Primary Sources – Africans Selling African

Nicolas Owens – Slave Trader (1758)

Africa's west coast was known as the "white man's grave," and for good reason. Exposure to the hot, damp climate and to diseases that their bodies had little resistance to resulted in short life expectancies. There was a reason to be there, though, and that reason was money. Every slave trader had the hope of making a quick fortune, and although many would become successful, there were many more -- such as Nicolas Owen -- who wouldn't.

An entry in the journal of Nicolas Owen reads as follows:

"I have found no place where I can enlarge my fortune so soon as where I now live, wherefore I entend to stay in order to enlarge my fortune by honest mains."

Owen was sincere when he stated that the slave trade was a way to prosper "by honest means" -- nowhere in his journal, which he kept for five years, does he show any compassion for slaves or the least bit of remorse for being involved in the slave trade.

Owen had sailed to Africa with his brother. Once there, they were captured and imprisoned. A slave dealer named Richard Hall rescued the two and offered them jobs as his agents. With no money to return home, the two brothers accepted the offer.

Like all traders at the time, Owen did not capture slaves himself; rather, it was Africans who acquired slaves and traded the captives for various European goods. Sometimes the captives would be prisoners of war. Other times, groups would venture deep into Africa's interior for the sole purpose of capturing slaves.

Passages from the journal reveal that Owen had little respect for the Africans he dealt with.

"They laugh at one anothers misfortunes and don't seem to repine their own, given to drunkiness and quarreling, being very cowardly and great boasters, miserably poor in general and live low as to victuals [food supplies], soon provoked to anger and soon made up again if the offender makes an acknowledgement of his crime . . . ."

Other passages illustrate the inherent dangers of being a slave trader. In one account, Owen tells of how some Africans had seized an Englishman who was walking at night on a trail.

"As soon as their prize is secure they devour him without mercey along with their ascociates in the bushes, who has prapared a fire for that purpose."

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Primary Sources – Africans Selling African

An Englishman Tastes the Sweat of an African (1725)

Today, you can find hundreds, if not thousands, of books offering advice and hints relating to specific professions and trades, ranging from TV repairmen to CEOs to office managers. This type of book has been around for centuries, as demonstrated by the French publication, Le commerce de l'Amerique par Marseille. About maritime trade, this would have been the book for you if you were the captain of an 18th century merchant ship.

The 1764 publication offers information about the trade of tobacco, cotton, indigo, etc., as well as captive Africans and the "precautions to take in buying slaves, and how to transport them to America in good health."

The book included this 1725 engraving by Serge Daget entitled An Englishman Tastes the Sweat of an

African. Accompanying the engraving was a numbered list of descriptions in French, the numbers of which corresponded to those on the image.

1. Negroes displayed forsale in a public market.

2. A Negro Slave being examined before being purchased.

3. An Englishman licking the Negro's chin to confirm his age, and to discover from the taste of his sweat that he is not sick.

4. Negro Slave wearing the mark of slavery on his arm.

Image Credit: Bibliothèque Nationale 1B

Primary Sources – Africans Selling African

Olaudah Equiano's autobiography (1789) Equiano seemed reluctant to tell his story. He claimed that he was a "private and obscure individual" and "neither a saint, a hero, nor a tyrant." One thing he realized, though, was that his life was far from typical. In his autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, The African, he tells the story of his youth in an African village, his kidnapping, his being made a slave in Africa, his horrendous voyage on a slave ship, his bondage in the Americas, his conversion to Christianity, the purchase of his freedom, his experiences on a British man of war, his employment on a plantation and on commercial ships, and his contribution to the abolitionist movement. He hoped his book would "promote the interests of humanity." It more than succeeded.

One day, when all our people were gone out to their works as usual, and only I and my dear sister were left to mind the house, two men and a woman got over our walls, and in a moment seized us both, and, without giving us time to cry out, or make resistance, they stopped our mouths, and ran off with us into the nearest wood. Here they tied our hands, and continued to carry us as far as they could, till night came on, when we reached a small house, where the robbers halted for refreshment, and spent the night. We were then unbound, but were unable to take any food; and, being quite overpowered by fatigue and grief, our only relief was some sleep, which allayed our misfortune for a short time. The next morning we left the house, and continued travelling all the day. For a long time we had kept the woods, but at last we came into a road which I believed I knew

Equiano describes arriving at a slave fort along Africa’s Western coast.

The first object which saluted my eyes when I arrived on the coast, was the sea, and a slave ship, which was then riding at anchor, and waiting for its cargo. These filled me with astonishment, which was soon converted into terror, when I was carried on board. I was immediately handled, and tossed up to see if I were sound, by some of the crew; and I was now persuaded that I had gotten into a world of bad spirits, and that they were going to kill me. Their complexions, too, differing so much from ours, their long hair, and the language they spoke (which was very different from any I had ever heard), united to confirm me in this belief. Indeed, such were the horrors of my views and fears at the moment, that, if ten thousand worlds had been my own, I would have freely parted with them all to have exchanged my condition with that of the meanest slave in my own country.

