The Atlantic Slave Trade, 1770–1807

White Gold Why was there a Slave Trade? People in Europe had developed a sweet tooth – the trade in sugar and spices were lucrative Trade links to the East became blocked over land so a sea route to the east had to be discovered Instead of finding India, European explorers found the Caribbean and America – sugar and spices could both be grown there…

Why was there a Slave Trade?

Need for Labour Why was there a Slave Trade? In order to grow the amounts of sugar etc that was being consumed in Europe a large workforce was needed Europeans tried to do the work themselves, but it was backbreaking and there were not enough new settlers to do all the chores Europeans tried to force the indigenous people to do the work, but many of them died from European diseases or refused.

Why Africa?                                                                     Africans had been enslaving one another for hundreds of years Arabs had also used African slaves for a long time Africans tended to be immune to European diseases and were used to working in high temperatures Native people and European workers were unsuccessful Many Africans were open to bribes

Triangular Trade

Triangular Trade The British were able to make more profit using a triangular method than by going directly to the Americas Cheaply produced pots, pans, guns etc were loaded on to ships and taken to West Africa The metal goods were swapped for human cargo (so the slaves had cost very little in real terms) The Slaves were then taken to the Americas and sold to the planters in return for sugar etc Sugar was taken back to the UK and sold for a huge profit.

Map of Triangular Trade

Profit margins British entrepreneurs only needed one ship which would contain the metal goods, slaves and sugar/rum/tobacco/cotton etc The price of making the metal goods was tiny in comparison with the money that could be made from selling sugar etc The city of Liverpool made about £300,000 each year from the slave trade. Nowadays that would be worth over £300 million per year.

1803 – The Enterprise This ship made a profit of 7,000 pounds which was a HUGE amount of money. It would be worth over £4.5 million today. It would take an ordinary worker 200 years to earn this much! The Enterprise would make many trips on the Triangular Trade. The slave trade would make you very, very rich.

Who benefited? Cities with ports: e.g. Liverpool; Glasgow; Bristol; Douglas (Isle of Man) Banks who gave loans to the ship owners to help them start businesses Factory owners who made clothes from the cotton brought from the Americas Jobs were created to build and sail the ships, produce the guns, chains and ropes. Middle Class families who used sugar or drank rum – perhaps they were even oblivious to the suffering caused by the demand they had for white gold?

Goree Warehouses Liverpool Goree Warehouses Liverpool. Built 1793 to cope with demand for storing goods to be shipped to Africa on first leg of triangular voyage. Liverpool

What was the contribution of slave trading profit to the economic development of Britain? Argued gains were substantial and linked to the origins of industrial capitalism Slave trade ‘provided one of the main streams of accumulation of capital in England which financed the Industrial Revolution.’ Barbara Solow estimated it could have comprised as much as 39% of commercial and industrial investment in the 18th century

Africa – Slave Factories/Forts Approx. 60 forts build along the west coast of Africa. Walked in slave caravans to the forts some 1000 miles away. Selected by the Europeans and branded. One half survived the death march. Place in underground dungeons until they were boarded on ships.

Africa – Slave Factories/Forts

Africa – Slave Factories/Forts Europeans found it easier to trade for slaves with the local African chiefs. The African chiefs wanted a number of things: cloth, iron, guns, alcohol and other things. These goods were very valuable in Africa. They could all be made cheaply in European factories. Slave ships brought these goods to Africa. The chiefs sold criminals from their own tribes to the slave traders. Sometimes they sold people they had captured from enemy tribes. Slaves were gathered in slave factories.

Africa – Slave Factories/Forts Factory was the name given to the forts along the West Coast of Africa. Factories were like supermarkets that sold human beings. European ships could sail from one factory to another buying slaves.

Africa – Slave Factories/Forts This is a modern photograph of the El Mina factory. It belonged to the Dutch. Eighty-four Europeans and 184 Africans worked there. One thousand slaves could be kept in this factory.

Africa – Slave Factories/Forts This is a drawing of a small factory which only kept 40 or 50 slaves to trade with the slave ships.

The Middle Passage Conditions on the slave ships were appalling and about a third of the people died during the voyage. The slaves were sailed to North America, South America, and the Caribbean.

The Middle Passage A ship often had 30 crewmen and carried about 300 slave men, women and children, who were all chained to each other in a tiny space.

Middle Passage Statistics 10-16 million Africans forcibly transported across the Atlantic from 1500-1900. 2 million died during the Middle Passage (10-15%) Another 15-30% dies during the march to the coast. For every 100 slaves that reached the New World, another 40 died in Africa or during the Middle Passage.

Slave Auctions

Slavery in the West Indies Gangs of slaves worked under a white overseer. The overseer usually carried a whip. The busiest time was harvest time. When the sugar was ready the slaves cut the sugar cane and loaded it on to carts. They took it to a mill where the sugar cane was crushed. Then it was boiled to get make a brown sticky juice. The juice was left in barrels till it became brown syrup which was used to make into rum. Rum became a valuable alcoholic drink. When this was taken away, sugar was left behind for selling to Europe. At harvest time slaves worked 18 hours a day.

Slavery in the West Indies

Slave Resistance: Breaking tools Faking illness Staging slowdowns Committing acts of arson and sabotage Running Away

How did the slave trade affect Africa? Some African countries like Ashanti were not so kind. The Ashanti people had slaves for many years. They traded some of their slaves for cloth, alcohol and guns. The Ashanti used the guns to make themselves more powerful and start wars against their neighbours to capture more slaves. Ashanti also had gold mines where slaves worked.

