African Slavery

Slavery has been known across the world for at least 4,000 years, but to the modern mid, primarily as a result of the Atlantic trade, the institution has been often associated with the continent of Africa. Slavery affected Africa both internally and externally. An external trade of African peoples who were sent out from the continent to, in earlier times to the Mediterranean basin and the Arab world, and in later times also throughout the Americas. These people were used primarily a laborers in agriculture, mining, and domestic servitude.

Internally, Africans were used by other Africans as slaves for a variety of reasons. Agriculture, industry and trade required workers for farming, hunting, fishing, portage, mining, weaving, iron working, and salt production, among others. Others served in government service as soldiers, bodyguards, musicians, heralds, and interpreters. Many were employed in domestic servitude and worked to maintain the households, palaces and shrines of their owners. Some cultures practiced religions with ceremonies that required human sacrifice, and slaves were most frequently used for this purpose. Others were used as concubines. Differently than those sent out of the continent, African slavery offered a better chance of manumission, or at least some degree assimilation into the ruling society, though there were some cultures that considered slavery to be for life.  

People were taken into slavery, for both markets, through a fairly consistent set of means:

Warfare- The majority of those sold were captives from numerous wars that occurred across the continent. There is much debate as to whether these wars were fueled by the trade, or simply facilitated it.

Kidnapping – Bands of outlaw rouges preyed upon unsuspecting people, and simply stole them for the slave markets.

Tribute - Communities that were the subjects of larger powers sometimes had to deliver a portion of their citizenry as slaves as a “tribute” to their overlords.

Punishment – People who were found guilty of crimes, witchcraft, or other undesirable activities, were often condemned to slavery. 

Glele, King of Dahomey

The Kingdom of Dahomey was ruled by an absolute monarchy, without interruption, for nearly three centuries. This coastal nation, along the Bight of Benin, was a powerful, military state, whose customs and traditions included human sacrifice and an elite corps of female soldiers.  

Glele ruled from 1858 to 1889, and inherited the throne from his father at the height of Dahomey’s power. He was devout in maintaining the traditions of his ancestors, and successfully avoided colonization by Europeans, though by the end of his reign considerable concessions had been made to these outside forces. The Dahomean capital was inland at Abomey, but the coastal city of Whydah was a key trading port. The export of slaves was a very large part of the Dahomean economy when Glele ruled, and he fully sanctioned its existence. When approached in 1863 by representatives of the English government to halt the trade, he reasoned with them that, “He did not send slaves away in his own ships, but ‘white men’ came to him for them, and was there any harm in his selling? We ought to prevent the ‘white men’ from coming to him: if they did not come he would not sell.”

The People of the Bogota

The Bogota arrived at Key West on May 25^th. In addition to 127 women and boys, US Marshal Moreno noted, “There are on board of the Barque almost 280 men of gigantic proportion. Many of them over six feet in height, and stout in proportion. They are from the Gold Coast of Africa and are much more savage than the Congo Negroes.” When all were finally ashore, they numbered 411 people total. “They are a fine body of men and women, large, healthy and strong, and evidently were well taken care of on board the vessel,” said Moreno. They were described as being of the “Whydah tribe” by John McCalla, the US government representative who sailed with them from Key West to Liberia.

From such bits of information, it is clear these people came from the Western coast of Africa near the Bight of Benin. Whydah is a key trading center there, and for centuries was the point of departure for many thousands of slaves. In 1860, Whydah was the second largest city in the Kingdom of Dahomey. Dahomey was chronically at war, and much of its income derived from the sale of enemies captured in battle. Glele, as the dictatorial monarch, would have been responsible for the sale of any people from there.

Being mostly healthy, grown men, these people were most likely captives from recent wars waged by Dahomey against its neighbors. Incursions by Dahomey against the Yoruba at Ishagga and Abeokutan are recorded in 1859-60, as well as against the Makhi to the north. It is likely that at least some of the people shipped aboard the Bogota were captured in these battles. 

The People of the Wildfire and William

   The people shipped on both the Wildfire and the William were put aboard at the Congo River. The area was a slave-trading center for centuries, having first dealt with the Portuguese in the early 1500’s. By 1860, trading had penetrated well upriver and inland. Slaves were purchased there for the domestic and export markets. It is not clear from where exactly the rescued Africans originated, and most likely they were taken from different areas throughout the Congo basin. As is said in a newspaper account of the time, “…the whole number is evidently taken from different tribes living in the interior of Africa, but the greater number are “Congos.”  Congo (Kongo, Kicongo) culture is Bantu-based, and is the predominant ethnic-group along the West-Central African coast. 

   Some of the people from the Wildfire stated they came from the coastal city of St. Paul de Loando. They had names – Francisco, Salvador, Constantia, Antonia, Amelia, and Madia - that reflect the Portuguese influence on the region. Many of these people had been baptized by Catholic missionaries, and spoke at least some Portuguese. Some of these people claimed to have been slaves in that city, which is not surprising considering that in 1850, of a population of 12,565, over 6,000 were slaves. The group exhibited a variety of cultural markers.  It was written about the Wildfire’s people, “The women [from Loando] have cut or shaved the hair off the back part of their head, from a point on the crown to the back part of either ear. It is the fashion of their tribe. None of the other women are thus shorn. Many of the men, women, boys, and girls have filed their front teeth – some by sharpening them to a point, and others by cutting down the two upper front teeth. The persons [from Loando] have their teeth in a natural state. Perhaps fifty in all are tattooed more or less.”

   In the mid-19^th century, slaves were being brought to the Congo markets from much farther inland than ever before. Bobangi fishermen to transport captives from the areas to the north and east of the river’s Malebo Pool (the cities of Brazzaville and Kinshasa). Far to the southeast the Chokwe were also of increasing influence in the trade, as profits from their traditional produce of ivory and beeswax enabled them to purchase arms. They began an eventually successful war against the Lunda empire, capturing many people for the slave markets.

   Beyond these little bits of information, it is difficult to know exactly where the majority of these captured African people came from.