The Slave Trade & Migration

Paul Finkelman

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781135805210
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

First Published in 1990. American slavery began in Africa. An understanding of slavery begins with the African slave trade and the domestic slave trade. Both were indispensable to the creation of the New World slave societies, including the colonies that became the United States. This book is part of a eighteen volume series collecting nearly four hundred of the most important articles on slavery in the United States. Volume 2 looks at the domestic and foreign slave trade and migration and includes pioneering articles in the history of slavery, important break-throughs in research and methodology, and articles that offer major historiographical interpretations.

THE JOURNAL
OF
NEGRO HISTORY

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Vol. IX—January, 1924—No. 1

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ELIZABETHAN SEAMEN AND THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE

The reign of Queen Elizabeth, 1558–1603, is noted for maritime enterprise. The sea voyages of this reign have a varied significance, a part of which was the entrance of England upon the African slave trade to America and the subsequent beginning of the history of English America. The seaman who chiefly represents this activity was Sir John Hawkins. He thereby becomes the hero of this sketch. His three slave trade voyages were made in 1562, 1564, and 1567, the first, seventy years after the discovery of America and forty-five years before the first permanent English settlement at Jamestown.

It is to be remembered, however, that Britain’s participation in the slave trade on a large scale did not begin until fully a century after the Hawkins ’ voyages and that she did not become supreme until still another hundred years later. The English rise in the African slave trade corresponds with her rise in acquisition of colonies in America and her overthrow of European rivals for supremacy on the North American continent. Hawkins merely inaugurated on a very small scale what in later generations assumed vast proportions. The several hundred slaves trafficked by Hawkins in three voyages extending over a period of five years became the annual twenty-five or fifty thousand of the latter eighteenth century. As the origin of all things, though small, is worth telling, so is that of Hawkins’ trade in human flesh and blood in the renowned age of Queen Elizabeth.

European commerce with the East, which during the Middle Ages had been confined to the Mediterranean, by the fifteenth century had turned toward the Atlantic, first southward along the west coast of Africa and later westward, culminating in the discovery of America by Columbus in 1492. The search for a new route to the Indies with their alluring spices and precious metals which was being made by European nations at this time is a well-known story to every school boy and girl. Their trade in Negroes along with their material commodities is less familiar.

In 1442, Gonsalvez, a Portugese sailor in the service of Prince Henry, the navigator, after skirting along the northwestern coast of Africa, brought to Lisbon with him ten Negro slaves and some gold dust. This prize Prince Henry duly received and presented to the Pope.¹ These blacks were taken from the Moors at Rio del Oro in exchange for prisoners of the same people whom Gonsalvez had captured two years before.² The trade thus begun languished for a while until the accession of John II in 1481, who in the same year built a fort at El Mina on the gold coast, fitted out twelve ships, and in general encouraged his subjects to revive and stimulate the business. In a short while a lively traffic sprang up between Lisbon and the banks of the Senegal, Nunez, Benin, and Congo rivers, so much so that the King of Portugal took the title of the Lord of Guinea. Lisbon became a great slave market.³ By 1539 from 10,000 to 12,000 Negroes were annually sold for house servants.

The trade thus bugun found wider expansion with the discovery of America and its subsequent European colonization. In the mad search for ready wealth the Spanish in the West Indies first enslaved the native Indians to do their labor. In a very short time, however, the red man showed himself unwilling or unequal to the task.⁴ It has been estimated that within a period of fifteen years the native population of Santo Domingo was reduced from one million to sixty thousand.

The Bishop las Casas, Protector of the Indians, recommended to King Charles V of Spain in 1517 that black slaves be substituted for the Indians, claiming at the same time that one Negro could do as much work as four Indians. Already a few Negroes had been introduced as early as 1502 to work the mines of Hispaniola. In response to the request of Las Casas, Charles granted a patent for the exclusive supply of four thousand Negroes annually to the islands of Hispaniola, Cuba, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico.⁵

Charles’ patent or license was granted to a favorite who immediately transferred it to some Genoese merchants for 25,000 ducats. In observance of the line of demarcation established by the Pope in 1493 and a treaty between Spain and Portugal in 1494 whereby the former was to have exclusive dominion over all the territory west of an imaginary line drawn half way between the Cape Verde Islands and the West Indies and the latter to the east of it, these merchants secured their black slaves from the Portugese ports on the west coast of Africa, the nation which had exclusive control of this part of the world. Thus, when Hawkins initiated the slave trade among the English it had been in process for more than half a century. To gain a foothold in this monopolistic enterprise, recourse to illicit means was necessary. Hawkins begins his adventures therefore as an interloper.

