The Slave Route Project

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The Slave Route Project is a UNESCO initiative officially launched in 1994 in Ouidah, Benin. In studying the causes, the modalities and the consequences of slavery and the slave trade, the project seeks to enhance the understanding of diverse histories and heritages stemming from this global tragedy.

Contents

"Whipped Gordon", Harpers WhippedGordonHarpers.JPG
"Whipped Gordon", Harpers

Objectives and main themes

The Slave Route Project [1] is a highly ambitious initiative with its sights set resolutely on the future, to the extent that it contributes in the long term to enhancing mutual understanding and intercultural dialogue. The challenge of 'living together' in our multicultural societies implies recognition of each person’s history and memory, and at the same time the sharing of a common heritage, in order to transcend past tragedies. [2]

The concept of a route seeks to reflect the dynamics of the movement of peoples, civilizations and cultures. The concept of slave focuses on the universal phenomenon of slavery, and in particular, the transatlantic, Indian Ocean and Trans Saharan slave trades. [1] [3]

The Slave Route

The Slave Trade by Auguste Francois Biard The Slave Trade by Auguste Francois Biard.jpg
The Slave Trade by Auguste Francois Biard

Transatlantic trade

Trade in the Indian Ocean

On the UN day for remembrance of the slave trade, it is worth highlighting the abominable 17th-century Dutch practice of shipping “human cargo” around the Indian Ocean rim. The slave trade is said to be among the oldest trades in the world but that it was practised by the Dutch, during their sojourn at Pulicat in Tamil Nadu, from 1609 to 1690, may be news to many. Textiles and slaves were the most profiteering "merchandise" exported by the Dutch at Pulicat to their Indian Ocean trade headquarters at Batavia (Jakarta), in exchange for rare spices like nutmeg and mace. Slaves were sought for spice and other cash crop plantations in Batavia and also to work as domestic helps for Dutch masters. Hence, only those in the age group of eight to 20 were preferred for “export” from Pulicat, the nodal port on the Coromandel Coast.

Procuring slaves

On the Coromandel Coast, the Dutch had two means of procuring slaves: either purchasing them from their parents during natural calamities like droughts, poor harvests and famines, or capturing them during cultural calamities like invasions. During calamities the price of a slave child was 3/4 pagoda (four guilders), whereas in times of good harvest, the price was 14-16 pagodas (27-40 guilders), which the Dutch traders said was "uneconomic". The Indian agents of the Dutch often kidnapped passersby in the market place, so that local youth were mortally afraid of frequenting public places in Pulicat and even ran away to the nearby forests. Between 1621 and 1665, 131 slave ships were deployed by the Dutch to export 38,441 slaves to Batavia from Pulicat. Apart from the annual quota of about 200-300 slaves, waves of mass exports took place during calamities. For instance, 1,900 slaves were sent from Pulicat and Devanampatnam (near Cuddalore) during the 1622-23 famine, and 1,839 slaves were sent from Madura during the drought of 1673–77 to Batavia. Small boys and girls from Thanjavur were sent to Ceylon, Batavia and Malacca. Finally, between 1694 and 1696, from Thanjavur, 3,859 slaves were sent to Ceylon. Invasion by the Bijapur sultan during 1618-20 saw 2,118 slaves from Thanjavur, Senji (Gingee), Madura, Tondi, Adirampatnam, Kayalpatnam (near Tuticorin), Nagapatnam and Pulicat exported to Ceylon, Batavia and Malacca.

Rebellion

Slaves were huddled together in poorly ventilated slave ships and were sanctioned a daily ration of uncooked rice to eat with sea water. One-third or even half of such shipments of “pieces of human cargo”, as the Dutch called them, died in transit due to dehydration, gastro-intestinal problems and epidemics. Dutch physicians on board were not familiar with tropical diseases. Amputations, if needed during the voyage, were done by sawing off the limbs on a wooden peg on deck, and most such cases ended in death due to sepsis. After reaching their destination, rebellions and mutinies by slaves did occur. Some slaves ran away into the forests or by local country craft to abandoned islands and died there due to starvation.

