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The Compatibility of the Slave and Palm oil Trades in the Bight of Biafra

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

David Northrup
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Extract

The rise of the legitimate trade in palm oil in the nineteenth century is often described as following (or due to) a decline in the overseas slave trade. In fact in the most important oil producing region, the Bight of Biafra, the palm oil trade expanded well in advance of any decline in the slave trade and the suppression of the slave trade occasioned no marked increase in the rate of palm oil export growth. It would appear that the direct and indirect effects of the slave trade in this region had created economic conditions which enabled its small farmers to respond so rapidly to external demand for palm oil. The failure to understand the relationship between the slave and the palm oil trades is a result of misunderstanding the relationship between these oil producers and the coastal middlemen.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 17 , Issue 3 , July 1976 , pp. 353 - 364
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1976

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References

1 Curtin, Philip D., The Image of Africa: British Ideas and Actions, 1780–1850 (Madison, 1964), 125CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Curtin summarizes the fluctuations in the abolitionist outlook on pp. 271 and 429.

2 Of course, by no means all historians have oversimplified the sequence of the two trades. Many of the details of the early nineteenth-century trade in the Bight of Biafra were made accessible by Dike, K. Onwuka's Trade and Politics in the Niger Delta 1830–1883 (Oxford, 1956)Google Scholar. An approach to the issue by re-exploring the abolitionists’ problem of why the palm trade failed to ‘drive out” the slave trade has been made by Fage, J. D., History of West Africa, 4th edn. (Cambridge, 1969), 117–18Google Scholar. A great advance in the trading history of the first major palm oil port, which was simultaneously an important slaving port, is Latham, A. J. H.'s Old Calabar 1600–1801 (Oxford, 1973)Google Scholar. However, the undue concentration of these works on the activities of the coastal middlemen results in an inadequate explanation of the relationship of the slave and palm oil trades. This criticism is developed later in this essay.

3 Hallett, Robin, Africa since 1875: A Modern History (Ann Arbor, 1974) 255Google Scholar; emphasis added. A similar, though more exact statement of this relationship was made a half-century earlier by McPhee, Allan, The Economic Revolution in British West Africa (London, 1926Google Scholar; reprinted New York, 1970), 30: ‘When the Slave Trade was declining, but still long before it had fallen, another trade was springing up to take its place. The rising trade was that of the palm oil’; emphasis added.

4 Fyfe, Christopher, ‘Reform in West Africa: the Abolition of the Slave Trade’, in History of West Africa, ed. Ajayi, J. F. A. and Crowder, Michael, ii (New York, 1974), 46.Google Scholar

5 Flint, J. E., ‘Economic Change in West Africa in the Nineteenth Century’, in History of West Africa, ii, 392Google Scholar; emphasis added.

6 Curtin, Philip D., The Atlantic Slave Trade: A Census (Madison, Milwaukee, and London, 1969)Google Scholar, table 66. The Bight of Biafra's share of the total trade is computed by comparison with table 65, allowing for a 20 per cent mortality in transit.

7 Curtin, , Slave Trade, table 67.Google Scholar

8 Dutch slavers used French colours; both dropped out by the 1830s.

9 Curtin, , Slave Trade, tables 69, 71, 72, 74, 76.Google Scholar

10 Ibid. 244–7, 258 and tables 71–2.

11 Hautson, John to H.M. Commissioners, 3 Apr. 1821Google Scholar, enclosed in Sierra Leone (General) No. 6: Commissioners to Castlereagh, 16 Apr. 1821, Public Record Office, London: F.O. 84/9. Hautson, described as ‘a gentleman of known observation and intelligence’ and a supercargo who had voyaged along the West African coast, estimated that, ‘there seldom being less than twelve to fifteen vessels in the Bonny River at a time and from twenty to twenty-five in Calabar’, the two ports together must turn around fifty ships a year. He allowed 350 slaves per ship for a total of 17,500. That 310 per ship was a more likely average at this time may be inferred from Dr Jackson' figures cited below (10,820 divided by thirty-five) and from the average cargo from this Bight to Brazil in 1817–43 in Curtin, Slave Trade, table 70. This would give a total of 15,500.