The man was a representative of the age in which he lived—the heir of English maritime enterprise and the acquisition of wealth which went back to Elizabeth’s grandfather King Henry VII at the close of the 15th century. This monarch sent out John and Sebastian Cabot encouraged ship building and passed laws by which the carrying trade, largely in the hands of foreigners, would be transferred to his own seamen. Through unscrupulous means, added to his economy, Henry VII amassed some $9,000,000 which he passed on to his son and next soverign, Henry VIII. From the spoliation of church property this popular monarch obtained many millions more. He gave considerable attention and encouragement to the English navy, “ mixed freely with naval men,” and one of his shipwrights effected a revolution in the science of navigation. Henry first used and displayed what a sailing ship with broadsides could do with the old medieval galley which depended more on oars than on sails.⁶

Under Edward VI and Mary, Elizabeth’s predecessors, the navy declined;⁷ but the loss was perhaps made good by an increase in privateering and buccaneering. During this time we are discussing, England was undergoing an agrarian revolution in which arable land was being converted into sheep pasture and the peasants were forced to become city dwellers where they were reduced to a state of poverty. Many of these “ sturdy beggars ” attempted to relieve their condition by turning to a life of piracy.

Another strong force which led to seafaring life at this age was the struggle between Catholics and Protestants. When Elizabeth came to the throne in 1558 the Catholic family of the Guises in France were driving the Huguenots into maritime and colonial adventures. Similarly the Protestant Dutch were being driven to the sea by the bloody Alva, and just before Elizabeth’s accession, her Catholic sister Mary had carried on a similar crusade. As expressed by one authority “ the Catholic lords of the land made the Protestants lords of the seas.”⁸

Elizabeth, who was a Protestant more from expediency than by conviction, became the ally of these sea-dogs and adopted a policy of watchful waiting toward Catholic Europe. In her characteristic manner, this was done not openly but in secret wherein the buccaneers received aid and comfort from their good Queen Bess. Spain was at this time the chief guardian of Catholicism for all Christendom and at the same time the leading colonizing nation in the New World. Under her sovereign, Philip, a crusade by means of the Inquisition was made to stop all heresy. For commercial reasons, no outside power must trade with her colonies in America. This situation, added to a personal grievance of Philip against Elizabeth, led to a contest on the sea.

As for the trade in slaves during the first half of the Elizabethan era, English seamen in addition to Spain must encounter the opposition of Portugal, though weak it was. In the latter half of the 16th century when Portugal had been absorbed by Spain this country stood guard at the stations on the African Coast. After reaching America itself the Englishmen would encounter their rival again. But this seeming difficulty was well worth risking, inasmuch as the Spanish colonists themselves in America preferred the trade of a foreign power rather than that of the mother country. By the rigid policy of the Spanish monarch, the importation of Negroes to the West Indies had been restricted. Prohibitive duties and licenses rendered the trade practically a government monopoly and enormous profits were within the grasp of any one who could evade the Spanish regulations.

Francis I, King of France, had said to Charles V, King of Spain:“ Your majesty and the King of Portugal have divided the world between you, offering no part of it to me. Show me, I pray you, the will of our father Adam, so that I may see if he has really made you his only universal heirs! ” Just as France contested the seeming monopoly of Spain and Portugal on the New World so in the same manner, too, Elizabeth through her freebooters began to play havoc with the Spanish treasure ships, capture their sailors, and to harass Spain generally through what became known with the celebrated Sir Francis Drake as—“ Singeing the Spanish King’s beard.” In so doing, aside from material gains, these men fully believed themselves to be serving God and elevating the Queen and the English nation.⁹

As Hawkins appears on the scene in a sea-faring age so in like manner did he spring from a sea-faring family and grew up in Bristol, the center for sea adventures. His father “ Olde William Hawkins ” was a merchant, sailor, and adventurer, and had been intimately associated with King Henry VIII. Like the son, the father, from 1528 to 1532, made three voyages to the Guinea coast where he traded with the Negroes, carried his products to Brazil, and returned to Bristol laden with the wealth of the Indies. Young Hawkins was born in the year of his father’s last voyage and already before his famous voyage thirty years later he had made several trips to Spain, Portugal, and the Canaries. At the Canaries he heard the fascinating stories of the glamour and wealth of the western islands.¹⁰ What is more to the point at the same time he was “ assured that Negroes were very good merchandise in His-paniola and that (a) store of Negroes might easily be had upon the coast of Guinea.” With this information he boldly resolved to advance his fortune in Negro slaves.¹¹

Hawkins’ first voyage to the Guinea coast was partly financed by several merchants to whom he had appealed, including his father-in-law, Gonson. They contributed liberally and thus formed what might be styled an African Company. The expedition was fitted out at Plymouth and consisted of three small vessels with a company of about one hundred men. In October, 1562, Hawkins left Plymouth for the Canaries. A little later he cast anchor at Sierra Leone and “ got into his possession, partly by the sword, and other means the number of three hundred Negroes.” With this human cargo he made straight for Hispaniola and disposed of his blacks at three different ports in that island. On this voyage Hawkins met no opposition and he reaped a harvest. He obtained “ such a quantity of merchandise, that he did not only lade his own three ships with hides, ginger, sugar, and some quantity of pearls; but he freighted also two other hulks with hides and other like commodities, which he sent to Spain.”¹²

