International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade

Slavery has existed since the beginning of civilizations where the growth of cultivation and warfare brought about injustices that allowed the unfortunate possibility to abduct and keep men, women and children as slaves for domestic, laborious, agricultural, entertainment, or sexual services. It should be noted that many despised slave-owning and attempts were made to free slaves, for instance, the Essenes and the Therapeutae1. Slave trading , particularly in the Mediterranean region (around 1000 – 1500 CE) became big business and thousands of slaves served a variety of purposes and services. Since, slave trading bore no barriers and spread to other regions of the world. The Triangular trade was an international network linking the economies of the Americas, Africa, and Europe and transported approximately 25 to 30 million enslaved men, women, and children. The Transatlantic slave trade itself moved approximately 15 to 18 million captive slaves, excluding the millions that died en ro...

Transatlantic trade began around the end of the 15th century upon Portuguese conquest across the Atlantic Ocean, which was followed by the Spanish as well as Christopher Columbus’ Caribbean conquest. However, the transatlantic slave trade was like no other, considering: 1.) its scale and duration, 2.) the victimization of slaves who were black African men, women, and children, and 3.) the “intellectual legitimization attempted on its behalf” consisting of an anti-black ideology and the legalization of such an organization. Considered as the first “system of globalization” this particular slave trade covered Africa, the Americas, Europe, the Caribbean, and the Indian Ocean making it one of the largest deportations in history with significant world economic implications. Notwithstanding, it was also considered by many, such as French historian Jean-Michel Deveau, as one of “ the greatest tragedies in the history of humanity in terms of scale and duration ”.   In the Amer...

The Middle Passage was the journey from West Africa across the Atlantic Ocean to the West Indies lasting about three to four months. It would be one of the most arduous expeditions as it also served to erase the captive slave ’s “sense of human dignity” as they were chained and shackled and forced to lay down in rows, “spoonways”, or on shelves across the ship. Furthermore, they were systematically dehumanized. Before boarding, the captives were stripped of any “physical connections ” with their past and this would continue aboard the slave trading ships along the “Middle Passage”. “ At last, when the ship we were in, had got in all her cargo, they made ready with many fearful noises, and we were all put under deck, so that we could not see how they managed the vessel. … The stench of the hold while we were on the coast was so intolerably loathsome…. The closeness of the place, and the heat of the climate, added to the number in the ship, which was so crowded that each had scar...

It is without a doubt that Africans would resist the slave trade, slavery and forced labour from the very beginning by any means possible. Strategic defences such as moving communities to areas surrounded by hills , barricading villages with fences and poisoned bushes, and mazes to confuse slave traders amongst others were utilised. There was also violent and non-violent means of resistance against Europeans mainly by Africans. This was duly noted by slave traders, captains and crewmen of slave trading ships, doctors, and even slave masters who described them as “ lazy and ill-disposed to labour”. Some “open and violent” means of resistance included the “poisoning of animals and owners, and sometimes turned it against themselves by committing infanticide, self-mutilation and suicide… absent themselves from enslavement for a few hours or a few days, regardless of the punishment they might receive on their return”. Whereas non-violent means included, sabotage, conspiring and forming m...

The anti-slavery campaign in the British Empire took 20 years to come into effect because even though the slave trade industry together with the transatlantic slave trade was an enormous industry not everyone was aware of the operations and conditions that made it particularly horrifying. Information was not widespread as many in Europe were illiterate . On top of little information about the slave trade and its atrocities in circulation, there were not many opportunities that common folk could pursue or entertain to make effective change at that time; additionally, women were not given a voice and they could not vote and those in power had little interest in what the people had to say. Furthermore, the elites who were aware of the wickedness of slavery had the money and power to influence the government but they profited very well from the slave trade and became too comfortable in their ways of living to want any change. “Am I not a man and a brother”, “Am I not a woman and a s...

These set-backs delayed the campaign to abolish the slave trade by the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade but was nonetheless launched. The campaign concentrated on pressuring Parliament to abolish the trading of slaves itself as they believed it to be a tactical strategy that would eventually lead to the eradication of slavery . Additionally, abolitionists raised awareness through different means and tactics such as the arts, which together with the campaign had significant impacts on Parliament to do something about the slave trade. Though majority of the successive abolition was due to the slave rebellion and revolution in Haiti the campaign and tactics of the abolitionists raised significant public awareness about the truth of the slave trade and slavery . The act itself pertained to the British colonies and British ships which were then banned from carrying any slaves . Many, obviously attempted to evade the ban and while the ultimate goal for the abolition of slave ...

The increasing number of African-born slaves worried the leaders of South Carolina who would impose a “special tax on foreign slaves to slow the trade” as legislature noted that their growing numbers “may prove of the most dangerous consequence”. Virginia also attempted to ban slave trading for purely economic reasons but was overruled as the RAC had powerful advocates in the government and the slave trade was crucial to the British economy. The ban on slave trade by the colonists was their attempt at cutting economic ties with Britain and during the Revolution all of the new states either suspended or banned the slave trading. However, some of the northern colonies also banned the African slave trade for moral reasons as well. As opposition to slavery grew more and more states would ban the trade entirely such as Massachusetts and New Hampshire followed by a gradual ban in Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. During and after the Revolution slave trading was deliberated an...