Fifty ships a year may seem somewhat high, but another estimate for this period would put it seven times higher! The latter figure is so improbable, yet so strongly attested to, that the evidence for it is worth quoting at length:

The circumstances of a heavy duty or custom becoming due to the Chiefs of Bonny and Calabar on every Slave ship when fully laden, necessarily induces them to keep a kind of Registry of the different vessels; numeral lists from these rivers and founded on the said registry, frequently come to this colony, but from the magnitude have been deemed exaggerated and incredible.

Captain Leeke [Sir Henry Leeke], however, in the month of October [1821] ascertained, on good authority, that the number of Slave cargoes taken out of the Bonny from July in the preceeding year up to that time, was actually one hundred ninety. A similar return from the Calabar, for a like period, made a total of one hundred sixty-two.

Enclosure No. 1 (Memorandum) in MacCarthy to Goulburn, 14 Jan. 1822, Parl. Papers 1822 xxii (103).

12 Jackson, Richard Mather, Journal of a Voyage to the Bonny River on the West Coast of Africa in the Ship Kingston from Liverpool (Letchworth, 1934), 155–6.Google Scholar

13 In 1798–9, the last period for which there are detailed records, Bonny had received 72 per cent of the Liverpool trade in slaves in the Bight. Donnan, Elizabeth, ed., Documents Illustrative of the History of the Slave Trade (Washington, 1930–1935; reprinted New York, 1965), 11, 642–9Google Scholar. On that basis a year' total for 1825–6 would have amounted to about 20,000 slaves for the entire coast. The Sierra Leone Commissioners, however, were of the opinion that Bonny had only about 40 per cent of the trade in the Bight, which would project a total of some 36,000 for those twelve months. Sierra Leone (General) No. 6: Commissioners to Castlereagh, 16 Apr. 1821, PRO, F.O. 84/9.

14 Throughout 1821 the slave trade was undiminished in the Bights of Benin and Biafra according to the Commissioners; PRO, F.O. 84/15, Sierra Leone (General) No. 16: Gregory and Fitzgerald to Marquis of Londonderry, 10 Jan. 1822. In the first half of 1822 there was no trade on the Cameroon River and little at Old Calabar; F.O. 84/15, S.L. (Gen.) No. 5: Gregory and Fitzgerald to Marquis of Londonderry, 20 Sept. 1822. A year later the Bonny, Old Calabar, and Cameroon rivers were ‘among the favourite haunts of the slave traders’ F.O. 84/21, S.L. (Gen.) No. 4: Gregory and Fitzgerald to Canning, 29 Apr. 1823. From mid-1823 to mid-1824 tne Commissioners knew of little trade in the Bight of Biafra; F.O. 84/28, S.L. (Gen.) No. 12: Gregory and Hamilton to Canning, 15 May 1824. In 1824–5 the Bonny and Old Calabar rivers were ‘infested’ with slavers; F.O. 84/38, S.L. (Gen.): Hamilton and Reffell to Canning, 10 Apr. 1825. In 1825–6 the trade was again very active in the Bights; F.O. 84/48, S.L. (Gen.) No. 4: Williams to Canning, 10 Mar. 1826. Four slave vessels were trading at Old Calabar during James Holman' visit in 1828; Simmons, Donald, ed., Holman' Voyage to Old Calabar (Calabar, 1959) 3Google Scholar. The Commissioners expected the slave trade to be very active, particularly in the Bight of Benin, in the fall of 1829 after a slow summer; F.O. 84/88, S.L. (Separate): Smith to Earl of Aberdeen, 19 Aug. 1829.

