One of the departments of this society is the geography of life. At the
head of all life stands man: it is therefore within our province to
investigate those questions which more intimately concern and influence
his welfare.
Slavery and the slave-trade have, within the last two hundred years,
affected African life more than all other influences combined; and this
trade, with all its sinister effects, instead of diminishing, is ever
increasing. It has had a marked effect not only on the personal and
tribal characters of the inhabitants, but on their social organization,
and on the whole industrial and economic life of the country. It has
not only utterly destroyed many tribes, but it has made the condition
of the other tribes one of restless anarchy and insecurity. It has been
the great curse of Africa, and for its existence the nations of Europe
have been, and are, largely responsible. The temper and disposition of
the Negro make him a most useful slave. He can endure continuous hard
labor, live on little, has a cheerful disposition, and rarely rises
against his master.
There are two kinds of slavery,--home and foreign. The first has always
prevailed in Africa. Prisoners taken in war are sacrificed, eaten, or
made slaves. Slavery is also a punishment for certain offences, while
in some tribes men frequently sell themselves. These slaves are of the
same race and civilization as their masters. They are usually well
treated, regarded as members of the family, to whom a son or daughter
may be given in marriage, the master often preferring to keep his
daughter in the family to marrying her to a stranger. This slavery is a
national institution of native growth. It is said one half of the
inhabitants are slaves to the other half. The horrors of the
slave-trade are unknown in this kind of slavery.
In the other case the slave is torn from his home, carried to people,
countries, and climates with which he is unfamiliar, and to scenes and
civilization which are uncongenial, where his master is of a different
color and of another and higher civilization, where the master and
slave have nothing in common. The Spaniards made slaves of the Indians
of America, but they were incapable of work, unfitted for slavery, and
rapidly faded away. In pity for the Indians, the Africans were brought
to supply their places. Their ability to labor was proved, and they
were soon in great demand.
It is impossible to ascertain the number of slaves imported into
America. The estimates vary from 4,000,000 to 5,000,000. The larger
number is probably an underestimate; but these figures do not represent
the number shipped from Africa, for 12½ per cent. were lost on the
passage, one-third more in the "process of seasoning;" so that, out of
100 shipped from Africa, not more than 50 lived to be effective
laborers.
Livingstone, who studied the question of slavery most carefully,
estimated, that, for every slave exported, not less than five were
slain or perished, and that in some cases only one in ten lived to
reach America. If the lowest estimate is taken, then not less than
20,000,000 Negroes were taken prisoners or slain to furnish slaves to
America. No wonder that many parts of Africa were depopulated.
Though the slave-trade with America has been suppressed, thousands are
annually stolen and sold as slaves in Persia, Arabia, Turkey, and
central and northern Africa. Wherever Mohammedanism is the religion,
there slavery exists; and to supply the demand the slave-trade is
carried on more extensively and more cruelly to-day than at any
previous time. The great harvest-field for slaves is in Central Africa,
between 10° south and 10° north latitude. From this region caravans of
slaves are sent to ports on the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea, and
thence shipped to Indo-China, the Persian Gulf, Arabia, Turkey in Asia,
and even to Mesopotamia, wherever Mussulmans are found. The English at
Suakin are a constant hindrance to this traffic; and therefore Osman
Digna has so often within the past five years attacked Suakin, desiring
to hold it as a port from which to ship slaves to Arabia. Other
caravans are driven across the desert to Egypt, Morocco, and the
Barbary States. Portuguese slave-traders are found in Central Africa,
and, though contrary to law, deal in slaves, and own and work them in
large numbers. Cameron says that Alrez, a Portuguese trader, owned 500
slaves, and that to obtain them, ten villages, having each from 100 to
200 souls, were destroyed; and of those not taken, some perished in the
flames, others of want, or were killed by wild beasts. Cameron says, "I
do not hesitate to affirm that the worst Arabs are angels of mercy in
comparison to the Portuguese and their agents. If I had not seen it, I
could not believe that there could exist men so brutal and cruel, and
with such gayety of heart." Livingstone says, "I can consign most
disagreeable recollections to oblivion, but the slavery scenes come
back unbidden, and make me start up at night horrified by their
vividness."
