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The institution of
slavery was present in Africa long before the
arrival of Europeans on its shores - slaves had
been taken from parts of the continent since the
time of ancient Egypt. In the early 19th
century, caravans of 18,000 to 20,000 black
Africans were brought to Cairo for resale, and
slaves of every color were sold in the great
markets of North Africa, even as late as the
first part of the 20th century.
A Slave Market in
Algiers, 1684 AD**
A Merchant
Slaving Vessel: The Henrietta Marie
During the period
between 1590 and 1840, three cultures from three
different continents became involved in an
elaborate system of barter centered around the
trade in enslaved Africans. Europeans sailed for
Africa in search of luxury goods such as gold,
ivory and spices, and labor for their
plantations in the Americas, traveling routes
navigated for the first time in the 15th
century.
The Henrietta
Marie was typical of the numerous small
merchant ships and West Indian traders active in
the Atlantic at the turn of the 18th century. In
the year 1699, the ship left the port of London
on her second slaving voyage, carrying a cargo
of European manufactured goods for trade in West
Africa. After she exchanged her cargo for
enslaved Africans and ivory on the African
coast, the ship sailed to Jamaica, where she
exchanged the captives for sugar and logwood.
With a hold full of New World goods, the Henrietta
Marie began her long voyage home to London,
where she planned to sell her valuable cargo. It
was during her return voyage that she foundered
and sank on New Ground Reef near the island of
Key West in 1700.
The Henrietta
Marie***
Europeans in
the Caribbean
Between 1492 and
1520, the Spaniards explored and conquered the
islands of the West Indies as well as large
parts of Central and South America. European
colonies were established throughout the
Americas, and the settlers exploited the natural
resources as well as the local peoples. Native
Indian populations were forced into slavery,
mining gold and, later working on sugar
plantations. Battles, hard labor and European
diseases destroyed enormous numbers of native
peoples.
Timucuan Indians
searching for gold in Florida. Native
Americans
were the first to endure forced labor in the New
World.****
Africans proved
to have better resistance to European diseases
and were considered to be stronger workers than
the Amerindians. A system soon developed where
75,000 to 90,000 enslaved Africans were sent to
Spanish America by as early as 1600.
African slaves
mine and wash gold before delivering
to a Spanish overseer*****
Investors in
the Slave Trade
By 1650, most of
the coastal state in Europe had possessions in
the Americas. The Spaniards dominated Central
America, the Dutch and Portuguese colonized in
Brazil, and the English and the French had
settlements primarily in the West Indies and
North America. All of these countries eventually
imported slaves from Africa to support their
American colonies. European royalty, nobility
and leading merchants were the principal
supporters and benefactors of the slave trade.
Europeans believed that national power and
private wealth were best built on a closed
economic system between the colonial societies
and their mother country.
Graph of
countries participating in the slave trade
Infamous
Investors
 Prince
Henry the Navigator of Portugal
c. 1543******
Encouraged by Prince Henry, the Portuguese
became the foremost navigators in their day.
They were the first to make the difficult voyage
to the west coast of Africa. As early as 1444,
they brought cargoes of Africans to work as
slaves on the sugar plantations of Madeira
alongside slaves from Russia and the Balkans.
 Carlos
I of Spain
(1504-1556)*******
Spain was the first to establish colonies in the
Americas. In 1516, during the reign of Carlos I,
enslaved Africans were brought to the Caribbean
for the first time.
 Elizabeth
I of England
(1558-1603)********
Elizabeth I was a major investor in the slave
trade. She sponsored a privateer, Sir John
Hawkins, to bring slaves from Africa to sell to
the Spanish colonies.
Louis
XIV of France (1643-1715)
Louis XIV supplies nearly one half of the
finances needed by the French Guinea Company to
commence its African trade.
*Artist Frank
Besse
**Courtesy of the National Museums and Galleries
on Merseyside
***A reconstruction by William Muir
****Artists: Jacques Le Moyne and Theodore de
Bry, 1591
*****Francis Drake, Histoire Naturelle des Indes.
Courtesy of the Pierpoint Morgan Library
*****Courtesy Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris
*******Courtesy of the Staatliche Museen
Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin
********English School, 16th Century, Private
Collection
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