Transatlantic Slavery

Between 1450 and 1850, Europeans had abducted millions of people from West Africa and West Central Africa and enslaved them in the Americas. Portugal was the first, followed by Spain, Britain, France, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden. Some of the countries that lost citizens to slavery were Angola, Benin, Gambia, Ghana, Mozambique, Nigeria and Senegal. In the Americas, slave plantations were established in the Lesser Antilles (including Barbados and Trinidad & Tobago), the Greater Antilles (including Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic and Jamaica), Brazil and the USA.

Enslavement of the Tainos

Christopher Columbus landed in Jamaica in 1494 and encountered the Tainos, the first recorded inhabitants of the island. By 1510, the Tainos were enslaved by the Spanish. Initially, the Tainos were used to produce cassava, cassava bread, corn, pigs, bacon and salted beef to be sent to Spain’s newest Central American settlements. New Spanish settlers in Central America had fallen ill and were unable to make use of the natives. Cotton was produced on a major scale in Jamaica at this time.

Pressure on the Tainos in Jamaica increased, as more produce was needed for Central America. Some Tainos secretly left Jamaica for Cuba and as far as Yucatan. By 1520, overwork, European diseases and suicide among the Tainos, had greatly decreased their numbers. Africans were brought in as slaves, to increase the workforce and to cultivate sugar, which was introduced into Jamaica.

Africans brought to Jamaica

Evidence suggests that the first Africans in Jamaica came from the Bakongo people of Angola. The Spanish bought about 4,000 Africans from the Portuguese between 1513 and 1521 and took them to the Greater Antilles – 300 were taken to Jamaica. The Portuguese importation of Africans from Central West Africa into Central America was well established at that time. Cotton and livestock were the main produce in Jamaica. King Ferdinand of Spain initially intended for the Africans to be used as house servants and the Tainos remain as the field hands, partly to prevent conflict between the two groups. The rapid multiplication of livestock, mainly cattle, horses and pigs, dictated that the faster growing number of Africans be used in the field.

By the start of the 17th century, the Tainos were wiped out. On may 10th 1655, when the English invaded Jamaica under the command of Penn and Venables, the Spanish population was about one thousand, and not prepared for war. In 1660, the Spanish resistance was finally broken and in 1662 the first English Governor, Lord Windsor, was sent to Jamaica.

At the end of 1662, the white population in Jamaica was 4,205. There were 552 Africans and 2,917 acres of land were planted. The English sought to buy Africans from the Portuguese, but was dissatisfied with the service received from the Portuguese. The number of free Africans, who had escaped plantation life for the hills shortly after the Spanish took them to Jamaica, was unknown. They joined the Tainos in the hills and became Maroons.

In 1670, the white population had grown to 7,968 and sugarcane became king. Very few slaves were imported into the island since 1662; therefore, the existing slaves were being worked to death. The pressure on the slaves can be understood from the following statistics. From 2,017 acres cultivated in 1662, the figure rose to 140,000 acres cultivated in 1664. Extreme cruelty to slaves caused increase runaways. At the time there were 57 sugar factories and estates, 47 cocoa plantations, 40 indigo works and three salt ponds in the island.

Growth of the Transatlantic Slave Trade

In 1673, two hundred Koromanti slaves from an estate in St. Ann rebelled, killed 12 overseers and escaped into the Cockpit hills. A large rebellion took place in St. Catherine in 1678, and another in 1685, when 150 slaves fled from four estates. With the decrease in slave numbers, the English were now taking Africans directly from Africa. The first group was from Madagascar, and then the slave traders turned their attention to West Africa in force.

The transatlantic slave trade followed a triangular route. Traders left European ports towards the West African coast. They bought people in exchange for goods. The people they bought were farmers, goldsmiths, priests, soldiers, merchants, musicians, etc. They were mothers, fathers, husbands, wives, sons and daughters. They were Kongolese, Akan, Yoruba, Igbo, etc. About two-thirds of the people sold to Europeans were men, which had an adverse effect on the development of those African societies. The voyage from Africa, across the Atlantic to the Americas took 6 to 8 weeks. In the Americas and in this case Jamaica, the Africans that survived were sold to planters as slaves.

