Slave Coast of West Africa

2025-09-24T19:04:47Z

2601:645:8A80:9A10:355A:E9C8:CE58:2195:

{{Short description|Historical name of a region in West Africa}}
{{about|the historical region in West Africa|the slave trade in East Africa|Swahili Coast|the slave trade in North Africa|Barbary Coast}}
{{coord missing|Africa}}
[[Image:Negroland and Guinea with the European Settlements, 1736.jpg|thumb|300px|right|A 1729 map showing the Slave Coast]]
[[File:The Slave Coast on a John Bartholomew & Co. map published c. 1914 (part).jpg|thumb|300px|right|The Slave Coast is still marked on this c. 1914 map by [[John Bartholomew & Co.]] of Edinburgh.]]
[[File:Africa slave Regions.svg|thumb|upright=0.9|right|Major slave trading areas of western Africa, 15th–19th centuries]]The '''Slave Coast''' is a historical region along the [[Atlantic Ocean|Atlantic]] coast of West Africa, encompassing parts of modern-day [[Togo]], [[Benin]], and [[Nigeria]]. It is located along the [[Bight of Biafra]] and the [[Bight of Benin]] that is located between the [[Volta River]] and the [[Lagos Lagoon]].<ref>Law (1989), p. 46</ref><ref>{{Citation |title=Change and Continuity in Coastal Bénin |date=2001 |work=West Africa During the Atlantic Slave Trade : Archaeological Perspectives |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |doi=10.5040/9781474291064.ch-005 |isbn=978-1-4742-9104-0}}</ref>

The name is derived from the region's history as a major source of African people sold into slavery during the [[Atlantic slave trade]] from the early 16th century to the late 19th century.<ref>{{Citation |title=Freedom |date=2009-02-16 |work=The Atlantic World |pages=615–660 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/cbo9780511816604.018 |isbn=978-0-511-81660-4 }}</ref><ref name="nlmtla">{{cite web |date=10 July 2020 |title=The history of the transatlantic slave trade |url=https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/history-of-slavery/transatlantic-slave-trade |access-date=26 March 2021 |website=[[National Museums Liverpool]]}}</ref> During this time, this coastal area became a major hub for the export of enslaved Africans to the Americas. European powers, including the Portuguese, British, Dutch, Danish, and French, established forts and trading posts in the region to facilitate the slave trade. The area was so named due to the high volume of enslaved people transported from its shores, profoundly affecting both the local societies and the broader Atlantic world.

The Slave Coast is estimated to have been the point of departure for approximately two million enslaved Africans, representing about 16% of the estimated 12.5 million individuals transported to the [[Americas]] during the [[transatlantic slave trade]].<ref name=":0">{{Citation |last=Fuglestad |first=Finn |title=Introduction |date=2018-08-01 |work=Slave Traders by Invitation |pages=1–18 |publisher=Oxford University Press |language=en |doi=10.1093/oso/9780190876104.003.0001 |isbn=978-0-19-087610-4 }}</ref> This equates to an average of around 20 individuals leaving the Slave Coast each day for over two centuries. A significant number of these individuals, likely more than half, were embarked from the beach south of [[Ouidah, Benin|Ouidah]], which lacked formal port facilities.<ref name=":0" /> The other primary port from which slaves embarked was [[Lagos]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Law |first=Robin |last2=Mann |first2=Kristin |date=1999 |title=West Africa in the Atlantic Community: The Case of the Slave Coast |jstor=2674121 |journal=The William and Mary Quarterly |volume=56 |issue=2 |pages=307–334 |doi=10.2307/2674121 |issn=0043-5597 }}</ref> These figures represent only those who survived the conditions prior to departure, including the harsh waiting and loading periods.<ref name=":0" />

Other nearby coastal regions were historically known by their prime colonial export are the [[Gold Coast (region)|Gold Coast]], the [[Ivory Coast]] (or Windward Coast), and the [[Pepper Coast]] (or Grain Coast).<ref>{{Citation |last=Hall |first=Gwendolyn Midlo |title=Lower Guinea: Ivory Coast, Gold Coast, Slave Coast/Bight of Benin |date=2005-09-19 |work=Slavery and African Ethnicities in the Americas |pages=101–125 |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |doi=10.5149/9780807876862_hall.9 |isbn=978-0-8078-2973-8 |authorlink=Gwendolyn Midlo Hall }}</ref>{{Slavery}}
==Historical background==
{{See also|Triangular trade|Transatlantic Slave Trade}}

=== European contact and initial trade ===
European sources began documenting the development of trade in the "Slave Coast" region and its integration into the [[Atlantic slave trade|transatlantic slave trade]] around 1670.<ref>{{Citation |last=Green |first=Toby |title=Rethinking the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade from a Cultural Perspective |work=The Rise of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade in Western Africa, 1300–1589 |pages=1–28 |year=2011 |place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/cbo9781139016407.003 |isbn=978-1-139-01640-7 }}</ref>

