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European Slave Trading in the Eighteenth Century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2024

Jean-Michel Deveau

Extract

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The history of the African slave trade, despite its importance and role in world development, was not scientifically studied until 1930, and even since then few books and papers have been devoted to the subject. Beginning in the nineteenth century, however, this history has been the focus of sensational publications that underline and broadly interpret a smattering of highly emotional events. A conspiracy of silence cloaks the subject, as though shame still weighs upon the shoulders of Western society. In Africa, the same silence seems to favor consigning all memory of the collaborators to oblivion. In the last twenty years, the situation has begun to change. Several international conferences have brought together white and black historians. The Anneaux de la mémoire (Chains of Memory) exposition in Nantes enjoyed considerable success, and in 1994 UNESCO launched a decade-long cultural program called La Route de l'esclave (The Path of Slavery).

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 45 , Issue 179 , September 1997 , pp. 49 - 74
Copyright
Copyright © 1997 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

References

Notes

1. S. Daget, La France et l'abolition de la traite des Noirs de 1814 à 1831 (history the sis, third cycle, University of Paris-Sorbonne, 1969)and La croisière française de répression de la traite des Noirs sur les côtes occidentales de l'Afrique: 1817-1850 (dissertation, University of Paris-Sorbonne; J. Meyer, L'Armement nantais dans la seconde moitié du XVIIIe siècle (Paris, 1969); J.-M. Deveau, La traite rochelaise (Paris, 1990); E. Saugera, Bordeaux, port négrier (Paris, 1995); O. Pétré-Grenouil leau, L'argent de la traite (Paris, 1996).

2. For the nineteenth century, see especially E. Corbière, Le Négrier, periodically re-edited, and L. Jacolliot, Le dernier des négriers (Paris, s.d.).

3. “La traite des Noirs par l'Atlantique: nouvelles approches,” special issue of the Revue Française d'Histoire d'Outre-Mer, no. 226-227 (1975); “La traite négrière du XVe au XIXe siecle,” Actes du colloque de Port-en-Prince, Histoire générale de l'Afrique, etudes et documents, vol. II (UNESCO, 1979); S. Daget (ed.), “De la traite à l'esclavage,” Actes du colloque international sur la traite des Noirs (Proceedings of the International Colloquium on the Black Slave Trade), Cen tre de recherches sur l'Histoire du Monde Atlantique, 2 vols. (Nantes et R.F.H.O.M., 1988); “Conference de lancement du programme UNESCO ‘La Route de l'Esclave,'” (Whydah, 1994).

4. J. Mettas, “Répertoire des expéditions négrières françaises au XVIIIe siècle” (Paris, R.F.H.O.M., 1978).

5. S. Daget, La traite des Noirs (Rennes, 1990).

6. In subsequent years the list of ports grew longer. There were sixteen in 1741.

7. This would be reduced to ten pounds in 1720.

8. In the article “Colonie” in Diderot and D'Alembert's l'Encyclopédie, it is clear that colonies were only justifiable to the extent that they enriched their mother countries.

9. Their journals confirm that with 310,000 slaves and a mortality rate of 4 per cent, the Antilles needed 12,500 slaves each year. Using sixty ships, they could bring in 18,000, 2,500 to 3,000 more than were required.

10. The sudden drop of 1770 (down to thirty-seven voyages) relates to the results of the 1769 drought and of the 1770 earthquake.

11. Only Bristol has been studied in any depth. See David Richardson, Bristol, Africa and the Eighteenth Century Slave Trade to America (Bristol, 1986).

12. M. Devèze, Antilles, Guyane, Mer des Caraibes de 1492 à 1789 (Paris, 1977), p. 166.

13. S. Daget, (see note 5 above), p. 107.

14. R. Anstey, The Volume of the North American Slave Carrying Trade from America (R.F.H.O.M., 1975), pp. 44-66; A. Gauthier, “Traite et politique esclavagiste,” Population 6 (1986): 1005-1024.

15. From 1785 to 1788, no more than 2,200 slaves were deported a year, it seems, according to R. Anstey (see note 14), p. 54.

16. It ceased to be strictly Portuguese after Brazil's independence, even though Brazil was supplied mostly by Angola, still a Portuguese colony.

17. J.B. Ballong-Wen-Mewuda, São Jorge da Mina (1482-1637), vol.I (Paris, 1993), pp.324-325.

18. J.B. Ballong-Wen-Mewuda, Le commerce portugais des esclaves, colloquium “De la traite à l'esclavage” (Nantes, 1985), pp.121-147.