15 Badgley, James, ‘Report on the Bonny and New Calabar Rivers’ (Jan. 1828)Google Scholar and ‘Report on the Old Calabar River’ (1828), both enclosed in Barron to Hay, 20 June 1828, PRO, CO. 82/1. Old Calabar was said to export 8–10,000 slaves a year, while Bonny and new Calabar turned around fifteen to twenty ships (which at 310 per ship would amount to 4,650–6,200). There had been no slave ships at Bonny or New Calabar for some weeks prior to Badgley' visit, but a cargo of 600 was awaiting the return of a ship under going repairs at Prince' Island (Principe).

16 There were nine French slaving ships at Old Calabar late in 1830. While that port had none in August and September 1833, there were seven Spanish slavers there in October. Nine were also at Bonny in September 1833, PRO, CO. 82/4, Beecroft to Nicolls, 17 Nov. 1830, enclosed in Nicolls to Hay, 24 Jan. 1831; CO. 82/6, Nicolls to Hay, 24 Aug. 1833, and Nicolls to Hay, 14 Sept. 1833; F.O. 84/147, Sierra Leone (General) No. 4: Smith and Macaulay to Paimerston, 6 Jan. 1834.

17 Dike, , Trade and Politics, 70–7.Google Scholar

18 PRO, F.O. 315/33–6, Registers of Slaves Emancipated, 1830–48. Very high mortality rates suffered while under escort to Sierra Leone meant that those registered represented three-fourths or fewer of those leaving the Bight of Biafra.

19 Latham, , Old Calabar, 56–7Google Scholar, gives Liverpool imports of palm oil for 1772–87 and U.K. imports of palm oil from West Africa for 1790–1853.

20 Jamieson, Robert, Commerce with Africa, rev. edn. (London, 1859), 20Google Scholar, based on ‘custom house and other documents’.

21 Hutchinson, Thomas J., ‘General Report on the Bight of Biafra’, 20 June 1856Google Scholar, PRO F.O. 2/16. Burton, Richard, ‘General Report on Consulate (Extract)’, Burton to Russell, 15 Apr. 1864Google Scholar, Parl. Papers 1865, ivi (3503–1).

22 McPhee, , Economic Revolution, 30–1.Google Scholar

23 Laird, Macgregor and Oldfield, R. A. K., Narrative of an Expedition into the Interior of Africa … in 1832, 1833, and 1834 (London, 1837), ii, 358.Google Scholar

24 Dike, , Trade and Politics, 53 ff.Google Scholar; Latham, , Old Calabar, 58.Google Scholar

25 Laird and Oldfield, Narrative, ii, 358; Badgley, , ‘Report on Old Calabar’.Google Scholar

26 Dike, , Trade and Politics, 68–9Google Scholar. Elsewhere (p. 41), Dike also puts the emphasis on the initiatives of the coastal traders: ‘The determined attack on the slave trade by the British Naval Squadron had greatly undermined it, and the Delta middlemen, eager to maintain their position, turned to the new trade’.

27 Latham, , Old Calabar, 79 ff.Google Scholar

28 Ibid. 55–6; Dike, , Trade and Politics, 67.Google Scholar

29 Hopkins, A. G., An Economic History of West Africa (London and New York, 1973), 140–1.Google Scholar

30 These points are discussed at length in Northrup, David, ‘Trade without Rulers: Pre-Colonial Economic Development in the Biafran Hinterland’, Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles, 1974Google Scholar, chapters 4–6, to be published by Oxford University Press.

31 Falconbridge, Alexander, An Account of the Slave Trade on the Coast of Africa (London, 1788), 12.Google Scholar

32 Records of the prices paid to Africans for slaves and palm oil in this period are scarce, but the selling price of a slave at Bonny in 1787 was £16–18 and at Old Calabar £12–14, according to the testimony of Mr Norris, Part. Papers 1789 lxxxiv (646a). The price of a ton of palm oil in the same ports in the early nineteenth century was £10–14, according to Captain Adams, John, Remarks on the Country Extending from Cape Palmas to the River Congo (London, 1823), 250–5Google Scholar. During the first half of the century both prices increased.

