The Complete Concise History of the Slave Trade

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© 2013 by Olayanju Olajide. All rights reserved.

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Published by AuthorHouse 1/11/2013

ISBN: 978-1-4817-8159-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4817-8160-2 (e)

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CONTENTS

About the Author

Dedication

Introduction

Foreword

Chapter 1: Before the Slave Trade in Africa

Chapter 2: The beginning of the Slave Trade

Chapter 3: The American Revolution

Chapter 4: The American Civil War: 1861-1865

Chapter 5: The Abolition of the Slave Trade

Chapter 6: The Journey Back to Africa

Chapter 7: The Opposition to Slavery

Chapter 8: The Effect of Slave Trade

Chapter 9: Look at Me

Chapter 10: The Complete Freedom

Sources

Acknowledgments

Endnotes

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Olayanju Olajide was born into a Ruling House in South West Nigeria. I came to the United Kingdom to study in the 1960s. I obtained my degree in Law—LLB degree from University of London and Thames Valley University in the 1970s.

After that I went back to Nigeria whereby I attended the Nigerian Law School, and I was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1981. After that I took up an appointment and I was appointed Assistant Registrar of Companies. I worked in the above capacity for many years until I came back to the United Kingdom in the latter part of 1980s.

My intention was to come and stayed for a little while and returned back to Nigeria, but my children and my family love this country, so I could not go to Nigeria and left them behind. I should like to say that I love this country as well. I went to University of Northumbria in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1990s to read for a branch of Law, but withdrew after a while.

I love history and as such read ancient history, modern history, slave-trade history, and Yoruba history.

I am now retired and have decided to write this book and other books as well.

DEDICATION

I dedicate this book to my darling wife, Tinuola Olajide, whose advice, encouragement and support helped me to write this book

I also dedicate this book to all my children particularly my daughter Seyi who helps me to select the pictures for their advice and support throughout the draft and publication of this book. I am really happy that they are not disappointed.

Finally I dedicate this book to Pastor Wole Ajibade who advised me few years ago to write a book or books. Surprisingly I did not tell him that I was planning to write this book or any other book.

INTRODUCTION

The ambition or the desire to know and to find wealth in other areas of the world led Christopher Columbus to discover the New world in 1492. Columbus landed on the island of San Salvador and sailed towards the south until he came to the island he called Hispaniola, which is divided into the Dominican Republic in the east and Haiti (St Dominique) in the West. The inhabitants of the island of Hispaniola were not hostile to Columbus and his team.

Christopher Columbus later found gold in the Islands. It is essential that the islands should provide the key which would open the door to El Dorado, the legendary city of gold. When Columbus realised that there was gold in the island then he needed the work force to mine the gold. The work force were invariably the inhabitants of the Islands. Unfortunately the inhabitants were not used to hard work, but they were forced to do the hard work in the mines.

The condition of the hard labour made a lot of the inhabitants to lose their lives and they died rapidly in large numbers.

The population of Hispaniola and the surrounding islands which was estimated to be one million in 1492 when Columbus discovered the islands dropped to 60,000 after twenty _five years, and after forty years dropped to only about two hundred.

It was rather too late to stop the alarming death rate when a Dominican priest Las Casas came to the aid of the Indian inhabitants. Las Casas campaigned in Spain on behalf the native inhabitants that Columbus and his team should stop the ill treatment and the killing of the native inhabitants. Las Casas argued that Columbus and his team must cooperate and be in harmony with native inhabitants. Las Casas suggested that the inhabitants should not be forced to work in the mines because they were not used to such deadly hard work. Priest Las Casas suggested that in order to preserve the prosperity of the island Hispaniola labour force should be found somewhere else.

Therefore it was decided that the labour force should brought from Africa. As a result of the decision to bring the required labour force from Africa, it was decreed in 1577 to ship 15,000 Negro slaves from Africa to Hispaniola. Thus Las Casas fought for the liberty of the native Indians of Hispaniola and at the same time promoted the slavery of the Africans.

