(NG) Impact and Effects of the Illegal Slave Trade (2009 04 13)

Justin DuBose

Impact and Effects of the Illegal Slave Trade

History of Africa

Dr. Van Sickle

April 13, 2009
 
The importation of African slaves to the United Slates was of major benefit to the
e C Il omy of America in most all of the eighteenth century and just a few short years in the
Il '**e  <e Et th century. These African slaves provided most all of the labor that it took to run our hug dRta tiOtlS f Cotton, rice and tobacco. However, this would change in 1807 under the presidency of Thomas Jefferson. In 1807 President Jefferson passed a law which stated simply that starting on Janes 1, 1808 it would be illegal for Americans to participate in the trans-
AU tlC sl£tve trade. Any Chip caught transporting slaves to America would be punished for breaking American laws. Now, this is quite a morally good law to pass on behalf of President Je ffer >Of l . Thomas Jefferson, however, had some personal history of his own which 1 think pl£tyed into his decision to pass this law and I believe that it is important in understanding why
lhls law was passed when it was. Thomas Jefferson owned a female slave named Sally Hennings, Who, ironically, was the half-sister of his wife Martha. Martha’s father, John Wayles, had fathered a child through Sally’s mother Betty Hennings, one of his slaves. When Martha passed away it is widely believed that Thomas Jefferson fathered multiple children with Sally Flemings. He certainly could not entertain this idea at the time and did not even address it when asked.
However, I believe that it was for this reason mainly that he passed this law during his presidency. In addressing this issue of the illegal slave trade we will look at the effect the abolition of the slave trade had on American slaves already in America, how it affected the African slaves being transported after 1808, and how it affected the slave traders afier 1808.
One may be inclined to think that afier the abolition of the slave trade that slavery would

SlCtwly decline. Pe rhaps the need for slave labor would decrease and alternate means of doing wo f k th£tt pri2viously only slave labor could accomplish would arise. However, this is not the
yC b   £1t all.  IU fact, it is actually quite the opposite.  Plantation products such as cotton, tobacco,
 
‘ Ch › *Offe e and sugar were ill gre at demand in the nineteenth century, and particularly ill Europe.
Thu s yOu had the needs for African slaves to work the plantations to provide the labor supply to e e     j  great consumer demand.  At the time of the outlawing of the slave trade in 1808 there e I’e <Jy African slaves already on American soil, From 1790 to 1860, most of this time
d tfl 8 the Art of illegal slave trade, the slave poptll£ttion in America quadrupled. This statistic is
not a result of illegal slave trading though, rather a result of natural increase. In fact, many slaves Already iYt America found that the outlaw Cif the slave trade increased their hopes of freedom. The view of many Americans toward slavery, particularly in the North, was changed for the better after 1808. Many slaves who had been transported from their homes to America in the slows t rade when it was legal now had renewed hope for their children and grandchildren for
i f bi tter life. One example is an African slave named lbrahima Abd ar-Rahman Jallo, Abd ar- Rahm W£fS brought from his home in Africa to New Orleans and was sold as a slave in 1794. He was the son of an African king and so everybody that knew him in America called him “Prince”. The first light of hope came in 1807 from Dr. John Cox when he recognized ar-
Râhman from his stay in Africa in the eighteenth century and said that he would get him his freedom. After the abolition of the slave trade, Americans slowly, albeit very slowly in some places, began turning against the idea of slavery. In 1816 the American Colonization Society, or
ACS, was founded. The goal of this organization was to send Africans back to their homeland • where they would be put in American colonies and live as tree and independent people. Through  
the urging of the ACS the United States established the slave colony of Liberia. It is actually, to this day, the location of the only city named after a President of the United States. Monrovia, Liber‹il iS• blamed for James Monroe, our fifth President. Many Americans that did support the
ideas of the ACS did so for fear the America was becoming too crowded with slaves and that
e *e ll °' tlly that would rebel agakst their white owners or because they wanted to get their mulatto, or off-spring from slaves, out of public view. Whatever the reasons, ar-Rahman earned P£tS £tge ICT Liberi a with his wife. Sadly though, after he reached his home continent he
CO f lt t£tC ted an illness and died. The story of ar-Rahman is just one of many and is an example of t he  ge f1erally positive impact that the abolition of the slave trade had on African slaves already 11 Ame rican soil when the law was passed in 1808.
The next factor that we will be looking at is the impact the illegal slave trade had on new Afr]C Sla ves transported to America after 1808. In many aspects, the illegal slave trade of the ninete enth century can be compared the illegal drug trade of today. It can be summarized by
S  ty'Il aI   e   potential profits increased, but the potential risks increased significantly as well. Many of the most infamous slave traders, such as Pedro Blanco, went bankrupt during this time because of the illegality of the slave trade. It can be concluded that life for African slaves became much worse. Treatment of slaves became very harsh both on land, waiting to be shipped
from Africa, and in transit from Africa to America at sea. Many slaves were gathered into what amounted to animal pens, called barracoons, and awaited embarkation on the African coast where they would be shipped off. In many cases, food would often run out because of both the long waiting period and the number of slaves carried per ship increased. Slave trading ships were forced to become tasters so that they could outrun any potential boats that would arrest them, including United States Navy boats. This meant that they had to become smaller, In addition, voyages had to become less frequent and completed much quicker. Faster, smaller, and lighter boats certainly were a major factor in this. One example of these shorter voyages is extremely evident in the journey from Angola, in Africa, to the Caribbean. Before 1808, when
the slave trade was outlawed, this journey took approximately ten weeks. After 1808 it only took
 
