Dyed-In-The-Wool History
Development of the African Slave Trade
Jim Pederson Dyed-in-the-Wool History January 20, 2025
Like any other economic exchange, the slave trade developed with a supplier, a consumer, and a trader or merchant that brought the two together. African kingdoms that had access to the western seaboard had a product, people, that they could readily be collected and sold based on labor demand, primarily from the new world during this time period. The English, Dutch, and the American colonists were all involved with the slave trade but the largest participant from the late 1600’s to early to mid 1800’s, when the slave trade waned and was legally abolished, were the English and New England colonies / states who manufactured the vessels and moved the human cargo. Weapons, manufactured goods, and rum would be brought to Africa to be traded in a barter system with African chieftains for people they held as slaves. The return trip would take the slave ships to the Caribbean or South America where slaves would be traded for sugar or molasses which was, in turn, returned to New England to be distilled into rum and the process would repeat itself.(1) Not all slave traffic was associated with the triangle trade and there would eventually be significant traffic to and from points in the new world.
Slavery has existed throughout human history and has meant slightly different things based on the culture or society. It was typically a result of losing a war, or inheritance, or poverty where someone would sell themselves into slavery. The term “Slave” was short for Slavic because they frequently wound up in these conditions(2 p. 2). Racial slavery originated in the ninth century when Arab-Muslims and Berbers established the trans-Sahara slave routes that eventually brought 10,000,000 Africans to North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Prior to this, the vastness and difficulty in crossing the Sahara kept the two populations apart. Some were captured by Muslim military raids but most were sold by their fellow Africans. This continued until the 19th century and the belief that Europeans actually went to Africa to capture slaves is complete fantasy. There is one known record of the Portuguese attempting to do this in 1475 and they were all killed (3 p. 21). Slavery was an accepted practice in many African societies even before the arrival of Muslims but grew as many Africans converted to Islam and entered the human trafficking business. Contrary to the popularized image of Europeans hunting down slaves in Africa, it is estimated that 90% of the slaves sold to Europeans and Americans were already living as slaves in Africa. (2 p. 2)
Hugh Thomas, in his book The Slave Trade, sited a survey from Sierra Leone (Also sited by John C Perry in Myths and Realities of American Slavery) by Sigismund Koelle in 1850 on the origins of those who fell into slavery which concluded that 34% were taken as prisoners of war in Africa, 30% were kidnapped and sold by other Africans, 11% were criminals, 7% were sold into slavery to settle debts, 7% were sold by their friends and families, and 11% were other or multiple reasons (3 p. 21) (4 p. 37). This may not be exactly consistent across other areas and earlier time periods but it is probably representative.
In the 1400’s the Portuguese established trading posts along the west coast of Africa principally for the purpose of slave trading and business was expanded to the new world in 1503 by the Spanish. The British became involved in the slave trade starting in 1562 and found it very profitable. By 1713 they came to dominate it after the Treaty of Asiento(2 p. 2). England opened the market to all Englishmen in 1749 and New England responded to the opportunity with Boston and Providence becoming the main seaports and New York becoming the financial center of the slave business.
The slave trade was facilitated by an Atlantic Creole population that developed along the west coast of Africa starting with the earliest European traders. Many learned to work as intermediaries, using their linguistic skills and their familiarity with the Atlantic's diverse commercial practices, cultural conventions, and diplomatic etiquette to mediate between African merchants and European sea captains. Many became employed by large European trading companies(5 p. 17). The Atlantic Creoles were in the business of brokering trade across the Atlantic and many could move easily between different cultures and religions. Some became wealthy and prominent, despite their lack of pure European lineage, and Atlantic Creole communities developed first in Spain and then in other port towns along the trading routes. Others, however, might find themselves being sold into slavery themselves as the result of a miscalculation or misstep. (5 pp. 17-23)
Of the total number of slaves brought from Africa to the New World and sold, roughly 90% were sold in the Caribbean and South America and only 10% in the American colonies, most of which came later. Many slaves during the colonial period came to the colonies from the Caribbean as opposed to directly from Africa(5 pp. 50-53). By the time the Deep South developed and was populated, the legal slave trade had already ended. American slave traders, who were financed by New York banks, purchased specially made ships that packed as many people as possible into as small a place as possible and the human losses in transit were startling being as high as 20%(2 p. 8). Somewhat surprisingly, the death tool for the crews of the slave ships appears to be roughly comparable to that of the human cargo. While the French were involved in the slave trade they kept records of this for 598 voyages from 1748 to 1792 and one in six crew members died (3 p. 36) (6 p. 20). Over time the survival ratios for both the crew and those being transported would gradually improve (3 p. 45) to around 4%. Slave ships were the same or similar to what was used to transfer convicts and other unwilling migrants from England to the colonies.
