The Journal of Negro History, Volume 2, 1917

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THE JOURNAL

OF

NEGRO HISTORY

Volume II

1917

Table of Contents

Vol II--January, 1917--No. 1

Slavery and the Slave Trade in Africa JEROME DOWD
The Negro in the Field of Invention HENRY E. BAKER
Anthony Benezet C. G. WOODSON
People of Color in Louisiana ALICE DUNBAR-NELSON
Notes on Connecticut as a Slave State
Documents
Letters of Anthony Benezet
Reviews of Books
Notes

Vol II--April, 1917--No. 2

Slave Status in American Democracy JOHN M. MECKLIN
John Woolman's Efforts in Behalf of Freedom G. DAVID HOUSTON
The Tarik E Soudan A.O. STAFFORD
From a Jamaica Portfolio T.H. MACDERMOT
Notes on the Nomolis of Sherbroland WALTER L. EDWIN
Documents
Observations on the Negroes of Louisiana
The Conditions against which Woolman
and Anthony Benezet Inveighted
Book Reviews
Notes

Vol II--July, 1917--No. 3

Formation of American Colonization Society HENRY NOBLE SHERWOOD, PH.D
Slave Status in American Democracy JOHN M. MECKLIN
History of High School for Negroes
in Washington MARY CHURCH TERRELL
The Danish West Indies LEILA AMOS PENDLETON
Documents
Relating to the Danish West Indies
Reviews of Books
Notes
African Origin of Grecian Civilization

Vol II--October, 1917--No. 4

Historical Errors of James Ford Rhodes JOHN R. LYNCH
The Struggle of Haiti and Liberia for Recognition CHARLES H. WESLEY
Three Negro Poets BENJAMIN BRAWLEY
Catholics and the Negro JOSEPH BUTSCH
Documents
Letters of George Washington Bearing on the Negro
Petition for Compensation for the Loss of Slaves
An Extract from the Will of Robert Pleasants
Proceedings of a Reconstruction Meeting
Reviews of Books
Notes
The First Biennial Meeting of the Association

THE JOURNAL

OF

NEGRO HISTORY

VOL. II--JANUARY, 1917--NO. 1

SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE TRADE IN AFRICA

I. THE ORIGIN AND EXTENT OF SLAVERY IN THE SEVERAL ECONOMIC ZONES OF
AFRICA

Slavery in Africa has existed from time immemorial, having arisen, not
from any outside influence, but from the very nature of the local
conditions. The three circumstances necessary to develop slavery are:

First, a country favored by the bounty of nature. Unless nature yields
generously it is impossible for a subject class to produce surplus
enough to maintain their masters. Where nature is niggardly, as in
many hunting districts, the labor of all the population is required to
meet the demands of subsistence.

Second, a country where the labor necessary to subsistence is, in some
way, very disagreeable. In such cases every man and woman will seek to
impose the task of production upon another. Among most primitive
agricultural peoples, the labor necessary to maintenance is very
monotonous and uninteresting, and no freeman will voluntarily perform
it. On the contrary, among hunting and fishing peoples, the labor of
maintenance is decidedly interesting. It partakes of the nature of
sport.

Third, a country where there is an abundance of free land. In such a
country it is impossible for one man to secure another to work for him
except by coercion; for when a man has a chance to use free land and
its products he will work only for himself, and take all the product
for himself rather than work for another and accept a bare subsistence
for himself. On the contrary, where all the land is appropriated a man
who does not own land has no chance to live except at the mercy of the
landlord. He is obliged to offer himself as a wage-earner or a tenant.
The landlord can obtain, therefore, all the help he may need without
coercion. Free labor is then economically advantageous to both the
landlord and the wage-earner, since the freedom of the latter inspires
greatly increased production. From these facts and considerations,
verified by history, it may be laid down as a sociological law that
where land is monopolized slavery necessarily yields to a regime of
freedom.[1]

