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 Jenné 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 Nupé 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.
The raiding troops, after having been on the campaign for nearly a
month, returned with 2,000 captives, who marched in front of the
column, the men, women, old and young, almost all nude, or half clad
in ragged blue cloth, and the children piled upon the camels. The
women were groaning, and the children crying, while the men, though
seemingly more resigned, bore bloody marks upon their backs made by
the whips. The convoy was marched to the palace, where its arrival was
announced to the Sultan by a band of musicians. The Sultan
complimented the chief, examined the slaves and ordered them to the
slave market; and the next morning the caravan leaders were invited to
come and make their purchases.
After the slave-trading was over, it was necessary to purchase
supplies of corn, millet, dried meat, butter and flour for three
months, also to purchase camels and hide-tents. Daumas's caravan,
which set out from Metlily with only 64 camels and sixteen men, had
now increased to 400 slaves and nearly 600 camels.
A caravan from Tuat, which had joined that of Daumas, had augmented in
the same proportions. It had bought 1,500 slaves and its camels had
increased to 2,000. These two caravans waited two days to be joined by
three others which had penetrated farther to the south. It was
desirable that all of the caravans recross the desert together in
order better to resist attacks from the Tuaregs, Tibbus, and other
highwaymen of that region.
The slaves had to be watched very closely, since believing that they
were to be eaten by the white men, they were ready to take any chance
of escaping. The women were tied in twos by the feet, and the men tied
eight or ten together, each with his neck in an iron collar, to which
was attached a short chain which held the hand of each slave at the
height of his chest. At night Daumas fastened to his wrist the chains
which bound all of his slaves together so that the least movement
would wake him.
In a short time the three expected caravans arrived. One had
originally come from Ghedames, one from Ghat and one from Fezzan. The
first had gone as far as Nupé. It brought back 3,000 slaves and 3,500
camels. The second had gone to Kano and returned with 400 or 500
slaves and 700 or 800 camels. The third returned from Sokoto, and had
about the same number of slaves and camels as the second.
After the proper ceremonies of farewell at the palace of the Sultan,
the camels were loaded, and the children placed upon the baggage. The
Negro men, chained together, were placed in the middle of each
caravan, and the women were grouped eight or ten together, and guarded
by a man with a whip. The signal was given, and the great combined
caravans, consisting in all of about 6,000 slaves and 7,500 camels,
started on their homeward march.
But suddenly there was a mighty noise of crying and groaning, of
calling at each other and bidding farewell to friends. Some were so
overcome at the fear of being eaten that they rolled upon the ground
and absolutely refused to walk. Nothing could persuade them to get up
until a guard came along with his great whip which brought blood at
each lash. As the great army passed through the gate of the city, an
officer of the Sultan examined every slave to be sure none was a
Fellatah, Mohammedan, or Jew. The Ghat caravan happened to have among
its slaves a Fellatah, who was at once discovered and set free. At
the first camp, says Daumas, "Each caravan established its bivouac
separately, and as soon as the camels were crouched, and after having
chained our Negro women by the feet and in groups of eight or ten, we
forced our Negro men to aid us, with the left hand which we had left
free, to unload our baggage, to arrange it in a circle and to stretch
in the center the tents which we had brought from Katsena. Two or
three of the oldest women that we had not put in chains, but who had
always had their two feet fettered, were directed to prepare our
supper. We ate in groups of four. This sad supper over, we placed the
guards around our camp, and made the slave women and men sleep as
before said."[12]
The next day the caravans were obliged to stop in consequence of a
Negro woman who gave birth to a child. This stop, however, was not
very lengthy. In a few hours she and her infant were placed upon a
camel and the caravan went forward. When the camp was pitched for the
next night, the leader, in making his rounds, ordered that the young
Negro mother be left unshackled, and that she be given some meat for
supper and allowed to sleep warmly upon a mat. But during the night,
when everything was quiet, the mother put her infant in a basket
filled with ostrich feathers, placed it upon her head, and made her
escape.
Next morning, upon discovering her flight, several bands of men were
sent out in different directions to find her. One of these, after a
few hours of search, found her in a thicket nursing her child. She was
led back to the camp, and two gun-shots recalled the other bands, and
the caravans then resumed their march. The caravans stopped at
Aghezeur to replenish their provisions and make repairs; and up to
that time none of the people had died, and only one camel was lost.
After a month's traveling they reached "Ogla d'Assaoua," which was a
rendezvous for all the marauding bands that returned from the Sudan.
It was particularly dangerous for the reason that it was the point at
which groups of caravans divided and proceeded in different directions
across the desert, and some of the independent caravans had to pass
near the Tuareg nomads.
