Atlantic slave trade

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The term Atlantic slave trade describes the purchase of slaves from western, central and southern Africa by the Europeans , which began in the 16th century , and their transport across the Atlantic to North , Central and South America . In United States history, the slave trade route to mainland North America is usually referred to as the Middle Passage . The Atlantic slave trade was part of the Atlantic triangular trade . The number of slaves shipped to North and South America is estimated at around 12 million.

A distinction is made between the Atlantic slave trade and the East African slave trade , the Mediterranean slave trade and the intra-African slave trade , which take place at about the same time . The article Slavery offers a historical overview of the slave trade in other cultures and epochs .

history

The Atlantic slave trade began at the beginning of the 16th century, after the arrival of the Portuguese seafarers in West Africa at the end of the 15th century and the following trading factories of the emerging Portuguese Empire , which started the local slave trade here. Black Africans were bought in sub-Saharan Africa, shipped from Africa to America and resold there. Most of these ships were owned by Europeans.

The hunt for slaves and their transfer to ships was in the majority of cases carried out by Arab and African traders; the Europeans were involved in the increasing demand for slaves, but not directly in the slave hunt or in the intra-African slave trade.

Many slaves were prey, people caught in ethnic and tribal conflicts or wars. It was customary to kill prisoners, trade them with other tribes, or just sell them to slave traders on the coast .

Drawing of a slave transport ship for the Atlantic slave trade, from records of a committee of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom , 1790 and 1791
JMWTurner: slave ship, 1840; Slavers throw the dead and dying overboard when the storm approaches

The first places of work for the slaves were on the islands of the Caribbean, in Spanish colonies. In 1510 the first ship with 50 black slaves sailed from West Africa to Haiti. On the North American continent, a group of twenty black slaves first arrived on a Dutch ship in Jamestown (Virginia) on August 20, 1619 . The ship had been dragged here from its destination West Indies by a storm. In the decades that followed, the number of slaves in the British colonies remained rather low. Only the cultivation of plantations from the second half of the 17th century triggered a high demand for workers.

In the 18th century , the slave trade was an integral part of the Atlantic economy. The economic systems of the European colonies in the Caribbean and on the North American mainland as well as in Brazil required a large number of workers who were employed in agriculture (e.g. on plantations ). In 1790 islands such as the British West Indies , Jamaica , Barbados and Trinidad had a slave population of 524,000, the French West Indian possessions 643,000. Other powers like Spain , the Netherlands and Denmark had just as many slaves. Despite these high numbers, more and more slaves were requested. Harsh conditions and demographic inequalities dramatically reduced the number of slaves. Between 1600 and 1800, the English dragged about 1.7 million people into the West Indian possessions as slaves.

The slave trade was justified with economic necessities. Slavery was part of some of the most profitable branches of agriculture. Seventy percent of the slaves in the New World were employed in sugar cane cultivation and the most labor-intensive part of the grain industry. Others had to work in the coffee , cotton and tobacco industries as well as in mining .

The products obtained were shipped to Europe or Africa. The ships then imported processed goods and food from Europe, and slaves from Africa. The entire economy of the Atlantic area depended on the supply of West India with workable or fertile slaves, and this three-way trade ( Atlantic triangle trade ) across the Atlantic shaped the entire world sea trade. The colonies were among the most important possessions of European naval powers. France voted e.g. B. 1763 the loss of the colony of New France in exchange for possession of the tiny island of Guadeloupe .

By 1800 the most successful West Indian colonies belonged to the United Kingdom . After getting into the sugar trade late, the British naval command gained a decisive advantage over its competitors with the control of important islands such as Jamaica , Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados . This advantage was reinforced when France lost its most important colony, Saint Domingue (now Haiti ), to a slave rebellion in 1791 .

The British West Indies produced most of the sugar, and the British quickly became the largest consumers of sugar. West Indian sugar became popular as a common addition to Chinese tea . The products of American slave labor soon spread to every part of British society. Tobacco and coffee, and especially sugar, became indispensable elements in everyday life.

To support its colonies, Britain also had the largest fleet of slave ships , most of which ply via Liverpool and Bristol . In Liverpool, by the end of the 17th century, one of four ships out to sea was a slave transport. These were highly profitable companies that played an extremely important role in the economies of both cities.

Massacre on the Zong

The slave freighter Zong belonged to a Liverpool shipowner . In 1781, his captain Luke Collington had 132 weakened or sick slaves thrown overboard in order to collect the sum insured. This only resulted in fraud proceedings. But the massacre gave the impetus to abolish the slave trade, as the British abolitionists demanded. The British painter William Turner commemorated such murders on the high seas with his oil painting The Slave Ship in 1840 .

