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Mortality in the Eighteenth-Century French Slave Trade

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Robert Stein
Robert Stein
Affiliation:
Erindale College, University of Toronto
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Extract

The eighteenth-century French slave trade claimed the lives of at least 150,000 African captives and 20,000 French crewmembers. Traditionally, the ‘Middle Passage’ has been held responsible for these deaths, but detailed information from the port of Nantes shows that the time spent on the African coast could be just as deadly as the crossing, at least for the crew. During the century nearly 8 percent of the crews died along the coast, compared with 5 per cent at sea. The African death rate for the crew actually rose in the second half of the century because increased competition made for longer stays in Africa. At the same time, faster crossing times led to a decline in the death rate at sea and yielded a fairly constant overall rate for the century.

The situation was somewhat different for the captives. Although the data are less comprehensive, they indicate a generally declining mortality rate during the century. This was due ultimately to reduced sailing times from Africa to the West Indies. Like the crewmembers, the captives benefited from the quicker crossings of the post-1763 period. Unlike the crew, however, captives were less affected by the increased time in African waters. More familiar with the African environment, they did not suffer as much from the extended stay along the coast, and by the end of the century slave mortality was lower than crew mortality. Unfortunately, the data are lacking to relate mortality either to trading sites in Africa or to Caribbean destinations.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 21 , Issue 1 , January 1980 , pp. 35 - 41
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1980

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References

1 Archives Départementales de la Loire-Atlantique, Nantes (herafter ADLA), B4954, 16.9.1773.

2 ADLA, B4591, 15.7.1751.

3 For example, the Roi de Louangue, with 26 of 34 dead (ADLA, B4954, 24.7.1767), and the Marie Gabrielle, with 31 out of 39 (Ibid. 4.9.1769).

4 (Wisconsin, 1969), 275–86.Google Scholar

5 Le Traficnégrier (Brussels, 1938), 248–302.Google Scholar

6 Sinews of Empire (New York, 1974), 96–7.Google Scholar

7 The Atlantic Slave Trade and British Abolition (London, 1975), 26Google Scholar, 31, 414–15.

8 The Middle Passage (Princeton, 1978), 197.Google Scholar

9 ADLA, B4577–4596 (1714–1778)Google Scholar. All statistics in this article are from this source. Some of the data contained in the reports is being published by Serge Daget for the Revue française d'histoire d'outre-mer, but apparently not the detailed material relating to mortality. The sample used for detailed analysis is 130 ships: 6 from 1715–18, 16 from 1728–30, 18 from 1743, 17 from 1752, 20 from 1767, 17 from 1768, 20 from 1770–2, and 16 from 1774–75. A larger sample including the above plus 46 pre-1756 and 30 post-1763 ships (total: 206 ships) is used for less detailed analysis, primarily for total slave and crew mortality. The two samples are quite consistent and represent most of the comprehensive reports. Many reports lack at least one important piece of information.

10 This was the case with the British trade. Craton, , Sinews, 97Google Scholar, claims that more than 20 per cent of all British crewmembers deserted or were discharged in the West Indies.

11 Klein, Herbert S. and Engerman, Stanley L., ‘Facteurs de mortalité dans le trafic français d'esclaves au XVIIIe siècle’, Annales: E.S.C., xxxi (1976), 1212–24,Google Scholar attempted to relate the trading site to the time at sea. This argument was subsequently expanded in Klein, , Middle Passage, 190–9Google Scholar. The data, however, seem to be too ambiguous to support such sophisticated treatment.

12 For example, ADLA, B4495, 18.4.1774Google Scholar, Duc de Duras, says Guinea; but, Ibid. 17.11.1775, Terray, says Angola.

13 Klein, , Middle Passage, 192.Google Scholar

14 ADLA, B4594.

15 Craton, 96, tends to do this; Anstey, 26, 31,414–15, is more cautious; Curtin, 275–86, speaks of ‘losses in transit’.

16 This is the standard phrase in the captain's reports.