Document 1

Olaudah Equiano, from Nigeria, was just 11 years old when he was kidnapped into slavery. He was held captive in W. Africa for seven months and then sold to British slavers, who shipped him to Barbados and then Virginia. In 1766, he purchased his freedom and went on to be eloquent spokesman against slavery.

1789

[I led a happy, spoiled childhood in which my parents took great effort to educate me toward being a young man and warrior of character.] In this way I grew up till I was turned the age of eleven, when an end was put to my happiness in the following manner:

- - Generally, when the grown people in the neighborhood were gone far in the fields to labor, the children assembled together in some of the neighborhood's premises to play; and commonly some of us used to get up a tree to look out for any assailant, or kidnapper, that might come upon us; for they sometimes took those opportunities of our parents' absence, to attack and carry off as many as they could seize. One day, as I was watching at the top of a tree in our yard, I saw one of those people come into the yard of our next neighbor… Immediately, on this, I gave the alarm of the rogue, and he was surrounded by the stoutest of them, who entangled him with cords, so that he could not escape till some of the grown people came and secured him.

But alas! Ere long, it was my fate to be thus attacked, and to be carried off, when none of the grown people were nigh. One day, when all our people were gone out to their works as usual, and only I and my dear sister were left to mind the house, two men and a woman got over our walls, and in a moment seized us both; and, without giving us time to cry out, or make resistance, they stopped our mouths, and ran off with us into the nearest wood. Here they tied our hands, and continued to carry us as far as they could, till night came on, when we reached a small house, where the robbers halted for refreshment, and spent the night. We were then unbound; but were unable to take any food; and, being quite overpowered by fatigue and grief, our only relief was some sleep, which allayed our misfortune for a short time.

Document 2

Confronting the Legacy of the Slave Trade

Historically, West Africa is associated with the slave, gold and ivory trades, perhaps most often the former. The historical roots of racial discrimination in the United States today can be traced back to North American slavery and the kidnapping of more than 20 million Africans. It is easily assumed, therefore, that the African slave trade pit brutal, gun-wielding European slave traders against unsuspecting, passive African victims. While the Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, English and French slave traders were often brutal, they were not always working alone -- many Africans were also complicit in this victimization.

When Europeans first initiated a trading relationship with West Africans in the mid-15th century they encountered highly-developed political organizations and well-established kingdoms. As a result, European military technology was not effective enough at this time to allow them this access by means of force on a consistent basis until the 19th century. Therefore it was most often Africans who controlled the means trade. In fact, Europeans often acted as junior partners to African rulers, merchants, and middlemen in the slave trade along the West African coast from the mid-15th century on. European commerce in West Africa took place most often on ships anchored well away from shore and dependent on skilled African canoe-men whose ability to negotiate the hazardous coastal waters between the mainland and the waiting ships made the Atlantic trade possible. Furthermore, even in places where Europeans were able to conduct trade on the mainland, their presence was impeded by malaria, dysentery, and yellow fever. In this environment, European merchants were rarely in a position to call the shots.

It is important to distinguish between European slavery and African slavery however. Domestic slave ownership as well as slave trades in western Africa preceded the Atlantic slave trade. Enslavement was most often a byproduct of local warfare or kidnapping, and in most cases, slavery in Africa was more like indentured servitude in that the slaves retained some rights, children born to slaves were generally born free, and slaves could be released from servitude. Moreover, caravan routes had long linked sub-Saharan African peoples with the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern worlds making slavery an established institution in West Africa before European traders arrived. Yet in contrast, European slaves were chattel, or property, who were stripped of their rights and treated extremely brutally. Once in European hands, Africans faced being shackled with six hundred others aboard slave ships bound for the Americas. Space on the ships was so limiting that Africans on the slave decks could not sit up or roll over to move. Faced with such dire circumstances, many slaves chose to jump into the depths of the ocean rather than continue the voyage. Once in the Americas, the cycle of slavery was perpetual.

The historical reality of Africans’ role in the slave trade, however, neither justifies today's lingering racial problems nor minimizes their seriousness. Fifteenth-century Africa was not a homogenous group of people. Pre-colonial empires of West Africa, such as Dahomey and Ashanti, accumulated enormous wealth and power as a result of trading their rivals, their enemies, and their poor into enslavement. Class, language, religion, gender, and ethnicity divided Africans, and it was along these lines that certain Africans participated in the slave trade. Understanding the dynamics of African involvement in the slave trade is important in understanding Africans as historically diverse human beings, but this understanding should not detract from the horrors of the slave trade.

Document 3

When the European powers ‘scrambled' for parts of Africa in the late 1800s, a common device for securing territories was by so-called 'treaty', often a ready-made blank document carried by colonial agents presented to local rulers for signing. The following is such a document.

Sample: Great Britain – Royal Niger Company Treaty

·  We, the undersigned Chiefs of ...... , with the view of bettering the condition of our country and people, do this day cede to the Royal Niger Company, forever, the whole of our territory extending from ...... to………………..

·  We understand that the said Royal Niger Company have full power to mine, farm, and build in any portion of our country.

·  We bind ourselves not to have any transactions or communications with any strangers or foreigners except through the said Royal Niger Company.

·  We also give to the said Royal Niger Company full power to settle all disputes.

·  In consideration of the foregoing, the said Royal Niger Company bind themselves not to interfere with any of the native laws or customs of the country.