33 Twentieth-century studies in this area of palm oil production using traditional methods suggest that 300 lb. of palm fruit (twenty-five to thirty clusters) are required to produce a 36-lb. tin of semi-hard (export grade) oil. The labour involved equals three to five person/days per tin, half or more of the work being done by women. Bridges, A. F. B., ‘Report on Oil Palm Survey in the Ibo, Ibibio and Cross River Area’, 1938Google Scholar, appendix VII, MSS. Afr.s. 679, Rhodes House Library, Oxford; Forde, Daryll and Scott, Richenda, The Native Economies of Nigeria (London, 1946), 52.Google Scholar

34 A quite different situation existed in Dahomey where the state structure enabled the ‘merchant-nobles’ who had run the slave trade to continue to dominate the trade in palm oil, according to Coquery-Vidrovitch, Cathérine, ‘De la traite des esclaves à l'exportation de l'huile de palme et des palmistes au Dahomey: XIXe siècle’, in The Development of Indigenous Trade and Markets in West Africa, ed. Meillassoux, Claude (London, 1971), 115–17Google Scholar. Mme. Coquery emphasizes, as does the present study, that the palm oil trade was complementary to the slave trade, not incompatible with it.

35 Hartley, C. A. W., The Old Palm (Elaeis Guineensis) (London, 1967)Google Scholar, and Martin, Anne, The Oil Palm Economy of the Ibibio Farmer (Ibadan, 1956).Google Scholar

36 Pereira, Duarte Pacheco, Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis, Cóte Occidentale d'Afrique du Sud Marocain au Gabon, ed. Mauny, Raymond (Bissau, 1956), 140Google Scholar. For a discussion of this period see Northrup, David, ‘The Growth of Trade among the Igbo before 1800’, J. Afr. Hist., xiii (1972), 217–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

37 Jackson, , Journal, 148.Google Scholar

38 Assuming that sales recorded at the end of the seventeenth century had grown proportionately with the slave trade from this coast. See Northrup, , ‘Trade without Rulers’, 251.Google Scholar

39 Bold, Edward, The Merchants' and Mariners' African Guide (London, 1819), 77–8Google Scholar. For other variations of the name ‘Egbosherry’ see notes 41 and 42.

40 Goldie, Hugh, Dictionary of the Efik Language (Glasgow, 1862Google Scholar; reprinted Ridgewood, 1964), 358–9, cites proverbs about the population density in the towns of Mbiakong and Idu.

41 Goldie, Hugh, ‘Journal’, 6 Nov. 1848, in Missionary Record, iv (Sept. 1849), 132Google Scholar, tells of ‘a part of Egbo Sharry called Itam, where the great oil market is held, from which the Calabar traders are supplied at Ikpa, Ekrikok [Ikot Offiong] and Itu markets’. An interview with Chief Philip Bassey Ikpe, regent for the Obong Isong, and other elders of Ikpa, Uruan, Uyo Division, on 5 Dec. 1972 disclosed that Ikpa had traded for oil with surrounding towns and as far upstream as Ibiono. An interview with Chief Thompson Ekpo, Ikot Udo, Ibiaku, Ibiono, Uyo Division, on 28 Nov. 1972 confirmed the existence of the former trade connexion to Ikpa.

42 Grazelhier, John, ‘Journal’Google Scholar, quoted in Barbot, James, ‘An Abstract of a Voyage to the New Calabar River, or Rio Real, in the Year 1699’, in Awnsham, and Churchill, John, ed., Collection of Voyages and Travels (London, 1746), v, 465Google Scholar, tells of purchases of foodstuffs and other provisions from the kings of ‘Agbisherea’.

43 Fage, , History of West Africa, 81.Google Scholar

44 Hopkins, , Economic History, 119–22.Google Scholar