The English and the Transatlantic Traffic in Enslaved Africans

How long did the Portuguese have a monopoly over slavery?

200 years - the English were ‘slow off the mark‘

England and the Americas - Newfoundland

• John Cabot (1492) - reaches Newfoundland

• Harsh climate - could not grow exotic crops like sugar

• No civilised peoples

• Few natural resources (fishery)

• Loose interest by 1520s - don’t make any real attempt at colonisation

Sir John Hawkins

• Naval commander, merchant, navigator and slave trader

• Slave voyages to Africa - 1562, 1564 and 1567

• Royal backing

• Captured at least 300 enslaved people on the African coast and then turned to Hispaniola

• Spanish did not look too kindly to Hawkins (disrupting their interests)

• Made considerable profits - sold enslaved people in the SNW and made 60% profits

• 1567 voyage - final voyage of 6 ships - took up to 500 enslaved people

English attitudes to slavery

• 1569 Court Judgement - ‘England was too pure air for a slave to breathe in‘

• Many believed that the English ‘did not deal in any such commodities‘ (Richard Jobson)

• Hawkins coat of arms - had enslaved people on it (clearly displaying how he made his money)

Growth of English colonies

• Virginia - 1,200 (1625)

• Barbados - 6.000 (1638) - ¼ size of Bristol at the time

• Driven by cash crops - tobacco and sugar (luxuries enjoyed by the elite BUT mass plantations made prices drop)

English Slave Trade

• 3 recorded voyages - 1570-1640 - BUT even these may not bee true slave voyages

• 1618 Guinea Company Charter - no mention of slaves

• Searching for gold, and trading in pepper, ides and redwood

• Africans were occasionally brought by England - usually taken from Spanish ships e.g. John Blanke the trumpeter

Growth of the Slave Trade: How many voyages were there between 1641-50?

49

Growth of the Slave Trade: How many voyages were there between 1651-63?

71

What was the Royal African Company?

• Established by Royal Charter (Charles II) in 1672

• Granted monopoly on the English trade in West Africa - esp. ST

• Presided over trafficking of enslaved persons to the Americas - 148,000 between 1672-1689

• Transported ~3.4 million enslaved people between 16th-19th C

• Operated forts and trading posts along WA coast

When was the Royal African Company established?

1672 - Royal Charter by Charles II

What caused the Royal African Company’s decline?

• Faced significant losses due to disease outbreaks, resistance from African traders and communities, and competition from other European powers

• Dissolved in 1698

What happens to the Portuguese monopoly over enslaved persons?

Becomes an English monopoly

English Ports

• Initially controlled in London - Royal African Company

• Later Bristol and Liverpool - ‘The Metropolis of Slavery‘

• Lesser ports - Lancaster and Glasgow

Exports TO Africa

• Cloth and clothing

• Armaments

• Agricultural goods

Sources of enslaved people: Bight of Biafra

~1,173,000

Source of enslaved people: West Africa

~630,000

Source of enslaved people: Gold Coast

~509,200

The Middle Passage

• When enslaved Africans were transported from Africa to the Americas, over the Atlantic

• ~1.8 million died during the MP - disease, malnutrition, violence, suicide

• 20-30% died en route

PRIMARY SOURCE: The Middle Passage: ‘The Interesting Narrative of Olaudh Equiano‘ (1789)

• ‘I was soon put down under the decks, and there I received such a salutation in my nostrils as I had never experienced in my life […].‘

• ‘I now wished for the last friend, death, to relieve me […].‘

PRIMARY SOURCE: Analysis of ‘The Interesting Narrative of Oludah Equiano‘ (1789) - POSITIVES

• First Hand Account - Equiano himself experienced the Middle Passage

• Detail and Vividness - Equiano’s narrative is richly detailed and deepens our understanding of the MP & undercuts the idea of Black docility (Herbert Aptheker)

• Abolitionist Perspective - Equiano became an influential abolitionist and his narrative became a piece of abolitionist literature

PRIMARY SOURCE: Analysis of ‘The Interesting Narrative of Oludah Equiano‘ (1789) - LIMITATIONS

• Memory and Interpretation - was written years after the events he describes which raises questions of the accuracy of his memory and subjectivity of the source - could have been influenced by subsequent events

• Politically Motivated - was an abolitionist with an agenda to abolish slavery (this does NOT invalidate the account BUT we must question whether his political agenda has shaped his descriptions)

The Dolbien Act (1788)

• Regulated conditions on slaves ships - BUT had limited effect on the brutality of the ships

• Represents growing abolitionist sentiment in England