"Britain, the 'nefarious trade' and slavery
Britain followed in the footsteps of the Portuguese in voyaging to
the west coast of Africa and enslaving Africans. The British
participation in what has come to be called the 'nefarious trade' was
begun by Sir John Hawkins with the support and investment of Elizabeth I
in 1573. (15)
By fair means and foul, Britain outwitted its European rivals and
became the premier trader in the enslaved from the seventeenth century
onwards, and retained this position till 1807. Britain supplied enslaved
African women, men and children to all European colonies in the
Americas.
The 'Slave Coast' came to be dotted with European forts, their
massive guns facing out to sea to warn off rival European slave traders.
Each 'castle' incorporated prisons or 'barracoons' in which the
enslaved women, children and men were kept, awaiting purchase by the
traders, who could initially only reach the coast at those times of the
year when the winds blew in the right direction. The prisons – without
sanitation, with little air – must have been hell-holes in the humid
coastal climates. The death rates are not known.
The trade became a very lucrative business. Bristol grew rich on it,
then Liverpool. London also dealt in slaves as did some of the smaller
British ports. (16)
The specialised vessels were built in many British shipyards, but most
were constructed in Liverpool. Laden with trade goods (guns and
ammunition, rum, metal goods and cloth) they sailed to the 'Slave
Coast', exchanged the goods for human beings, packed them into the
vessels like sardines and sailed them across the Atlantic. On arrival,
those left alive were oiled to make them look healthy and put on the
auction block. Again, death rates (during the voyage) are unknown: one
estimate, for the 1840s, is 25 per cent.
Plantation and mine-owners bought the Africans – and more died in the
process called 'seasoning'. In the British colonies the slaves were
treated as non-human: they were 'chattels', to be worked to death as it
was cheaper to purchase another slave than to keep one alive. Though
seen as non-human, as many of the enslaved women were raped, clearly at
one level they were recognised as at least rapeable human beings. There
was no opprobrium attached to rape, torture, or to beating your slaves
to death. The enslaved in the British colonies had no legal rights as
they were not human – they were not permitted to marry and couples and
their children were often sold off separately.
Historian Paul Lovejoy has estimated that between 1701 and 1800 about
40 per cent of the approximately more than 6 million enslaved Africans
were transported in British vessels. (It must be noted that this figure
is believed by some to be a considerable underestimate.) Lovejoy
estimated that well over 2 million more were exported between 1811 and
1867 – again, many believe the numbers were much greater. (17)"