Ending the slave trade

British abolitionist logo

Opponents of the slave trade gathered in England from 1787 in the area of Thomas Clarkson , Granville Sharp and others. a. founded Society for Effecting the Abolition of Slavery and were called Abolitionists . The movement was politically supported by William Wilberforce , who repeatedly brought the abolition of the slave trade to a vote in the British House of Commons. Wilberforce was the linchpin of the so-called Clapham sect , a community of politically influential members of the Church of England , founded by the former slave ship captain and later clergyman John Newton ( Amazing Grace ). The Clapham Saints , like the SEAS, made it their main task to abolish all forms of slavery and the slave trade.

The French Revolution (1789 to about 1799) helped spread ideas about human and civil rights . The French Revolutionary Wars (1792–1797) and the Napoleonic Wars (until 1815) as well as the occupation of some areas by French troops (“ French era ”) spread these ideas in parts of Europe.

After the British had ended their own slave trade with the Slave Trade Act of February 24, 1807, they had to bring other peoples to it, otherwise the British colonies would have had a competitive disadvantage compared to those of other nations. In response to British pressure at the Congress of Vienna, slavery was outlawed in Article 118 of the Congress Act. The United States banned trade at the same time as Great Britain ( Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves ), as did Denmark (a small player in the international slave trade). Other smaller players like Sweden soon followed suit, as did the Netherlands (they were the third largest colonial power in the 19th century after Great Britain and France).

Four nations stubbornly opposed the abandonment of the slave trade: Spain , Portugal , Brazil (after independence) and France . Great Britain used every means to get these nations to give in. Portugal and Spain, which were indebted to Great Britain after the Napoleonic Wars , only gradually agreed to end the slave trade after making large payments. In 1853  the British government paid Portugal over £ 3 million and Spain over £ 1 million to end the slave trade. However, Brazil did not agree to stop the slave trade until Britain took military action against its coasts and threatened a blockade in 1852 (see History of Brazil for details ).

For France, the British first sought a solution during the negotiations at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, but Russia and Austria did not agree. Britain not only demanded that other nations ban the slave trade, but also demanded the right to police that ban. The Royal Navy obtained the legitimation to investigate and confiscate all suspicious ships that were transporting slaves or that were equipped for this purpose. While France formally agreed to ban the slave trade in 1815, Britain did not allow police surveillance nor did much to enforce it itself; so there was an extensive black market slave trade for many years . While the French originally opposed the slave trade more than the British, they now made it an object of national pride and flatly opposed British regulations. Such reform impulses were turned into their opposite by the conservative backlash after the revolution. The French slave trade only came to a complete standstill in 1848.

Under British pressure, the outlawing of slavery was included in the final act of the Congress of Vienna (Article 118).

The wreck, which was found in the Mobile River in Alabama (USA) in early 2019 , is the schooner Clotilda, which sank in 1860 . At that time, 110 women, men and children were illegally brought by sailing ship from what is now Benin in West Africa to Mobile (Alabama) . To cover up the crime, the ship was set on fire and thus sunk. The find shows that the slave trade continued after the ban.

rating

Percentage of exports in the
Atlantic slave trade
region 17th century 18th century
Senegambia 4.70 5.13
Sierra Leone 0.39 3.62
Pepper coast 0.05 2.35
Gold coast 6.69 14.31
Bay of Benin 17.02 20.17
Biafra Bay 9.63 14.97
West Central Africa 60.59 38.41
South East Africa 0.93 1.05

Before World War II , British scholars believed that the abolition of slavery was one of the three or four virtues in the history of nations.

This opinion was contradicted in 1944 by the West Indian historian Eric Williams , who argued that the end of the slave trade was due solely to economic developments and by no means to moral considerations.

Williams' thesis was soon questioned, however. Williams based his argument on the idea that the West Indian colonies were in decline at the beginning of the 19th century and thus lost their political and economic value for Great Britain. This decline has proven economically onerous and has led the British to accept its removal.

The main problem with this argument seems that the economy flourished before the ban on the slave trade in 1807 and only began to decline afterwards. The decline in the West Indies is therefore a result of the suppression of the slave trade and not its cause. The falling prices of commodities produced by slaves like sugar and coffee can easily be discounted, while it can be proven that the fall in prices led to increased demand and really increased the total quantity, profitable for importers. The profits from the slave trade remained at around ten percent of the investment and do not show any decline. Land prices in the West Indies - an important aid in analyzing the region's economy - did not decrease until after the slave trade ceased. The sugar colonies were not in decline, but in fact in 1807 at the peak of their economic influence.

A third generation of scholars such as Drescher and Anstey have confirmed most of Williams' economic and political arguments, but combined them with the moral considerations that led to the end of the slave trade.

