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The Interests: “a well-Governed army of Veteran Troops” versus “an Undefinable heteroclite body” of “Pirates” and “buccaneers”

William A. Pettigrew

in Freedom’s Debt: The Royal African Company and the Politics of the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1672-1752

This chapter discusses the ways in which independent slave traders achieved solidarity with disparate opponents of the Royal African Company. The 1698 Act to Settle the Trade to Africa helped broaden ... More

This chapter discusses the ways in which independent slave traders achieved solidarity with disparate opponents of the Royal African Company. The 1698 Act to Settle the Trade to Africa helped broaden and strengthen the power and influence of the independent slave traders’ lobby so that, by 1712, they could effect a complete deregulation of England’s slave trade.Less

The Red Flag

Maurie D. McInnis

in Slaves Waiting for Sale: Abolitionist Art and the American Slave Trade

This chapter discusses the spaces, places, and mechanics of the slave trade. These include the use of red flags upon which are pinned small manuscript descriptions of slaves to be sold off; family ... More

This chapter discusses the spaces, places, and mechanics of the slave trade. These include the use of red flags upon which are pinned small manuscript descriptions of slaves to be sold off; family separations caused by the interstate slave trade; the use of slaves to pay debts; descriptions of slave traders and slave jails; and the story of Anthony Burns, a former slave who successfully escaped from slavery in Richmond in 1854 but was captured in Boston.Less

The Blood of Thousands: Slave Traders and the Fight against Disease in the Age of Abolition

Manuel Barcia

in The Yellow Demon of Fever: Fighting Disease in the Nineteenth-Century Transatlantic Slave Trade

This chapter focuses on the ways in which slave traders throughout the Atlantic world understood and fought against the diseases that affected them and their human cargoes. It does so by illustrating ... More

This chapter focuses on the ways in which slave traders throughout the Atlantic world understood and fought against the diseases that affected them and their human cargoes. It does so by illustrating the risks associated with slave trading expeditions and with the residence in African towns and factories. It also discusses to what extent their understanding and treatment of these diseases were similar to those of the medical officers who confronted them while attempting to stop them. Ultimately, the chapter concludes that slave traders and their accomplices had access to state-of-the-art therapies and to new medicines, just as much as their nemesis in the anti–slave trade patrols did.Less

The Politics of Slave-Trade Escalation, 1672–1712

William A. Pettigrew

in Freedom’s Debt: The Royal African Company and the Politics of the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1672-1752

This chapter discusses the political aspects of slave-trade escalation. In response to the Royal African Company’s monopoly over the transatlantic slave trade, independent slave traders mounted a ... More

This chapter discusses the political aspects of slave-trade escalation. In response to the Royal African Company’s monopoly over the transatlantic slave trade, independent slave traders mounted a campaign to satisfy the demand for slaves. In the aftermath of the Glorious Revolution, they carried on a political movement that transformed the contours and capacity of Britain’s slave trade.Less

The Strategies: “As Witches Do the Devil”

William A. Pettigrew

in Freedom’s Debt: The Royal African Company and the Politics of the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1672-1752

This chapter compares the political strategies of the separate traders and the Royal African Company: their respective political actions, mediated by political ideologies and in response to changing ... More

This chapter compares the political strategies of the separate traders and the Royal African Company: their respective political actions, mediated by political ideologies and in response to changing political and constitutional circumstances, which sought to engineer regulatory outcomes to satisfy their different interests. The principal structural change in this period was parliamentary supremacy over state regulation of the national economy. Because the monopolistic African Company expressed the monarchical dominion and the separate traders expressed the use of parliamentary influence, the shift overwhelmingly favored the separate traders’ campaign to deregulate the slave trade.Less

Dressed for Sale

Maurie D. McInnis

in Slaves Waiting for Sale: Abolitionist Art and the American Slave Trade

This chapter discusses the spaces, places, and mechanics of the slave trade. These include the enslaved assistants of slave traders; slave auctions as public spectacles in Charleston, South Carolina; ... More

This chapter discusses the spaces, places, and mechanics of the slave trade. These include the enslaved assistants of slave traders; slave auctions as public spectacles in Charleston, South Carolina; the degrading physical inspection of slaves by traders; artists’ attempts to capture the sense of visual drama generated at auctions; and costuming as an essential part of the theater of the slave auction.Less

A New Assessment of the Transatlantic Slave Trade

David Eltis and David Richardson

in Extending the Frontiers: Essays on the New Transatlantic Slave Trade Database

This chapter presents a new assessment of the transatlantic slave trade, including the organization and publication of the massive amount of new data on slave-trade voyages, the production of ... More