The number of African slaves in Jamaica rose from 552 in 1662 to 9,504 in 1673. By 1734, that number had increased to 86,546. In 1775, there were 192,787. Britain began large-scale slaving through private trading companies in the 1640s. The London-based Royal African Company was the largest and from 1672 had a monopoly on the British trade.

The Middle Passage

Slave ships spent months travelling along the West African coast – their crews buying captives from local African and European dealers. Some of the Africans, who were made slaves, were captured in battles. Others were kidnapped or sold into slavery for debt or as punishment. Slavery in the Americas was different from slavery in Africa. The African dealers would not know the extent of cruelty those sold would encounter in the Americas.

The captives were marched from the interior, which took days or weeks. They were kept in slave castles on the coast until there were enough to fill a ship, which could take weeks. They were then taken on board, stripped naked and examined from head to toe by the captain or surgeon. Men were packed together below deck and secured by leg irons, while women and children were kept separately, sometimes on deck, which exposed the women to violence and rape.

Conditions were appalling and the air below deck, foul and putrid. It was very hot and seasickness was common. Smallpox, fever and dysentery were frequent. The captives were taken on the deck in good weather and forced to exercise. Some took the opportunity to stage a rebellion, or jumped overboard to commit suicide. Records suggest that one in five Africans died during the Middle Passage.

As to the number of Africans transported across the Atlantic, some historians accept a figure of 20 million, while others believe it was between 50 and 100 million. Up to 1.5 million died on British built slave ships, between Africa and the Caribbean.

The Americas

In the Americas, the captives were washed, shaved and rubbed down with palm oil, ready for sale by auction to planters or specialised wholesalers. About 40 percent of the captives were taken to the Caribbean.

Planters immediately started the process of obliterating the identities of the Africans. They broke up any bonds that were formed and sought to wipe out any links, thoughts and memories of their past. New working and living conditions were forced on the captives and in Jamaica, they were restricted from communicating in their native tongues and forced to learn the English language. This process was called “seasoning” and lasted two to three years. Some Africans found the treatment unbearable and chose suicide.

Europeans developed views of their own racial superiority to promote their self-interest. They tried to justify the barbarity of their treatment of the slaves by using biblical arguments that Africans were less than humans. The kind of slavery that was practiced by the Europeans was called chattel slavery. A chattel slave is a person owned and treated as a piece of property. He or she could be bought or sold and forced to work in any condition without pay. Chattel slaves had no legal rights and could be punished, raped and abused by the owner at will. Children born to chattel slaves also became chattel slaves.

English Funders and Profiteers of the Transatlantic Slave Trade

The first West Africans that were taken to Jamaica were by the Spanish in 1513, when King Ferdinand granted permission for Esquivel (Governor of Jamaica) to import three Africans as house servants. These Africans were bought from the Portuguese. King Manuel of Portugal had invaded Congo and was profiting greatly from his colony in Central America. Between 1514 and 1521, King Ferdinand of Spain funded and profited greatly from the labour of more slaves imported into Jamaica.

After the English captured Jamaica from the Spanish in 1655, the city of London provided the money for many slaving voyages, and other London institutions insured slaves and cargoes and traded plantation goods. During the 17th and early 18th centuries, London was also Britain’s major port and wealthy London merchants and noblemen owned the slave ships.

John Hawkins – a merchant adventurer and later a naval administrator, was the first English trader. His first involvement was in 1562 and was supported by Elizabeth I, Sir Thomas Lodge who was Lord Mayor of London and other London merchants. They made a fortune and Queen Elizabeth I lent Hawkins a royal ship, the 700-ton Jesus of Lubeck, for his second voyage.

Sir Robert Rich (later the Earl of Warwick) owned plantations in Virginia. He was one of the founders of the London-based Company of Adventurers to Guinea and Benin, which traded Africans between West Africa and the Americas. King Charles I granted a licence to another syndicate of London merchants in 1632 for the trading of slaves. Throughout the period of the transatlantic slave trade, there were many “illegal” traders operating, which there are no records of.

