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Slaves from the Windward Coast

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Adam Jones  and
Marion Johnson
Adam Jones
Affiliation:
Centre of West African Studies, University of Birmingham
Marion Johnson
Affiliation:
Centre of West African Studies, University of Birmingham
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Extract

The ‘Windward Coast’ between Cape Mount and Assini (modern Liberia and Ivory Coast) is credited by Curtin with the export of very large numbers of slaves in the late seventeenth century and most of the eighteenth, but with hardly any in the nineteenth. It is suggested here that the actual figures for the earlier period are much lower, many of those slaves attributed to this stretch of coast in the English trade having come from the region Curtin calls ‘Sierra Leone’, while a large proportion of those carried in French ships came from the Gold Coast or beyond. In the nineteenth century, slave trading continued on the coast between Cape Mount and New Sestos until 1840. More work is needed on available sources. The figures are far too uncertain to be used for a chronological underpinning of oral traditions of peoples a great distance inland.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 21 , Issue 1 , January 1980 , pp. 17 - 34
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1980

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References

1 Curtin, Philip D., The Atlantic Slave Trade: A Census (Madison, Wis., 1969).Google Scholar

2 E.g. Fage, J. D., A History of Africa (London, 1978), 266Google Scholar; Curtin, Philip, Feierman, Steven, Thompson, Leonard and Vansina, Jan, African History (London, 1978), 233–4.Google Scholar

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14 Donnan, , Documents, iv, 183–7.Google Scholar

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23 P.R.O., BT6/3, ff. 99–129Google Scholar. The number of slaves actually purchased was considerably lower than the number ‘gone for’: Newton in 1750 went for 250, but bought only 174; in 1752 he went for 250 but bought only 207; and in 1753 he went for 300 but bought only 87, making up the rest of his cargo with camwood and ivory.

24 Donnan, , Documents, iii, 151, and iv, 314Google Scholar. Those who sold slaves to Godfrey included Patrick Clow (of the Plantain Islands), ‘Mr Wright’ (who lived either on the Banana Islands or at Sherbro), Richard Hall (of York Island, Sherbro), William Skinner (of the Kamaranka River and Sherbro) and William Norie (of the Banana Islands): see Newton, , ‘Journal’; Owen, Nicholas, Journal of a Slave-Dealer, ed. Eveline Martin (London, 1930)Google Scholar; Nantes, , Archives Départementales, B 5004/5, Journal de bord du navire négrier l'Africain, 1738–40.Google Scholar

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28 Curtin, , Census, 129Google Scholar. Curtin reproduces a slight error in Le Page's calculations: the ‘Windward Coast’ vessels in Enfield's list in fact account for 32 per cent of the total, not 31.

29 P.R.O., BT 6/3.

30 Edwards, Bryan, The History, Civil and Commercial, of the British Colonies in the West Indies… (2nd ed., 2 vols., London, 1793), ii, 56Google Scholar. An earlier version of the list quoted by appears, Edwards in Campbell, John, A Political Survey of Britain (2 vols, London, 1774), 11, 629–33Google Scholar. This defines the Windward Coast as extending from Cape Roxo (near the Casamance) to Cape Apollonia (near Assini).

31 Curtin, , Census, 129.Google Scholar

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33 British Museum, Eg. Ms. 1162A. ‘Papers relating to the commerce of Africa.’ The list is erroneously dated 1754.

34 Anstey, ‘Volume’, 12–13; Curtin, ‘Measuring’, 110–11. Curtin gives Anstey's figure as ‘12.2 per cent’-presumably an oversight; it should be ‘13.1 per cent’. Norris's estimate was made in 1788: P.R.O., BT6/9, Norris 27 February 1788. Curtin gives the date as 1787, while Anstey gives it as 1789: Curtin, , Census, 147Google Scholar; Anstey, , ‘Volume’, 14.Google Scholar

35 E.g. Accounts & Papers (1792), xxxv, 766Google Scholar; Accounts & Papers (1789), xxiv, 633, p. 51Google Scholar; P.R.O., BT6/10; British Museum, Add. MS. 38416; Lloyds' Lists.

36 House of Lords, 5/J/11/2, Return to an order dated 10 July 1799Google Scholar; Accounts & Papers (1801–1802), iv, 451.Google Scholar

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38 See the articles by Klein, Lamb and Engerman, , and Drake, , in Anstey, Roger and Hair, P.E.H., ed., Liverpool, the African Slave Trade and Abolition (Historical Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, Occasional Series, Vol. 2, 1976).Google Scholar

39 Martin, Gaston, Nantes au XVIII' Siècle. L'Ére des Négriers (Paris, 1931), 188Google Scholar, 207, 218, 289. Gaston Martin's knowledge of African geography seems to have been based almost exclusively on one rather poor eighteenth century map.