In the 18th century, intermarriage between European residents and African women was primarily linked to the European forts established in Ouidah.<ref name=":1" /> While most European personnel either died or returned home after short tenures, those who stayed longer often formed relationships with local women and had children.<ref name=":1" />

=== Transatlantic slave trade ===
The transatlantic slave trade led to the formation of an "Atlantic community" of Africans and Europeans in the 17th, 18th, and 19th century.<ref>{{Citation |last1=Le Glaunec |first1=Jean-Pierre |title=Atlantic New Orleans: 18th and 19th Centuries |date=2020-05-27 |work=Atlantic History |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/obo/9780199730414-0337 |isbn=978-0-19-973041-4 |last2=Dessens |first2=Nathalie}}</ref><ref>Law (1991), p.307.</ref> Roughly twelve million enslaved Africans were purchased by European slave traders from African slave merchants during the period of the transatlantic slave trade.<ref>{{Citation |title=The end of the Dutch slave trade, 1781–1815 |date=1990-05-25 |work=The Dutch in the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1600–1815 |pages=284–303 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/cbo9780511528958.013 |isbn=978-0-521-36585-7}}</ref> Enslaved Africans were transported to the [[Americas]] to work on [[cash crop]] [[plantation]]s in [[European colonization of the Americas|European colonies]].<ref>{{Citation |title=3: Youthful Rebels: Young People, Agency, and Resistance against Colonial Slavery in the British Caribbean Plantation World |work=Child Slaves in the Modern World |pages=64–83 |year=2011 |publisher=Ohio University Press |doi=10.1353/chapter.370517 |isbn=978-0-8214-4374-3}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |title=Appendix A: The Dutch Slave Trade to the French Caribbean, 1650–1675 |date=2018-12-31 |work=The Dutch Moment |pages=267–268 |place=Ithaca, NY |publisher=Cornell University Press |doi=10.7591/9781501706127-011 |isbn=978-1-5017-0612-7 |s2cid=239310593}}</ref> Ports that exported these enslaved people from Africa include [[Ouidah]], [[Lagos]], [[Aného]] (Little Popo), [[Grand-Popo]], [[Agoué]], [[Godomey|Jakin]], [[Porto-Novo]], and [[Badagry]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Mann |first=K |date=2007 |title=An African Family Archive: The Lawsons of Little Popo/Aneho (Togo), 1841-1938 |journal=The English Historical Review |volume=CXXII |issue=499 |pages=1438–1439 |doi=10.1093/ehr/cem350 |issn=0013-8266}}</ref> These ports traded slaves who were supplied from African communities, tribes and kingdoms, including the [[Allada]] and [[Ouidah]], which were later taken over by the [[Dahomey]] kingdom.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lombard |first=J |title=West African Kingdoms in the Nineteenth Century |publisher=Routledge |year=2018 |isbn=978-0-429-49164-1 |pages=70–92 |chapter=The Kingdom of Dahomey |doi=10.4324/9780429491641-3 |s2cid=204268220}}</ref>

The extensive slave trade along the Slave Coast contributed to the development of a diverse population engaged in transatlantic commercial and social networks.<ref name=":1" /> This population played an influential role in shaping both Atlantic commerce and culture.{{cn|date=December 2024}}

=== Abolition ===
The transatlantic slave trade in West Africa began to decline earlier than in other regions.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |title=Commercial Agriculture, the Slave Trade and Slavery in Atlantic Africa |date=2013 |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |isbn=978-1-84701-075-9 |doi=10.7722/j.ctt31nj49.19}}</ref> While the flow of captives from Atlantic Africa is generally considered to have first been restricted by legislation and diplomatic and naval pressure over several decades in the early 19th century, the decline in West Africa started even before abolition laws were enacted.<ref name=":2" /> Most powerful slave-trading countries had begun abolitionist campaigns in 1807, while the volume of slave shipments began to decline in West Africa from 1787.<ref name=":2" /> This was due to colonial legislation creating favorable circumstances for abolition and greater economic opportunities, such as the cash crop revolution, empowering former slaves.<ref name=":2" /> This process influenced the enforcing of abolition through legislation in the remaining countries which were involved in the trade.<ref name=":2" />