Portuguese predecessors

The Portuguese on the west coast of India were the European pioneers in slave trade during the late 15th century. They migrated to Pulicat on the east coast in 1502, a 100 years before the arrival of the Dutch. At Pulicat, the Portuguese constructed two churches in Madha Kuppam which still exist. They converted local people to Catholicism and educated them through the Portuguese language. Indian slaves lodged in the eastern suburbs of Batavia, called Mardijkers, were said to be Portuguese speaking Catholics, betraying their Pulicat origins. The Portuguese, who converted and educated them, would not have exported them as slaves and it was the Dutch in later days that exported them. However, Portuguese traders (chatins), in collaboration with the Magh pirates from Arakan (Burma), used armed vessels (galias) to capture Bengali slaves from the Chittagong (Bangladesh) estuaries and exported them to Batavia. End of the tradeFrom the mid-18th to the mid-19th centuries, a great many stalwarts in England campaigned against slave trade. Chief among them were the poet William Cowper (1731–1800); ex-slave Olaudah Equiano (1745–1797) from Nigeria; John Newton (1725–1807), former slave trader turned Anglican clergy and author of the popular hymn "Amazing Grace"; British MP William Wilberforce (1759–1833); and John Wesley (1703–1791), founder of the Methodist Christian Mission. Cowper wrote in 1785: "We have no slaves at home — Then why abroad? Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs receive our air, that moment they are free. They touch our country, and their shackles fall. That’s noble, and bespeaks a nation proud. And jealous of the blessing. Spread it then, And, let it circulate through every vein.” In his stirring poem written in 1788, entitled “The Negro’s Complaint", he appeals: "Is there, as ye sometimes tell us, Is there One who reigns on high? Has He bid you buy and sell us; Speaking from his throne, the sky?" The trans-Atlantic slave trade by the Dutch from Africa to Europe and to the New World was much larger and much researched on, than their Indian Ocean slave trade from Pulicat to Batavia and Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Today, on the UN's International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition, we would do well to condemn this abominable episode in history and use the occasion to renounce bonded labour, and all kinds of inhuman subjugations practised even today.

Significant results have been achieved through the programme developed in collaboration with UNESCO that identified and catalogued oral heritages.

Trade in the Arab-Muslim world

Resistances and abolitions

Golden law 1888 Brazilian senate Golden law 1888 Brazilian senate.jpg
Golden law 1888 Brazilian senate

Commemorations

Such implications include racism, racial discrimination, intolerance, and also modern forms of slavery, exploitation and human bondage.

Such commemorative days include:

Modern forms of slavery

Pedagogical initiatives

Slavery sites around the Atlantic

UNESCO with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, have created and maintains the "Slavery and Remembrance" project to "engage[] the public as well as experts with issues relating to slavery, slave trade, and ways in which both are remembered today throughout the Atlantic world." The following historic sites, memorials, and organizations related to the history of Atlantic slavery, include: [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slavery</span> Ownership of people as property

Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavement is the placement of a person into slavery, and the person is called a slave or an enslaved person.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abolitionism</span> Movement to end slavery

Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery and liberate enslaved individuals around the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atlantic slave trade</span>

The Atlantic slave trade or transatlantic slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people to the Americas. European slave ships regularly used the triangular trade route and its Middle Passage. Europeans established a coastal slave trade in the 15th century and trade to the Americas began in the 16th century, lasting through the 19th century. The vast majority of those who were transported in the transatlantic slave trade were from Central Africa and West Africa and had been sold by West African slave traders to European slave traders, while others had been captured directly by the slave traders in coastal raids. European slave traders gathered and imprisoned the enslaved at forts on the African coast and then brought them to the Americas. Some Portuguese and Europeans participated in slave raids. As the National Museums Liverpool explains: "European traders captured some Africans in raids along the coast, but bought most of them from local African or African-European dealers." Many European slave traders generally did not participate in slave raids because life expectancy for Europeans in sub-Saharan Africa was less than one year during the period of the slave trade because of malaria that was endemic in the African continent. An article from PBS explains: "Malaria, dysentery, yellow fever, and other diseases reduced the few Europeans living and trading along the West African coast to a chronic state of ill health and earned Africa the name 'white man's grave.' In this environment, European merchants were rarely in a position to call the shots." The earliest known use of the phrase began in the 1830s, and the earliest written evidence was found in an 1836 published book by F. H. Rankin. Portuguese coastal raiders found that slave raiding was too costly and often ineffective and opted for established commercial relations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Triangular trade</span> Trade among three ports or regions

