Reactions to the problem
of the slave trade43speeches, addresses, etc.—the slave trade is spoken of as an 'act of barbarism
and inhumanity' and slave ships as 'floating coffins' in which atrocity is the
prerequisite for profit.^64 They denounced the capture of slaves in Africa itself,
the way in which hostilities were deliberately kindled as a source of captives
for the slave shipments, looting and corruption; because of the slave trade,
'mankind has become a commodity'.^65
But beneath the violence, the crisis of the 'system' as such was making
itself felt. The issue of slavery, 'which probably should be eradicated only by
hardly perceptible degrees so as not to endanger public order or personal
property'^86 was approached with circumspection and, it is added, must not
be 'confused' with the slave trade. The latter should, it was thought, be replaced
by a more profitable form of trade which would channel the commodities
produced in Africa towards Europe. What it amounted to was to go from one
form of slave trade to another, from the black slave trade to what is known as
the 'economy of exploitation', which thrived from the nineteenth century
onwards. With the decline of the sugar plantations and the onset of the Indus-
trial Revolution began a long process which in fact culminated in the end of
slavery and subsequently of the slave trade. The official dates marking their
abolition in the various countries are meaningful only if they are compared
with each other and seen in the relevant context. In Great Britain, where the
Industrial Revolution was a speedier process and where, furthermore, there
was the desire to do harm to the former American colonies, events went faster;
in France, Napoleon restored slavery but prohibited the slave trade in 1815.
For a long time, slave traffic towards the United States and Brazil persisted,
although slavery was abolished in the latter country in 1836. There were
Spanish, French, Brazilian and American vessels involved in the traffic, British
ships having more or less ceased slaving operations. From the humanitarian
viewpoint, virtually everything that was to be said had been said, and the
black peoples had been placed under the protection of the law by the Declara-
tion of the Rights of Man. But the colonial system and the exploitation of the
working masses were to set all these speeches and decrees at nought.
Slave trade, slavery, forced labourAfter being a vast reservoir of slaves, Africa was to become the battleground
for European imperialism. Each country carved out its own stronghold, and the
old trading stations were often used as a launching ground for prosperous
settlements. Colonization was an excuse for every possible form of intervention:
military expeditions bought slaves from local traders to use them as 'volun-
teers'; when villages were taken, their inhabitants were also captured, and
shown little mercy. And when the need arose, African labour continued to be
exported, especially to the United States and Brazil. The nationality of the