40 Mettas, Jean, ‘Pour une histoire de la traite des Noirs française: sources et problèmes’, in Emmer, Pieter, Mettas, Jean and Nardin, Jean-Claude, ed., The Atlantic Slave Trade: New Approaches (Paris, 1976), 19–46, p. 32.Google Scholar

41 Curtin, , Census, 170.Google Scholar

42 Mettas, , ‘Pour une histoire’, 32Google Scholar. In some cases, Gaston Martin's sources only state where a ship began to trade and where it finished, without indicating where most of the slaves were actually purchased. One list, for example, includes several ships which began trading at Sherbro, Galinhas or Cape Mount and finished at Anamabou. (Nantes, Arch. Dép., B 4588). Presumably if such ships went to the trouble of sailing beyond Cape Palmas, it was because they expected to obtain a large proportion of their slaves on the Gold Coast. In other cases, fuller details are available: Nantes, Arch. Dép., B 5004 and B 5006. Cf. Donnan, , Documents, iv, 636.Google Scholar

43 Curtin, , Census, 170Google Scholar. Curtin's latest estimates reduce the Windward Coast's share in the 1750s from 38.9 percent to 0.7 per cent and increase its share for the period 1761–1800 to about 2.5 per cent. He gives no reason for making these sizeable alterations: Curtin, , ‘Measuring’, 112–26.Google Scholar

44 Rinchon, Dieudonné, Le Trafic Négrier, d'après les Livres de Commerce du Capitaine Gantois Pierre-Ignace-Liévin van Alstein (Paris, 1938), i, 282–301Google Scholar. Some doubt has been cast on the reliability of Rinchon's data: Stein, Robert, ‘Measuring the French slave trade, 1713–1792/3’. J Afr Hist, xix, (1978), 515–21, P. 519.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

45 ‘The Choiseul Papers’, Munger Africana Library Notes, iii (1971), 8–9Google Scholar; Paris, Archives Nationales, C624, ‘Mémoire sur la Côte d'Afrique’, and ‘Mémoire sur le commerce à la côte de Guinée’ (1784)Google Scholar; Paris, Arch. Nat., C527, ‘Observations faites par M. Morel’ (1771)Google Scholar and ‘Mémoire sur les côtes et le commerce d'Afrique’ (1782)Google Scholar; Nantes, , Arch. Dép., C. 881 ff. 202–8Google Scholar, ‘Considérations sur le commerce d'Afrique’ (1762)Google Scholar. See also: Forlacroix, Christian, ‘Origine et formation de la Côte d'Ivoire’, Annales de l'Université d'Abidjan, série I (Histoire), 1 (1972), 63–93, PP. 67–8.Google Scholar

46 Paris, Arch. Nat., C627. British traders alleged in 1777 that the French carried on ‘by much the greatest part of the trade’ between Sierra Leone and Cape Apollonia, paying ‘high prices for Negroes and other African produce’: British Museum, Eg. MS. 1162A, fol. 178, Germain et al., 1777Google Scholar. But there is no evidence to support this claim. In the same year, a Frenchman complained that trade at Bassam was dominated by English ships: Paris, Arch. Nat., C626, ‘Mémoire pour servir à faire de Nouveaux Établissemens’ (1777).Google Scholar

47 It may turn out that the proportion of slaves bought on the Windward Coast by Nantes ships was higher than for other French ports: see, for example, Mettas, Jean, ‘Honfleur et la traite des Noirs au XVIIIe siècle‘, Revue française d'Histoire d'Outre-Mer, lx (1973). 5–26, p. 10.Google Scholar

