|
A | Abolition | Government-led initiatives to end the legal trade in enslaved peoples. France
abolished its slave trade in 1794, but re-instituted it legally in 1815. Denmark
first abolished permanently its slave trade (1802). Britain spearheaded the
international abolition movement, culminating in the termination of the British
slave trade (1807) and slavery within the British Empire (1833). The Spanish
government ended the slave trade to Cuba in 1867; slavery ended in Cuba in 1886
and then in Brazil in 1888. |
| Adults | African men
and women generally older than 13 or 14 years of age or taller than four feet
four inches. Over the 350-year history of the trans-Atlantic slave trade,
captains purchased more adults (80%) than children (20%). Specific age ratios
differ by time and place. |
| Africa | After the
opening of the New World by the Spanish and Portuguese circa 1500, some 12
million Africans were shipped west between 1500 and 1867. Most enslaved Africans
were embarked from modern-day Nigeria, Congo, Zaire and Angola. Europeans
purchased enslaved Africans mostly along the Atlantic African coastline from the
Senegal River to Benguela (Angola) and then in Madagascar and Mozambique in
southeast Africa. |
| Africans | Persons
born or living in Africa. Europeans believed Africans to be ideal slaves due to
their supposed docility, ability to work in tropical climates, and the Biblical
"Curse of Ham." Europeans also believed Africans to be legitimate slaves as the
institution of slavery existed in Africa. Ideas of European racial superiority
increased through the era of the slave trade. |
| American revolutionary
war (1775-1783) | During the American revolutionary war, naval squadrons and
privateers raided shipping, destroyed African trading posts, and captured
Caribbean ports. Between 1777 and 1782 Atlantic warfare reduced the volume of
the trans-Atlantic slave trade by two-thirds--the sharpest drop in its history.
The Dutch, American, and French slave trades virtually ended. Other sharp drops
in trade volume also occurred during European war years, such as 1689-1697 (King
William's War), 1744-1745 (during the War of Austrian Succession), and
1793-1794 (the beginning of the Wars of the French Revolution). Between 1783 and
1807 slaving ships departing ports such as Newport, Rhode Island, flew U.S., not
British, flags. |
| Americas | The
landmasses and islands of North America, Central America, and South America. The
Americas constituted the destination for the vast majority of enslaved Africans
transported overseas, and most were put to work in the plantations and mines of
the European colonies. |
| Amerindian | The
pre-Columbian inhabitants of the New World. The Spanish and Portuguese destroyed
many of the Amerindian societies they met, depopulating entire regions, such as
the Bahamas, within a generation. Between 1492 and 1550 the Amerindian
population of the West Indies had been reduced by ninety percent, due to
massacres, the importation of Old World diseases, such as smallpox and measles,
and the destruction of local agricultural bases. In response colonists, as early
as 1510, demanded that the Spanish Crown authorize shipments of enslaved
Africans to work in the New World. |
| Anglo-Brazilian
anti-slave trade treaty (1830) | In 1826 British officials signed an anti-slave
trade treaty with Brazilian diplomats, a treaty that aimed to strengthen
agreements the British made with Portugal before Brazilian independence in 1822.
The 1826 Treaty (ratified in 1827) made March 13, 1830 the date for the
abolition of the Brazilian slave trade, after which Brazilian nationals'
participation in the slave trade equaled piracy. The height of the
trans-Atlantic slave trade to Brazil occurred in 1828-1829, as merchants rushed
to outfit slaving ships. A Brazilian enforcement law went into effect in 1831
but proved to be ineffective. The Brazilian slave trade continued until 1852,
ending due to the efforts of a stronger Brazilian government and British
pressure. |
| Anti-slave trade
treaties: Anglo-Portuguese Treaty of 1810 | A treaty brokered by British
diplomats to limit the Portuguese slave trade. The compromise measure banned
Portuguese slave-trading north of the equator with the exception of the trade at
Ouidah (Whydah). As a consequence, Ouidah developed into the major slave-trading
outlet north of the equator. At the same time, however, the Portuguese trade to
the Upper Guinea Coast (Cacheu, Bissau and the Bissagos Islands) declined. |
| Arrivals | The number
of slaves who arrived at the first port of sale. The number of arrivals is lower
than the number of departures due to slave mortality during the Middle
Passage. |
| Asiento | A contract
between the Spanish Crown and an individual or company for a semi-monopoly of
the sale of licenses for the exportation of slaves to Spanish America. In 1518
King Charles V (Emperor Charles I) initiated the policy of selling slave-trading
licenses to merchant-bankers to earn income for the Crown and supply enslaved
labor to the Spanish Antilles. Historians estimate that 130,000-150,000 licenses
to export slaves from 1518 to 1600. The asiento system continued until a policy
of free trade was instituted in the Spanish colonial world in 1789. |
| Atlantic Islands | Islands in the Atlantic Ocean, principally the Azores, Madeira, Canaries, Cape
Verdes, Sao Tome, Principe and Fernando Po. In the early history of the Atlantic
slave trade, the Canaries and Cape Verdes acted as important trading posts in
the Iberian slave trading system. Together with Sao Tome, these islands also
acted as prototypes of plantation economies. Later, the Caribbean Islands became
one of the primary destinations for enslaved Africans, with the Canaries acting
as an important victualing port. |
B | Barbary pirates | Pirates and privateers operating from the Barbary Coast in North Africa.