Triangular trade or triangle trade is trade between three ports or regions. Triangular trade usually evolves when a region has export commodities that are not required in the region from which its major imports come. It has been used to offset trade imbalances between different regions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pulicat</span> Town in Tamil Nadu, India

Pulicat or Pazhaverkadu is a historic seashore town in Chennai Metropolitan Area at Thiruvallur District, of Tamil Nadu state, India. It is about 60 kilometres (37 mi) north of Chennai and 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) from Elavur, on the southern periphery of the Pulicat Lake. Pulicat lake is a shallow salt water lagoon which stretches about 60 kilometres (37 mi) along the coast. With lakeside and seashore development as well as several Special Economic Zones (SEZs) including a US$1 billion Medical SEZ, coming up in nearby Elavur, land prices in the area are rising.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sugar plantations in the Caribbean</span> Mainly in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries

Sugar plantations in the Caribbean were a major part of the economy of the islands in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. Most Caribbean islands were covered with sugar cane fields and mills for refining the crop. The main source of labor, until the abolition of chattel slavery, was enslaved Africans. After the abolition of slavery, indentured laborers from India, China, Portugal and other places were brought to the Caribbean to work in the sugar industry. These plantations produced 80 to 90 percent of the sugar consumed in Western Europe, later supplanted by European-grown sugar beet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slave Coast of West Africa</span> Historical name of a region in West Africa

The Slave Coast is a historical region along the Atlantic coast of West Africa, encompassing parts of modern-day Togo, Benin, and Nigeria. It is located along the Bight of Biafra and the Bight of Benin that is located between the Volta River and the Lagos Lagoon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slavery in the British and French Caribbean</span>

Slavery in the British and French Caribbean refers to slavery in the parts of the Caribbean dominated by France or the British Empire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of slavery</span>

The history of slavery spans many cultures, nationalities, and religions from ancient times to the present day. Likewise, its victims have come from many different ethnicities and religious groups. The social, economic, and legal positions of slaves have differed vastly in different systems of slavery in different times and places.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Slavery Museum</span> Museum in Liverpool, England

The International Slavery Museum is a museum located in Liverpool, UK, that focuses on the history and legacy of the transatlantic slave trade. The museum, which forms part of the Merseyside Maritime Museum, consists of three main galleries which focus on the lives of people in West Africa, their eventual enslavement, and their continued fight for freedom. Additionally the museum discusses slavery in the modern day as well as topics on racism and discrimination.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bristol slave trade</span>

Bristol, a port city in the South West of England, on the banks of the River Avon, has been an important location for maritime trade for centuries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slavery in Africa</span> Historical slavery in Africa

Slavery has historically been widespread in Africa. Systems of servitude and slavery were once commonplace in parts of Africa, as they were in much of the rest of the ancient and medieval world. When the trans-Saharan slave trade, Red Sea slave trade, Indian Ocean slave trade and Atlantic slave trade began, many of the pre-existing local African slave systems began supplying captives for slave markets outside Africa. Slavery in contemporary Africa is still practised in some parts despite it being illegal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slavery in India</span>

The Early History of slavery in the Indian subcontinent is contested because it depends on the translations of terms such as dasa and dasyu. Greek writer Megasthenes, in his 4th century BCE work Indika or Indica, states that slavery was banned within the Maurya Empire, while the multilingual, mid 3rd Century BCE, Edicts of Ashoka independently identify obligations to slaves and hired workers, within the same Empire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition</span> International observance

The International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition is an international day celebrated 23 August of each year, the day designated by UNESCO to memorialize the transatlantic slave trade.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slavery in Cuba</span>

Slavery in Cuba was a portion of the larger Atlantic slave trade that primarily supported Spanish plantation owners engaged in the sugarcane trade. It was practiced on the island of Cuba from the 16th century until it was abolished by Spanish royal decree on October 7, 1886.

