Restitution
front page

What's new?

Archive front page

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2007

2006

2008

2009

the brittanica article is particularly interesting in showing that the tribal enslavers did sometimes follow the forms of law

so, a sound common law perspective would have recognized the original title to the slave as having been acquired under the law of the capturing African polity;

accordingly the north-american institution of slavery, so far from being an evil domestic creation simply reflected a respectful comity

Gordon Goldberg wrote:

The reference to Enc. Brit should have been to vol. 1, not 15. I beg your pardon for the error. Copied hereunder is information which a former colleague, Owain Blackwell, has given me:-

First, a quotation from an article entitled 'Black Ivory' by Charlotte and Denis Plimmer.

"To maintain a steady supply of slaves to the factories, the African chieftains used every means possible, from all-out war on neighbouring tribes to the kidnapping of isolated individuals. Francis Moore, a factor on the Gambia River, recorded how the King of Barsally, one of the 19 chiefs with whom he dealt, would from time to time send to the English fort for brandy or rum."

To pay for it, he "attacks enemy Towns, seizing the People and selling them .... In case he is not at War . . . he falls on one of his own Towns .... He often goes out with some of his Troops by a Town . . . and sets Fire to three parts of it, placing Guards at the fourth to seize the People that run out of the Fire, and ties their arms behind them . . . and sells them."

Initially, slaves were generally prisoners of war. But since periods of peace brought scarcity, rulers began to sell their own convicted felons, too.

Not surprisingly, felonies multiplied, both in number and kind. One tribesman was sold for stealing a tobacco pipe. Another, who accidentally killed a man while shooting at a leopard, was not only himself sold, but so were his mother, three brothers and three sisters. Royal wives could be sold if caught in adultery; so it became profitable for monarchs to marry scores of girls, leave them unhusbanded and count on their natural urges to turn them into adulteresses. Kings sometimes discovered "treasonous" plots and rounded up enormous numbers of "plotters" - invariable young, strong and, in slavers' terms, "prime meat."

A good illustration of the existence of the tribal slave trade and the importance of Somerset v. Stewart can be found in the case of Olaudah Equiano. I will not spoil the story, but rather ask you to contact http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1p276.html.