Between the fourteenth and nineteenth centuries the Barbary pirates constituted
a major impediment to Mediterranean and Atlantic trade, with thousands of
merchant ships lost to their actions. The pirates also launched Razzias (raids)
on the southern Mediterranean, enslaving thousands of Christians. Europeans
purchased "Mediterranean Passes" to ensure safe passage through Barbary waters.
The Barbary pirates declined after 1815 when the United States pacified the
pirates through force, and France occupied the main pirate bases in Algiers. |
| Bight of Benin | Slaving region defined as covering the coastline from the Volta River east to
the River Nun, a coastline today in eastern Ghana, Togo, Benin and western
Nigeria. Referred to by Europeans also as the "Slave Coast." |
| Bight of Biafra | Slaving region defined as covering the coastline from the River Nun to Cape
Lopez, a coastline today in western Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and
northern Gabon. The region includes Bimbia Island, Cameroon and the Gulf of
Guinea islands Principe and Sao Tome. |
| Bocal slaves | Newly-arrived slaves who spoke languages different from the common language in
the place of import. In the African context, bocals (Portuguese) or bozals
(Spanish) were slaves imported from the interior to coastal trading sites. In
the Americas context, bocals were slaves imported directly from Africa. In
Portuguese and Spanish the term means "simple" or "stupid" or "ignorant." |
| Bourbon reforms | A
series of measures taken by the Spanish Crown in the 18th Century to increase
control over Spain and her colonies. The reforms ended the asiento system,
opening up the slave trade to independent traders. |
| Boys | Immature male
slaves. Generally, slaving traders classified "boys" as shorter than four feet
four inches or younger than 13-14 years of age. On most slaving vessels captains
confined and, depending on their age, chained "boys" to specific below-deck
compartments towards the center and stern of the vessel. |
| Brazil | Brazil was
the center of the trans-Atlantic slave trade for most years between 1570 and
1850, whether under the Portuguese flag or, after independence in 1822, under
the Brazilian flag. Rio de Janiero and Bahia outfitted more slaving voyages than
any other ports. Perhaps forty percent of all Africans forced into the slave
trade ended their lives in Brazil. Rio de Janeiro also imported more enslaved
Africans in the late 1820s than did any other port in the history of the
trade. |
| Brazil: suppression
of slave trade (1850) | In 1850-51 the Brazilian government passed a decree
that abolished the slave trade, ending three hundred years of slaving. British
pressure, a yellow fever epidemic in 1849-50 and Brazilian statesmanship
contributed to ending the trade. Small numbers of enslaved Africans continued to
enter Brazil during the 1850s and early 1860s. |
C | Captain | The
commander of the slaving vessel and legal authority on board. Slaving captains
had a broad range of responsibilities, including navigating the ship, trading
with African merchants for slaves, provisions and produce, and selling slaves in
the Americas. Merchants paid captains commissions, bonuses, "privilege slaves"
and other emoluments. |
| Captive / captives | One who is forcibly confined, restrained, or subjugated, as a prisoner. Most
enslaved Africans were taken captive by slaving raids on their villages, or
captured as 'prisoners of war' during intertribal fighting. |
| Captor | One who
takes or keeps a person as a captive. Raiders acted as captors when taking
slaves; traders acted as captors when purchasing slaves. |
| Capture (of slave
ship) | To be taken by an enemy government's navy or privateers, pirates,
Africans (free or enslaved) or crewmen (mutiny). The trans-Atlantic slave trade
declined during wartime due to the heightened risk of capture; it declined to
its greatest extent during the American Revolutionary War years 1777-1781. |
| Cargo | The freight
carried by a slaving ship. Slaving vessels carried European and Asian
manufactured goods as cargo to Africa. In Africa captains purchased "human
cargoes," provisions and produce. Once slaves were sold in the Americas,
captains often loaded cargoes of agricultural goods for sale in Europe or the
United States such as sugar, tobacco and coffee. |
| Child ratio | The
proportion of enslaved Africans, shipped into the trans-Atlantic slave trade,
who were children relative to adult slaves. Approximately 26 per cent of all
slaves carried to the Americas were classified as children, a ratio unmatched in
any pre 20th century migration. |
| Children | Immature
slaves. Defined in British slave trade as being shorter than four feet four
inches or younger than 13-14 years. Over the 350-year history of the
trans-Atlantic slave trade, captains purchased more adults (80%) than children
(20%). Specific age ratios differ by time and place. |
| Clearance | Primary
port where slaving voyages began. Vessels were cleared for departure once
