By Yunus Yusuf
Etymologically speaking, the English word, “Slave” comes from the ethnic name, “Slav” of the Eastern Europe or Balkans. The enslaved Saqaliba slaves were bought and transported to almost every direction, especially to Western Europe. This happened principally between AD 1100 and 1400. The black, African slaves, especially the Negroes of the western Sudan, Bilad al-Sudan, the land of the black people c. 300 – 1929 and the Bantu of the Zanj, the Black empire of East Africa c. 600 – 1962, were bought and transported northwards, north-eastwards, eastwards and westwards, most especially from 1500 to 1888 when slavery was abolished in Brazil.
The African and the Saqaliba slav slaves were perhaps, at one time or the other, the most enslaved and the most tortured slaves in the whole world! Allahu a’alam!
About the actual number of the slaves taken out of Africa, some knowledgeable historians made and proffered their own various estimates. Their estimates ranged from six to 45 million slaves. It goes without saying that it is extremely difficult to estimate accurately owing to various negative factors. Here is one of such estimates by one Elikia Mbokolo, written in the well-known French newspaper La Monde Diplomatique, “The African peoples were taken out of their continent via the Red Sea; they were taken in ships via the coastal forts of the Indian Ocean, they were taken via the Atlantic Ocean. At least 10 centuries of slavery were spent for the benefit of the Muslim countries. Through the Red Sea, 4,000,000 enslaved people passed, another 4,000,000 people passed via the coastal forts of the Indian Ocean; perhaps 9,000,000 slaves crossed the Sahara Desert, plus 11,000,000 to 20,000,000 slaves that crossed the Atlantic Ocean”. Such were some of the guesses made by some writers.
According to Mbokolo, at least 37,000,000 black African slaves were forcibly taken out of the continent, only to serve their masters and mistresses abroad! The slaves usually cried, yelled and prayed aloud and a lot when they realised that they had begun to leave their mother Africa forever and ever! Great pity! Mbokolo wrote that in one thousand years of slavery, only the Muslim countries were served, benefited from it. Was it really true, correct? I marvel! Perhaps in the eyes of Mbokolo the Muslim countries looked more beautiful and more prosperous than the other countries he knew.
The Arabs
The Arabs, (the Arabians, the Yamanis, the Omanis) etc were surely the champions of the slave trade for a very long time in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. But apparently they were less active in the trans-Atlantic slave trade because the shrewd European traders effectively dominated the slave trade at the West African coast. But the Arabs dominated the slave trade and slavery in the East and Central Africa enormously.
The currency of the Arabs, the Dirham, was very widely used for trade in Europe and Africa. Trade by barter or exchange was widely used. They travelled very long distances to trade. They went to Persia, China, Europe, India and many other distant towns and cities trading their wares. Really, the Arabs had been the world-wide merchants who deserved praise. They had Damascus in Syria, the oldest city in the world. It is more than 2,600, six years old.
The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade 1500 – 1800
King Ferdinand of Spain and his Queen Isabella sponsored Christopher Columbus’s voyage of discovery in 1492. Columbus discovered the island he called Hispaniola meaning “little Spain”, now called Haiti and Santo Domingo, two Republics. In 1494, the Pope shared the world into two, from the north to the South. He placed the western Hemisphere under the control or influence of Spain and placed the Eastern Hemisphere under the control of Portugal for its exploration efforts in the West Coast of Africa and a sea route to India. But Great Britain and France in particular, bluntly refused to accept the pope’s papal bull or order and began to scramble for island colonies in the West Indies and the Americas. In 1655,
The Trans-Atlantic slave trade was perhaps the hugest and the most profitable trade in human beings that existed in this ancient world. So many countries and so many different peoples participated in it very vigorously and made huge wealth before it was finally abolished completely
Britain Seized Jamaica from Spain. The islands later became known collectively as Caribbean, after the name of one of the islanders called, “carib”, a hot-tempered people.
Fifty million Europeans were said to have migrated to the New World. The Spanish colonists found the Arawak, Carib and other native Indians very weak and lazy, and they killed many of them. Many of the Indians died of various European diseases. To save the Indians from total annihilation, Las Casas, a Spanish priest suggested that some resilient African slaves should be taken to the West Indies to replace the native Indians. He later regretted giving that advice for the rest of his dear life, having seen how the slave trade and slavery had become generally horrendously horrific and wicked. Portugal began to transport the Negroes to the West Indies in 1502 and Spain began to transport them in 1503.
The Trans-Atlantic slave trade was perhaps the hugest and the most profitable trade in human beings that existed in this ancient world. So many countries and so many different peoples participated in it very vigorously and made huge wealth before it was finally abolished completely. The following were some of the nations that participated in it: Portugal, Spain, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Holland, Denmark, USA, Brazil etc, etc. Almost all the European slave traders built strong forts where they displayed their wares and kept their slaves in barracoons before shipment to the New World.
The slave ships were of different sizes. There were ships for carrying between 300 to 900 slaves per trip. The largest ship carried 900 slaves. At the beginning of the trade, slaves were taken to the West Indies via Europe where in Lisbon, a tax was paid on each slave before proceeding to the New World. But by 1578, slaves were taken to the New World directly from Africa. An Assiento Agreement of 1713, between Spain and Britain, was signed in which Britain was to be supplying a total number of 4,800 slaves annually to the Spanish colonies for sale. Other nations were also given the licence by Spain.
