27 - Tracing Their “Middle” Passages

Summary

In the last three decades, our understanding of the Indian Ocean slave trade has greatly expanded. Recent studies document that African slaves were moved quite extensively around the western Indian Ocean that included the East African coast, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Indian subcontinent. The western Indian Ocean is the vast maritime region located between the western coast of the Indian subcontinent and the East African coast. It also includes the Red Sea and the Gulf. Trading in slaves is known to have taken place in this region as late as when Periplus Maris Erythraei was written (c. 150 AD). The 1820 General Treaty of Peace that the British concluded with all major sheikhs along the Arabian coast of the Gulf can be regarded as the starting point of British anti-slave trade activities in the western Indian Ocean.