they had registered with the custom house and paid duties and taxes on their
cargoes. |
| Columbian Contact | Columbian contact marks the first meeting of Old and New World peoples in
October-December 1492 when Columbus arrived in the Bahamas, northern Cuba and
northwest Hispaniola. On Columbus's return voyage in 1493 the Spanish began
formally their exploration and conquest of the New World. The meeting of Old and
New World peoples also began the transfer of peoples, crops, animals and
diseases known as the "Columbian exchange," of which the trans-Atlantic slave
trade forms a major part. |
| Compagnie (Cie) du
S‚n‚gal (Senegal Company) | French private company founded in 1672 to increase
the French slave and gun trades. A decree in 1685 gave the Company a trading
monopoly from the Senegal River to Sierra Leone. In 1718 the Company merged with
another French slave-trading company, the Compagnie d'Occident (Company of the
West). In the 1770s and 1780s a reorganized Senegal Company, based in Le Havre,
concentrated its commercial activities to Senegal. It ended its trans-Atlantic
slave trading ventures after 1792, during the French Revolution. |
| Condemnation (of slave
ship) | A decision by customs inspectors that a slaving vessel is no longer
seaworthy. Many slavers were older vessels fitted out for the purpose of making
only one or two voyages. As a result, slaving ships were condemned more often
than ships in other trades. During wartime, many slave ships also were condemned
due to damage caused by enemy action. Most condemnations occurred in the
Americas. |
| Construction | Place
at which slaving vessel was originally constructed. Few vessels were built for
the trade, particularly during the 1514-1700 period. Merchants usually purchased
secondhand vessels and refitted them for the slave trade. |
| Court of Mixed
Commission | In 1817 a British-sponsored international treaty created a Court
of Mixed Commission to hear cases concerning captured slaving ships. The Court
included officials from a "mix" of countries to ensure impartiality. The first
Court sat in Freeport, Sierra Leone (1819), and between 1819 and 1867 additional
Courts were set up in Nassau (Bahamas), Havana, Paramaribo (Surinam), Luanda
(Angola), New York City and Rio de Janeiro. |
| Courts of Mixed
Commission Registers | After abolition, liberated Africans freed by the Royal
Navy were registered before their return to Africa. The registers contain a wealth
of information such as an African's name, height, origin and sex. Digitized
initial pages of some of these registers can be seen in the Resources section
of the Voyages website, by going to the "Images" subsection then clicking on
"Manuscripts." |
| Creole | A person of
European or African descent born in the Americas. In the fifteenth century
Portuguese-African traders popularized the term (crioulo/a). The term refers
also to a new language that blends European and African languages, spoken by
Europeans, Africans and African-Americans, the most common being French Creole
in St. Domingue/Haiti. |
| Crew | The number of
personnel manning the slave ship at the beginning of the voyage. The need to
guard, feed and clean African captives, coupled with the high mortality suffered
by Europeans on a slaving voyage, meant that slaving vessels typically carried
more crew than a similarly sized vessel in another trade. Slave ship crewmen
suffered high rates of mortality due to a lack of natural resistance to tropical
diseases such as malaria and yellow fever. |
| Crew Action | Slaving
crews sometimes mutinied against their officers, typically against poor
conditions on board or a lack of pay. Some crews mutinied in order to capture
the ship and "turn pirate." An unsuccessful mutiny resulted in legal floggings
and hangings. Some crewmen, officers in particular, raped African women. |
| Custom House | The
customs office at a port that cleared vessels and imposed duties upon goods
imported and exported. |
| Cut off | Africans on
shore "cut off" slaving vessels anchored in harbors or rivers on the African
coast. Enslaved Africans on board also "cut off" ships during insurrections,
though the term occurs more frequently as shore-based attacks. Finally, slave
ships were "cut off" by the rising and lowering of tides which trapped vessels
in rivers and creeks. |
D | Departures | Departures refer to ports where voyages originated. Ships would clear customs
"for Africa" and departed from Europe or the Americas. By 1820, almost all
slaving voyages originated in Brazil, the West Indies or North America. |
| Diaspora | A
dispersion of an originally homogeneous people. The Atlantic slave trade
dispersed 10-11 million people throughout the temperate and tropical Americas
creating an 'African Diaspora'. |
| Disembark/disembarkation | To force slaves from vessels in port. Slaves could
be disembarked at several ports in the Americas, as slave ship captains often
traveled to various ports searching for the best price for their cargo.