In applying these principles to Africa it is necessary to take account
of the natural division of the continent into distinct economic zones.
Immediately under the equator is a wide area of heavy rainfall and
dense forest. The rapidity and rankness of vegetable growth renders
the region unsuited to agriculture. But the plentiful streams abound
in fish and the forests in animals and fruits. The banana and plantain
grow there in superabundance, and form the chief diet of the
inhabitants. This may be called, for convenience, the banana zone. To
the north and south of this zone are broad areas of less rainfall and
forest, with a dry season suitable to agriculture. These may be called
the agriculture zones. Still further to the north and south are areas
of very slight rainfall and almost no forests, suitable for pasturage.
Here cattle flourish in great numbers. These may be called the
pastoral zones. These zones stretch horizontally across the continent
except in case of the cattle zones, which, on account of the
mountainous character of East Africa, include the plateau extending
from Abyssinia to the Zambesi river. Each of these zones gives rise to
different types of men, and different characteristics of economic
organization, of family life, government, religion, and art.

In the banana zone nature is extremely bountiful. The people subsist
mostly upon the spontaneous products. A small expenditure of effort
will support a vast population. Agriculture is very little practiced.
Here the effort to live would seem to be easier and more agreeable
than in any other part of the world, so that man would not be under
pressure to enslave his kind. But alas, the work of gathering and
transporting the fruits, of the preparation and cooking them, as well
as the bringing home and cooking of the game, the building of houses,
etc., is not altogether pleasant. It is uninteresting, and the heat
and the humidity of the climate render it almost insupportable in
certain seasons and hours of the day. The repugnance to labor of
tropical people, whether natives or white immigrants, is proverbial.
Every one in the banana zone, therefore, seeks to shift his burden
upon another. As a first resort, he unloads it upon his wife, and she,
finding it grievous, cries out, and he then relieves her by procuring
additional wives. This kind of wife-slavery suffices for the support
of the population in this zone, but in the case of families of rank,
who have been accustomed to some degree of luxury, other helpers are
needed, and these form a class of domestic slaves. Now, in this zone,
the climatic conditions not only render labor disagreeable but tend to
curb aspiration, so that people do not acquire a taste or demand for
products which minister to the higher nature. Lassitude keeps the
standard of living down to a low level. Hence, in this zone the labor
of women suffices, for the most part, for the maintenance of the
population. Since land is free and no one will voluntarily work for
another, such additional workers as are needed must be obtained and
bound to the master by coercion.

In this zone two very remarkable consequences follow from the fact
that very few slaves are needed for workers. The first is the practice
of cannibalism, once universal in this zone, and still in vogue
throughout vast regions. The bountiful food supply attracts immigrants
from all sides, and the result is a condition of chronic warfare. When
one tribe defeats another the question arises, What is to be done
with the prisoners? As they cannot be profitably employed as
industrial workers, they are used to supplement a too exclusive
vegetable diet. Wars come to be waged expressly for the sake of
obtaining human flesh for food. The Monbuttu eat a part of their
captives fallen in battle, and butcher and carry home the rest for
future consumption. They bring home prisoners not to reduce to slavery
but as butcher-meat to garnish future festivals.

A second consequence of the limited demand for slaves is that war
captives are sold to foreigners. Adjacent to the banana zone are zones
of agriculture, where slaves are in great request, and, during the
European connection with the slave trade, the normal demand for slaves
in this zone was greatly heightened. Among the Niam Niam all prisoners
belong to the monarch. He sells the women and keeps the children for
slaves. Hence, the banana zone has been the great reservoir for
supplying slaves to other parts of the world. Hundreds of thousands of
slaves came from this zone to the West Indies, and to the slave states
of North and South America. In Dahomey and Ashanti war captives used
to be sold "en bloc" to white traders at so much per capita.

In the agricultural zones to the north and south nature is more
niggardly, though she yields enough, when coaxed by the hoe, to permit
of a large class of parasites. The labor of maintenance is more
onerous than in the banana zone. While the heat and humidity are not
so great the work is more grievous because of its greater quantity and
monotony. The motive to shift the work is, therefore, very strong and
the demand for slaves is very great. In fact, the ratio of slaves to
freemen is about three or four to one. As land is free and the
resources open, the only means of obtaining workers is by coercion.
The supply of slaves is kept up by kidnapping, by warfare upon weak
tribes, by the purchase of children from improvident parents, and by
forfeiture of freedom through crime.

