THE SLAVE TRADE

The book edge was worn out. The inside seems unaffected. Considering the cost charged at least a decent book should be sent. Almost a good proportion of the appendix is worn out - luckily doesn’t affect the written text

The only other work I have read by author Thomas was "The Spanish Civil War", a work of a mere 620 pages when compared with this tome of nearly 900. But in both cases Thomas has written the definitive work on his subject against which all other books should be measured. Thomas writes a scholarly book with extensive notes and appendixes, although unfortunately he meanders, repeats himself, and sometimes his writing leaves much to be desired. Nonetheless, his scholarship is non pareil, and I recommend this book to all those who would like to learn about the slave trade, how it began, what drove it, who profited, and how and when it ended. This work strips the myths that abound today from the subject, and many readers will undoubtedly be unhappy to have some of their misconceptions dumped into the trash bin. First and foremost, this is a book on the SLAVE TRADE, not slavery. As such it focuses almost exclusively on the trade by Africans in Africans to mostly European traders who then transported slaves to the Americas for sale. The reader should be advised that there is little about the lives of slaves, their experiences, or the morality of slavery here. Slavery as an institutions has been endemic in human cultures since recorded time, is given prominence in the Old Testament, mentioned but not approved in the New Testament, and is lawful and approved of in the Koran (by Muslims of non-Muslims.) Trade in African slaves came to the fore relatively recently in human history (the word slave comes from "Slav", the ethnic group that supposedly made the best slaves) although Muslim slave traders had been active in bringing Black African slaves to the Mediterranean coast since 700 AD. The trade Thomas develops began with the Portugese as they explored southwards along the West Coast of Africa and created trading relations with the political entities (kingdoms) on the coast. With the conquest and development of the Western Hemisphere, the Portugese established a triangular trade -- they took trade goods such as cloth, cowrie shells, guns and implements to Africa, traded those goods for gold and slaves, sailed the "Middle Passage" to America where the slaves were sold and exchanged for sugar and other American products, then returned to Europe to sell those products. Later this same triangular route would be followed by the Spanish (the first two hundred years were dominated by the Portugese) and other European nations until England developed a near monopoly on the trade in the 18th century. Thomas also points out that the first hundred years of the trade tended to be dominated by "conversos" or Jews who supposedly had converted to Christianity in Spain and Portugal. One of the most signal aspects of this trade was that slaves (and some gold) were the primary product of Africa, and almost all (97+%) of the slaves were purchased from other Africans by the European traders. For ex-slaves, they can begin by focusing some of their anger at those fellow Africans who sold them into slavery in the first place. In the Americas, treatment of the slaves went from humane to horrible, with the North Americans being the most benign, followed by the Dutch, English in the Caribbean, Spanish, French and Portugese. The last three were particularly harsh towards slaves, especially those working on sugar plantations where the life expectancy rarely went beyond a few years. In the continental United States by 1790 there were only a half million slaves, mostly second, third or fourth generation, well-acclimatized slaves. To a very large degree, the slave population in the US was home-grown whereas that in Brazil and other places was replaced every few years by new arrivals. African slaves were sought for the Americas due to their ability to work in the hot climate and their general docility. White slaves from Ireland and the Mediterranean tended to be truculent and died easily, Arab slaves refused to work and preferred death, and the native Indians were poor workers for whom no inducement was effective. The trade itself was not nearly so profitable as depicted on popular books until late in the 18th century. Yes, it was possible to make a fortune on a single voyage, but over time the trading corporations realized relatively slim profit margins. Many of the earlier purchasers of the slave trading monopoly from the King of Portugal or Spain failed to make profits at all, and even the English trading houses of Liverpool and London often saw their returns on investment in single digits until the 19th century. Then in the first half of the century profits could reach 400% of the investment for slaves carried to Brazil or Cuba. Demand for slaves to work sugar plantations continued unabated, and with the British Royal Navy policing the Atlantic Ocean, prices soared. In many ways, this sounds like the current drug trade coming into the US from south of its border. More law enforcement means higher prices and greater profits to the successful trader. Thomas points out that slavery in the US was slowly dying until the invention of the cotton gin that transformed the South into an agricultural gold mine and created the need for a vast number of cotton workers. By that time England had begun moving towards abolishing the trade which they did in 1807. The US made the importation of slaves into the US illegal three months before England abolished the trade in 1807, and the law took effect the first day of 1808. Thomas emphasizes that these laws abolished the trade or importation of slaves, but did not outlaw slavery itself. Trading in slaves continued to be legal within the southern states with slaves already present, but no slaves were to be imported. In England's case the abolition of slavery itself would take place in 1838 (with monetary compensation to ex-slaveowners) and in the US in 1863 (with a Civil War.) France abolished slavery in 1847, and most of Europe followed suit, the last European nation being Portugal in 1869, and the last holdouts in the Americas were Cuba (1886) and Brazil (1888.) As the slave trade was halted, a number of African kingdoms and states experienced severe economic distress and political chaos with the loss of their primary product. Sad to say, slavery is still alive and well in the 21st century in Muslim nations that have still not abolished slavery. Thomas cites Mauritania where there were still 90,000 African slaves to Arab Muslim masters in 1980. Covering all of this Thomas tells the truth, and there are few heros in his narrative. All parties were guilty: the Africans who captured and sold their brethern into slavery, the Europeans who transported the slaves to the Americas (& some Americans), and the colonists and planters who were the purchasers and consumers of the slaves. Thomas also mentions many famous names who were involved or hostile to the abolition of the slave trade, and again, there is much to learn here. Even successive Popes approved of the trade (as long as the slaves were baptized properly), and although Liberia was formed to resettle freed slaves, the record of African states, European nations amd American colonies all can be condemned with modern eyes. I highly recommend this book. There is much here for everyone to learn.