Disembarked slaves faced a thorough preparation for sale whereby they were
scrubbed with palm oil, fattened with additional provisions and shaved. Slaves
then underwent inspection by customs officials to ascertain their value prior to
taxation and their sale to plantation owners. |
E | Embark/ embarkation | Loading African captives into a slave ship. In West Africa slaves were embarked
via canoe, as slaving vessels had to anchor off shore due to a lack of natural
harbors. Slaves would often be kept below decks for weeks after embarkation,
firstly whilst they waited for the slaving master to procure a full cargo, and
then during the Middle Passage across the Atlantic. |
| Exported (slaves) | The number of enslaved Africans embarked on and departed from the coast of
Africa. |
F | Fate | The documented
outcome of a slaving voyage. Slavers hoped to 'complete' their voyage by
returning to their homeport having purchased and sold slaves. Because of the
risks of the sea, capture and rebellion, one in four slaving vessels failed to
return to their homeport. |
| Females | The number
of female slaves. Slave traders did not prefer purchasing female slaves because
buyers in the Americas sought stronger 'prime males'. Slavers kept female
enslaved Africans separated from the males on board, and usually did not chain
them above or below deck. Crewmen occasionally raped females on the Coast and
Middle Passage. |
| Flag/national flag | The national registration papers carried on board ship. During the slave trade
suppression period, post-1810, slavers often sailed under a flag different from
their own nationality. In Estimates, this box enables the user to limit the
analysis to one or more of seven national carriers by checking boxes next to
those for which results will be reported. The seven national carriers are the
same as those found using Flag* in Search the Database, except that the latter
includes a category for 12 voyages under other flags. The variable Flag, without
an asterisk, in Search the Database contains all 16 national carriers before
being regrouped into a smaller number of categories. [Note: Other has 60 cases
here] |
| Free trade era | Through most years of the slave trade mercantilist laws restricted slave trades
to monopoly companies and national carriers. When companies lost monopolies in
the 1700s, others could trade on the African coast and in the Americas. In 1789
the Spanish Crown allowed ships of all nations to land slaves in American
colonies, such as Cuba. From 1789 to 1867 slaving ships from throughout the
Atlantic world docked at Havana, the most multi-national slaving port in the
Americas. |
G | Gender | Differences
between men and women, which influenced how slave traders organized shipboard
confinement of Africans. Perceiving that women were not a security threat,
captains often did not shackle women and imprisoned them towards the stern of
the vessel and hence near the weapons' chest. Insurrections often occurred when
women gained access to firearms. |
| Geophysical map | A
map which displays topographical features, such as rivers and mountains, or
oceanographic features such as winds and currents. The clockwise North Atlantic
and anti-clockwise South Atlantic wind and current systems helped to order the
voyage pathways in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. |
| Girls | Immature
female slaves. Generally, slaving traders classified "girls" as shorter than
four feet four inches or younger than 13-14 years of age. On most slaving
vessels captains confined "girls" to specific below-deck compartments towards
the stern of the vessel. |
| Gold Coast | Slaving
region defined as covering the African coastline east of the Assini River to and
including the Volta River, a region today in Ghana. Europeans built most of
their trading forts along this 400-mile coastline, several of which remain
important historic sites. |
| Guns/guns mounted | The number of cannon or swivel guns fitted on a slaving vessel. Slavers mounted
guns to protect against privateers, pirates and Africans during insurrections.
In addition, slavers often sailed as privateers themselves during wartime. |
H | High Court of the
Admiralty | A court for hearing prize cases in which vessels have been captured
in war. The High Court assessed the value of the prize, and decided whether the
prize was taken in accordance with maritime law. Armed slaving vessels issued
with a letter of marque sometime took prizes during their voyage, a lucrative
side business which offset somewhat the additional risk incurred in wartime. |
| Historical map | A
map showing features as they were, rather than as they are now. [Check: Perhaps
add some detail on the historical maps in the images section] |
| Homeport | The
vessels' port of registration and from where it cleared customs on its outward
voyage. |
| Homeward passage | The voyage leg returning a vessel to its home port. A typical homeward passage
for a North Atlantic slaving vessel tracked northeast with the Gulf Stream, and
then across the Atlantic to England and northwest Europe. The homeward passage
north required 4- 8 weeks' sailing time. |
| Human agency | The
actions of individuals that impacted the outcome of a voyage. By resisting their
shipboard confinement, Africans raised the costs of slaving voyages. Some gained
control and scuttled ships; some escaped to shore; some committed suicide. A few
sailors also mutinied. Captains' experience and abilities helped to determine
coastal transactions and health care on board ship. |
I | Iberian Peninsula | The large stretch of land, including Spain and Portugal, in southwest Europe.
The Iberian countries dominated the slave trade during its infancy (1450-1650),
when Spain and Portugal monopolized slaving markets in Africa and the Americas.