In the cattle zones farther to the north and south, nature is still
less bountiful. The labor of maintenance requires a combination of
the pastoral art, agriculture and trade. A slave class could not
maintain itself and at the same time support a large master class. The
labor of a large proportion of the population is, in one way or
another, necessary to existence. The nature of the work, so far as it
is pastoral or trading, is not especially irksome, but rather
fascinating. Tending cattle is full of excitement, and is a kind of
substitute for hunting; while trading is an occupation which appeals
with wonderful force to all the races of Africa. The impulse to shift
labor in the cattle zones is, therefore, very slight, except in the
case of a few populations subsisting largely upon agriculture. The
ruling classes, therefore, instead of owning many personal slaves,
make a practice of subjugating the agricultural groups in such a way
as to constitute a kind of feudalism. As land is free the enslaved
groups can be made to serve the free class only by coercion.

Similar conditions among the natural races all over the world give
rise in the same way to the institution of slavery. Ellis thinks that
slavery probably originated under the regime of exogamy where the sons
born of captured women formed the slave class because they were
considered inferior to the sons born of the women of the group.[2] But
it is quite evident that slavery originated primarily from economic
conditions. For further sociological explanations of slavery in the
several zones the reader is referred to the author's first and second
volumes on the Negro races.

II. THE SLAVE TRADE OF WEST AFRICA AND THE DESERT OF SAHARA

The African slave trade goes back as far as our knowledge of the Negro
race. The first Negroes of which we have any record were probably
slaves brought in caravans to Egypt. They were in demand as slaves in
all the oases of the deserts, and along the coasts of the
Mediterranean. "Among the ruling nations on the north coast," says
Heeren, "the Egyptians, Cyrenians and Carthaginians, slavery was not
only established but they imported whole armies of slaves, partly for
home use, and partly, at least by the latter, to be shipped off to
foreign markets. These wretched beings were chiefly drawn from the
interior, where kidnapping was just as much carried on then as it is
at present. Black male and female slaves were even an article of
luxury, not only among the above mentioned nations, but even in Greece
and Italy; and as the allurement to this traffic was on this account
so great, the unfortunate Negro race had, even thus early, the
wretched fate to be dragged into distant lands under the galling yoke
of bondage."[3] Since the introduction of Mohammedanism, slaves have
been carried eastward into all of the Moslem States as far as Asia
Minor and Turkey, where they are still much valued as domestic
servants or as eunuchs to guard the seraglios of Mohammedan princes.
In the middle ages many African slaves were carried into Spain through
the instrumentality of the Saracens, and from there the first slaves
were imported into America. The supply of slaves for the Northern and
Eastern States was obtained chiefly from the region of the Sudan. At
an early period many caravan routes led northward from this region.

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the slaves were
obtained by a variety of methods, of which the most common was that of
raiding the agricultural Nigritians who lived in towns and cities
scattered and unorganized in the agricultural zone, and who were easy
victims of the mounted bands of desert Berbers, Tuaregs and Arabs who
descended into the region in quest of booty and captives. Robert
Adams, an American sailor who was wrecked on the West Coast of Africa
in 1810, said of the raiding parties sent out from Timbuktu, "These
armed parties were all on foot except the officers. They were usually
absent from one week to a month, and at times brought in considerable
numbers," mostly from the Bambaras. "The slaves thus brought in were
chiefly women and children, who, after being detained a day or two at
the king's house, were sent away to other parts for sale."[4]

The Fellatahs, who, since the beginning of the nineteenth century,
have been the dominators of the Nigritians in West Africa, used to
carry on a merciless campaign against their subjects, destroying their
homes and fields, and seizing women and children by the thousands to
barter away to the West, or to send across the desert. Describing the
effects of a Fellatah raid, Barth says: "The whole village, which only
a few moments before had been the abode of comfort and happiness, was
destroyed by fire and made desolate. Slaughtered men, with their limbs
severed from their bodies, were lying about in all directions and made
passers-by shudder with horror."[5]

