18th Century Slave Trade

• The transatlantic slave trade's growth and expansion were guided more by economic laws than purposeful design, while its end was orchestrated by people focused on achieving it quickly.

18th Century Slave Trade

• The 18th century was the "golden" age of the slave trade, marked by increased volume and profits
• Slave merchants built specialized ships to maximize gains, providing better ventilation, copper plating, and smaller size for quicker travel
• This led to a decrease in the triangularity of the transatlantic slave trade, with ships carrying goods from Europe to Africa for enslaved people and then to the Americas for spices and other products before returning to Europe

Changing Dynamics

• As the 18th century progressed, smaller slaving ships often disregarded valuable American produce, opting for currency or precious metals instead
• Increased volume and prominence led to increased notoriety, generating opposition to the transatlantic slave trade

Enlightenment Ideals

• Ideals of the Age of Enlightenment, such as natural rights and freedom, inspired opposition to slavery
• Thinkers like John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau influenced people to view slavery as inhumane
• Intellectuals began to voice opposition, believing that stopping the slave trade would eventually lead to the complete abolition of slavery

Religious Influence

• Secular ideas seeped into religion, notably among Quakers and Protestant Evangelicals
• Religious groups began interpreting the Bible differently, focusing on "good will towards all men," rendering slavery against Christian ideals
• Quakers actively worked toward abolition, voicing concerns in the late 17th century and banning Quaker ties with slave activities by the mid-1700s
• Anti-slavery societies formed in the US and England, advocating for government bans on the slave trade

Economic Factors

• The emergence of modern capitalism, with its emphasis on paid labor, clashed with slavery
• The middle class, motivated by belief and economics, opposed slavery
• Rising small business owners and industrialists saw slavery as unfair economic competition
• Banning slavery would improve their gains and create a more stable market for finished goods and raw materials
• Political competition between the old high class, based on forced servitude, and the new industrial high class also fueled opposition to slavery

Profitability and Technological Advances

• Some scholars argue that the slave trade and sugar plantations generated less profit by the late 18th century
• Other research suggests that the British West Indies still generated substantial profit when the slave trade was abolished
• Technological advances of the Industrial Revolution reduced the need for labor
• The first steam-powered sugar mill was installed in Jamaica in 1768, but these technologies were not advanced enough to replace the majority of human labor at the time

Role of Liberated Slaves

• Liberated slaves advocated for the ban of slavery, sharing their experiences of its cruelty
• Olaudah Equiano, Ottobah Cugoano, Jeanne Odo, and Jean-Baptiste Belley provided voices for the voiceless slaves in the Americas and Europe
• The success of revolt on Saint Domingue demonstrated the enslaved people's ability to fight back, prompting politicians to consider the ban to protect colonies from rebellions
• The enslaved, in one way or another, contributed to the end of slavery

Reasons for Abolition

• The abolition of the slave trade and slavery was a result of rising humanist ideals, economic motivations, and political considerations
• Abolition came to fruition only after the idea became profitable to a fraction of powerful people

Initial Success and Shifting Focus

• As the transatlantic slave trade reached its peak, abolitionist movements achieved initial success, targeting the slave trade as the weakest link
• Merchants had less political power, and the Middle Passage was an easier propaganda target

Legal Measures

• US colonies and later independent states began passing laws limiting the slave trade and slavery, while anti-slave trade associations pressed the British Parliament for regulations
• Denmark was the first European nation to ban the slave trade in 1792, followed by revolutionary France in 1795 (later restored by Napoleon in 1802), and Britain in 1807
• The United States banned the import of slaves in early 1807
• Britain used its maritime superiority to enforce its anti-slave trade position, forming the West African Squadron to blockade and seize suspicious vessels

Continued Resistance and Enforcement

• Most nations continued the slave trade, notably Spain, as Cuba developed sugar production
• The British pressured other slave-trading nations to sign treaties restricting the commerce of human beings
• By 1815, Britain imposed the overall condemnation of the slave trade in the Congress of Vienna, securing vocal support from major European nations and the United States, while France also abolished the slave trade

Challenges in Ending the Slave Trade

• Ending illicit merchants from all nations started to satisfy the American markets' demand
• The British reacted by signing bilateral treaties, confirming the end of the slave trade and gaining the legal right to search ships under their flag
• The mainline Portuguese had been retreating from the slave trade

Final Stages and Impact

• All nations accepted the ban of the slave trade, with Brazil being among the last to do so in 1831
• The illegal trade continued to flourish, with national navies intercepting illicit traders and freeing captured slaves on African shores
• The Sierra Leone region was one of the most notable places slaves were freed
• Between 1808 and 1860, 1,600 ships were seized by the British navy and 150,000 people freed, yet three million enslaved people were shipped between 1810 and 1866

End of Slavery

• By the early 1870s, the slave trade was pretty much dead, with major slave-trading nations actively fighting against it
• The US Civil War was the last important turnaround, ending America's participation in slavery

Estimated Numbers and Suffering

• About 12.5 million enslaved Africans were sent to the Americas, with about 10.7 million arriving, though estimates vary
• Enslaved people endured cruel treatment, being ripped from their homelands, transported across the world in despicable conditions, and worked to death by their new masters

Other Side Effects

• Economic and demographic influences
• Combined surplus of profits from the slave trade and sugar production may have helped the industrialization of Europe
• The slave trade may have provided some early surplus to invest in the development of new technologies
• One side argues that the slave trade infringed on it
• The Europeans began taking mostly the enslaved while exporting their produced goods stifling local industrial capabilities
• Europeans exported weapons which affected the African states in their internal conflicts

Demographics

• Sub-Saharan Africa's population stagnated during the transatlantic slave trade
• Its share in the overall world population dropped from about 18 percent to just about 6 percent in 1900
• In many West African areas, females began outnumbering males who were chiefly exported to the Americas making copulation much harder

Cultural Impact and Legacy

• A unique Afro-American population and culture formed in the Americas
• Blues music, originating among the slaves in the cotton fields in the southern US, is a notable example
• Racism developed as a consequence of the slave trade, affecting both the Americas and Europe
• Cultural racism evolved into the belief that Africans were genetically inferior
• The suffering and death imposed upon the enslaved African people, who were victims of greed and prejudice, was immense