From the 1630s onwards, Dutch, British and French traders substantially reduced
the Iberian share of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. |
| Imported (slaves) | The number of enslaved Africans disembarked in the Western Hemisphere or, if
captured by anti-slaving patrols, in Africa. |
| Impress | The
forcible recruitment of sailors into the Navy. The Royal Navy relied almost
exclusively on impressment to man the fleet throughout the age of sail. Slaving
vessels were particularly susceptible to impressment due to the large crews they
carried who became redundant in the Americas. |
| Indentured servants | Indentured servants were Europeans, mostly males between the ages of 18 and 25,
who contracted themselves to an employer in the New World for between four and
seven years, after which time they were free to work for themselves. Masters
were obliged to provide servants with food and lodging during their service, in
addition to a small sum of money, or land at the end of their indenture. The
small number of servants relative to the demand for workers in the Americas was
one of the key factors behind the importation of enslaved Africans. |
| Insurrection | An
open revolt by the slaves against the slaving crew, often with the aim of taking
over the slave ship. Slaving crews did everything in their power to prevent
slave insurrections by keeping the male slaves separated and chained,
constructing barricades on deck and purchasing supposedly more tractable slaves
from specific regions of Africa. Successful slave insurrections were rare, but
bloody affairs, which typically resulted in the death of the crew. Insurrections
broke out on one in ten voyages. |
| Intended | Slaving
vessels loaded trading goods to exchange for a certain "intended" number of
slaves. Captains usually fell short of purchasing their "intended" number of
enslaved Africans. Captains also sailed for "intended" ports of call in Africa,
the Americas and Europe. Most captains traded at their intended ports of call.
Along the African coast, there were regional market preferences for specific
trading goods, and captains had difficulty trading profitability at markets
other than those they sailed for. |
| Interloper | Slave
traders operating in violation of monopoly company privileges. During the
Iberian dominance of the slave trade (1450-1650), the English, Dutch and French
were seen as interlopers into a trade to which the Spanish and Portuguese had
been granted a monopoly by the papacy. Individual traders also acted as
interlopers when trading in Africa in defiance of monopoly companies.
Frequently, interlopers and African merchants opened new trading outlets for
enslaved Africans, thus preceding Company ships in many markets. |
| Invoice date | The
date on a bill of sale. |
J | Jamaica | Britain
captured Jamaica from the Spanish in 1655. Under British control the island
developed into the major plantation colony in the British West Indies, importing
forty percent of all enslaved Africans on British vessels. Plantation
agriculture first centered around Kingston in the southeast and then expanded
steadily westward throughout the 1700s. Sugar remained the most important cash
crop produced in Jamaica; coffee production began expanding in the 1780s. The
Jamaican economy also had a significant livestock sector, which employed more
Jamaicans of African descent after the Abolition of Slavery in 1833. |
L | Laid up | The
situation of a ship when unrigged, during a winter, for want of employment or
when unfit for service. Because the slave trade was seasonable, ships laid up in
port. |
| Leeward Islands | The
group of islands lying in the northeast Caribbean and including Dominica,
Guadeloupe, Montserrat, Antigua, Nevis, St. Kitts, Barbuda, St. Eustatius, St.
Bartholomew, St. Martin, Anguilla and the Virgin Islands. The Leeward Islands
were initially controlled by the Spanish who left them vacant thinking them
'useless'. Seeing that the islands were ideal for sugar and tobacco
cultivation the British and French occupied the islands and developed them into
lucrative plantation economies on which thousands of slaves worked. |
| Liberated
slaves/liberated Africans | Following anti-slave trade treaties, the first in
1810, the British Royal Navy policed the African Atlantic coast to search for
illegal slaving voyages. They escorted captured ships to Sierra Leone and there
liberated the Africans. Voyages contains several pictures of liberated slaves in
the Images section, in addition to pictures of Royal Navy ships approaching or
capturing slaving vessels. |
| Log book | A book in
which a ship captain kept the daily navigational log and details of some
occurrences on board. To plot their course, captains noted wind direction, hull
speed, latitude and longitude. Log books are a valuable source as they provide
detail of the daily running of a slaving vessel including crew deaths and acts
of resistance by the slaves. |
M | Male ratio | The
number of male slaves relative to the number of female slaves. The ratio was
skewed towards males because plantation owners desired 'prime male slaves'
above others and African societies wanted to retain female slaves. As a result,
slaving ships embarked more male than female slaves. |
| Manuscript | Section
within "Images" containing pictures of original documents from the slave trade.
The slave registers within Manuscripts record the details of slaves emancipated
by the Royal Navy when they policed the slave trade. |
| Men | Adult male
Africans sold into the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Generally, slaving traders
classified "men" as taller than four feet four inches or older than 13-14 years
of age. On most slaving vessels captains confined and chained "men" to specific
below-deck compartments towards the center and bow of the vessel. |
| Middle Passage | The
trans-Atlantic voyage between Africa and the Americas. The Middle Passage was
notorious due to the cramped, unhygienic conditions suffered by the slaves below
deck and became a symbol of the anti-slavery movement. It also represents both a
bridge and a divider between the Old and New Worlds. |
| Minas Gerais | In the
1690s, gold, diamonds and silver were discovered near Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.