The slave traffic in the Sudan gave rise at a very early date to
regular slave markets. The city of Jenne on the Niger was, in the
middle ages, the greatest emporium in West Africa, far outshining
Timbuktu. From the fifteenth century to the present time, the most
celebrated slave markets have been Kuka, on Lake Chad, Timbuktu,
capital of the Songhay empire, Kano, capital of the Haussa empire, and
Katsena, capital of a district of the same name. Rohlfs found at the
Kuka slave market, white haired old men and women, children suckling
strange breasts, young girls and strong boys who had come from Bornu,
Baghirmi, Haussa, Logun, Musgu, Waday and from lands still more
distant.[6]

The slaves were carried across the desert by two kinds of caravans.
First, those composed of nomad tribes, which migrated periodically
from north to south. During the winter the tribes would pasture their
camels along the edges of the desert, but in the spring they would
visit the cities in the oases to gather up a supply of dates and other
desert products to sell in the north. They would then in the same
season proceed north to the cultivated regions of the Atlas mountains
and arrive there in the midst of the harvest, exchanging their
southern commodities for grain, raw-wool, and a variety of European
goods. At the end of the summer they would return to the south,
arriving at the oases just as the dates were ripening. Here the grain,
wool and other stuffs from the north would be exchanged for dates and
manufactured articles of the desert. The same tribes which advanced
from the oases of the desert to the north also descended towards the
south, thus establishing intercourse between the Barbary States and
Timbuktu. Many slaves picked up by these immigrating tribes were
carried from one oasis to another until they were finally sold into
the states bordering the Mediterranean.

The second kind of caravans were those conducted by merchants,
traveling with hired camels, and making rapid and direct journeys
across the desert to and from the chief slave markets. These caravans
would come into the Sudan composed of men mounted upon camels, asses
and mules, bringing salt, hides, cloth, and sundry articles from
civilized North Africa, and return with slaves through Tibbu to
Fezzan, and there fatten them for the Tripoli slave markets. Those
that came to Timbuktu returned to any of the Barbary States, and there
transferred their slaves to other traders who carried them as far as
Turkey in Asia. Those that came to Kano usually passed out by way of
Kuka or Katsena and proceeded thence by several routes to markets in
North Africa.

The journey across the desert was exceedingly fatal to the blacks,
since they were not accustomed to the northern climate. They suffered
from hunger, thirst and cold, and a large per cent. of them perished
along the way. Damberger, who traveled through the interior of Africa
between 1781 and 1797, relates, as follows, his experience as a
slave-captive in crossing the desert. Passing through the Sudan he
fell in with some Moors, journeying to Tegorarin, where he was sold to
a slave dealer, who resold him to a Mussulman en route to Mezzabath, a
town on the river Oniwoh. Here again he was sold to a merchant who
carried him to Marocco. He narrates that "On the 6th of September, my
new master and I departed with the caravan. It consisted of merchants
from various nations, of persons of distinction, who had been
performing a pilgrimage to Mecca, and of slaves. We proceeded slowly
on our journey, as the roads were bad and our beasts were very heavily
laden. Every day some of our company left the caravan, as we
approached or passed the respective destinations. We traveled over
mountains where the path was sometimes so narrow as only to permit the
passage of one person at a time. We were constantly on the watch in
these parts to prevent being surprised by the Arabs, as our caravan
conveyed many valuable articles, which would have afforded rich
plunder to those robbers. That which we apprehended actually happened
on the seventh day after our departure, namely, on the 13th of Sept. A
number of armed Arabs attacked us between the Cozul mountains and the
river Tegtat; killed four of our slaves and three camels; and, though
they lost several men in the attack, obstinately continued the combat.
We defended ourselves to the utmost of our power, and at length had
the good fortune to repel the whole troop. The victory, however, was
not obtained till two of our merchants and five slaves were wounded,
besides the four that were killed. We preserved all our property and
the burthens of the slain camels were distributed among those that
remained."[7]

An account of the caravan traffic from Timbuktu is given by Jackson,
who says that Timbuktu "has from time immemorial carried on a very
extensive and lucrative trade with the various maritime states of
North Africa, viz., Marocco, Tunis, Algiers, Tripoli, Egypt, etc., by
means of accumulated caravans, which cross the great desert of Sahara,
generally between the months of September and April inclusive; these
caravans consist of several hundred loaded camels, accompanied by the
Arabs who let them to the merchants for the transportation of their
merchandise to Fez, Marocco, etc., and at a very low rate. During
their routes they were often exposed to the attacks of the roving
Arabs of Sahara who generally commit their depredations as they
approach the confines of the desert."[8] The wind sometimes rolls up
the sand like great billows of the ocean, and caravans are often
buried under the pile, and then the wind, shifting, scatters in the
air those newly constructed mounds, and forms, amidst the chaos,
dreadful gulfs and yawning abysses: the traveler, continually deceived
by the aspect of the place, can discover his situation only by the
position of the stars.