48 Debien, G., Houdaille, J., Massio, R. and Richard, R., ‘Les origines des esclaves des Antilles’, Bulletin de l'I.F.A.N., série B, xxiii–xxix (1961–7)Google Scholar. Curtin identifies Debien's ‘Kissi’ with the Kisi of upper Guinea-Conakry and suggests that they were probably sold on the Windward Coast (Curtin, , Census, 185, 196Google Scholar). This interpretation is supported by Rodney, Walter, ‘The Guinea Coast’, in Gray, Richard, ed., The Cambridge History of Africa, iv (Cambridge, 1975), 223–324, p. 291Google Scholar. A more plausible theory, however, is that they were people from the Kise Kise River, perhaps speaking the Kisekise dialect of Susu: such slaves were sold at Sierra Leone and the Iles de Los (Mettas, , ‘Honfleur’, 23)Google Scholar. The ‘Canga’ or ‘Kanga’ slaves whom Curtin attributes to the Windward Coast may have come from north of Cape Mount too: Hair, who has examined the literature on this subject, concludes that ‘though Kanga was sometimes considered to extend down the Liberian coast, it tended to be more often associated with the coast between Sherbro Island and Cape Mount and the hinterland of this coast’: Hair, P. E. H., ‘An ethnolinguistic inventory of the Lower Guinea Coast before 1700: Part I’, African Language Review, vii (1968), 47–73,Google Scholar p. 71. The slaves called ‘Bobo’, as Curtin himself admits, may have been shipped on the Gold Coast (Curtin, , Census, 185Google Scholar). Thus the Windward Coast's share of slaves who reached the French West Indies in the second half of the eighteenth century may have been as low as I per cent.

49 Brun, Samuel, Schiffarten… (Basel, 1624), 48–56;Google Scholar The Hague, Archief van de Nederlandse Bezittingen ter Kuste van Guinea, Rijksarchief, Oude W.I.C. II, instructions dated 3 February 1634 (Nassau); Ratelband, K., Vijf Dagregisters van het Kasteel Sao Jorge da Mina 1645–7 ('S-Gravenhage, 1953), ixxix, 80Google Scholar, 138, 155; Van Brakel, S., ‘Eene Memorie over den Handel der West-Indische Compagnie omstreeks 1670’, Bijdragen en Mededeelingen van het Historisch Genootschap (Utrecht), xxxv (1914), 87–104,Google Scholar p. 101.

50 Postma, Johannes, ‘The origin of African slaves: the Dutch activities on the Guinea Coast’, in Engerman, and Genovese, , Race and Slavery, 33–49, p. 38Google Scholar. However, when merchants from the Austrian Netherlands sent two frigates to buy slaves at River Sestos and Cape Lahou in 1718, they came into conflict with the Dutch West India Company: Everaert, John G., ‘Commerce d'Afrique et traite négrière dans les Pays-Bas autrichiens’, in Emmer et al., Atlantic Slave Trade, 177–85, p. 179.Google Scholar

51 Postma, , ‘Origin’, 44–8Google Scholar. Curtin explicitly includes Postma's figures for the stretch of coast between Assini and Axim in his estimates for the Windward Coast, although according to his definition slaves obtained there ought to belong to the Gold Coast: Curtin, , ‘Measuring’, 113Google Scholar, 118. This makes his estimates for the Dutch trade on the Windward Coast about 2 per cent higher than Postma's figures warrant.

52 Paris, Arch. Nat., C618, ‘Remarques. État en apperçu des Esclaves que peuvent retirer les Nations de l'Europe de la Côte Occidentale d'Afrique.’

53 Curtin, , Census, 226.Google Scholar

54 Curtin, , ‘Measuring’, 112.Google Scholar

55 Feierman, Curtinet al., African History, 233Google Scholar. Cf. Curtin, , ‘Measuring’, 121.Google Scholar

56 The British naval vessel Guernsey, which visited Cape Mesurado in 1722 to fetch wood and water, did not encounter anyone buying slaves. Several members of the crew were killed by the people of Cape Mesurado, and others were returned only after the payment of a ransom: Gwyn, Julian, ‘An incident on the Grain Coast, 1722’, Mariner's Mirror, ivi (1970), 313–25;Google Scholar Greenwich, Nat. Mar. Mus., ADM/L/G/179, F. Percy, ‘Journal’. This incident confirms the picture given by Von der Groeben in 1681, Snoek in 1701, Atkins in 1721 and Smith in 1726: all four reported that the people of Cape Mount and Cape Mesurado were afraid of being ‘panyarred’ by Europeans and that the relationship between them and Europeans was extremely sensitive: Von der Groeben, Otto F., Guineische Reisebeschreibung (Marienwerder, 1964), 35Google Scholar; Bosman, , Beschryving, Letter XXIIGoogle Scholar; Atkins, John, A Voyage to Guinea, Brasil and the West-Indies (London, 1735), 58Google Scholar; Smith, , New Voyage, 104.Google Scholar

57 Labat, J. B., Voyages du Chevalier des Marchais en Guinée (4 vols., Paris, 1730), 1, 105.Google Scholar

58 Villault de Bellefond, N., Relation des Costes d'Afrique (Paris, 1669), 98–113.Google Scholar

59 Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Manuscrits, Français 24, 223Google Scholar, ‘Journal du voyage de Guinée…par le Chevalier des Marchais…’ (1724–1726).Google Scholar

60 Add, British Museum. Ms. 19560, ‘Journal de navigation… par le Sieur des Marchais’ (1704).Google Scholar

61 ‘Journal du voyage de Guinée’, ff. 28–9. The parts of this document relating to the Gold coast and Whydah are highly suspect; but Des Marchais may well have revisited Cape Mesurado in 1724.

