The Economics of the Slave Trade on Africa’s Coast

As Olaudah Equiano’s memoirs reveal, the road to slavery in the Americas for millions of Africans began in thousands of inland villages where, as a result of military defeat, slave raids, or the decision of a chieftain or king, they were wrenched from their homes and marched to a slave market on the coast. There, while they were herded together in closely guarded holding pens or prison-like structures, complex and sometimes lengthy business negotiations took place between European merchants whose ships lay anchored off the coast and African slave merchants, many of whom were kings or major chieftains. Many European merchants recorded their experiences in such negotiations in memoirs or journals, and their recollections provide a wealth of information about the economics of the slave trade. They also offer many insights into how African and European slave traders viewed each other and their profession. They reveal that for millions of Africans the transatlantic slave trade was a nightmare, but for many others—Europeans, Americans, Africans, and indirectly even Asians—it was one more way to make a profit in an increasingly commercialized world.

Thomas Phillips, the author of the document I would like you to read (you can do so by clicking here; for whatever reason there are two blank pages before the last page, just scroll down, and sorry about the formatting) about a slave voyage from England to Africa to the Barbados Islands in the Caribbean in 1693 and 1694, was an English merchant. In 1693, he purchased the slave ship Hannibal in partnership with a number of London merchants who were members of the Royal African Company, a trading company chartered by King Charles II in 1672. The Hannibal, along with five other ships, departed England late in 1693 for Whydah, a kingdom on the Guinea Coast, which is located in the modern nation of Benin some 200 miles east of the city of Lagos, Nigeria. Whydah, the coastal village where the king resided, was rapidly developing into a major slave market and had been the site of an English trading station, or “factory,” since 1682. The events Phillips describes took place in May 1694.

After reading the document, I would like you all to consider and discuss the following: What evidence does the document provide about the attitudes of the Whydah king and nobility toward Europeans? Did they consider themselves equal, inferior, or superior to Europeans? What do Phillips’ words and actions reveal a bout his views of Africans? What does the source reveal about Africans as businessmen? What did they hope to gain from trading with Europeans? How would you describe their business methods? What can you infer from Phillips’ account about the impact of the Whydah slave trade on Africa’s interior? What individuals or groups of individuals benefited economically from the slave trade? Did Asians in fact benefit? Finally, compare the attitude toward slavery of the king of Whydah and his nobility with those of King Afonso of Kongo some 200 years earlier. How might one account for these differences?