·  The said Royal Niger Company agree to pay native owners of land a reasonable amount for any portion they may require.

·  The said Royal Niger Company bind themselves to protect the said Chiefs from the attacks of any neighboring aggressive tribes.

·  We, the undersigned witnesses, do hereby solemnly declare that the ...... Chiefs whose names are placed opposite their respective crosses have in our presence affixed their crosses of their own free will and consent.

Done in triplicate at ...... this ...... day of ...... , 188…

Declaration by Interpreter: I, ...... of ...... , do hereby solemnly declare that I am well acquainted with the language of the ...... country, and that I truly and faithfully explained the above agreement to all the Chiefs present, and that they understood its meaning.

Document 4

The following petition was sent by the Brass King Ockiya on behalf of himself and 27 other chiefs to the former British Colonial Secretary. Brass was a native African enclave in the River Niger delta whose people had dealt with British trading firms for decades. They were the suppliers of the valued palm oil resources which they collected in the hinterland. By the 1850's, however, the increasing profit-seeking activity of British traders (anxious to by-pass the monopoly held by African middleman) along the Lower Niger River, created tremendous friction and, often, violence between the two groups. Conditions got worse over the following decades leading to the gradual destruction of the economy of Brass.

1877, Petition of the Chiefs of Brass Regarding Trade on the Niger

We, the undersigned Kings and Chiefs of Brass, West Coast of Africa, beg and pray that you will take our case into consideration. Many years ago we used to make our living by selling slaves to Europeans which was stopped by your Government and a Treaty made to enter into a more legitimate trade… This we did and our trade gradually increased. We shipped ... about 4,500 to 5,000 tons of palm oil annually. To do all this we had to open up place[s] on the Niger, trading stations or markets as we call them… Some years ago the White men began trading on the Niger with the intention of opening up this River; th is did us no harm as they went up a long way farther than we could go… and also bought a different kind of produce… but lately within the last six years they have begun putting trading stations at our places and consequently they have stopped our trade completely… Formerly when we sent nearly 5,000 tons of [palm] oil away we [now] send 1,500 annually. This means starvation to my people as well as natives of the Niger under my rule. I have about 8,ooo people, and there are another 8,ooo in the lower part of the Niger suffering with me. It is very hard this on us; in all the other rivers in the Bight . . . the markets are secured to them and why should a difference be made for this my river. We have no land where we can grow plantains or yams and if we cannot trade we must starve, and we earnestly beg and pray that you will take our case into consideration. We do not want anything that is not fair, we only want the markets that we and our money have made to be secured to us and that the white men who have had nothing to do with opening up the palm oil trade shall not come and reap all our benefits.

Document 5

The colonial regime of the Belgian King Leopold II--the Congo Free State-- became one of the more infamous international scandals of the turn of the century. By the mid-1890s the Congo Basin and its products became a source of great wealth to Leopold who used his riches to beautify his Belgian capital Brussels while using his agents in Africa to establish a brutal exploitative regime for the extraction of rubber in the interior forest regions of the Free State. Knowledge of what was taking place in the Congo was kept to a minimum, but inevitably the truth of natives were being willfully exploited and brutally treated in the interests of amassing revenue for the King and his agents leaked out. Below is an excerpt of an investigative report by a British official, after all European governments “[bound] themselves to watch over the preservation of the native tribes and to care for their moral and material welfare” during the Berlin Conference.

The Administration of the Congo Free State - 1904

I have the honor to submit my Report on my recent journey on the Upper Congo.

. . . the region visited was one of the most central in the Congo State . . Moreover, I was enabled, by visiting this district, to contrast its present state with the condition in which I had known it some sixteen years ago . . and I was thus able to institute a comparison between a state of affairs I had myself seen when the natives loved their own savage lives in anarchic and disorderly communities, uncontrolled by Europeans, and that created by more than a decade of very energetic European intervention…

A railway, excellently constructed in view of the difficulties to be encountered, now connects the ocean ports [to the interior], over a tract of difficult country . . . Communities I had formerly known as large and flourishing centers of population are to-day entirely gone . . .

The natives of the districts are forced to provide a fixed quantity of food each week… which is a tax levied on all the surrounding villages… This, however necessary, is not a welcome task to the native suppliers who complain that their numbers are yearly decreasing, while the demands made upon them remain fixed, or tend even to increase…The (official in charge) is forced to exercise continuous pressure on the local population, and within recent times that pressure has not always taken the form of mere requisition. Armed expeditions have been necessary… The result of an expedition, which took place towards the end of 1900, was that in fourteen small villages seventeen persons disappeared. Sixteen of these whose names were given to me were killed by the soldiers, and their bodies recovered by their friends…

…The people have not easily accommodated themselves to the altered condition of life brought about by European government in their midst. Where formerly they were accustomed to take long voyages down to Stanley Pool to sell slaves, ivory, dried fish, or other local products… they find themselves today debarred from all such activity… Complaints as to the manner of exacting service are… frequent… If the local official has to go on a sudden journey men are summoned on the instant to paddle his canoe, and a refusal entails imprisonment or a beating. If the Government plantation or the kitchen garden require weeding, a soldier will be sent to call in the women from some of the neighboring towns….; to the women suddenly forced to leave their household tasks and to tramp off, hoe in hand, baby on back, with possibly a hungry and angry husband at home, the task is not a welcome one.