Oliver Ransford's 'The Slave Trade' 1971

Readers Union first edition - 1972

Somewhere between 14 and 20 million Africans were forcibly transported to America during the course of the Atlantic slave trade; at least a similar number of black men, women and children perished during the wars initiated by the slavers or died from hardship while being driven from the African interior to the coast. From 1444, when six Portuguese caravels, dropped anchor in the Bay of Arguin, on the Guinea coast, until well into the 19th century this infamous trade went on. Ransford does not spare us the grisly details, but I came away feeling that the author had shown a sense of balance when it (however rarely) was due. The Slavers' coast of Africa stretched from the Bay of Arguin and the mouth of the Senegal River, past Cape Verde and Cape Palmas, taking in the Grain, Ivory, Gold and Slave Coasts, before turning south at the Gulf of Benin, to end up on the Angolan coast 2,000 miles or so onward.

Domestic slavery flourished long before the arrival of the white men although, generally speaking, the slaves were well treated. Urged on by Henry the Navigator from his base at Sagres, the Portuguese caravels travelled further and further in pursuit of gold, ivory and spices. The other valuable commodity was black slaves. Consciences were assuaged by the Bull of Pope Nicholas V which authorised them to attack, subject, and reduce to perpetual slavery the Saracens, Pagans, and other enemies of Christ...including all the coast of Guinea. Now, there's a surprise.

The Atlantic slave trade relied heavily for its prosecution on the co-operation of African middlemen. The slave trade was a partnership between African sellers and European buyers of slaves. Chapter 5, The Middle Passage, is particularly gruesome. Rounded up on slave hunting expeditions, the captives were held in barracoons until the next slave ship appeared. If not selected, the 'useless' ones were taken away and killed behind the palm trees.

The horrific 'packing' on a slave-ship

Packed like the proverbial sardines, the Africans experienced hell-like conditions on the voyage. Those who died in transit were simply thrown overboard. A 12% loss was accepted with equanimity by the slavers. Once they reached the West Indies, it was pot luck whether they were bought by tyrants or considerate owners. Islands like Barbados depended directly on slave labour. Meanwhile the West Indian sugar magnates became famous in Britain for their affluence. They dazzled society (similar to the Indian nabobs?) The author is good at describing the conditions on the islands, where most planters were both racists and racialists, often using professional floggers to maintain discipline.

Further chapters on the slave plantations in America and Brazil lead on to an account of the attempts by English abolitionists to end, at least, the trade in slaves. Three figures loom large in the story - Granville Sharp, the father of the abolition movement; Thomas Clarkson, who took over the 'torch'; and William Wilberforce, who brought the movement to Parliament.  A three-pronged attack developed: press propaganda, pamphlets and sermons; an attempt to embargo products derived from slave labour; and parliamentary reform. One chapter deals with the maelstrom that was Haiti (and Santo Domingo).  Toussaint L'Ouverture (b. 1746), Jean Jaques Dessalines, and Henry Christophe (b.1767) play the major roles in the tragic story of this benighted island. This chapter alone makes the reader recoil in horror at the goings-on.

A further chapter deals with the USA. Until 1860, eleven of the sixteen Presidents were slave owners. In the South it was the norm. Then came little Mrs Harriet Beecher Stowe, with her Uncle Tom's Cabin (1851). She provided a mirror in which America could examine itself...for the first time had caused them to realise that a passive abstention from humanity was a vote to uphold these evils. The Vatican decided to include the book in its Index, since it was subversive of established authority. You couldn't make it up. It wasn't ignored in America and Civil War erupted (not  mainly due to the slavery question, but to save the Union). As Lincoln said, If I could save the Union without freeing any slaves, I would do it.

This book was published in 1972, exactly 50 years ago. Yet its final paragraph could be written today:

The slave trade was the largest factor in producing the multiracial societies of the world in which we now live. Many of us may not very much like these societies, and even in a sophisticated country like England racial tension is increasing. But they are a fact of life today, and we have to live with multi-racialism. To find a peaceful way of doing so is presently mankind's most important task. So true.