If the chief or pacha of a tribe is called upon for tribute by his
superior, if he wishes to build a new palace, to furnish his harem, or
fill an empty treasury, he sends his soldiers, armed with guns and
ammunition, against a Negro tribe armed with bows and spears, and
captures slaves enough to supply his wants.
The territory from which slaves are captured is continually extending;
for, as soon as the European traveler has opened a new route into the
interior, he is followed by the Arab trader, who settles down,
cultivates the ground, buys ivory (each pair of tusks worth about $500
at Zanzibar or Cairo); invites others to come, and when they have
become acquainted with the country, and gathered large quantities of
ivory, and porters are wanted to carry the tusks to the coast, a
quarrel is instigated with the Negroes, war declared, captives
taken,--men for porters, women for the harem,--the villages are burned,
and the caravan of slaves and ivory takes its route to the coast, where
all are sold. We are told on good authority that during the past twenty
years more slaves have been sent out than formerly were exported in a
century. Wissmann tells us what he has seen:--
"In January, 1882, we started from our camp,--200 souls in
all,--following the road, sixty feet wide, to a region inhabited by the
Basonge, on the Sankuru and Lomami Rivers. The huts were about twenty
feet square, divided into two compartments, the furniture consisting of
cane and wooden stools; floor, ceiling, and walls covered with grass
mats. Between the huts were gardens, where tobacco, tomatoes,
pine-apples, and bananas were grown. The fields in the rear down to the
river were cultivated with sweet-potatoes, ground-nuts, sugar-cane,
manioc, and millet. Goats and sheep and fowls in abundance, homestead
follows homestead in never-ending succession. From half-past six in the
morning, we passed without a break through the street of the town until
eleven. When we left it, it then still extended far away to the
south-east. The finest specimens in my collection, such as open-work
battle-axes inlaid with copper, spears, and neat utensils, I found in
this village.
"Four years had gone by, when I once more found myself near this same
village. With joy we beheld the broad savannas, where we expected to
recruit our strength and provisions. We encamped near the town, and in
the morning approached its palm-groves. The paths were no longer clean,
no laughter was heard, no sign of welcome greeted us. The silence of
death breathes from the palm-trees, tall grass covers every thing, and
a few charred poles are the only evidence that man once dwelt there.
Bleached skulls by the roadside, and the skeletons of human hands
attached to the poles, tell the story. Many women had been carried off.
All who resisted were killed. The whole tribe had ceased to exist. The
slave-dealer was Sayol, lieutenant of Tippo-Tip."
Sir Samuel Baker was largely instrumental in the suppression of the
slave-trade, and, while the rule of the English and French in Egypt was
maintained, slavery was greatly diminished; but, since the defeat and
death of Gen. Gordon, the slave-trade has rapidly increased, and is now
carried on more actively than at any other time. The only obstacles to
this traffic are the presence of Emin Pacha at Wadelai, the English and
American missionaries, and English trading-stations on Lakes Victoria
Nyanza and Tanganyika.
The slave-traders unite in efforts to destroy Emin Pacha, and to expel
the missionaries and all European travelers and traders, except the
Portuguese, and for this purpose excite the hostility of the Negro
against the foreigner. In this they are aided by the Mahdi. The work of
the Mahdi is largely a missionary enterprise. The dervishes who
accompany his army are religious fanatics, and desire the overthrow of
the Christians and Emin Pacha as earnestly as the slave-trader.
Religious fanaticism is therefore united with the greed of the
slave-trader to drive out the Christians from the lake region.
Aroused by these reports, and influenced by these views, Cardinal
Lavigerie, for twenty years Bishop of Algiers and now Primate of
Africa, last summer started a new crusade in Belgium and Germany
against slavery and the slave-trade. The cardinal has organized
societies, and is raising a large fund to equip two armed steamships
for Lake Tanganyika and Lake Nyassa, the headquarters of the
slave-trade, and offers, if necessary, to head the band himself. The
Pope has engaged in the work, has contributed liberally to this fund,
and sent three hundred Catholic missionaries to Central Africa. The
slave-trade is carried on with arms and ammunition furnished by
European traders. Without these arms, the slave-trade could not be
successfully carried on, for the Negroes could defend themselves
against slave-traders armed like themselves. While the demand for
slaves continues, the slave-trade will exist, and will not cease until
the factories of European nations are planted in the interior of
Africa.