This venture of Hawkins ’ was a violation of Spanish colonial policy. As stated above, the Spanish settlers in New Spain were to confine their trading exclusively to the mother country. They secretly accepted the slaves and other wares; but when the Spanish monarch learned of the transaction through the vessels that were sent to Spain, further trading became difficult. Accordingly on the second voyage force was exercised to effect a sale. The third voyage as we shall see was a failure owing to the increasing hostility of Spain toward Hawkins and the English nation.

The cargoes which had been consigned to Spain were seized and confiscated by King Philip. Hawkins, with the secret backing of his Queen, now resolved to avenge himself. The second venture to Africa and the Indies was conducted on a much larger scale. This time there were four large vessels including the Jesus of 700 tons, commanded by Hawkins himself, and 170 men. The Jesus was loaned to Hawkins by Queen Elizabeth; and, in addition this time, she furnished the necessary capital.¹³

The crew embarked on October 18,1564. Some time was spent at the Canaries and most of the month of January was spent in hunting Negroes in the region of Sierra Leone where they were received somewhat with suspicion. The hunt and bargaining for slaves this time netted four hundred. About the last of January Hawkins set out across the Atlantic on the voyage which lasted forty-eight days. The disposal of his cargo was made this time principally along the Spanish Main west of the Orinoco river, or the northern coast of present-day South America. The homeward voyage was made by way of Florida and the eastern coast of the United States as far north as Newfoundland, then across the Atlantic home.

This second voyage had lasted eleven months and tw...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• General Introduction
• Table of Contents
• Volume Introduction
• Notes
• Further Reading
• “The Volume of the North American Slave-Carrying Trade From Africa, 1761–1810,” Societé Française D’Histoire D’OutreMer 62 (1975) 47–66
• Southern Politics and Attempts to Reopen the African Slave Trade,” Journal of Negro History 51 (1966) 16–35
• How Extensive was the Border State Slave Trade? A New Look,” Civil War History 18 (1972) 42–55
• “Epidemiology and the Slave Trade,” Political Science Quarterly 83 (1968) 190–216
• “The Elusive Guineamen: Newport Slavers, 1735–1774,” New England Quarterly 55 (1982) 229–53
• “The Enforcement of the Slave-Trade Laws,” Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1891 (Washington: 1892) 163–74
• “Slavery and the Slave Trade in the Context of West African History,” Journal of African History 10 (1969) 393–404
• “The Geographical Origins of Negro Slaves in Colonial South Carolina,” South Atlantic Quarterly 70 (1971) 34–47
• “Measuring the Atlantic Slave Trade: An Assessment of Curtin and Antsey,” Journal of African History 17 (1976) 197–223
• “Measuring the Atlantic Slave Trade Once Again: A Comment,” Journal of African History 17 (1976) 595–606
• “Measuring the Adantic Slave Trade: A Rejoinder,” Journal of African History 17 (1976) 607–27
• “Elizabethean Seamen and the African Slave Trade,” Journal of Negro History 9 (1924) 1–17
• “The Case Against A Nineteenth-Century Cuba-Florida Slave Trade,” Florida Historical Quarterly 29 (1971) 346–55
• “The Politics of Fear: French Louisianians and the Slave Trade, 1786–1809,” Plantation Society 1 (1979) 162–97
• “The Volume of the Adantic Slave Trade: A Synthesis,” Journal of African History 23 (1982) 473–501
• “A Note on the Importance of the Interstate Slave Trade of the Ante Bellum South,” Journal of Political Economy 73 (1965) 181–87
• “The Making of the Triangular Trade Myth,” William and Mary Quarterly 30 (1973) 635–44
• “White Cannibals, Black Martyrs: Fear, Depression, and Religious Faith as Cause of Suicide Among New Slaves,” Journal of Negro History 62 (1977) 147–59
• “Slave Trading in the Ante-Bellum South: An Estimate of the Extent of the Inter-Regional Slave Trade,” Journal of American Studies 13 (1974) 195–220
• “The Movement to Reopen the African Slave Trade in South Carolina,” South Carolina Historical Magazine 66 (1965) 38–54
• “The Foreign Slave Trade in Louisiana After 1808,” Louisiana History 1 (1960) 36–43
• “The Fishers of Men: The Profits of the Slave Trade,” Journal of Economic History 34 (1974) 885–914
• “Philadelphia and the Other Underground Railroad,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 111 (1987) 3–25
• “Black Immigrants: The Slave Trade in Colonial Maryland,” Maryland Historical Magazine 73 (1978) 30–45
• Acknowledgments