When the caravans reach Akka, on the northern border of the desert,
the camels and the guides are discharged, and others hired to proceed
to Fez, Marocco, etc. The trip across the desert is made in about 130
days, including the necessary stops. Caravans go at the rate of three
and one half miles an hour, and travel seven hours a day. The convoys
of the caravan usually consist of two or more Arabs belonging to the
tribe through whose territory the caravan passes. When the convoys
reach the limit of their country, they transfer the caravan to other
guides, and so on till the desert is crossed. The individuals who
compose the caravans are accustomed to few comforts. "Their food,
dress and accommodation are simple and natural: proscribed from the
use of wine and intoxicating liquors by their religion, and exhorted
by its principles to temperance, they were commonly satisfied with a
few nourishing dates and a draft of water; and they will travel for
weeks successively without any other food."[9]

The caravans from Timbuktu were wont to export to the Barbary States
gold dust and gold rings, ivory, spices, and a great number of slaves.
"A young girl of Haussa, of exquisite beauty," remarks Jackson, "was
once sold at Marocco, whilst I was there, for four hundred ducats,
whilst the average price of slaves is about one hundred."[10] As to
the cost of transporting the slaves, Jackson states that "Ten dollars
expended in rice in Wangara is sufficient for a year's consumption for
one person; the wearing apparel is alike economical; a pair of
drawers, and sometimes a vest, forming all the clothing necessary in
traversing the desert."[11]

Gen. Daumas describes a journey he made from Katsena in the Sudan
across the desert about the middle of the nineteenth century. Arriving
at Katsena, he says that his caravan was met by a great and mixed
crowd of Negroes, who crowded around the camels, speaking in the most
animated manner their unknown language. He and his companions were
assigned to a special quarter of the city, and provided with lodgings.
The camels were put in charge of some poor men of the caravan who led
them away every day to the pasture, brought them back at four or five
o'clock in the evening, and placed them in the enclosure in the city.
The caravan leaders paid their respects to the chief of the city who
bade them welcome and promised them protection. The business proceeded
leisurely, as it was customary for the caravans to remain there two
months.

The chief, not having a sufficient supply of slaves on hand to trade,
caused his big drums to be beaten, and organized two bands of troops
to execute a raid among the heathen tribes to the east and southwest.
The raiding bands attacked only tribes with whom they were at war, or
who refused to adopt the Mohammedan religion. While the troops were on
the warpath, the caravan leaders visited the city slave market and
made, from day to day, a few purchases. The price paid for an old
Negro was 10,000 to 15,000 cowries, an adult Negro 30,000, a young
Negro woman 50,000 to 60,000, a Negro boy or girl 35,000 to 45,000.
The seller agreed to take back, within three days of the date of the
purchase, any slaves that proved to have objectionable qualities, such
as a disease, bad eyes or teeth, or a habit of snoring in sleep. As a
rule slaves that come below Nupe were not salable for the reason that,
being unaccustomed to eat salt, it was difficult for them to withstand
the regime of the desert. Also, slaves from certain countries south of
Kano were not salable because they were cannibals. The slaves from
this region were recognized by their teeth which were sharpened to a
point, resembling those of a dog. Negroes from other tribes were not
purchased because they were believed to have the power of causing a
man to die of consumption by merely looking at him. The purchase of
Fellatahs, or pregnant Negro women, or Jews was strictly forbidden by
the Sultan. The Fellatahs were not bought because they boasted of
being white people. The Negro women could not be bought because the
child to be born would be the property of the Sultan if its mother
were a heathen, and it would be free if the mother were a Mohammedan.
The Jew Negroes could not be bought because they were jewelers,
tailors, artisans and indispensable negotiators.

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