Slavery is obviously a sensitive and very political topic. I bought this book because it is written in a fact-based, historical manner. It took me months to read it and frankly it was kind of a slog. It was full of historical facts, well researched and attributed and included an excruciating level of detail. The author, Hugh Thomas, has a formal and British style of writing with complex sentences. Sometimes I had to read a passage more than once. He also uses foreign terms without translation, further slowing my comprehension. All that aside, however, I feel that I learned a lot from the book and recommend it.

I must admit this was quite a difficult read at times. It covers just about everything and at times was exhausting. But this is an important piece of work and I'm glad I stuck with it. People should be educated more about this part of our history instead of brushing it under the carpet, the world would be a better place for it. It's not an easy read but worth the effort.

One of the great problems regarding modern discussions on the slave trade is the sheer one-sidedness of arguments. At last we have a book written with a thoroughness and eye for detail that is most impressive. If you want to know the answers to questions: Who sold slaves to traders? Why were certain people earmarked for slavery by African chiefs? What were the motives of slave buyers and shippers ? How old was the slave trade and what was its scope? What would have happened to the people sold into slavery if they had not been shipped or transported abroad? Most of these questions are deliberately avoided by people who view slavery as a simplistic "white skin-evil" :"back skin-victims" issue. It also looks at the role of "racism" in this trade, revealing a surprising positive discrimination by some traders in the early years of the trade, clear tribal racism by many African rulers as well as the pernicious role of the church and so-called christians in justifying the denigration of people of African origin. All in ask this book is a revelation..

I was compelled to return to this book again and again almost as an act of duty to digest and finish this gruelling account of one of, if not the most inhumane and odious chapters in human history. The book highlights the origins of slavery in general from early civilisations and slaves being prizes in conflicts, wars or raiding parties. That is understandable to a degree and a reflection of human desire to dominate neighbouring tribes, villages etc but for this shameful practice to have originated in so called Christian enlightened countries and to have lasted so long on the scale that it took place is unforgivable and almost unbelievable. But it did apparently happen and the African slave trade probably funded and stimulated the industrial revolution in Britain and other western European countries as the author has suggested.My only criticism or difficulty in reading the book was it was sometimes very tedious to read due to paragraph after paragraph of names and dates of slavers. The book was very repetitive but it probably had to be to emphasise and confirm the scale and extent of this crime. We also were repeatedly reminded that this was also a crime perpetrated or instigated by African against African. It also flagged up the link to the seemingly age old battle for dominance between Islam and Christianity.Overall I was glad and a bit relieved to have read and finally this account of this terrible chapter in human history.