Minas Gerais, in Portuguese, "general mines," was one of the largest gold finds
in history and required thousands of workers to extract its riches. After
exploiting Amerindian labour in the mines, the Portuguese turned to purchasing
enslaved Africans, mostly from West-Central Africa and the Bight of Benin.
Portuguese merchants sent slaving voyages directly from Rio de Janeiro to
Africa, creating a slave trade between South America and Africa that bypassed
Europe. Minas Gerais remained an important mining region through the
mid-1700s. |
| Mortality | The
number of Africans or crewmen who died on board the ship, whether while anchored
off the coast of Africa, on the Middle Passage or in American harbors. Crew
mortality was highest along the African coast. Slaves died at greater rates than
crewmen and mortality rose during excessively long voyages due to starvation and
dietary related diseases. |
N | National carrier | See: flag/national flag. |
| Natural hazard | The
risks associated with sailing the Atlantic and trading in the tropics. Many
slaving vessels were lost on the African coast (sandbars being the greatest
threat), in Atlantic storms or in the Americas (where reefs were the greatest
threat). Sailors and slaves also faced the natural hazard of disease. |
O | Old World | The Old
World refers to Africa and Europe. In the Old World slave trade (1445-1750),
Portuguese vessels shipped enslaved Africans between African coastal locations,
between the African coast and Atlantic islands such as Madeira, or between the
African coast and Europe. After abolition, slaves were moved within the Old
World when the Royal Navy repatriated emancipated slaves to Sierra Leone. |
| Organization (of slave
voyages) | Organizing slaving voyages required outfitters to purchase trading
goods in demand in regional African markets. Captains also needed to hire
requisite numbers of crewmen to work as sailors, craftsmen and guards. Over time
slave prices rose and African merchants demanded greater and greater quantities
of high-quality trading goods; only ports with sufficient infrastructures could
organize large numbers of slaving ventures. |
| Outset (voyage
outset) | Merchants' account books itemized outset costs, which included the
costs of trading cargo (mostly textiles, metal manufacturers, hardware, alcohol
and weaponry), security devices such as shakles, port fees and the wage bill. |
| Outward passage | The
first leg of a slaving voyage, from the port of departure to Africa. Departure
regions included Europe, North America, the Caribbean and Brazil, and voyages
usually required 1-3 months' sailing time. Crewmen worked on the outward
passage, preparing the vessel to receive human cargo by configuring below-deck
prisons. |
P | Pirates | One who
robs at sea or plunders the land from the sea without commission from a
sovereign nation. Piracy was a major impediment to the slave trade throughout
the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, when they roamed both the
Caribbean and the West Coast of Africa. After the destruction of pirate bases in
Nassau, Madagascar and Sierra Leone, the pirate threat diminished. Barbary
pirates did, however, continue to threaten shipping into the mid-nineteenth
century. |
| Place (as used for
estimates maps) | Places of trade can refer to ports, discrete landmasses (such
as islands) or broadly-defined geographical units such as "Caribbean" or "North
America". |
| Plantation | A large
estate or farm on which cash crops and provisions are grown, usually by slave
workers. Plantations constituted the destination of the majority of enslaved
Africans. Plantation workers faced long hours planting, growing and harvesting
crops such as sugar, tobacco and cotton. The poor conditions on plantations
typically resulted in high mortality rates. In the Caribbean and Brazil, for
example, plantation owners purchased slaves on the basis that they would live
for four years. |
| Port | A coastal town
with a navigable harbor and infrastructure needed to load and unload cargoes. |
| Ports of call | A
port where ships docked to load or unload cargo, to obtain supplies, or to
undergo repairs. |
| Pounds (sterling) | The currency of the United Kingdom of Great Britain. Colonial currencies, such
as Jamaican pounds, were valued 40% below that of the British pound sterling. |
| Price /standardized
price | Price of slaves at a port of sale in the Americas, standardized in
English pounds sterling. "Slaves" were not "cheap"; rather, buyers paid high
prices for enslaved Africans on the African coast and in the Americas. |
| Prime slaves | Healthy slaves, men and women, between the ages of 18 and 30. Slave traders
desired prime slaves above others and paid premiums for them. |
| Privateers | A ship
privately owned and manned but authorized by a government during wartime to
attack and capture enemy vessels. Armed slaving vessels often purchased a letter
of marque during wartime in order to capture enemy shipping on their own
account. |
| Prize | A vessel
captured from the enemy and deemed a legal capture in a prize court. |
R | Rebellion | See
insurrection. |
| Registration | The
port at which a slaving vessel is registered to by the owners, often the same as
the port of departure. During the era of British-led suppression after 1810,
captains carried registration papers from numerous nations to evade anti-slave
trade treaties. |
| Resistance | Acts by
slaves or crewmen to gain freedom or improve their shipboard conditions. Most
Africans resisted their slave status and shipboard confinement; some sailors
resisted the power of tyrannical officers. |
| Return passage | See
homeward passage. |
| Rig | The manner in
which a vessel's sails are configured. There are sixty rigs in the database,
the most common being "ship" (a combination of different sails on three masts),
brig and schooner. |
| Rio de la Plata | The "Plate" or "Silver" River flows through Argentina and Uruguay. It is the
southernmost disembarkation point for enslaved Africans in the Atlantic world.