62 Arch, Nantes. Dép., B 5004/4, ‘Journal de bord du navire La Diligente’ (1750).Google Scholar

63 Person, Yves, ‘Le Soudan nigérien et la Guinée occidentale’, in Deschamps, Hubert, ed., Histoire Générale de l'Afrique Noire de Madagascar et des Archipels (2 vols., Paris, 1970), 1, 283–303, p. 284.Google Scholar

64 Idem, ‘Les Kissi et leurs statuettes de pierre dans le cadre de l'histoire ouestafricaine’, Bulletin de l'I.F.A.N., série B, 23 (1961), 1–57, pp. 13–14Google Scholar, 53.

65 Curtin, , ‘Measuring’, 121.Google Scholar

66 Feierman, Curtinet al., African History, 234.Google Scholar

67 Mercier, P., ‘Guinée centrale et orientale’, in Deschamps, Histoire Générale, 1, 305–27, p. 326.Google Scholar

68 Person, Yves, ‘En quête d'une chronologie ivoirienne’, in Vansina, J., Mauny, R. and Thomas, L. V., ed., The Historian in Tropical Africa (London, 1964), 322–38, p. 327.Google Scholar

69 Ibid. 332; idem, ‘Soudan nigérien’, 301. Person's chronology with regard to Kong has been challenged in a short but convincing article by Levtzion, Nehemia, ‘Note surles états dyula de Kong et de Bobo’, Bulletin de Liaison (Linguistique, Ethnologie), Centre Universitaire de Recherches de Développement, Université d'Abidjan, i (1971), 61–2.Google Scholar

70 Person, , ‘Soudan nigérien’, 285.Google Scholar

71 Calculations based on Postma, ‘Origin’, 44–7Google Scholar. According to a French document dated 1784, the people of Cape Lahou refused to accept a Dutch establishment; but in peacetime the Dutch always kept a ship stationed there. After staying seven or eight months, it would exchange its cargo for gold and ivory: Paris, Arch. Nat., C624, ‘Mémoire sur le commerce à la Côte de Guinée’ (1784)Google Scholar. In 1838–9, Bouët referred to a former Dutch establishment at Cape Lahou: Paris, Bibliothèque Sainte-Généviève, Réserve, MS. 1813, Bouët, and Broquant, , ‘Esquisse commerciale de la côte occidentale d'Afrique, depuis Gallinas jusqu'au Gabon’ (1838–1839)Google Scholar. But Postma (‘Origin’, 39) says that the Dutch never established trading stations on the Windward Coast.

72 P.R.O., BT 6/3. Cf. P.R.O., CO 267/9, Norris 29 May 1790.Google Scholar

73 See, for example, Curtin, Philip D., ed., Africa Remembered: Narratives by West Africans from the Era of the Slave Trade (Madison, 1967)Google Scholar; Barber, John, A History of the Amistad Captives (New York, 1840).Google Scholar

74 Clarkson, Thomas, An Essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species in Three Parts (London, 1786), 29.Google Scholar

75 Newton, , ‘Journal’; P.R.O., C 107/14, Walker 14 October 1787Google Scholar to Rogers.

76 Owen, , Journal, 24Google Scholar; Newton, John, Thoughts upon the African Slave Trade (London, 1788), 5–6Google Scholar. Towards the end of the century, however, a few white men did settle at Cape Mount and Cape Mesurado: see, for example, Sierra Leone Gazette, May 1808Google Scholar; British Museum, Add. Ms. 12131, Mr Parfitt's Information (1796).Google Scholar

77 P.R.O., BT 6/9, Newton 15.2.1788Google Scholar. As Curtin says, ‘The supply of slaves was not drawn from the distant hinterland, but from scattered sources close to the coast’: Curtin, , Census, 226.Google Scholar