The currents which played the greatest role in really convincing Westminster to outlaw the slave trade were religious in nature. The emergence of evangelical Protestant groups associated with the Quakers resulted in slavery being viewed as a humanitarian shame. These people were a minority, but they were passionately involved with many individuals. These groups had a strong parliamentary presence and controlled 35–40 seats with their influence; this numerical influence was reinforced by the government crisis at the time. Known as " the Saints, " this group, led by William Wilberforce, was considered the most important party in the fight against slavery. These parliamentarians often viewed their engagement as a personal battle against slavery in a divinely ordained crusade.

The first petition against the slave trade and slavery in North America dates back to 1688 and was built by the German immigrants of German Town ( Pennsylvania ), Francis Daniel Pastorius , Abraham Isacks op den Graeff , Herman Isacks op den Graeff and Gerrit Based Erich written.

In France, too, committed individuals were required until slavery was finally abolished in 1848. The Alsatian Victor Schœlcher (1804–1893), who is called le libérateur , the liberator, in Guadeloupe and Martinique , was of paramount importance ; he was the “most effective, only absolute and only consistent abolitionist” (Aimé Césaire: Introduction in: Victor Schœlcher: Esclavage et colonization , Paris: Presses universitaires de France 1948, new edition: Victor Schœlcher et l'abolition de l'esclavage , Lectoure: Éditions Le Capucin 2004). Schœlcher brought the decree on the abolition of slavery from Paris in 1848, but only arrived in Guadeloupe after the slaves had freed themselves the day before (see Daniel Maximin: L'isolé soleil , dt. Sonnenschwarz , ad Franz., With comments and afterword provided by Klaus Laabs, Rotpunkt, Zurich 2004). There had also been slave revolts in Martinique before, in particular that of May 22, 1848, when slaves occupied the then capital Saint-Pierre and after losing battles on May 23, 1848 forced the governor to abolish slavery immediately (see Aimé Césaire's preface on Guy Fau L'Abolition de l'esclavage Ed. du Burin / Ed.Martinsart, 1972; greatly expanded text of the speech given at the 1948 state ceremony for the centenary in the Sorbonne, quoted by Thomas Hale: Les écrits d'Aime Césaire. Bibliography commentée , Les Presses de l'Université, Montréal 1978, pp. 293–297)