==Human toll==
The coast was also called "the White man's grave"<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fric |first=Explorador |date=1906 |title=45. Notes on the Grave-Posts of the Kadiueo. |journal=Man |volume=6 |pages=71–72 |doi=10.2307/2787741 |issn=0025-1496 |jstor=2787741}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=McCoy | first = Tim |title=Tim McCoy remembers the West : an autobiography |date=1977 |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |isbn=0-8032-8155-2 |oclc=16866452}}</ref> because of the mass amount of death from illnesses such as [[yellow fever]], [[malaria]], [[heat exhaustion]], and many [[Gastroenterology|gastro-entero]] sicknesses. In 1841, 80% of British sailors serving in military expeditions on the [[Niger River]] were infected with fevers.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Curtin | first = Philip D. |title=Disease and empire : the health of European troops in the conquest of Africa |date=1998 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0521591694 |location=Cambridge, U.K. |oclc=39169947}}</ref> Between 1844 and 1854, 20 of the 74 [https://history.stanford.edu/publications/gods-empire-french-missionaries-and-modern-world French missionaries] in [[Senegal]] died from local illnesses, and 19 more died shortly after arriving back to France.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cohen |first=William B. |url=https://archive.org/details/rulersofempirefr00cohe |title=Rulers of empire: the French colonial service in Africa |date=1971 |publisher=Hoover Institution Press |isbn=0817919511 |location=[Stanford, Calif.] |oclc=215926 |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=James |first=Lawrence |title=Empires in the sun : the struggle for the mastery of Africa |date=2017-06-06 |isbn=9781681774633 |edition=First Pegasus books hardcover |location=New York |oclc=959869470}}</ref> Intermarriage has been documented in ports like Ouidah where Europeans were permanently stationed.<ref>{{Citation |last=Robinson |first=Harlow |title=Where the Devil Has He Been? |date=2019-12-03 |work=Lewis Milestone |pages=219–237 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |doi=10.5810/kentucky/9780813178332.003.0013 |isbn=978-0-8131-7833-2 |s2cid=219816178 }}</ref> Communication was quite extensive among all three areas of trade, to the point where even individual enslaved people could be tracked.<ref>Law, Robin. ''The Slave Coast of West Africa 1550–1750: The Impact of the Atlantic Slave Trade on an African Society''. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1991. p. 319.</ref>

The trans-Atlantic slave trade resulted in a vast and unknown loss of life for African captives both in and outside the Americas. Over a million people are thought to have died during their transport to the [[New World]].<ref name="news.bbc.co.uk">[https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6445941.stm Quick guide: The slave trade; Who were the slaves?] BBC News, 15 March 2007.</ref> More died soon after their arrival. The number of lives lost in the procurement of slaves remains a mystery but may equal or exceed the number of people who survived to be enslaved.<ref name="ReferenceA">Stannard, David. ''American Holocaust''. Oxford University Press, 1993.</ref>

Modern historians estimate that between two and three million people were transported out of this region and traded for goods like alcohol and tobacco from the Americas and textiles from Europe as part of the [[triangular trade]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Zhu |first1=Wei |last2=Li |first2=Lin Lin |last3=Songyang |first3=Yiyan |last4=Shi |first4=Zhan |last5=Li |first5=Dejia |date=9 March 2020 |title=Table 1: Two hundred thirty-two differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were screened from three profile datasets. |journal=PeerJ |volume=8 |pages=e8731 |doi=10.7717/peerj.8731/table-1 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Historians have noted that though official records state that twelve million enslaved Africans were transported to the Americas from Africa, the actual number of slaves purchased by European slave traders was considerably higher.<ref>[[Ronald Segal]], ''The Black Diaspora: Five Centuries of the Black Experience Outside Africa'' (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1995), {{ISBN|0-374-11396-3}}, p. 4. "It is now estimated that 11,863,000 slaves were shipped across the Atlantic." (Note in original: Paul E. Lovejoy, "The Impact of the Atlantic Slave Trade on Africa: A Review of the Literature", in ''Journal of African History'' 30 (1989), p. 368.)</ref><ref>Eltis, David and Richardson, David, "The Numbers Game". In: Northrup, David: ''The Atlantic Slave Trade'', 2nd ed., Houghton Mifflin Co., 2002, p. 95.</ref><ref>Basil Davidson. ''The African Slave Trade''.</ref> Alongside other forms of trade, this complex exchange also fostered cultural exchanges between these three regions, involving religions, architectural styles, languages, and knowledge.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Le Goaer |first1=Olivier |title=Proceedings of the 3rd international workshop on Sharing and reusing architectural knowledge |last2=Tamzalit |first2=Dalila |last3=Oussalah |first3=Mourad Chabane |last4=Seriai |first4=Abdelhak-Djamel |date=2008 |publisher=ACM Press |isbn=978-1-60558-038-8 |series=Shark '08 |location=New York, New York, USA |pages=31–36 |chapter=Evolution styles to the rescue of architectural evolution knowledge |doi=10.1145/1370062.1370071 |s2cid=12522305}}</ref> In addition to the enslaved people, free men used the exchange routes to travel to new destinations, and both slaves and free travelers helped blend European and African cultures.<ref>{{Citation |title=3. Rescuing Slaves Today |date=2019-12-31 |work=Ending Slavery |pages=36–60 |publisher=University of California Press |doi=10.1525/9780520934641-004 |isbn=978-0-520-93464-1 |s2cid=226798869 }}</ref> After the institution of slavery was abolished by successive European governments, the transatlantic slave trade continued for a time, with independent traders operating in violation of their countries' laws.<ref>{{Citation |title=The slave trade and slavery |date=2007 |work=After Abolition |publisher=I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd. |doi=10.5040/9780755622245.ch-001 |isbn=978-1-84511-365-0 }}</ref>