Enslaved Africans sent to Rio de la Plata were often transported overland to the
Andean colonies of Bolivia and Peru, where they worked in silver mines. The
river feeds the highly productive pampas agricultural region, which became
important in the eighteenth century. |
| Royal African
Company | A London-based private company founded in 1672 with a monopoly on
African trade and subsidized by tax payers. The Crown chartered the Company to
advance British gold and slave trades along the West African Coast, centered on
forts in the mouth of the Gambia River, in Sierra Leone, along the Gold Coast
and at Ouidah (Whydah), in modern-day Benin. English interlopers, private
merchants trading in contravention of the company's monopoly, reduced the
Company's profits. The termination of the Company's monopoly privileges in
1698 and 1712 accelerated its decline, culminating in its dissolution in
1752. |
S | Sailing orders | Merchants' orders to slaving captains, usually specifying the voyage pattern
to Africa, the captains' monthly wages and commissions, and the chain of
command should the captain and officers die on the voyage. |
| Seasoning | People
"seasoned" to new climates, disease environments and work routines. Captains
preferred to hire "seasoned sailors," those men with experience in the slave
trade and who had survived the "seasoning period." Similarly, enslaved Africans
who survived their first few years in the Americas were "seasoned" to the new
disease environment and had learned work routines. |
| Senegambia | Slaving
region defined as covering the African coastline and offshore islands north of
Rio Nunez, a region today in Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Gambia and Senegal. |
| Seven Years' War
(1756-1763) | The Seven Years' War (1756-1763) was fought between all the
major powers of Europe and transformed the colonial New World. The main victor,
Britain, gained nearly all of France's possessions in both North America and
the Caribbean. Britain held Spanish Havana temporarily, and transformed the
island's history by shipping at least 5,000 enslaved Africans into the northern
Cuba in 1762-63. |
| Sierra Leone
(region) | Slaving region defined as covering the African coastline and
offshore islands from Rio Nunez to just west of Cape Mount, a region today in
Guinea, Sierra Leone and western Liberia. Europeans often included this stretch
of coastline in their definition of the Windward Coast. |
| Slave purchase | Captains often purchased more slaves than they later transported from the
African coast. In some cases, they transshipped slaves to auxiliary vessels; in
other cases they re-landed slaves whom they believed would not survive the
Middle Passage. Some captains advanced trading goods on credit to African
merchants, receiving "pawns" (human collateral or "commercial hostages") in
return. Captains redeemed pawns once slave deliveries were made. There was wide
variability in length of time to complete a slave purchase--from several weeks
to sometimes more than 18 months. |
| Slaver (under
images) | An image of a person in the slave trade. [check images] |
| Slave ship | A
sailing ship refitted for the slave trade, known also as a Guineaman. Most
slaving ships were second-hand vessels that frequented other trades. Owners
sought to purchase fast-sailing vessels and/or ones which could be retooled
below the main deck to maximize the number of Africans who would be
imprisoned. |
| South America | The
landmass below the Isthmus of Panama, most lands falling below the equator.
Brazil, the Guianas, Venezuela, Colombia and Rio de la Plata were major slave
disembarkation regions. |
| Southeast Africa | Slaving region defined as the African coastline east of the Cape of Good Hope,
including the island Madagascar and Zanzibar Island. Mozambique was the center
of the southeast African slave trade. |
| Spanish Central
America | After the conquest of the Aztec and Inca Empires in the sixteenth
century, the Spanish consolidated their Central American rule from Mexico to
Venezuela. The Spanish imported most enslaved Africans into Central America via
Veracruz (Mexico) and Cartegena (Columbia). Many of these slaves were destined
for the silver mines of central Mexico and to the region around Potosi, "The
Silver Mountain," located today in Bolivia. |
| St. Domingue
Revolution | In 1697, Spain ceded the western half of the island of Hispaniola
to France in the Treaty of Ryswick. By the mid-1700s St. Domingue became the
leading sugar, coffee and indigo producer in the Caribbean, due to the efforts
of the colony's enslaved African workforce. A slave rebellion broke out in
August 1791 and soon turned into a Revolution, leading to the freedom of 500,000
enslaved Africans and to the creation of the Republic of Haiti (1804). The St.