"None of our slaves," says Daumas, "I am sure, will ever forget this
stop, for it was there that they were for the first time given their
liberty after being in irons a month. The men and women danced all day
after the fashion of their own country, until they fell prostrated
with heat and fatigue. Even those whose legs and necks had been made
sore from the chains took an active part in this fatiguing exercise,
and all came to kiss our hands and to prostrate themselves at our feet
and to sprinkle them with sand. We were careful not to interrupt this
feast of good augury. It was the first proof to us that they had at
last accepted their lot, and we had no longer to fear they would dream
of escaping as they were so far from the Sudan and in the very middle
of the desert.... From that day all were sincerely attached to us, and
our joy was not less than theirs, for the continued watch which had
been imposed upon us had been frightfully fatiguing. They helped us to
load and unload our camels, to guide them en route, to stretch our
tents, and to bring wood and water, labors which we alone had
performed for a month. Finally we could lie down and sleep in
peace."[13] At an early hour the next morning the tents were folded
and the several caravans parted company. One went eastward through
Ghat to Ghedames, accompanied as far as Ghat by another whose wares
were sold in Fezzan and to other caravans coming from Murzuk. Another
went eastward directly to Fezzan, where its merchandise was to be
distributed to points in Tunis, Tripoli and Egypt. Daumas and his
companion caravan of Tuat struck out to the northwest for the oasis of
Tuat.
Two thirds of the camels bought by Daumas in the Sudan died before he
reached "Isalab" (Ain Salah?), as they could not stand the hardship of
the journey, especially the chilly and damp nights of the desert.
Arriving at Metlily the Arab merchants repaired to a mosque and
thanked God for His protection.
III. REGION OF NORTHWEST AFRICA AND THE DESERT OF SAHARA. HARDSHIP OF
THE DESERT ROUTE
In 1850 Barth estimated the number of slaves carried across the desert
from Kuka at 5,000 per annum, and in 1865 Rohlfs estimated the number
at 10,000. A British Blue Book of 1873 estimated that the Mohammedan
States of North Africa absorbed annually one million slaves.
The mortality in crossing the desert was frightful. Denham saw near a
well in the Tibbu country 100 skeletons of Negroes who had perished
from hunger and thirst. In his travels he saw a skeleton every few
miles, and for several days he passed from sixty to ninety skeletons
per day. Sometimes a whole caravan perished, consisting of as many as
2,000 persons and 1,800 camels. The Negroes composing the caravans
often had to walk and carry heavy loads. Rohlfs says that if one did
not know the route of their pilgrimage he could find the way by the
bones that lie to the right and left of the path. When he was passing
through Murzuk in 1865, he gave medical aid to a slave dealer who was
very ill, and, in compensation, received a boy about seven or eight
years old. The boy had traveled four months across the desert from
Lake Chad. He knew nothing of his home country, had even forgotten his
mother tongue, and could jabber only some fragments of speech picked
up from the other slaves of the caravan. As a result of the long
journey he was emaciated to a skeleton and so enfeebled that he could
scarcely stand up. He crawled on all fours and kissed the hand of his
new master, and the first words he uttered were "I am hungry." The boy
prospered and followed Rohlfs to Berlin. Thomson, in his travels,
mentions having met a caravan of forty slave-girls crossing the Atlas
Mountains on its way to Marocco. "A few were on camel-back, but most
of them trudged on foot, their appearance telling of the frightful
hardships of the desert route. Hardly a rag covered their swarthy
forms." Marocco used to be the destination of most of the slaves
transported across the desert. About twenty-five years ago the center
of the traffic in that state was Sidi Hamed ibu Musa, seven days
journey south of Mogador where a great yearly festival was held. The
slaves were forwarded thence in gangs to different towns, especially
to Marocco City, and Mequinez. Writing in 1897, Vincent says the slave
trade is as active as ever at Mequinez and Marocco City. The slaves
were sold on Fridays in the public markets of the interior, but never
publicly at any of the seaports, owing to the adverse European
influence. There is a large traffic at Fez, but Marocco City is the
great mart for them, where one may see frequently men, women and
children sold at one time. Marakesh was once a chief market in
Marocco. In 1892 a caravan from Timbuktu reached that city with no
less than 4,000 slaves, chiefly boys and girls whose price ranged from
ten to fourteen pounds per head. As many as 800 were sold there within
ten days to buyers from Riff, Tafilett and other remote parts of the
empire. A writer in the _Anti-slavery Reporter_, December, 1895, said:
"Few people know the true state of affairs in Marocco; only those who
live in daily touch with the common life of the people really get to
understand the pernicious and soul-destroying system of human
flesh-traffic as carried on in the public markets of the interior.