Contrarily the Africans who were shipped and forced into the slavery in Hispaniola were not like the native inhabitants. The shipped Africans were warriors. The 15,000 Africans shipped to Hispaniola in 1577, 7,000 escaped on arrival to hills and thereby organised themselves into warrior factions. They thereby returned to the life they had lived in their distant homeland.

Those Africans who were brought to Hispaniola in 1577, and forced into slavery eventually organised themselves into strong communities and were able to fight for themselves against the powerful armies of France, Britain and Spain.

In the 18th century the Africans that were brought to Hispaniola began the race for their liberty and the independence for St Dominique (later Haiti) and they won both and thereby St Dominique gained independence from France in 1804 and renamed Haiti till today. The Republic of Haiti is the second independent country after the United States of America in the whole of the western hemisphere.

But the major draw back of the ex-slaves, especially in America and the Caribbean is the bridge between their new homes in over seas and their original homeland in Africa. The separation made it impossible for the former slaves to have any knowledge of Africa, rather they relied on the bad image of Africa and Africans.

According to: Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin "But it is part of the business of the writer—as I see it, to examine attitudes to go beneath the surface to tap the source. From this point of view the Negro problem is nearly inaccessible. It is not only written about so widely, it is written about so badly. It is quite possible to say that the price a Negro pays for becoming articulate is to find himself at length with nothing to be articulate about, (You taught me language; says Caliban to Prospero, "and my profit on’t is I know how to curse). Consider the tremendous social activity that this problem generates imposes on whites and Negros alike the necessity of looking forward of working to bring about a better day. This is fine, it keeps the waters troubled; it is all indeed that has made possible the Negros progress. Nevertheless, social affairs are not generally speaking the writer’s prime concern whether they ought to be or; it is absolutely necessary that he establish between himself and these affairs a distance which will allow; at least, for clarity, so that before he must be first allowed to take a long look back. In the context of the Negro problem neither whites nor blacks for the excellent reasons of their own, have the faintest desire to look back. but I think the past that makes the present coherent, and further that the past will remain horrible for exactly as long as we refuse to assess it honesty.

I know in any case that the most crucial time in my own development came when I was forced to recognise that I was a kind of bastard of the West; I followed the line of my past I did not find myself in Europe but in Africa. And this meant that in some subtle way, in a really profound way; I brought to Shakespeare, Bach, Rembrandt to the stones of Paris, to the Cathedral Chartres, and to the Empire State Building, a especially attitude. These were not really my creations, they did not contain my history; I might search in them in vain forever for any reflection of myself, I was an interloper; this was not my heritage. At the same time I had no other heritage which I could possibly hope to use. I had certainly been unfitted for the jungle or the tribe. I would have to appropriate these white countries, I would have to make them mine—I would have to accept my special Attitudes my special place in this scheme, otherwise I would have no place in any scheme."

According to a Yoruba adage Ti iwaju o ba se lo, pada sehin That is, if it is, impossible to move forward, turn back.

Without doubt many former slaves think exactly the same way this writer: James Baldwin thinks. No need to look back. That is there is no need to look back even though to go forward is too difficult or almost impossible. The reason being the ex-slaves wrongly believed that Africa is a jungle and inhabited by tribes.

It would have been very helpful if the ex-slaves could look back or even go back to Africa and especial when they had the chance to go after the abolition of the slave trade. Though few thought of returning to Africa and they did, and those who did were very prosperous and successful. If the ex-slaves had returned as suggested by some of their leaders such as Marcus Carvey they would not have suffered social rejection. Moreover they would not have relied on false history or wrong image of Africa. Rather the former slaves would have learnt the history of Africa and be proud of the heritage of Africa such as the pyramid, the ancient arts of the kingdom of Ile-Ife and the like. Furthermore the ex-slaves would have known that Africa is the cradle of civilisation the origin of learning