In 1660, King Charles II granted a charter to the Royal Adventurers into Africa, which traded in African gold, slaves and other African goods. Supporters of the company included members of the royal family, important nobles and wealthy London merchants. Samuel Pepys was a shareholder in the new company. Gold from West Africa were minted into coins and popularly known as ‘guineas’ and in 1665, the company was estimated to earn £100,000 from transporting enslaved Africans to the West Indies.

The Royal African Company (RAC) started trading in 1672 and by 1689 it had transported nearly 90,000 Africans to the Americas. James, Duke of York, was the governor and largest shareholder. The company had 15 Lord Mayors of London and 25 sheriffs of London among its shareholders.

By 1698, the number of ports and slave traders had grown greatly, and Bristol was competing with London. In 1713, the Treaty of Utrecht was drawn up with Britain gaining the ‘asiento’. The asiento was the right to carry enslaved Africans to the Spanish Americas. The British government sold this privilege to the South Sea Company (SSC) for £7.5 million. A London bookseller, Thomas Guy, sold his shares in SSC and used his fortune to establish Guy’s Hospital. The SSC transported around 64,000 enslaved Africans between 1715 and 1731.

Other existing large British institutions that were built or grew from the African slave trade are the Bank of England, HSBC Bank, Barclays Bank, Lloyd’s of London, the National Gallery and the Houses of Parliament. Bristol was built on slave labour - important landmarks include Pero’s Bridge, Georgian terraces in the town centre, exclusive neighbourhoods in the hills and imposing church buildings.

Between 1710 and 1730, records show that nearly 200,000 enslaved Africans were transported across the Atlantic in British ships. Unofficially, the number is much greater. Humphrey Morice of Mincing Lane was one of London’s greatest traders. He was an MP and also governor of the Bank of England between 1727 and 1728. The planters in the Caribbean and plantation owners in Britain must not be forgotten – on top of their fortunes from slave labour, they gained an extra £20 million compensation for the loss of their slaves after abolition. The ex-slaves gained nothing.

Bristol and Liverpool overtook London as the leading slaving ports in the 1730s. London, however, continued trading enslaved Africans until the end of the trade and remained the main centre for financing, insuring and managing the trade.

The African World Reparation and Repatriation Truth Commission has put the bill for the transatlantic slave trade at £400,000 billion. Another team of experts using a precise and logical formula calculated that lost wages, potential income and the impact of lives lost would come to a price of £7.5 Trillion, today.

Abolition and Emancipation

Enslaved Africans in the Americas did not accept “their station in life”. Right from the start of the slave trade, they began resisting their enslavement. By the late 18th century, rebellions were commonplace throughout America and the Caribbean. Traders, planters and overseers were finding the resistance increasingly unmanageable.

Planters were losing money as hundreds of slaves freed themselves, leaving the plantations for a better life in the mountains. The runaway slaves joined forces with the Maroons and invaded the plantations, taking what they needed, burning property and attacking planters and their staff. The planters were forced to make treaties with the Maroons, which they seldom kept.

Humanitarian campaigns in the Caribbean, America and Europe were gaining support. The campaign in North America and the Caribbean were led mainly by the Black churches. In Britain, many people believed that slavery was bad. These petitioners included the Anti-Slavery Society, which was founded in 1823 and widely supported by the Quakers.

Wealthy merchants in Britain, and others who profited from slavery, led a counter-campaign. The ‘West Indian Lobby’ of plantation owners and their supporters in the British Parliament fought against abolition. Even though slave trading was abolished in 1807, illegal trading continued for a further sixty years. A quarter of the Africans enslaved between 1500 and 1870 were transported across the Atlantic after the abolition of the slave trade.

The governor of Jamaica did little to implement Britain’s laws. This led to more unrest and in western Jamaica, Samuel Sharpe (a Baptist preacher and slave) organised a strike in December 1831. That strike grew into one of the biggest slave rebellions on the island – it was also the last rebellion. Samuel Sharpe was hanged and a number of white Baptist missionary leaders were charged for inciting the rebellion. It was only when Britain started to enforce the laws by military means that the pressures of slavery was eased.

[OURSTORY] [African Heritage] [Taino heritage] [Transatlantic Slavery] [After Emancipation] [The Maroons] [Jamaica's Heroes] [Idependance]