Having resided and traveled extensively in Marocco for some seven
years, I feel constrained to bear witness against the whole gang of
Arab slave-raiders and buyers of poor little innocent boys and girls.
"When I first settled in Marocco I met those who denied the existence
of slave-markets but since that time I have seen children, some of
whom were of tender years, as well as very pretty young women, openly
sold in the city of Marocco, and in the towns along the Atlantic
seaboard. It is also of very frequent occurrence to see slaves sold in
Fez, the capital of Northern Marocco.
"The first slave-girls that I actually saw being sold were of various
ages. They had just arrived from the Soudan, a distance by camel,
perhaps, of forty days' journey. Two swarthy-looking men were in
charge of them. The timid little creatures, mute as touching Arabic,
for they had not yet learned to speak in that tongue, were pushed out
by their captors from a horribly dark and noisome dungeon into which
they had been thrust the night before. Then, separately, or two by
two, they were paraded up and down before the public gaze, being
stopped now and again by some of the spectators and examined exactly
as a horse dealer would examine the points of a horse before buying
the animal at any of the public horse-marts in England. The sight was
sickening. Some of the girls were terrified, others were silent and
sad. Every movement was watched by the captives, anxious to know their
present fate. My own face blushed with anger as I stood helpless by
and saw those sweet, dark-skinned, wooly-headed Soudanese sold into
slavery.
"Our hearts have ached as we have heard from time to time from the
lips of slaves of the indescribable horrors of the journeys across
desert plains, cramped in pain, parched with thirst, and suffocated in
panniers, their food a handful of maize. Again, we have sickened at
the sight of murdered corpses, left by the wayside to the vulture and
the burning rays of the African sun, and we have prayed, perhaps as
never before, to the God of justice to stop these cruel practices."
Tunis and Algiers have also been great receptacles for the slaves of
the Sudan. Describing the slave market at Tunis, Vincent says that it
is a courtyard surrounded by arcades, the pillars of which are all of
the old Roman fabrication. Around the court are little chambers or
cells in which the slaves are kept, the men below, the women in the
story above.
According to the statement of Barard, in 1906, Negro slavery is still
prevalent throughout Marocco, and Negro women still populate the
harems. "In the towns and plains, the present generations are pretty
strongly colored by their infusion of black blood. But the
mountainous tribes who represent three fourths of a Maroccan
population have kept themselves almost free from mixture; white or
blond, they always resemble, by the color of their skin or texture of
hair, the Europeans of Germany or France rather than the
Mediterraneans of Spain and Italy." In Tunis the open sale of slaves
is pretty well suppressed, but in a modified form the trade continues.
Vivian says: "By resorting to fictitious marriages, and other
subterfuges, the owner of a harem may procure as many slaves as he
pleases, and, once he has got them into his house, no one can possibly
interfere to release them. Slaves can, of course, escape and claim
protection from the Consulates, but, as a matter of fact, they are
generally quite contented with their position and know that such
action would only involve them in ruin." In all of the Barbary States
the slave trade is at the present time under prohibition, although it
has not been effectively suppressed in any of them. According to a
recent statement in the _Anti-slavery Reporter_, "a sale of slaves
among which some white women and children were included, took place in
a Fondak (an enclosure for accommodation of travelers and animals) in
Tangier in April last (1906) and the sale was reported in a local
newspaper, _Al Moghreb Al Aksa_." In July of the same year it was
reported that a young black girl had been brought to the city and sold
as a slave. The sultan had issued orders to the customs officers and
at the various ports to prevent the transport of slaves by sea, and in
event of any person discovered to be bringing slaves by sea, to punish
him and free the slaves in his possession.
In July, 1906, the Anti-slavery Society of Italy published the
particulars of a Turkish ship which left the port of Bengazi (Tripoli)
for Constantinople with six slaves on board. Through the activity of
the Society's agent the vessel was boarded and the slaves liberated.
Within the last decade the traffic in slaves across the desert has
been limited to routes between the Niger and Marocco, and between Kuka
and Tripoli. At the present time there are probably no regular slave
routes across the desert. Owing to the activity of European consuls in
Northwest Africa caravans have a precarious existence and no safe
markets.
"Only a few years ago," says the _Anti-slavery Reporter_, "Timbuctu,
the famous trade metropolis of Central Africa, was also the most
active center of the slave trade. French occupation (1894) has put an
end to that traffic, and it is extending the _pax Gallica_ throughout
the vast and fertile territory of the Niger where formerly anarchy and
brutality reigned."[14]