Role of guns in the slave trade reconsidered

Dahomey as a specific case in turning the trade to European goods

Saint Mary Univerity website

http://stmarys.ca/~wmills/course316/7Dahomey.html "Economy

- Dahomey had a monetary system: cowry shells were the basic currency, but trade goods were used also—guns, bolts of cloth etc.

- Europeans tried to take advantage of this currency; they brought so many cowry shells that the shells lost value (inflation). As a result, European trade goods became the basic currency used in the purchase of slaves.

- farming was very important; agriculture was mostly carried out by men, usually in communal gangs of young men; this was different from most of the rest of Africa where women did most of the agricultural work. However, there were many artisans also who made products in addition to farming.

- the market economy mostly involved producers selling to consumers,but some women acted as middlemen. The latter would travel from market to market buying and selling goods.


- all trade with Europeans was a royal monopoly and guarded jealously by successive kings; kings never allowed Europeans to bypass and trade directly with people in the kingdom. As a military, predatory state, the costs of government and the military were high; thus,the king needed all the revenue from taxes and the profits of trade that he could get.

- Europeans and their influence were confined to one port on the coast—Whydah.

- permission to go inland, especially to the capital, was given only infrequently and as a special favour; because so few Europeans were allowed in, there were only a limited number of eyewitness accounts in spite of the long history of trade and contacts; no missionaries were allowed in."

I was unable to find the whole quote until just now. this is from "Wonders of the African World" at the back of the book in the notes section note 16 for chapter 6

http://www.amazon.com/Wonders-African-World-Henry-Louis/dp/0375709487/ref=sr_...

William Bosman full quote:

"Perhaps you wonder how the Negroes came to be furnished with fire-arms, but you will have no reason when you know we sell them incredible quantities, thereby obliging them with a knife to cut your own throats. But we are forced to it; for if we would not, they might be sufficiently stored with that commodity by the English, Danes, and Brandenburgers; and could we all agree together not to sell them any, the English and Zeeland interlopers would abundantly furnish them."

Gun slave cycle reconsidered


The African Slave Trade by Basil Davidson page 242

http://www.amazon.com/African-Slave-Trade-Basil-Davidson/dp/0316174386/ref=sr...

"At the height of the eighteenth century commerce, gunsmiths in Birmingham alone were exporting muskets to Africa at the rate of between 100,000 and 150,000 a year.

European dealers on the coast might regret this flood of weapons, for it strengthened the bargaining power of their African partners: there was nothing they could do about it. Like the Africans, they too were caught in the chain of cause and effect. They had to have slaves, and to get slaves they had to pay with guns.

Even if European traders had wanted to refuse guns, they were far too distrustful of one another to operate any sort of common policy: as William Bosman observed at Elmina on the Gold Coast in 1700, the Europeans could never unite, and each European felt obliged to sell what Africans would otherwise obtain, if he should refuse, from his rivals. And the Africans, on their side, were generally in the same case although here and there, and notably in the delta, they sometimes found enough unity among themselves to apply a boycott on their European partners."

"Early Globalization and the Slave Trade"

Trips around the world were essential for sustaining slavery by Robert Harms


http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/early-globalization-and-slave-trade

"So vital was the Asian trade to the slave trade that a consortium of merchants raised over a million livres to start a company to replace the defunct French East India Company. In requesting authorization from the French Council of Commerce, the merchants cited the difficulties they were having in obtaining the products of Asia that were vital for the slave trade. The slave trade could not function successfully, they argued, unless they had direct access to cowry shells and Indian textiles."

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[MariluLane]

wonderful video markellion thank you :) and an interesting note about the English.

what i really want to find is a comprehensive and detailed historical overview of what happened in Africa (during the relevant time) So, who did what first? what was going on at the time? how did that affect the 'rival tribes'? how did that affect neighbouring 'countries'? what other influences happened and when? how has it developed? which orgs are still somehow involved? do you know where we can find this??! :)

[markellion]

You can get some good information from the book "Africa and Africans in the making of the Atlantic world, 1400-1800" By John Kelly Thornton

He didn't realize the importance of the economic manipulation but I'll send you a couple links it'll help to get a clearer picture

[markellion]

I really don't know I should really do more research on this.

[markellion]

It didn't have to be direct.

[markellion]

Though before the major slave trading period the Moroccan invasion of Songhay shows that Europeans had a major impact. See video:

Moroccan invasion of Songhay and Historical relations between Africans across the Sahara

[sexymalcom1970]

That transatlantic slavetrade however wasnt done by the Sokoto Caliphate which was the largest of the Islamic states. Im not sure who the source was but at least a quarter of slaves in the americas derived from east and central africa. There where other ports closer to the angola congo region that where used as shipping routes

[markellion]

What about all the Islamic movements that spontaneously arose during the era of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade protesting the slave trade.

That suggests a rise in slave trading

[markellion]

The so called Muslim slave trade became connected with the European slave trade so many of the slaves would eventually end up in the Americas

This is supported by the expansion of the East African slave trade as the Portuguese focused on buying slaves on the Eastern Coast. Since the 18th century the Swahili slave trade favored selling to Europeans

East Africa. The far greater part of the wars in Africa - the slave trade part 2

[sexymalcom1970]

Probably this assessment would be correct in regard to the coastal empires such as dohamey, ashanti, oyo etc. However the main wars where the jihads being conducted by the hausa states, sokoto caliphate and kwararafa. They had minimal european contact due to their geographic locations but also used slaves in tributary status as bargining tools or commerce. If the coastal tribes hadnt the weapons they would of become part of the many caliphates who where growing in strength in west africa

[markellion]

The thing about war and the slave trade the worse thing is probably the increasing brutality not just the frequency of war. The slave trade in some ways change the way wars were conducted. Plus war was becoming more and more commercial because of the slave trade making it somewhat different from earlier wars

John Newton:

"I verily believe, that the far greater part of the wars, in Africa, would cease, if the Europeans would cease to tempt them, by offering goods for slaves"