Kingston:The Legacies of Slavery

The Atlantic Triangular Slave Trade• Europe's rapidly growing population required more and more food and commodities. Vast amounts of

money could be made from mass producing these goods and selling them at a cheap price.

• At the same time, Britain’s wealthy middle class could now pay for new and often luxury goods, such as sugar, spices, cotton textiles and tea.

• The raw materials needed to mass produce these goods (such as cotton, tobacco, and sugar) could be provided en masse from the Americas, both north and south.

• To cultivate raw materals in America, an immense amount of human labour was required; this was supplied for with slaves, usually kidnapped or traded for on the West coast of Africa.

• Thus, the Atlantic triangular slave trade developed:

• 1. The Americas sold raw materials to Europe.

• 2. With these raw materials, industrial Europe produced a huge range of manufactured goods (such as textiles, guns, machines, glass, iron, and jewellery). These goods were transported to Africa, and sold in exchange for slaves.

• 3. The African slaves were then transported to America, where they were used to farm cash crops, which were sold to Europe.

Slavery in Britain in the 18th century

• Britain had been trading slaves since the 1500s, but it wasn't until the 18th century that it entered into large-scale trading.

• Officially, since 1793 ,slaves brought to mainland Britain were to be immediately freed, as there was no law for slavery in Britain. However, this was not always adhered to and slaves could easily be kidnapped and sent back to the Americas.

• African servants were relatively rare in Britain, and to employ one was generally considered exotic and fashionable (indicating ownership of colonial plantations).

• During the industrial revolution, the triangular Atlantic slave trade became the main economic foundation of many big cities, especially Bristol and Liverpool.

• At the same time, opponents to the slave trade were numerous and very politically active (especially among Dissenting protestant groups).

Advertisement for slave in London, 1756" To be sold, a Negro boy age about fourteen years old, warranted free from any distemper, and has had those fatal to that colour; has been used two years to all kinds of household work, and to wait on table; his price is £25, and would not be sold but the person he belongs to is leaving off business. Apply at the bar of George Coffee House in Chancery Lane, over the Gate. [1756} "

- See more at: http://www.historytoday.com/james-walvin/black-people-britain-eighteenth-century#sthash.KdLJH0S8.dpuf

Liverpool

Martin’s bank, Liverpool

Cotton plantations in the Southern States of the USA

The Role of the Carribean in the British Slave Trade• Britain, France, and Spain had all colonised islands in the Carribean,

which were largely used for slave labour. • Thus, Slavery in the Carribean was quite different than in the USA.• The largest British colonies in the Carribean were Jamaica and

Bermuda.• The main crop was the sugar cane, which was extremely difficult and

dangerous to cultivate. Jamaica soon became the biggest sugar producer in the world. Coffee and rice were also grown.• In 1680, sugar plantations had an average of 60 slaves working. By 1832

this had increased to an average of 150 slaves.

Conditions on the Slave Plantations• Slaves were sold at auction on arrival, or even while still on the boat. They were washed and oil was

placed on their skin to make them seem healthier.• Men and older children were the most valuable slaves.• Families were immediately separated to prevent slave collusion. For the same reason, slaves were

deliberately housed with others from different regions – so that they couldn’t communicate. This led to the development of several new ‘creole’ languages in the plantations.

• Unofficial ‘marriage’ was encouraged among slaves, but their children were born into slavery and could be taken away or sold at any time.

• Slaves generally worked from dawn to dusk. Conditions were so extreme that deaths were commonplace, and there was a constant need for new slave shipments.

• Slaves were given new names (often taken from classical literature), and took on the surnames of their masters.

• Initially, slave owners were reluctant to convert their slaves to Christianity, but this gradually happened throughout the 19th century.

Ruins of a Barbados Sugar plantation, 1933

Thomas Tryon described in 1700 the work of the enslaved labourers in the boiling house:• “the Climate is so hot, and the labor so constant, that the [Black]

Servants night and day standing great Boyling Houses, where there are Six Seven large Coppers or Furnaces kept perpetually boyling; and from which with heavy Ladles and Scummers, the Skim off the excrementatious parts of the Canes, till it comes to its perfection and cleanness, while others as Stoakers, Broil, as it were alive, in managing the Fires; and one part is constantly at the Mill, to supply it with Canes, night and day, during the whole Season of making Sugar, which is about six Months of the year”. (From Liverpool Slavery Museum website http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ism/slavery/)

Sir Thomas Lynch on sugar factories in 1672:• "If a Mill-feeder be catch'd by the finger, his whole body is drawn in,

and is squees'd to pieces, If a Boyler gets any part into the scalding Sugar, it sticks like Glew, or Birdlime, and 'tis hard to save either Limb or Life.”

