In Africa slavery existed well before the development of the Atlantic slave trade in the 15th century. Slaves were employed as field workers and house servants and conferred social prestige to their owners.
Three main types of slave trade can be distinguished according to the routes through which captives were traded:
Trans-Saharan
Trade Asian or Indian Ocean Slave Trade
Atlantic Slave Trade
TRANS-SAHARAN SLAVE TRADE
Foto di Lehnert & Landrock Kenny and Jenny Jacobson Orientalist Collection, The Getty Research Institute Digital Collections
Foto di George Washington Wilson Kenny and Jenny Jacobson Orientalist Collection, The Getty Research Institute Digital Collections
The Trans-Saharan slave trade developed following the Islamic conquest of North Africa in the 7th century and continued up to the early 20th century. Women and girls were the main victims of this trade since they were highly sought-after as concubines and house servants of wealthy families in North African cities.
According to the sharīʿa (Islamic law), a Muslim cannot enslave another Muslim. For this reason, North African traders crossed the Sahara desert to buy non-Muslim slaves in West Africa.
ASIAN OR INDIAN OCEAN SLAVE TRADE
The Asian slave trade developed in East and Central Africa from the 7th century to the 20th century. Although the number of slaves traded (12-13 million) can be compared to that of the Atlantic Slave Trade, the impact on African societies was less disruptive, since it was spread over 11 centuries, while the Atlantic slave trade over 4 centuries only.
The main victims of slave trade were women who were employed as house servants and concubines in Persia, the Arabian Peninsula and India. Male slaves were instead employed as pearl fishermen in the Persian Gulf, soldiers and sailors. Slave traders came mainly from the Arabian peninsula, while Europeans played a minor role in this slave trade.
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Princess Sayyida Salme bint Said, daughter of the Sultan of Zanzibar and one of his slaves, was born in 1844 and grew up in the sultan’s palace, where she taught herself to read and write. According to the Islamic law, the children of the owner and his concubines or slaves were born free and the mother could not be sold. Moreover, on their father’s death, children and their mothers were entitled to inheritance. Therefore, when her father died in 1856, Sayyida inherited a plantation and a substantial sum of money. A few years later, she inherited three more plantations from her mother. However, she subsequently renounced her inheritance to move to Germany with Adolph Ruete, a German merchant with whom she had fallen in love and whom she married in 1867. She also converted to Christianity and changed her name to Emily Ruete. In 1886 she published her memoirs in which she recounted her childhood and presented the reader with vivid descriptions of slavery in Zanzibar.
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Many of the slaves exported from East Africa were children, as shown in the list below drawn up by the officers of the ship HMS ‘Columbine’. After the abolition of slavery, the ship was used to patrol the waters of the Western Indian Ocean with the aim of intercepting vessels carrying slaves. ‘Freed’ slaves were transported to the British colony of Seychelles, where they were photographed and registered, to be then employed as ‘apprentices’ in local plantations for a period of time which could reach up to 14 years.
Name (which was often given by the crew of the ship), sex, mother’s name, age and height were indicated next to the photos of the freed slaves. In the photos of this page:
Sarah, 12 years old
Samuel, 4 years old
Salomon, 4 years old
Sophie, 10 years old
Sally, 8 years old
Tassy, 6 years old