22 S. U. AbramovaThe abolitionists A. Benezet, T. Clarkson and W. Wilberforce proved
their demands to abolish the slave trade.^19 They maintained that it rendered
Africa lifeless. It had plunged the continent into a chaos of gory internecine
wars, and the responsibility for these endless wars and slave hunts lay with
Europeans, for it was their constantly increasing demands for slaves that
instigated new wars. The Africans had not fought so frequently before the
slave trade, and as they had no knowledge of firearms there had been fewer
casualties. Tracing the development of the slave trade the abolitionists showed
how a new category of successful slave-traders emerged alongside the old chiefs
and rulers, and how the Africans' whole life was subordinated to the demands
of the slave trade.
The brutal character of the slave trade was sharply denounced. It was
emphasized that it embittered both the Africans and Europeans who were
involved in it, while the drastic conditions of the transportation of slaves led
to high mortality among slaves and sailors.
To impress the reader, the abolitionists took particular pains to show
the high mortality rate among European sailors employed on slave ships.
Perhaps they exaggerated a little, but today some historians resort to these
data to show that, like Africa, Europe experienced a loss of manpower during
the time of the slave trade and consequently also suffered from this practice.
The abolitionists consented that African slaves were inferior to European
colonists. They asserted, nevertheless, that in the New World slaves were
placed in conditions which precluded their further development. In similar
conditions Europeans would have remained intellectually at the same level.
The abolitionists would exclaim: 'Are there no people in our country who by
virtue of the conditions of their life are even less developed than Africans?'
The abolitionists maintained that 'legal' trade—the sale of raw materials
to Europe in exchange for industrial goods, would bring more profits. But to
achieve this one had to abolish the slave trade which barred Europeans from
penetrating the African hinterland.
Planters and manufacturers, who had invested capital in the slave trade,
as well as many shipowners and sailors came out in defence of it and of its devel-
opment, and for preserving slavery in the colonies. Among its protagonists
were such figures as B. Edwards, a Member of Parliament and a West Indies
planter, Tarleton, a Member of Parliament, a Deputy from Liverpool, and the
aforementioned Robert Bisset.^20
What arguments did they put up against the abolitionists?
First, reasons of a purely economic character: that the slave trade was
the source of obtaining slaves ; that slave labour formed the backbone of the
West Indian plantations, and the number of slaves necessary to work the plan-
tations could be retained only by constantly bringing in new slaves; that if
the slave trade were abolished the plantations would fall into decline and the