a bOUt S iX weeks; a forty percent reduction in time. This is a major reason for the horrible ll vlf lg
' Oll diti R fOr sl£f ves on these bo£ttS. AIl othe r f lC tor is terri ble oflboard conditions for slaves was that because participation in the trans-Atlantic slave trade was now illegal, thi s me ant th a t t he Se boats wOuld h£f vl to cram as many pas s engers £tS the y could l ll to one boat to maxi m1Ze potential profits. This, of course, meant conditions that were far worse than the already bad conditions
Sla Ves faced on their trans-Atlantic journey prior to the slave being made illegal. Awaiting on ShOre s became worse because the captains of these slave ships were essentially removed from C rnmllnications in the slave trade. The main reason for this was secrecy. If a boat was caught In the Atlantic suspected of participating in the slave trade and was questioned, the USS the
Captain , or any crew members, knew about the journey the better. So communication in the trade
became almost strictly between people at the place of departure and those at the place of arrival.  
This meant that times were not as exact and slaves were forced to sit and await embarkation for longer periods of time, often running out of food before they even got onboard the ship. Another and perhaps even greater reason for slaves sitting and awaiting embarkation for long periods of time was because the coast had to be absolutely clear before slave ships could land and take off again. Cruisers in the area would often patrol for lengthy periods of time and slave ships were forced to just sit and wait until they were gone. Then, when they finally left the docking period had to be very short so as to avoid being seen or captured. Gastrointestinal diseases that often gave slaves corning to the New World the skeletal look that typifies them in photographs were caught, in a great many cases, before they even began to board the ship.
Life on captains, crews, and others seeking to gain from illegal slave trade was also made particul arly tough after 1808. Anytime an action or business that is proritable is deemed illegal people will continue to participate in it because the profits are there and almost always go up
 
e r it lose S its legal status. Prior to 1808 slave trading took place at major ports in the United
' til t e d Whb n slaves arrived to this New World they were almost always t1n1O£tde d I t ei t he r Ne w
Orlean S, Louisiana, Charleston, South Carolina, or Richmond, Virginia. Aker 1808 when slave
t r £tderS wi th mandated into secrecy, slave ships were forced to avoid estab1is hed ports and te t her
e * £f bl S he d facilitie s that offered certain amenities. Thus, they were forced to find new locations, locatio ns which would not be easily suspected and could not be easily discovered. The new
OC£ttiollS for arrival and departure were often creeks and swamps. Before departing on their
1• ll " ' e y, Ships often gathered fraudulent registration papers so as not to be captured at sea. They
Otl ld ofte Il Carry multiple copies of these fraudulent registration papers from seVeral di ffere fl t
countries stating a variety of businesses so that they could avoid suspicion if stopped multiple