The slave trade had a devastating effect on the population of West Africa decreasing the population to about 25 million in 1850 which is thought to be about half of what it would have been otherwise. This in turn could be credited for lack of economic, cultural, and technological development (3 p. 28). The slave trade to North America reached its peak in 1734 with app. 70,000 people being transported. (3 p. 44) In the American colonies it topped out around 1760 and proved to be extremely profitable creating an economic ripple effect across New England helping the region develop both in trade and manufacturing capability. In the context of American history and economic development, this can be seen as at least as significant as the slave as a part of an agricultural work force. The wealth of many of the aristocratic families in New England and New York can be traced to the slave trade and then was gradually diversified into other areas. As the saying goes, "First you obtain money and then you obtain morals."
While a vast and profitable slave trade developed during the mid-seventeenth century, it largely bypassed the English mainland colonies. The twenty some Africans sold in Point Comfort in 1619 were sold as indentured servants and were no more or less free than the free willers and convicts they would have encountered. The common modern image is that the Africans were from the outset treated worse than the European workforce, the victims of English racism, but there is no real evidence that these initial Africans were treated any different from the English indentured servants. Racism may have existed but economic motivations were paramount(7 pp. 169-71). According to the African-American historian Audrey Smedley: ‘Early references to blacks reveal little clear evidence of general or widespread social antipathy on account of their color.’” From this time forward, English privateers would periodically arrive in the Virginia with Africans for sale brought from the Dutch territories and the West Indies but by mid-century there was only a population of about 300 from a total population of 11,000. For the first 40 years, African immigrants, although fairly small in number, were integrated into a forced labor system where Black men and women worked side by side with the European counterparts. This was true not only in Virginia but also in New England and New York. (7 pp. 169-71)
The development of permanent slavery in the colonies was something that happened gradually and had some strange twists. One of the Africans initially sold as a servant, Anthony Johnson as he came to be known, who was an Atlantic Creole, played a significant role. Johnson not only survived his time of indenture but became a successful planter buying his own black and white servants. Johnson spent a dozen years as a servant before being freed and acquired a tract of land to farm on the Pungoteague River. Over the next three decades, he built a sizeable plantation, which he named Angola, and imported more than a dozen servants which helped Johnson accumulate 1,000 acres. In the 1650’s, Johnson got into a dispute with an African servant, John Casor, who demanded his freedom and Johnson persuaded a court to enslave the man for life.(7 pp. 171-72)
The neighboring planter, Robert Parker, believed Casor had earned his freedom and kept him on his own plantation. Johnson, intent on getting his property back, initiated a legal battle that saw Robert Parker representing the runaway Casor in court. The case dragged on for years with a white planter fighting a black planter to save a black servant from perpetual slavery. The Northampton County Court eventually ruled that Casor had been a slave all along and he was returned immediately to Johnson. Parker was further ordered to pay Johnson two years’ worth of damages for the time Casor had been free. This acted as a legal precedent gradually enabling perpetual slavery. Massachusetts also legalized perpetual slavery around the same time.
From around this point forward for the next several decades the status of blacks relative to whites steadily deteriorated although specific historical records are spotty. There are instances of mixed groups of runaways being caught with the white escapees receiving somewhat lesser punishments while some of their black counterparts wound up as permanent slaves or received extensions to their terms that would have the same effect. The numerical imbalance between planters and laborers also led to increasing harsh treatment at any sign of insurrection. In 1671, a measure was passed in Virginia that made all ‘non-Christian servants’ newly shipped into Virginia slaves for life. Black freedman were no longer treated as equals to White planters under the law as Black planters were barred from owning white servants.(7 pp. 170-75)
The growth of an enslaved Black labor force in relation to white laborers happened gradually. Initially whites outnumbered blacks 20 to 1. By the last quarter of the seventeenth century, the ratio had narrowed to three to one with 2000 black slaves compared to 6,000 white servants. By the early 1700’s, the balance was roughly 60% to 40%. Both economics and demographics played a role in this (7 p. p. 176). The Caribbean plantations were showing much larger profits with an openly enslaved workforce. As mortality rates began to fall and life spans lengthened, the permanent slave started to become a better investment than the indentured servant even at twice the initial cost. Comparing this to the early decades of settlement, the difference between a permanent and temporary slave in a practical sense due to life expectancy, may have been nominal. Also the African death rate in Virginia and the along the Southern seaboard was significantly lower as a result of resistance to tropical diseases(8). Other potential factors include a gradual improvement in the labor market in England due initially to population losses following the English Civil War and then industrialization. The rapid increase in the demand for labor in the colonies would also have made it nearly impossible for indentured servants to fill the need for labor (3 p. 45).
