Ideological, doctrinal, religious and political
aspects of the African slave trade25
Neither before the beginning of the slave trade nor while it was conducted
freely and legally did any doubt arise as to the Africans' inferiority to Euro-
peans. But when it became necessary to prove the need for its continuation,
economic and religious arguments lacking sufficient conviction were augmented
by racialist theory. All the basic racialist provisions against Africans were
put forth during the struggle for abolition. From its very beginning racialism
had a purely auxiliary character. It was needed to legalize the continuation
of the slave trade and sanction slavery in the American colonies, as well as
to prove that Africans, owing to the inferiority of their race, were fated to be
slaves of the superior Europeans.
The slave trade and racism engendered by it turned the concept of 'slave'
from a social distinction into a racial one. Racism is the most odious heritage
of the slave-trade epoch.
In the early nineteenth century two of the biggest slave-trading powers
abolished the slave trade: Great Britain in 1807 and the United States of
America in 1808.
Illegal export of slavesThe year 1808 ushered in the third and last period in the history of the slave
trade, that of illegal export of slaves from Africa. The official abolition of the
slave trade in Great Britain and the United States did not reduce the number
of slaves coming from Africa. In the early nineteenth century, the labour of
slaves in New World plantations and mines was just as profitable and enabled
planters and manufacturers to receive high profits. The retention of slavery
in the New World after the slave trade was abolished predetermined the large-
scale development of the illegal slave trade, for not a single slave-trading coun-
try was ready to substitute hired labour for the work of slaves.
These factors determined the attitude of different States to the slave
trade in the nineteenth century. Of the big slave-trading countries Great
Britain was the only one that found it more profitable to struggle against the
slave trade than to take part in it. By that time its main colonial interests had
switched from the West Indies to the East Indies. Besides, British industry
called for increasing amounts of raw materials and new markets, and in this
respect its interests became concentrated on Africa. Great Britain headed an
international campaign to abolish the export of slaves from Africa. This allowed
her to preserve till today the reputation of an allegedly disinterested champion
of Africans' freedom. Foreseeing the emergence of its future colonies in Africa,
Great Britain found it highly profitable to pose as a liberator in the eyes of
Africans.
Undoubtedly the anti-slave blockage played a substantial role in curbing
the export of slaves. Moreover, the first African scientists and public leaders