i e  S  III jOl2rney. Like their registration papers, ships would carry a plethora of flags aboard ffO many different countries so that they could be switched out to match their registration papers. Sometim es they chose not to fly any flag at all. As addressed in the previous paragraph, VII I gre a t disadvantage of the slave trade now being illegal was that crews were often left out of
the communication loop and when they arrived at the location of their destination they were
often forced to sit and wait on cruisers to leave the area. Another major way that the illegal slave • trade effected ships was the demographic of African passengers that they transported. Prior to
1808, African males occupied only about fifty-five percent of the trade. Afier 1808, the percentage of African males rose dramatically to almost seventy five percent. The reason for this follows suit with everything else that went along with slave traders in this era: profit maximization. This was the single reason for almost everything that slave traders did, along with not getting caught or imprisoned. Males sold for more money and were often seen as more valuable because of the type of manual labor they could provide and because of their longevity in
 

doing so. As stated earlier the demand from Europeans for American plantation products did not
r  P Wlth the outlawing of the slave trade. Thus, when the opportunity came to get a fresh, physiC£tlly mature, adult, African slave people ofien jumped at the opportunity. Another demCi8 r aphic that changed dramatically was in the percentage of African children transported.
The vast majori ty of children being transported were boys, and in fact these boys accounted for a lOt Of the increase in males. More and more African children were transported and less and less
£tdtl IS h er e transported. The reasons for this are also obvious. The younger that you can get Slaves, the more longevity they will provide for you on your plantation. From the perspective of the slavt traders, young African males were a no-brainer because people wanted them and because you could fit more of them on a ship that you could adults. Since there were fewer
• y £%e S, more Slaves per ship were carried and you simply can get mold pe 0 ple in one ship if
7 < fill it full of children rather than adults. The percentage of females dropped across the board to all-time loss.
A great number of ships that were participating in the slave trade belonged to countries other than the United States. Along with the United States, Brazil and Cuba participated heavily in the illegal slave trade of the nineteenth century. While it remains unclear just how many of these voyages were done by American ships, we know of at least two vessels that were strictly slave transporting ships. It is certain that many more vessels were transporting slaves to the United States that were not owned by Americans. In fact, a great many ships that were transporting slaves to the United States illegally were owned by Portuguese and Spanish nationals. Because of the great risk involved in having your name associated with the illegal
slave trade, ownership of everything from vessels to cargo became spread across the board to broaden the risk among many people. It can easily be equated to many people investing in
 
SO e i fl g today, lik real estate, which poses a high risk. If many pe ople  gO i tl OH th e projeCt
8e1 e r and all contribute to it and it turns out to be a bust and goes bankrupt, then everyone just lose S m trgifl ally iflstead of one or two people losing everything. This is the logic of the investors Of the nineteenth century illegal slave trade. If a ship was captured, it was near impossible to
O    whO Was responsible for sending this vessel across the Atlantic to piCk il p s1 tVe S. ThiiS , if
t  he Sh jp wit s captured  the losses would be spread across the board.  The   Cindy mi l l whCl have    shell
>+Tle d smeare d in the mud would be those who were actually oi l t he ship at the time of its
CM P r e EVeryone else can just take their minimal losses and continu e OR . P rhaps the investors lfl   Which yCill    i2an find the most irony in is that of the British.  Britis h me r chantSi  ated S hopkeepers  l f1* e S e d 1R Ame rican plantation products like tobacco and Cott €lf l. Thus, while the Br itiS h N Vy
£tnd the British foreign office led the charge against the illegal slave trade, British citizens
benefited greatly from it.

Thomas Jefferson, I believe, did what should be considered a noble and morally good thing in outlawing the slave trade here in the United States. While his motives can be questioned, and really the motives of everyone in America who wanted to “help” the African slaves, it did make life much more difficult on those attempting to continue in the slave trade. The major benefactor of the whole thing though was the Africans who were transported to
America after 1808. Living conditions both on shore awaiting embarkation and on ship became much worse for them. Prior to 1808 people wanted to take care of them, to a certain extent, so that they could be of more value when they arrived at their destination. After 1808 the main concern was not getting caught and getting as much bang for your buck as possible. As a direct result of this, African males and African children suffered extensively. All things considered, while a greater ratio of Africans died while being transported in slave ships, I think that most
 
Pe OP e   wCl uld agree that more African lives were saved because of the outlawing of the slave trade than were lost because of it. More good was done in the long run, though they certainly
 
had th   dea   l ¥VJi
than never.
 
some negatives in the short run. As the common expression says, it is better late
 

lb lO a h



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http:// ,mCtf ltiG llo.org/pl £tntation/hemin zscofl tr o/h mi f 1r S-je ff r 5i Cif1 i €if1 ‹ r Ci ht ml

http://I n.wikipedia. org/wiki/Sallv Hennings