The savage nature of the trade led to the destruction of individuals and cultures. Historian [[Ana Lucia Araujo]] has noted that the process of enslavement did not end with arrival on Western Hemisphere shores; the different paths taken by the individuals and groups who were victims of the trans-Atlantic slave trade were influenced by different factors—including the disembarking region, the ability to be sold on the market, the kind of work performed, gender, age, religion, and language.<ref>''Paths of the Atlantic Slave Trade: Interactions, Identities, and Images''.</ref><ref name="FreedmensInquiry">[[American Freedmen's Inquiry Commission]] report, page 43-44</ref>

University of Pittsburgh Professor of World History, Patrick Manning, estimates that about 12 million enslaved people were victims of the Atlantic trade between the 16th and 19th century, but that about 1.5 million people died on board ships. About 10.5 million slaves arrived in the Americas. Besides the enslaved people who died on the [[Middle Passage]], more African people likely died during the slave raids in Africa and forced marches to ports. Manning estimates that 4 million people died inside Africa after capture, and many more died young. Manning's estimate covers the 12 million people who were originally destined for the Atlantic, as well as the 6 million people destined for Asian slave markets and the 8 million people destined for African markets.<ref name="online at pp. 119–120">Patrick Manning, "The Slave Trade: The Formal Demographics of a Global System" in Joseph E. Inikori and Stanley L. Engerman (eds), ''The Atlantic Slave Trade: Effects on Economies, Societies and Peoples in Africa, the Americas, and Europe'' (Duke University Press, 1992), pp. 117–44, [https://books.google.com/books?id=abvkqNGSTZ0C&pg=PA119 online at pp. 119–120.]</ref> Of the slaves shipped to the Americas, the largest share went to Brazil and the Caribbean.<ref>Maddison, Angus. ''Contours of the world economy 1–2030 AD: Essays in macro-economic history''. Oxford University Press, 2007.</ref>

==See also==
*[[Bristol slave trade]]
*[[Dutch Slave Coast]]

==Notes==

{{reflist}}

== Bibliography ==
* ''Commercial Agriculture, the Slave Trade and Slavery in Atlantic Africa''. Boydell & Brewer. 2013. {{doi|10.7722/j.ctt31nj49.19}}. {{ISBN|978-1-84701-075-9}}
* Fuglestad, Finn (2018). "Introduction". ''Slave Traders by Invitation''. Oxford University Press, pp. 1–18. {{doi|10.1093/oso/9780190876104.003.0001}} {{ISBN|978-0-19-087610-4}}
* Law, Robin, "Slave-Raiders and Middlemen, Monopolists and Free-Traders: The Supply of Slaves for the Atlantic Trade in Dahomey c. 1750-1850", ''The Journal of African History'', Vol.30, No. 1, 1989.
* Law, Robin. ''The Slave Coast of West Africa 1550–1750: The Impact of the Atlantic Slave Trade on an African Society''. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1991.
* Law, Robin; Mann, Kristin (1999). "West Africa in the Atlantic Community: The Case of the Slave Coast". ''The William and Mary Quarterly''. 56 (2): 307–334. {{doi|10.2307/267412}}. ISSN 0043-5597

==Further reading==
* Law, Robin and [[Kristin Mann]]. "African and American Atlantic Worlds". ''The William and Mary Quarterly'', 3rd Ser., 56:2 Apr. 1999, pp. 307–334.
* Shillington, Kevin. ''History of Africa''. 2nd Edition, Macmillan Publishers Limited, NY USA, 2005.
* St Clair, William. ''The Door of No Return: The History of Cape Coast Castle and the Atlantic Slave Trade''. BlueBridge.

== External links ==
{{Commons}}
* [https://www.visitportugal.com/en The Portuguese]
* [https://cuomeka.wrlc.org/exhibits/show/hsresources/missionaries/missionaries_early_french French Missionaries]

{{Regions of Africa}}

[[Category:History of West Africa]]
[[Category:Atlantic slave trade]]
[[Category:Historical regions of West Africa]]
[[Category:Coasts of the Atlantic Ocean]]

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Slave Coast of West Africa