This chapter presents a new assessment of the transatlantic slave trade, including the organization and publication of the massive amount of new data on slave-trade voyages, the production of accessible reference to summary statistics derived from these data, and sustained scholarly attention to several branches of the slave trade. The reassessment has been constructed around the national flags that slave traders used to cross the Atlantic. The Transatlantic Slave Trade: An Expanded and Online Database (TSTD2) permits a firmly rooted understanding of the relative importance of the Dutch in the transatlantic slave trade. The annual breakdowns for the participation of each national group across 350 years also provide a basis for estimating the departure of slaves from Africa and the arrival of slaves in the Americas. TSTD2 will shift attention away from the overall assessment of the slave trade and the thousands of ports that were involved in the business.Less

The Ideas: Challenging the “Tales of … Mandevil”

William A. Pettigrew

in Freedom’s Debt: The Royal African Company and the Politics of the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1672-1752

This chapter discusses the ways in which the public political disputes between the Royal African Company and the separate traders generated a conflict of ideologies. Late Stuart politics forced both ... More

This chapter discusses the ways in which the public political disputes between the Royal African Company and the separate traders generated a conflict of ideologies. Late Stuart politics forced both sides to justify their interested positions and their very different constituencies in ideological terms. For the African Company, the self-interested trading activity of the separate traders was socially corruptive, and it enervated national liberty. For the independent traders, national liberty and economic growth was best achieved by the economic contributions of individual subjects.Less

Slave Resistance, Coffles, and the Debates over Slavery in the Nation's Capital

Robert H. Gudmestad

in The Chattel Principle: Internal Slave Trades in the Americas

This chapter describes and examines the events in George Miller's tavern, a seedy establishment notorious in the state of Washington for being a slave depot. A woman, known only as Anna, jumped ... More

This chapter describes and examines the events in George Miller's tavern, a seedy establishment notorious in the state of Washington for being a slave depot. A woman, known only as Anna, jumped because a slave trader purchased her and two of her children but declined to take their siblings and father. The price she paid for her impulsive action was a broken back and two shattered arms. When news of the incident reached the House of Representatives, John Randolph blasted the inhuman sale of slaves carried on in the district. In so doing, he cast doubt on the efficacy of the interstate slave trade by closely linking it to abhorrent activities and results. It was the first direct denunciation of the interstate slave trade in Congress. Randolph pointed a finger of scorn toward an issue that most others would rather avoid or ignore.Less

The Outcomes: Tropical Burlesques

William A. Pettigrew

in Freedom’s Debt: The Royal African Company and the Politics of the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1672-1752

This chapter assesses the outcome of the Africa trade debates. It analyzes the nature of the separate traders’ victory and the meaning of Parliament’s and the state’s backing for deregulated slave ... More

This chapter assesses the outcome of the Africa trade debates. It analyzes the nature of the separate traders’ victory and the meaning of Parliament’s and the state’s backing for deregulated slave trading up to the middle of the eighteenth century. The Africa trade debates concentrated on the problem of who ought to have access to the slave trade. The separate traders had conclusively won that issue. The aftermath of their victory ensured a huge expansion in the capacity of the British American slave trade, a greatly increased enslaved African population in America, and the continued development of provincial slave-trading centers, first Bristol and then Liverpool.Less

The Dutch in the Atlantic World: New Perspectives from the Slave Trade with Particular Reference to the African Origins of the Traffic

David Eltis, Jelmer Vos, and David Richardson

in Extending the Frontiers: Essays on the New Transatlantic Slave Trade Database

This chapter examines the concept that along with the post-1710 French traffic, the Dutch slave trade was the first to be documented. Overall, it is estimated that a total volume of 554,300 slaves ... More

This chapter examines the concept that along with the post-1710 French traffic, the Dutch slave trade was the first to be documented. Overall, it is estimated that a total volume of 554,300 slaves was carried from the African coast in Dutch vessels in 1596–1829. All slave-trading nations drew on a surprisingly small number of individual ports on the African coast, but the Dutch present the most extreme variant of this pattern. Without the 10,000 or so slaves who the Dutch supplied, the development of the French sugar complex would have been seriously delayed. The Dutch contributed to but did not lead the way in the slave trade's rapid expansion beginning in the middle of the seventeenth century. Before 1650, the Dutch slave trade concentrated almost exclusively on Brazil. Dutch slave traders were far more active in the early French Caribbean but were quickly excluded in 1670.Less

The Slave Trade of Northern Germany from the Seventeenth to the Nineteenth Centuries

Andrea Weindl

in Extending the Frontiers: Essays on the New Transatlantic Slave Trade Database

This chapter focuses on the German slave traders who played, at most, a minor part in the history of the transatlantic slave trade. The ending of the Brandenburg slave trade came quite abruptly after ... More

This chapter focuses on the German slave traders who played, at most, a minor part in the history of the transatlantic slave trade. The ending of the Brandenburg slave trade came quite abruptly after 1700, not only because of financial constraints but also because the English and French chose to stop buying slaves from the Germans. German involvement in the Atlantic slave trade was always dependent on broader political and economic conjunctures, as the German states were unable to provide sufficient resources to promote trading companies on their own. Although the Germans did not play a major role in the slave trade, the history of their involvement, especially that of Brandenburg-Prussia, provides an interesting example of how smaller states tried to share this trade in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.Less