19. J.C. Miller, Legal Portuguese Slaving from Angola (1760-1830) (R.F.H.O.M., 1975), pp. 135-176.

20. The Portuguese preferred to send out small ships in order to speed up capital rotation.

21. From 1740 to 1750 Benguela's traffic represented 10 percent of Luanda's, and from 1750 to 1760, it represented 25 percent.

22. J. Postma, The Dutch Slave Trade (R.F.H.O.M., 1975), pp.232-244.

23. P.C. Emmer, Surinam and the Decline of the Dutch Slave Trade (R.F.H.O.M., 1975), pp. 245-251.

24. The order of 28 February 1789 opened a number of Spanish-American colonies to foreign traders to satisfy the huge demand for slaves. Cuba was clearly the primary center of importations.

25. J.G. Everaert, Commerce d'Afrique et traite négrière dans les Pays-Bas Autrichiens (R.F.H.O.M., 1975), pp.177-185.

26. H. Kellenbenz, L'Elbe inférieure et le commerce triangulaire (R.F.H.O.M., 1975), pp.186-195.

27. E. Ekman, Sweden, The Slave Trade and Slavery 1784-1847 (R.F.H.O.M., 1975), pp.221-231.

28. A. Jones, Brandenburg, Prussia and the Atlantic Slave Trade 1680-1700 (Nantes, 1985), pp. 283-298.

29. E. M'Bokolo, Afrique Noire, Histoire et Civilisation (Paris, 1995), p.227.

30. Capitalisme et Esclavage (Paris, 1944).

31. Liverpool, The African Slave Trade and Abolition (1976).

32. J.-M. Deveau, (see note 1 above), p.74; E. Saugera, Bordeaux, port négrier (Paris, 1995), p. 247.

33. J.-M. Deveau, (see note 1 above), p. 72.

34. Cited by F. Iroko, Cauris et esclaves en Afrique occidentale (Nantes, 1985), pp.193-205.

35. P. Haudrère, La Compagnie française des Indes au XVIIIe siècle (Paris, 1989), p. 427.

36. On this problem see: P. Haudrère, (see note 35 above), p. 69; H.R. Allemagne, La toile imprimée et les indiennes de traite (Paris, 1942); E. Depitre, La toile peinte en France aux XVIIe-XVIIIe siècles (Paris, 1912); B. Roy, Une capitale de l'indien nage (Nantes, 1948); P. Dardel, Les manufactures de toiles peintes et de serge imprimées à Rouen et à Balbec aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles (Rouen, 1940).

37. P. Dardel, Navires et marchandises dans les ports de Rouen et du Havre (Paris, 1963), p.142.

38. P.H. Boulle, Marchandises de traite et développement industriel (R.F.H.O.M., 1975), pp.309-330.

39. E. Saugera, (see note 32 above), p.250.

40. P.H. Boulle, (see note 38 above), pp.316-323.

41. J.-M. Deveau, Le Commerce rochelais face à la Révolution (La Rochelle, 1989), p.104.

42. J.-M. Deveau, (see note 1 above), p.78.

43. Between 2.4 percent and 7.5 percent at La Rochelle: J.-M. Deveau, La traite des Noirs, vol I (thesis, University of Poitiers), p. 116.

44. J.-M. Deveau, (see note 1 above), p.105.

45. F. Iroko, (see note 34 above), pp. 193-205.

46. S. Daget,(see note 5 above), p. 96.

47. L. Abdoulaye, La Compagnie du Sénégal (Paris, 1958), p.209.

48. PE. Isert, Voyage en Guinée et dans les îles des Caraïbes (Paris, 1989), p. 17; S.E. Green-Pedersen, The History of the Danish Negro Slave Trade (1733-1807) (R.F.H.O.M., 1975), pp.196-200.

49. J.-M. Deveau, (see note 1 above), p.210.

50. Ibid., pp. 208 and 214.

51. J.-M. Deveau, “Les affaires Van Hoogwerff,” in Commerce et plantation dans la Caraïbe (Bordeaux, 1992), pp. 169-183.

52. D. Richardson, Profitability in Bristol-Liverpool Slave Trade (R.F.H.O.M., 1975), pp.301-308.

53. W.E. Minghinton, The British Slave Fleet (Nantes, 1985), pp.395-429.

54. D. Richardson, The Costs of Survival (Nantes, 1985), pp.169-187.

55. A final indication of the decline in profits is the proportion of British exports intended for the trade out of total export volume: 1730, 11 percent; 1772, 9.95 percent; and 1789, 6.80 percent.

56. E. Williams, Capitalism and Slavery (North Carolina, 1944); R. Anstey, The Atlantic Slave Trade and British Abolition (London, 1975).

57. O. Pétré-Grenouilleau Négoce maritime et monde modeme (thesis, University of Rennes, 1994), published in 1966 under the title L'argent de la traite (see note 1 above).