudah Equiano,

African writer and freed slave (1789)

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179

European colonies

Spanish, Dutch, and French settlers

pioneered the plantation system in

the Caribbean, producing crops

such as sugar and coffee on huge

farms, or plantations. Their principal

Caribbean colonies included Cuba

(a colony of Spain), Haiti (France), and

the Dutch Antilles (the Netherlands).

The use of slave labor on these

plantations generated substantial

profits for owners. The British

presence in the area increased in

the 17th century, when Britain’s most

successful colony was Barbados,

where there were 46,000 slaves by

the 1680s. In the 18th century there

was also a sugar boom in Jamaica.

Most of the native populations

were wiped out in the European

conquests, and European workers

did not fare well in the local

conditions, so plantation owners

increasingly relied on merciless

exploitation of slaves. Slavery was

also prevalent in the colonies of

North America, especially the

southern areas where crops such as

tobacco were grown on plantations.

Slaves were often treated as non-

human objects, forced into labor

and subjected to cruelties such as

beating, branding, and worse.

Slavery beyond the triangle

Colonists from Europe also practiced

slavery beyond the Atlantic trading

triangle. The Dutch pioneered slave

trading in Southeast Asia, and also

traded across the Indian Ocean

with areas such as Madagascar

and Mauritius. Most of this trading

was conducted under the auspices

of the Dutch East India Company,

which had its eastern headquarters

on the island of Jakarta, known to

the Dutch as Batavia, as well as a

base in Sri Lanka. From these

points they sent slaves around

the Indian Ocean, from eastern

THE EARLY MODERN ERA

Indonesia to southern Africa. Once

the Portuguese and English had set

up bases, there was also further

slave trading along the Indian coast.

The slave trade was not solely

carried out by Europeans. Muslim

merchants also transported slaves

from East Africa for sale elsewhere

in the Muslim world.

However, the triangular trade

was a crucial element in the

creation of a global economy run

by Europeans and their colonial

offshoots for their own profits. It

permitted a phenomenal growth in

the wealth of countries that ran the

trade. In Britain, for example, the

value of foreign trade rose from £10

million at the beginning of the

18th century to £40 million at

the end. But the human cost of the

trade in slaves, which influenced

patterns of thought and behavior

for centuries to come, remains

incalculable today. ■

The Middle Passage

The triangular slave trade turned misery for

some into wealth for others. While the profits

it generated accelerated the development of

European economies, the trade also displaced

millions of Africans.

Slaves were sold

to merchants,

who bought

twice as many

men as women.

After selling

their slaves,

merchants shipped

cotton, sugar, and

tobacco to Europe

where they reinvested

the profits and the

cycle began again.

Manufactured goods

and textiles were

taken to Africa and

used to barter for slaves.

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