“I Felt It to Be My Duty to Refuse”: The President and the Slave Trader

John Y. Simon, Harold Holzer, and Dawn Vogel

in Lincoln Revisited: New Insights from the Lincoln Forum

The most common complaint by Abraham Lincoln's critics was that he was too easily moved by a personal, emotional appeal, particularly from women. His own attorney general, Edward Bates, was one of ... More

The most common complaint by Abraham Lincoln's critics was that he was too easily moved by a personal, emotional appeal, particularly from women. His own attorney general, Edward Bates, was one of those who made this criticism. In the first winter of Lincoln's presidency, 1861–1862, there would come to his desk an appeal for a mitigation of punishment that would seem to be just the sort of case that the tender-hearted Lincoln would find it impossible to resist. The accused was Nathaniel Gordon, a slave trader. Of course, Lincoln, or any other president, would not extend clemency to a slave trader. However, in the context of the time that was by no means so clear. American history up to that point had a deep ambivalence not only about slavery but even about the slave trade. It is true that fervor of the Revolution led to the abolishing of slavery in the Northern states.Less

Towards a Study of the Roman Slave Trade: (1980)

W. V. Harris

in Rome's Imperial Economy: Twelve Essays

This chapter discusses the relative importance of various sources of slaves in the Roman Empire in the period 50 BC to AD 150. It then attempts to set out what can be known or reasonably conjectured ... More

This chapter discusses the relative importance of various sources of slaves in the Roman Empire in the period 50 BC to AD 150. It then attempts to set out what can be known or reasonably conjectured about the trade in slaves in this same period, especially large-scale and long-distance trade, and about the men who conducted it.Less

“This African Monster”

William A. Pettigrew

in Freedom’s Debt: The Royal African Company and the Politics of the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1672-1752

This chapter begins with a brief account of the political dispute between the Royal African Company (RAC) and its independent slave-trading opponents. It then sets out the book’s focus, namely the ... More

This chapter begins with a brief account of the political dispute between the Royal African Company (RAC) and its independent slave-trading opponents. It then sets out the book’s focus, namely the story of the RAC, a corporation provided in 1672 by Charles II with a chartered monopoly over all English trade with Africa for a thousand years, and locates the story of the RAC and of the transatlantic slave trade within the political history of trade regulation.Less

The Chaplain and the Slaver

Josephine F. Pacheco

in The Pearl: A Failed Slave Escape on the Potomac

This chapter considers the friendship of Hope H. Slatter, a notorious Baltimore slave trader, and Henry Slicer, chaplain of the Senate, both of whom were connected with the Methodist Church. Their ... More

This chapter considers the friendship of Hope H. Slatter, a notorious Baltimore slave trader, and Henry Slicer, chaplain of the Senate, both of whom were connected with the Methodist Church. Their relationship demonstrates that by the 1840s, holding men and women in bondage had become a moral issue, not merely an economic one. For many Christians, converting slaves without giving them freedom ceased to be an acceptable response to the belief in the brotherhood of man. For Methodists, the writings and admonitions of their founder John Wesley reinforced their opposition to slavery, even though it was difficult, if not impossible, to form an alliance with radical abolitionists.Less

Fancy

Alexandra J. Finley

in An Intimate Economy: Enslaved Women, Work, and America's Domestic Slave Trade

Chapter 1 tells the history of Corinna Hinton, an enslaved woman who had children with the man who enslaved her, slave trader Silas Omohundro, in Richmond, Virginia, to consider the lives of women ... More

Chapter 1 tells the history of Corinna Hinton, an enslaved woman who had children with the man who enslaved her, slave trader Silas Omohundro, in Richmond, Virginia, to consider the lives of women caught in the so-called fancy trade, or the sale of enslaved women for sex. Omohundro paid Hinton for clothing the enslaved people he jailed; Hinton also ran the boarding house connected to his slave jail, cooking, sewing, doing laundry, and running errands for boarders. Hinton's experiences highlight the many forms that women's socially reproductive labor could take under capitalism: enslaved and free, waged and unwaged. The chapter draws primarily on financial records to uncover Hinton's life, highlighting the ways in which the archive limits the stories historians can and cannot write about the past.Less

Slave Traders and French Invaders

in Zachary Macaulay 1768–1838: The Steadfast Scot in the British Anti-Slavery Movement

This chapter examines Zachary Macaulay's work as deputy governor in Sierra Leone, describes his relationship with former governor John Clarkson and acting governor William Dawes, and considers their ... More

This chapter examines Zachary Macaulay's work as deputy governor in Sierra Leone, describes his relationship with former governor John Clarkson and acting governor William Dawes, and considers their views on slavery. It discusses Macaulay's relations with the settlers in Sierra Leone and with the slave traders, and highlights criticism on his immediate surrender during the French invasion of Sierra Leone. The chapter mentions that it was during this time that Macaulay's enthusiasm to end the slave trade was fired up.Less