write a detailed note on triangular slave trade and its abolition
Answers
The campaign to end slavery began in the late 18th century. Alongside the work of famous campaigners and formerly enslaved people living in London, one of the key events in the abolition movement was a rebellion on the island of Haiti.
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Shipping in the Pool of London by Robert Dodd
Shipping in the Pool of London, 18th century
Key facts about the transatlantic slave trade
Between 1662 and 1807 British and British colonial ships purchased an estimated 3,415,500 Africans. Of this number, 2,964,800 survived the 'middle passage' and were sold into slavery in the Americas.
The transatlantic slave trade was the largest forced migration in human history and completely changed Africa, the Americas and Europe.
Only Portugal/Brazil transported more Africans across the Atlantic than Britain.
Until the 1730s, London dominated the British trade in enslaved people. It continued to send ships to West Africa until the end of the trade in 1807.
Because of the sheer size of London and the scale of the port’s activities, it is often forgotten that the capital was a major slaving centre.
Between 1699 and 1807, British and British colonial ports mounted 12,103 slaving voyages - with 3,351 setting out from London.
The Elizabethan slave trade and 17th century expansion
Elizabeth I believed that capturing Africans against their will 'would be detestable and call down the vengeance of Heaven upon the undertakers', yet after seeing the huge profits available she lent Royal Ships to two slaving expeditions of John Hawkins – the first English trader of enslaved people from West Africa to the Americas.
No English settlements were established in North America or in the West Indies during the reign of Elizabeth, but in the 17th century the English began to acquire territory in the New World. The English colonies expanded rapidly and the development of a plantation system and the growth of the Atlantic economy brought further demands for African labour. This increased the scale of the trade in enslaved people.
In the first third of the 18th century, Britain’s involvement in the slave trade grew enormously. In the 1710s and 1720s, nearly 200,000 enslaved Africans were transported across the Atlantic in British ships.
The abolition: campaigns
As the trade in enslaved people reached its peak in the 1780s, more and more people began to voice concerns about the moral implications of slavery and the brutality of the system. From the beginning, the inhuman trade had caused controversy. London was the focus for the abolition campaign, being home both to Parliament and to the important financial institutions of the City. As early as 1776, the House of Commons debated a motion 'that the slave trade is contrary to the laws of God and the rights of men'.
Ignatius Sancho
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Abolitionist Ignatius Sancho
Ignatius Sancho, 1729-80
Ignatius Sancho was born in 1729 on a slave ship bound for the Caribbean. Orphaned at the age of two, he was taken to Britain where he was given to three sisters in Greenwich. A chance meeting with the Duke of Montagu (1690-1749) changed the young Sancho’s life. Montagu was taken by the child’s intelligence, and encouraged his education. After Montagu’s death in 1749, Sancho persuaded his widow to take him away from his mistresses, and she hired him as a butler.
Olaudah Equino was also hugely significant figure in the abolition campaign. According to his autobiography, Equiano was captured in West Africa, forcibly transported to the Americas and sold into slavery. He eventually managed to buy his freedom. Equiano published his autobiography – The Interesting Narrative and Other Writings – in 1789. It was reprinted many times, becoming one of the most powerful condemnations of the trade and an enormously important piece of abolitionist literature.
The abolition: The Haitian Revolution
In the late 18th century a movement started to end the slave trade – the transatlantic trading by European merchants of people from Africa, in exchange for manufactured goods. These captives were transported to the Americas or the Caribbean to be sold to plantation owners, who needed mass labour to cultivate and harvest crops such as cotton, sugar and tobacco. The campaign to end slavery coincided with the uprisings of the French Revolution and the retaliation of enslaved communities in the British colonies.
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