Between 1640 and 1750, Britain was the leading slave trader in Europe. By this time, also about 100,000 slaves or even more were being shipped to America every year over half of these were carried in British ships. Britain had naval power almost always while France had infantry power.
The volume of the British slave trade increased tremendously after it acquired an American state named “Virginia”, with its administrative headquarters at Jamestown in 1607. The three most prominent English seamen were John Lock, Sir John Hawkins and Sir Francis Drake. Each one of them was very actively involved in the slave trade, especially John Hawkins 1532 – 1595 and Francis Drake. The British or English seamen were badly hated by the Spanish authorities for their disregard for the papal order.
The two rich and powerful Seamen plundered both the Portuguese and Spanish ships incessantly and made away with slaves, gold, silver and other treasures of the Americas. The Spaniards later succeeded in destroying five of Hawkins seven ships. Hawkins transported 1,500 slaves to the Caribbean. After his 1562 voyage to the Caribbean, he became the richest man in his home town, Plymouth. After his 1564 voyage, he became the richest man in England as a whole. Hawkins was very proud indeed to be a slave trader. The logo of his slave-trading syndicate was a portrait of a black woman tied with a rope across her chest. He wrote a book entitled “An Alliance To Raid for Slaves”. But Francis Drake was the greatest English Seaman ever.
The slave trade abolitionists’ efforts in Britain
The abolitionists’ efforts in Britain continued to gain momentum within the general public. More and more people were becoming more and more aware of the evils of the slave trade and slavery world-wide. Religious groups in particular were more vocal than some other groups most of the time. Such groups were:
- Quakers
- Wesleyans
- Church of England members
- Catholic priests
- Granville Sharp was apparently the most active individual abolitionist.
- Hon. William Wilberforce (MP) was the most active abolitionist in the British parliament.
- Sir Thomas F. Baxton (MP)
- Reverend Thomas Clarkson.
They all worked hard to abolish the slave trade in particular and the slavery in general. Mr Granville Sharp and William Wilberforce were the most impressive of them all. Wilberforce presented motions in the House to stop the slave trade but he did not succeed in the following years: 1776, 1787, 1789, 1791, 1793, 1795, 1804, 1805. In 1806, two laws were passed, the first law provided that no British subject should carry slaves to any foreign country, and the second ordered that no fresh ships should be fitted out as slavers. Then in 1807, a law was passed which made the trade wholly unlawful to the British subjects.
With the stopping of the slave trade by the British parliament, the abolitionists in particular and the general public were elated by the parliamentary act. Apparently, the British Government put up a very spirited effort to make, if possible, all the slave-trading, European nations ban the trade in their respective countries soonest!
The British Government signed the slave-trade equipment treaty and other treaties relating to the slave trade with some countries. Some governments co-operated with the British government while others were very reluctant to do so. The government further created squadrons to police the West African coast against the slavers. A squadron is a section of one of the armed forces, especially the air force.
Compensations
Perhaps in order to encourage other European nations to stop the trade, the British Government compensated Portugal with £700,000 for stopping the trade. It also reparated Spain with £300,000. The two countries were surely the principal slatees. The slave owners in the British Empire were generously compensated with £20,000,000, for the loss of their slaves. But what about the freed slaves, the down-trodden, the underdogs and the “wretched of the earth?” Setting the slaves free was not at all enough compensation for them. They needed any form of assistance to survive better.
- Sierra Leone 2. Liberia 3. Gabon
The British established Freetown in 1787, now Sierra Leone, “the Lion Mountain”. Freed slaves from Nova Scotia, Canada were taken there, so were freed slaves from Britain and Jamaica. Some organisation in the US established Liberia in 1822 and some freed slaves were transported there. France established Gabon in 1849 and freed slaves from the French colonies were settled there for good! At least these three settlements really needed some significant assistance then and now! All the nations whose peoples were enslaved en masse needed at least an apology if compensation could not be possible. Of course some countries apologised for taking active part in the slave trade. But many countries did not apologise.
The deportation of freed slaves, prisoners etc
From time to time, criminals, prisoners, destitutes and others were cleared from the streets of Britain and taken to some other British colonies around the world. Criminals and other destitutes were dumped in Australia, Jamaica and North America where the English criminals were forced to work together with the Negro slaves.
The death of slavery in British Empire
In 1833, a law was made in Britain which freed all the slaves and provided a payment to the former slave-owners. But the actual freeing of the slaves took place on 1st of August 1834. To many a historian, it was the industrial revolution of 1804 in Britain that dealt a deadly blow to the slavery in the British Empire and beyond. Slavery became obsolete and worthless! Machines and child labour stepped in.
The slave trade blame-shift
To my very humble mind, all the peoples and the countries that bought and sold slaves were wholly responsible for the existence of the trade anywhere in the world. For where there were no buyers, there could not have been sellers and vice-versa.
Yunusa is the Dan Masanin Tudunwada, Kano