By the later colonial period, slaveholding became common through the colonies including in New England(9 p. 15). In New England about a quarter of the families owned slaves in 1760 which is roughly the same as in the South in 1860. The difference in overall population ratios was the result of a small number of people owning large numbers of slaves to support large agricultural enterprises which weren’t economical in the North.
Throughout the colonial period there were attempts by the southern colonist to limit the importation of slaves. The House of Burgesses in Virginia passed 23 resolutions in 27 years to limit or prohibit the continued importation of slaves and South Carolina also tried to limit the importation of slaves in 1760 but these efforts were vetoed by British appointed colonial governors. The following is cited in “Myths of American Slavery” by Walter D. Kennedy from Reverend P. Fontaine:
“Our Assembly, foreseeing the ill consequences of importing such numbers among us, hath often attempted to lay a duty upon them which would amount to a prohibition, such as ten or twenty pounds a head; but no governor dare pass such a law, having instructions to the contrary from the Board of Trade at home. By this means they are forced upon us, whether we will or not. This plainly shows the African Company hath the advantage of the colonies, and may do as it pleases with the ministry.” (10 p. 29)
The quote below also cited in “Myths of American Slavery” is an example of a petition to the King from the House of Burgesses that ultimately had no effect on the slave trading business.
"The importation of slaves into the colonies from the coast of Africa hath long been considered as a trade of great inhumanity, and under its present encouragement, we have too much reason to fear will endanger the very existence of your majesty’s American dominions.
We are sensible that some of your majesty’s subjects of Great Britain may reap emoluments from this sort of traffic, but when we consider that is greatly retards the settlement of the colonies with more useful inhabitants, and may, in time, have the most destructive influence, we presume the hope that the interest of a few will be discarded when placed in the competition with the security and happiness of such numbers of your majesty’s dutiful and loyal subjects.
Deeply impressed with these sentiments, we most humbly beseech your majesty to remove all those restraints on your majesty’s governors of this colony, which inhibit their assenting to such laws as might check so very pernicious a commerce.”
The support for the slave trade by the British crown was cited by Jefferson in drafting the text of the Declaration of Independence noting that the king refused the colonies right to prevent the importation of slaves by the “inhumane use of the royal negative” (10 p. 30). During the American Revolution the British attempted to incite slave rebellions and offered freedom and forms of compensation to slaves who would runaway and join the ranks of the British military. All this in spite of their role in promoting, facilitating, preserving, and profiting from the institution which has many obvious parallels to what was to occur during and prior to the War for Southern Independence.
During and after the Revolution, the demand for slave labor waned everywhere but that was to change with the introduction of new and groundbreaking technology that drove demand for cotton as the major part of the first industrial revolution. As the slave population grew, principally through birthrate, and became more deeply engrained in the rapidly expanding economy, it became increasingly difficult to address. Late in his life Thomas Jefferson observed “As it is, we have the wolf by the ears, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go”(2 p. 42).
Bibliography
1. Jarvis, Gail. Lew Rockwell. [Online] February 8, 2002. [Cited: July 15, 2020.] https://www.lewrockwell.com/2002/02/gail-jarvis/yankees-and-slavery/.
2. Mitcham, Samuel W. Jr. It Wasn't About Slavery - Exposing the Great Lie of the Civil War. Washington DC : Regnery House, 2020.
3. Perry, John C. Myths and Realities of American Slavery. Shippensburg Pennsylvania : Burd Street Press, 2002. 978-1-57249-335-3.
4. Thomas, Hugh. The Slave Trade. New York, New York : Simon & Schuster, 1997.
5. Berlin, Ira. Many Thousands Gone. Cambridge Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, 1998.
6. Curtin, Phillip D. The Atlantic Slave Trade; A Census. Madison Wisc. : University of Wisconsin Press, 1969.
7. Walsh, Don Jordan, Michael. White Cargo The Forgotten history of Britain's White Slaves. New York : New York University Press, 2007.
8. Fischer, David Hacket. Albion's Seed - Four British Folkways in America. New York : Oxford University Press, 1989.
9. Melish, Joanne Pope. Disowning Slavery, Gradual Emancipation and Race in New England 1780-1860. Ithaca New York : Cornell University Press, 1998.
10. Kennedy, Walter D. Myths of American Slavery. Gretna Louisiana : Pelican Publishing Company, 2003. 2002007056.