How did the slave trade affect Africa? African farmers grew crops such as beans. They sold them to the slave ships instead of growing food for their own people. Cheap European goods put African craftsmen, such as weavers (cloth makers) out of business.

How did the slave trade affect Africa? Chiefs and kings stopped looking after their people and became greedy. Even small crimes were punished by being sold as a slave. Tribal wars went on and on in order to capture slaves to sell to the Europeans. Communities were destroyed as husbands sold wives and parents sold children. Neighbours tried to blame each other for crimes which were punished by slavery. Thousands of towns and villages were ruined as a result of wars to capture slaves. Only one trade did well – the slave trade.

Abolition For most of the 1700s people were not interested in it. The horrible business was carried out thousands of miles from Britain. Most people had no idea what the slave trade was like or how slaves were treated. More people began to believe that it was wrong to own another human being. They supported the abolition of the slave trade. They wanted to stop the transport of Africans to the New World as slaves.

Abolition In 1787 the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade was formed to end the slave trade. The society was run by a committee of 12 people, nine of whom were Quakers. Should the Society end slavery? Slavery means the owning of slaves. Or should the Society aim to end the trading (buying and selling) of slaves? This meant that slave owners could keep the slaves they had. But it also meant that they could not buy any new slaves.

Granville Sharp: 1735-1813 Son of an archdeacon and grandson of the Archbishop of York. Chooses to serve as linen draper’s assistant; 1758 joins civil service. 1765: meets Jonathan Strong badly beaten by David Lisle. 1768: Courts rule in favor of Strong. Argues cases of Thomas Lewis and James Somerset:“As soon as any slave sets foot upon English territory, he becomes free.”

Thomas Clarkson: 1760-1846 1785: Wins an essay competition at Cambridge: "Is it right to make men slaves against their wills?“ In 1787 Clarkson and Sharp formed the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. Of the twelve members on the committee, nine were Quakers. Influential figures such as John Wesley and Josiah Wedgwood gave their support to the campaign. William Wilberforce, the MP for Hull, acts as spokesman in the House of Commons.

Abolitionists Josiah Wedgwood was a wealthy manufacturer of china goods. He used his factory to make a range of items to give publicity to the Society’s aims. He drew the seal (logo) used by the abolitionists.

Abolitionists Olaudah Equiano – he was a slave who had gained his freedom. He wrote a book giving valuable evidence about the cruelty about the slave trade. Many of the sources you have used come from his book. John Newton – he was the captain of a slave ship but wanted to see the trade abolished. He gave much valuable evidence about the cruelty of the slave trade.

Abolitionists William Wilberforce – he was a Member of Parliament (MP). He worked hard to pass a law against the slave trade. Wilberforce became the leader of the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. He was determined to get Parliament to abolish the slave trade. It took him 18 years to do this.

Abolitionist Propaganda

Abolitionist Propaganda

Arguments for Keeping the Slave Trade The Abolitionists had to get the Members of Parliament (MPs) on their side: only Parliament could make a law banning the slave trade. The MPs also had to listen to those people who said that the slave trade must be kept. The slave owners in the West Indies and the merchants had much support in Parliament. Many MPs and important people had money invested in plantations. Many MPs made a lot of money out of the slave trade. These people were rich enough to bribe other MPs to support them. They also had the support of King George III.

Arguments for Keeping the Slave Trade An important reason for keeping the slave trade was the war with France. Britain and France were at war from 1793 to 1815. What has this got to do with the slave trade? - Britain needed a lot of money to fight France. Ending the slave trade would cost the country money. The government would not get taxes from sugar, etc. - Britain needed ships and sailors to protect herself against the French. They might try and invade. It was said that the slave ships trained sailors for the Royal Navy.

Abolition 1778: William Pitt introduces a bill to regulate slavery. 1781: Capt. Collingwood case (133 Africans thrown overboard for insurance money). 1783: The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano.

Abolition 1786: Thomas Clarkson’s An Essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species. 1788-1792: Price of Sugar rises steeply. Period of mass agitation against the slave trade led by Clarkson, William Wilberforce and William Pitt. 1791:William Wilberforce's bill for Abolition is defeated 163 to 88. 1807: Abolition of Slave trade.

Why was the slave trade finally abolished? Economic? Sugar could be produced more cheaply in British India by free workers The economist Adam Smith argued that slave labour was actually not that cheap Britain’s new factories had many openings for people who lost their jobs because of the ending of the slave trade

Why was the slave trade finally abolished? Religious? Many people argued that slavery broke several of the 10 Commandments The Bible taught that people should treat each other with kindness and love

Why was the slave trade finally abolished? War? Nelson’s victory at Trafalgar secured Britain from invasion Control of the seas meant Britain could use the abolition of the slave trade as an excuse to stop and search any ship at sea at take them to Britain as prizes

Why was the slave trade finally abolished? Wilberforce and other abolitionists? Wilberforce’s persistence and ability of as a speaker convinced many of the need to end the slave trade Wilberforce’s contacts in high places, especially with Pitt the Prime Minister helped pass the Bill Clarkson’s damning evidence convinced many people as to the evils of the slave trade