The United Nations General Assembly declared the year 2011 as International Year for People of African Descent. That year also marked the 10th anniversary of the World Conference Against Racism, which approved a resolution stating that slavery along with the colonization that sustained it were crimes against humanity.

International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade is a United Nations international observance designated in 2007 to be marked on 25 March every year.

In May 2016, President Francois Hollande announced the formation of a foundation to erect a national slavery and Atlantic slave trade memorial and museum in Paris, France. Identifying the memorial and museum's purpose, Hollande said, “I wish to give to France an institution it still lacks, a foundation for the memory of the slave trade, slavery and its abolition”.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carlota (rebel leader)</span>

Carlota Lucumí, also known as La Negra Carlota was an African-born enslaved Cuban woman of Yoruba origin. Carlota, alongside fellow enslaved Lucumí Ferminia, was known as a leader of the slave rebellion at the Triunvirato plantation in Matanzas, Cuba during the Year of the Lash in 1843–1844. Together with Ferminia Lucumí, Carlota led the slave uprising of the sugar mill "Triunvirato" in the province of Matanzas, Cuba on November 5, 1843.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indian Ocean slave trade</span>

The Indian Ocean slave trade, sometimes known as the East African slave trade, involved the capture and transportation of predominately black African slaves along the coasts, such as the Swahili Coast and the Horn of Africa, and through the Indian Ocean. The areas impacted included East Africa, Southern Arabia, the west coast of India, Indian ocean islands and southeast Asia including Java.

References

[8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19]

  1. 1 2 "Slave Route - United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization". www.unesco.org. 3 April 2020.
  2. ↑ "Message from Ms Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO, on the occasion of the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition, 23 August 2010.
  3. ↑ "The Transatlantic Slave Trade": Culture, UNESCO.
  4. ↑ "Document officiel des Nations Unies". www.un.org.
  5. ↑ "Records of the General Conference, 29th session, Paris, 21 October to 12 November 1997, v. 1: Resolutions". UNESDOC, UNESCO Digital Library.
  6. ↑ "International Year for People of African Descent 2011". www.un.org.
  7. ↑ "About - Slavery and Remembrance". slaveryandremembrance.org.
  8. ↑ "Struggles against slavery: International Year to Commemorate the Struggle against Slavery and its Abolition", p. 12. UNESDOC, UNESCO Digital Library.
  9. ↑ "Tromelin - Les Esclaves oubliés". 21 September 2004. Archived from the original on 21 September 2004.
  10. ↑ "Trade in the Indian Ocean", The Slave Route Project, UNESCO.
  11. ↑ "Struggles against slavery: International Year to Commemorate the Struggle against Slavery and its Abolition", p. 9. UNESDOC, UNESCO Digital Library.
  12. ↑ United Nations, "Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children", Supplementing the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime, 2010.
  13. ↑ Giorgina Alfonso. "UNODC - Human Trafficking". www.unodc.org.
  14. ↑ "UNESCO Office in Bangkok: Trafficking and HIV/AIDS Project". www.unescobkk.org.[ dead link ]
  15. ↑ "Labour standards". www.ilo.org. 28 January 2024.
  16. ↑ "Child protection from violence, exploitation and abuse".
  17. ↑ "Welcome Page". www.ohchr.org. Archived from the original on 2 December 2007.
  18. ↑ "Transatlantic Slave Trade - Education - United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization". www.unesco.org.
  19. ↑ "Del olvido a la memoria | United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization". www.unesco.org. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
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