See also

literature

modern
  • Egon Flaig : World History of Slavery . Beck, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-406-58450-3 .
  • Jochen Meissner, Ulrich Mücke , Klaus Weber : Black America. A history of slavery . Beck, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-56225-9 , (Review: Klaus-Jürgen Bremm: Humanitäres Desaster , in literaturkritik.de, edition 02-2010 ( online ), accessed on March 6, 2015)
  • Brigit Althaler: Black shops. The Involvement of the Swiss in Slavery and the Slave Trade in the 18th and 19th Centuries . Limmat-Verlag, Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-85791-490-4 .
  • Christian Delacampagne : The History of Slavery . Artemis & Winkler, Düsseldorf 2004, ISBN 3-538-07183-7 .
  • Michael Zeuske : Slave Traders, Negreros and Atlantic Creoles. A world history of the slave trade in the Atlantic area . De Gruyter Oldenbourg, Berlin / Boston 2015, ISBN 978-3-11-042672-4 .
  • Michael Zeuske : Handbook of the history of slavery. A global history from the beginning until today [Handbook of History of Slavery] . De Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2013, ISBN 978-3-11-027880-4 (2016 paperback).
  • Michael Zeuske : Black Caribbean. Slaves, slavery culture and emancipation . Rotpunktverlag, Zurich 2004, ISBN 3-85869-272-7 .
  • Rosa Ameilia Plumelle-Uribe: White barbarism. From colonial racism to the racial politics of the Nazis , Rotpunktverlag, Zurich 2004, ISBN 978-3-85869-273-3 (translation by Birgith Althaler, foreword by Lothar Baier, afterword by Louis Sala-Molins, original title LA FÉROCITÉ BLANCHE. Des non-Blancs aux non-Aryen: génocides occultés de 1492 à nos jours. Albin Michel, Paris 2001)
  • Alex Haley : Roots (Original title: Roots: The Saga of an American Family ) (= Fischer TB 2448 ). Frankfurt am Main 1997, ISBN 978-3-596-22448-7 (was filmed as a television series in 1977 ).
historical
  • Ordinance containing more detailed provisions for the suppression of the slave trade for the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein (July 3, 1835) In: Political Journal with advertisement of learned and other things, 56th year, 2nd volume, Hamburg 1835, pp. 841ff ( online ).
  • Albert Hüne: Complete historical-philosophical presentation of all changes in the Negro slave trade from its origin to its complete abolition. Johann Friedrich Röwer, Göttingen 1820 ( online ).
  • Theodor Sklavenfeind (pseudonym of Ferdinand Otto Vollrath Lawätz ): Painting of the sclavery and serfdom in the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein. together with a complete description of the difficulties that oppose their removal, 1797.
  • Danish ordinance of March 16, 1792, abolishing the inhumane trade in negroes. In: Stats-Anzeige- 17th Volume, 1792, pp. 203-205 ( online ).
  • Christian Ulrich Detlev von Eggers : German magazine. Volume 3, January to June 1792, Johann Friederich Hammerich, Altona 1792, excerpt from the presentation to the king about the abolition of the Negro trade for the Danish states. P. 626 ff. ( Online ).
  • Johann Jakob Sell : Attempt a history of the Negro slave trade. Johann Jacob Gebauer, Halle 1791 ( online ).
  • Christoph Meiners , Ludwig Timotheus Spittler : Historical news about the true nature of the slave trade, and the slavery of the negroes in West India. In: Göttingisches historisches Magazin , Volume 6, Gebrüder Helwing, Hanover 1790, pp. 645-679 ( online ).
foreign language
  • Aimé Césaire : Sur le colonialisme . Éditions Présence Africaine, Paris 1955; German title: About colonialism ( Rotbuch Volume 3). Translated from the French by Monika Kind, Wagenbach, Berlin (West) 1968.
  • Aimé Césaire: Commémoration du centenaire de l'abolition de l'esclavage . In: Collection du centenaire de la Revolution de 1848 . Presses universitaires de France, Paris 1948; greatly expanded as a foreword in: Guy Fau: L'Abolition de l'esclavage . Le Burin et Martinsart, 1972, pp. 20-33.
  • Daniel B. Domingues da Silva: The Atlantic Slave Trade from West Central Africa, 1780-1867. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2017, ISBN 978-1-107-17626-3 .
  • Herbert S. Klein: The Atlantic Slave Trade . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge u. a. 1999, ISBN 0-521-46020-4 ( New approaches to the Americas )
  • Johannes Postma: The Atlantic Slave Trade . University Press of Florida, Gainesville 2005, ISBN 0-8130-2906-6 .
  • Nelly Schmidt: Victor Schœlcher et l'abolition de l'esclavage . Fayard, Paris 1999.
  • Victor Schœlcher : Esclavage et Colonization . ( Avant-propos , de Charles-Andre Julien, Introduction . D'Aimé Césaire. Textes annotés par Èmile Tersen) Presses Universitaires de France, Paris 1948, new edition under the title Victor Schœlcher et l'abolition de l'esclavage . Editions Le Capucin, Lectoure 2004.
  • Hugh Thomas : The slave trade. The history of the Atlantic slave trade. 1440-1870 . Phoenix Books, London 2006, ISBN 0-75382-056-0 .
  • Eric E. Williams : Capitalism and Slavery . University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill NC 1944 ( Management and Business Studies ), (New edition, ibid 1994, ISBN 0-8078-2175-6 )
  • Michael Zeuske : Historiography and Research Problems of Slavery and the Slave Trade in a Global-Historical Perspective , in: International Review of Social History Vol. 57: 1 (April 2012), pp. 87–111.

Movie

  • Daniel Cattier, Juan Gélas, Fanny Glissant (Directors): Human Trafficking - A Brief History of Slavery. Episode 2: 1375-1620: For all gold in the world. France 2018. ( Online at arte-tv )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ronald Segal: The Black Diaspora: Five Centuries of the Black Experience Outside Africa. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York 1995, ISBN 0-374-11396-3 , p. 4.
  2. Gudrun Krämer: History of Islam. Beck, Munich 2005, here: Licensed edition for the Federal Agency for Civic Education , Bonn 2005, p. 190.
  3. Christian Geulen: History of Racism (= Beck'sche Reihe , Bd. 2424; CH Beck knowledge). Original edition, Beck, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-53624-3 .
  4. ^ Henry Chase: Four centuries: Jamestown - the origin of African American history - Advertising Supplement: Virginia . American Visions, June – July 1994
  5. ^ Charles Löffler: Negro slaves in America: Uncle Tom's ancestors . ( Memento of September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) WCC - Werners Country Club
  6. US History: The Era of American Slavery . magazinUSA.com
  7. ^ André Germann: Slave ship discovered · Researchers find wreckage of the schooner "Clotilda", which sank 159 years ago, in Alabama . In: Daily port report of May 29, 2019, p. 16
  8. ^ Volume of Transatlantic Slave Trade by Region of Embarkation. In: African American Heritage & Ethography. Retrieved November 9, 2010 .