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Primary Sources – Africans Selling African

The Slave Trade(1840)Painted in 1840 during a time when slavery was still legal in French colonies, The Slave Trade by Auguste-Francois Biard is a strong statement against the institution. Like George Morland's painting entitled The Slave Trade, the scene is set on the African coast. Unlike Morland's version, which captures the moment when an African couple is separated, Biard's version is meant to communicate more about the slave trade -- it reveals various types of slave traders and the variety of miseries that were inflicted upon captured Africans.

Grand paintings dealing with this subject were not too common in Biard's day. Few patrons were willing to purchase a piece of art for their homes that depicted such cruelty. The painting did find a home, though -- it was given to Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, a zealous abolitionist.

Image Credit: Wilberforce House, Kingston upon Hull City Museums and Art Galleries, UK 1D

Primary Sources – Africans Selling African

Alexander Falconbridge's account of the slave trade (1788)

Falconbridge's book, An Account of the Slave Trade on the Coast of Africa, contains first-hand accounts of the slave trade. Employed as a surgeon aboard various slave ships, Falconbridge had first-hand knowledge of many aspects of the slave trade, which he related in detail in his popular narrative. The book covered the trade from when the ships first acquired African captives along the African coast, through the treatment of these people during the Middle Passage, to the time they were sold into hereditary bondage in the West Indies.

From the time of the arrival of the ships to their departure, which is usually near three months, scarce a day passes without some negroes being purchased, and carried on board; sometimes in small, and sometimes in larger numbers. The whole number taken on board, depends, in a great measure, on circumstances. In a voyage I once made, our stock of merchandize was exhausted in the purchase of about 380 negroes, which was expected to have procured 500. The number of English and French ships then at Bonny, had so far raised the price of negroes, as to occasion this difference. . . .

. . . When the Negroes, whom the black traders have to dispose of [sell], are shown to the European purchasers, they first examine them relative to their age. They then minutely inspect their persons and inquire into the state of their health; if they are afflicted with any disease or are deformed or have bad eyes or teeth; if they are lame or weak in the joints or distorted in the back or of a slender make or narrow in the chest; in short, if they have been ill or are afflicted in any manner so as to render them incapable of much labor. If any of the foregoing defects are discovered in them they are rejected. But if approved of, they are generally taken on board the ship the same evening. The purchaser has liberty to return on the following morning, but not afterwards, such as upon re-examination are found exceptionable. 1E

Primary Sources – Africans Selling African

Slave Caravans on the Road (1888)In 1888, Harpers requested that Henry M. Stanley's Through a Dark Continent be adapted for young readers. On Stanley's recommendation, Thomas Wallace Knox was selected to write the book, which would be entitled, The Boy Travellers on the Congo. The illustrations used in Knox's book came from several volumes on African travels, including the book it was based on.

Slave Caravans on the Road accompanies text describing Arab involvment with the slave trade and the town of Mombasa, a port on Africa's east coast. The book tells how Arabs made war with natives and enslaved captives, as well as inciting war between various tribes in order to purchase, as slaves, the prisoners of those wars.

Image Credit: Harvard College Library

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Primary Sources – Africans Selling African

Slaves Left to Die (1888)Slaves Left to Die is a woodcut illustration from the book, The Boy Travellers on the Congo, published in 1888. Accompanying the illustration is a description of why slave owners killed captives while travelling. . .

"Sometimes they left them to die or recover, as best they might, and Dr. Livingstone tells how he saw groups of dying people with slave yokes around their necks, near the road where he travelled. Some of the slave-traders were tender-hearted enough not to take life wantonly, but this was not always the case. Those who looked upon the dreadful traffic purely in the light of business made it a rule to kill every slave who could not keep up with the caravan. They did so not from any special delight in the killing, but becasue it spurred the survivors on to endure the hardships of the march, and never to yield as long as there was power to drag one foot before the other."

Image Credit: Harvard College Library

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Primary Sources – Africans Selling African

African Captives Yoked in Pairs (1800)For Africans destined to be slaves in the New World, a long march lasting several months was not uncommon. This 19th century engraving by an unknown artist shows captives being driven by black slave traders.

European slave traders in Africa did not seize land from natives and colonize the coast, as they did in their New World settlements. Instead, they established a special relationship with local chieftains, who allowed them to maintain trading forts along the coast. Local Africans, rather than the Europeans themselves, acquired and supplied slaves to the white traders.

Image Credit: The Granger Collection, New York 1H