Excerpts from Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park (1814)• “I love to hear my uncle talk of the West Indies. I could listen to

him for an hour together … But I do talk to him more than is used. I am sure I do. Did not you hear me ask him about the slave trade last night?”  [Fanny to Edmund, 198.]

• “I did – and was in hopes the question would be followed up by others. It would have pleased your uncle to be inquired of farther.” [Edmund to Fanny]

• “And I longed to do it – but there was such a dead silence! And while my cousins were sitting by without speaking a word, or seeming at all interested in the subject, I did not like – I thought it would appear as if I wanted to set myself off at their expense, by shewing a curiosity and pleasure in his information which he must wish his own daughters to feel.” [Fanny, 198. Edmund you will notice proceeds to only talk of Mary Crawford…]

1st Abolitionist movements• Dissenting protestants, and especially Quakers, had been vocal anti-slave activists since the

mid-eighteenth century.• A group of Quakers founded the first British ‘abolitionist’ organisation in 1783. Anglican groups

followed some time later.• Encouraged by the huge popularity of ‘Slave Narratives’ – published autobiographies of slaves

who had found freedom.• Many private groups, and especially women’s groups, decided to quit sugar – to discourage the

traders’ economy.• In 1783, the politician William Wilberforce created the Committee for the Abolition of the

Slave Trade• This led to the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act of 1807 (Slavery itself was still legal).• To prevent other countries from profitting by Britain’s loss of trade, naval envoys ‘policed’ the

Atlantic to prevent slave trading where possible.

Frederick Douglas: Freed slave, and author of political abolitionist tracts

Extract from ― Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845)

• “I have observed this in my experience of slavery, - that whenever my condition was improved, instead of its increasing my contentment, it only increased my desire to be free, and set me to thinking of plans to gain my freedom. I have found that, to make a contented slave, it is necessary to make a thoughtless one. It is necessary to darken his moral and mental vision, and, as far as possible, to annihilate the power of reason. He must be able to detect no inconsistencies in slavery; he must be made to feel that slavery is right; and he can be brought to that only when he ceased to be a man.”

William Wilberforce

Justifications of the Slave trade in 19th century Britain • Economic arguments: cities like Liverpool and Bristol depended almost entirely on

employment driven by the slave trade. • Arguments of civilisation: pro-slavery activist sometimes argued that slaves were

better off in ‘civilised’ countries than in Africa.• ‘Well treated slaves’: many pro-slavery activists tried to suppress reports of cruelty

in the plantations, and instead claimed that most slaves were treated well.• Religious argument: many argued that slavery was part of the ‘natural order’ and

had been justified in the Bible.• Racism: the idea that certain humans were ‘biologically’ inferior was largely rooted

in the 19th-century justifications of the slave trade. In many ways, this was a mixture of new Darwinian theories and older ideas of class hierarchy.

The Jamaican Slave Revolt of 1831• The Slave Trade act of 1807 forbade slave trading, but slavery itself continued in the carribean.• In Jamaica, there were 20,000 white planters and 200,000 slaves.• As the plantations were worked, the soil began to exhaust – leading plantation owners to work

their slaves even harder.• Some groups of Jamaican slaves had converted to dissenting protestantism, and thus became

informed about the abolitionist movement in Britain.• Samual Sharpe, a slave who had been allowed to receive a good education, began to preach

dissenting abolitionism to his fellow slaves.• In 1831, 60,000 of jamaica’s 300,000 slaves went on strike, and soon the movement escalated

into full on rebelion. • The rebellion was crushed brutally, but succeeded in gaining popular sympathy in Europe.

Slavery was entirely abolished by the British parliament in 1833.

Sam Sharpe square, Jamaica

Consequences of Slave emancipation• Slaves were abandoned with nowhere to go, and often simply returned

to the same work they had been doing before.• Former slaver owners were compensated for their lost investment. • Workers in Northern England rioted against emancipation, fearing for

their employment.• Eventually Jamaica became an independent state in 1958. 92% of the

population can trace their ancestry to West African slaves.• The various creoles have become ‘Jamaican standard English’ spoken

widely in Jamaica. This dialect has also have a considerable influence on British English.

Legacies of Slavery• Carribean economy: former slave islands in the Carribean were left underdeveloped, and

continued to be exploited by European powers.• The worst excesses of slavery were written out of history for a long time, and many

weren’t exposed until the second half of the 20th century. School textbooks in ome states of the USA still make little mention of slavery.

• Racialisation: the new discourse of ‘scientific race’, popularised by pro-slavery advocates, remained as a dominant way of defining human beings as superior or inferior. This idea continued to dominate European anthropology until the late 20th century. Such ideology was used to continue the socio-political suppression of non-whites and minority groups.

• Community divisions: in Britain and all former slave-owning states.• Modern slavery: some 29 million people in the world are still believed to exist as modern

day slaves.