Domingue Revolution prompted Africans elsewhere in the Americas to revolt
against their enslavement, and the Revolution entrenched white planters'
opposition to amelioration or abolition. |
| Sugar | During the
era of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, cane sugar was the principle cash crop
grown in the Plantation Americas. Sugar production techniques transferred from
the Mediterranean to the Atlantic world, more specifically, in the
mid-seventeenth century from the Portuguese island-colony Sao Tome to Portuguese
Brazil. Four in five Africans shipped to the West Indies, between the
1620s-1860s, would have ended their lives on sugar plantations. Planting and
growing sugar required large numbers of enslaved African workers working in the
fields and in the sugar-production buildings. Africans forced to work in sugar
production had lower life expectancies than those growing other crops. |
T | Tonnage/Standardised
tonnage | The amount of cargo a vessel is able to carry expressed in imperial
tons. Slaving vessels were typically smaller in tonnage than their non-slaving
counterparts, as they carried less cargo by weight. |
| Trafficking | The
illegal or improper transport of slaves. Trafficking and smuggling of slaves
existed throughout the legal and illegal periods of the slave trade. |
| Traite des noirs | Traite des noirs is the French term for their trans-Atlantic slave trade. |
| Trans-Atlantic | Trans-Atlantic refers to slaving voyages that sailed across the Atlantic Ocean
from the Old World (Africa) to the New World (the Americas). The trans-Atlantic
slave trade differs from the Old World slave trade, in which Portuguese vessels
shipped enslaved Africans between African coastal locations, between the African
coast and Atlantic islands such as Madeira, or between the African coast and
Europe. |
| Trans-Atlantic slave
trade | Term used to define the coerced migration of 12 million enslaved
Africans from 1514 to 1866 across the Atlantic from the Old to New Worlds. |
| Treaty of Ryswick
(1697) | The peace treaty ending the Nine Years' War (1688-1697) between
France and the Grand Alliance (England, the Netherlands, Spain, Holy Roman
Empire) signed in the Dutch town Ryswick. The treaty handed control of western
Hispaniola (St. Domingue, later Haiti) to France. The colony would become the
largest and most prosperous plantation colony in the Caribbean until the St.
Domingue Revolution in 1791. |
V | Venture | Slaving
voyages are often described as "ventures," because as in any business one
ventured one's capital. |
| Vessel | The sailing
craft used to transport enslaved Africans to markets. For "ship" see Rig. |
| Vice-Admiralty Court | The Vice-Admiralty Court heard piracy and prize cases in overseas British
possessions. The courts often were set up after the capture of large numbers of
enemy vessels. After the capture of Martinique by the British, for instance, a
Vice Admiralty court was set up on the island to hear the numerous prize
cases. |
| Voyage | The
trans-Atlantic journey between two or more ports, depending on the vantagepoint
of the free or coerced traveler. |
| Voyage dates | Dates
when slaving vessels departed from and arrived at markets in the Atlantic world.
Dates of departure are generally the days on which vessels cleared customs,
unless a muster roll (ship's crew list) survives to document days of sailing. |
| Voyage itinerary | The ports visited as part of a slaving voyage. Slaving captains received an
itinerary from the shipowners prior to the voyage instructing them which ports
to visit. |
| Voyage length | The
amount of time taken to complete a slaving voyage. Due to the distances
traveled, and the need to spend large amounts of time waiting to load cargo in
ports, North Atlantic slaving vessels typically took 12-18 months to complete a
voyage. Brazilian voyages to Africa and back required less time. |
| Voyage
outcome/outcome | The downloadable database distinguishes voyage outcomes from
the standpoint of the enslaved African, the ship's owner(s) and the captor(s).
These are imputed variables. For the documented outcome of the voyage, see
Fate. |
W | West-Central Africa | Slaving region defined as covering the coastline from Cape Lopez to the tip of
South Africa, though Benguela, Angola, was the southernmost slaving port in
Atlantic Africa. This coastline today includes lands in Gabon, Congo, Zaire and
Angola. Often referred to by Europeans as "Angola." |
| West Indies | Islands
in the Caribbean Sea. The area is named the West Indies because early European
explorers believed they had located a westward passage to India, rather than a
new hemisphere. |
| Windward Coast | Slaving region defined as covering the African coastline from Cape Mount up to
and including the Assini River, a region today in Liberia and the Ivory Coast.
Europeans often referred to the African coastline west of the Gold Coast as the
"Windward Coast." |
| Windward Islands | The islands Martinique, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, the Grenadines and Grenada in
the southeast Caribbean. The islands are so named because they receive trade
winds first; they are located to windward of the Leeward Islands and the Greater
Antilles (Cuba, Jamaica, St. Domingue). The British and French developed the
Windward Islands into lucrative plantation colonies and important victualing
ports. Barbados is sometimes included in the Windward Islands. |
| Women | Adult female
Africans sold into the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Generally, slaving traders
classified "women" as taller than four feet four inches or older than 13-14
years of age. On most slaving vessels captains confined "women" to specific
below-deck compartments towards the stern of the vessel. Women, often not
shackled, occasionally broke into arms' chests, located in or near the
captains' cabins and helped instigate insurrections. |