Slave Trade - SC Question Research Paper

Port

Negros

# of ships

Average/ship

Africa (Calabar)

5

Congo

1

Gambia and Gold Coast

3

Gambia and Grain Coast

2

Angola

14

Gambia

7

Coast of Guinea

1

Windward and Gold Coast

4

Sierra Leone

1

Windward Coast

1

Senegal

2

Windward and Rice Coast

1

Windward and Grain Coast

1

Gambia and Windward Coast

1

Gold Coast

2

Grain and Gold Coast

1

Totals

10506

47

Mean average per port

Weighted mean average per ship

Based upon the article "Shipboard Revolts, African Authority, and the Atlantic Slave Trade," by David Richardson and Stephen Behrendt's article "Markets, Transaction Cycles, and Profits: Merchant Decision Making in the British Slave Trade" one could possibly account for the range of slaves per ship and the variations between ports. The slave trade was a business dependent upon the matching of supply and demand in several industries. The ability to secure a vessel, sailors, carpenters and coopers determined, the timing of a ship's departure, the size of the ship, the number of slaves which could be transported and the amount of goods available to trade.

Slave trading was also dependent upon the agricultural activities in both Africa and in the British Americas.For example, in the Bight of Biafra slaves were needed to plant and harvest the yam crops and could only be available for trade after this work was completed. The ship's captain was under pressure to obtain their slaves as quickly as possible. A delay in filling their cargo could result in slave rebellions while in port and the possibility of arriving to late to market in British America resulting in a lower price per slave. The port of Bonny was a preferred location to trade because it had a predictable agricultural and there were established slave merchants who provided a steady supply of slaves from internal Africa. Again, supply of slaves needed to meet the demand for slaves in a timely fashion.

Other questions that arise from the data could include:

What was the lose rate of slaves during the middle passage and was it due to illness or to rebellion?

Did the ship captain have the opportunity to shift where they would sell their slaves if they missed the agricultural cycles of the British Americas?

If provisions were not available in Africa, what would the captains do? Would they turn back to London to purchase food?.....