78 Newton, ‘Journal’.

79 Accounts & Papers (1790), XXIX, 698Google Scholar, Fraser, 1 February 1790.Google Scholar

80 Klein, Herbert S. and Engerman, Stanley L., ‘Slave mortality on British ships, 1791–1797’Google Scholar, in Anstey, and Hair, , Liverpool, 113–25,Google Scholar p. 116; Drake, B. K., ‘The Liverpool-African voyage c. 1790–1807:Google Scholar commercial problems’, in Ibid. 126–56, p. 146. Anstey, , however, calculates that ships which went to the Sierra Leone region took even longer: Roger Anstey, The Atlantic Slave Trade and British Abolition (London, 1975), 24.Google Scholar

81 Curtin, , Feierman, et al., African History, 234Google Scholar; Curtin, , Census, 247, 258.Google Scholar

82 P.R.O., CO 267/40, Hyde 1 July 1815Google Scholar to SoS Enc, Saunders 28 June 1815Google Scholar; P.R.O., FO 84/19, MacCarthy 26 September 1822Google Scholar to F.O. Enc, Gordon 6 September 1822Google Scholar; P.R.O., FO 84/332, Stevenson 10 November 1840Google Scholar to F.O. Enc, Bell 28 July 1840Google Scholar; P.R.O., CO 267/167, Admiralty 25 July 1841Google Scholar to C.O. Enc, Canot 12 November 1840Google Scholar; Paris, Arch. Nat., Section Outre-Mer, Généralités 177/1417 No. 47ee; Parliamentary Papers 1820, XII, 90Google Scholar and 1821, XXIII, 366, 20, Reports of Sir Collier, George; 16th Report of the African Institution (London, 1822) 69–71Google Scholar; African Repository, November 1830 and December 1837Google Scholar; Bridge, Horatio, Journal of an African Cruiser (London, 1845), 52Google Scholar; Mayer, Brantz, Captain Canot: Or, Twenty years of an African Slaver (New York, 1854), chapters 53–65Google Scholar; Holsoe, Svend E., ‘A study of relations between settlers and indigenous peoples in Western Liberia, 1821–1847’, African Historical Studies, IV, ii (1971), 331–62, pp. 342–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Daget, Serge, ‘Long cours et négriers nantais du trafic illégal (1814–1831)’, in Mettas, Emmer and Nardin, , Atlantic Slave Trade, 90–134,Google Scholar p. 112; Peterson, John, Province of Freedom (London, 1969), 178Google Scholar. Regional contributions to the slave trade between 1821 and 1843 are discussed in Eltis, David, ‘The export of slaves from Africa, 1821–1843’, J Econ Hist, xxxvii (1977), 409–33CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Unfortunately, he includes the Windward Coast in the category ‘Other Known Points’, so that it is impossible to assess the precise share it occupied. It should also be remembered that a few slaves from the northern part of this coast were probably transferred to Galinhas and shipped from there: African Repository, November 1830.Google Scholar

83 Bouët and Broquant, ‘Esquisse’. Bouët later published a picture of a ‘slave factory on the Grain Coast’, as well as a map on which the importance of the slave trade was indicated by a thick black line extending from Sherbro to New Sestos: Bouët-Willaumez, Edouard, Description Nautique des Côtes de l'Afrique Occidentale (Paris, 1846), 179Google Scholar; idem, Commerce et Traite des Noirs aux Côtes occidentales d'Afrique (Paris, 1848).Google Scholar

84 Parliamentary Papers, 1821, XXIII, 366Google Scholar, 20, Collier 16 September 1820 to Admiralty.

85 Curtin, , Census, 258Google Scholar. One possible exception is the ‘Gbe’ (perhaps Bakwe, Sikon, or Gere) recaptive mentioned by Koelle: Koelle, Sigismund, Polyglotta Africana (London, 1854), 4Google Scholar. Many eastern ‘Kru’ wordlists are given in Clarke, John, Specimens of Dialects (Berwick-upon-Tweed, 1848)Google Scholar. Clarke, who collected his material in Jamaica and at Fernando Po, may have obtained these particular wordlists not from recaptive slaves but from sailors, just as Koelle obtained western ‘Kru’ wordlists from sailors at Sierra Leone. But the possibility that there were recaptives at Fernando Po who spoke eastern ‘Kru’ languages cannot be excluded.

86 Koelle, , Polyglotta, 3–4.Google Scholar

87 Curtin, , Census, 150.Google Scholar

88 Curtin, , ‘Measuring’, 112.Google Scholar

89 Ibid. 112.

90 This is the highest of the alternatives given in Curtin, Census, Chapter 8. It should be noted that the totals of which these are percentages do not refer to the same stretch of the African coast.