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Book Review: The Atlantic Slave Trade (1999) H. Klein

                

Klein, Herbert.  The Atlantic Slave Trade. New York: Cambridge  University Press, 1999.

               In his 1999 book, The Atlantic Slave Trade, historian Herbert Klein gives readers an account of the history and workings of the slave trade that sent tremendous numbers of native Africans to the Western Hemisphere as property. In his writing, Klein attempts to de-mythologize a number of aspects surrounding the Atlantic slave trade. He feels the need to transform preconceived notions surrounding the subject that many have derived from popular culture; he presents seldom discussed facts along with heavy amounts of statistical data that are used to counter some of these popular notions. In many ways Klein’s account is enlightening, but in some cases his understatement of horrible experiences, such as the Middle Passage, tends to diminish the unmistakable brutality that slaves endured.

                One aspect of Klein’s writing that is particularly thought provoking is his assertion that Africans were not sought out for slave labor solely because of their race. Rather, it was the market conditions of the new world and the immense demand for labor there, more than anything else, which fueled the demand for slaves (Klein 18). Slaves were a significant part of a new ever-increasing global economy. Klein shows that there was a demand for Asian, American, and European goods in Africa, and slaves—although the practice would become notoriously significant later in history—were just one of the exports that Africa produced in order to get what they needed from the Europeans who regularly traversed the oceans. In many cases the Europeans had what the Africans needed, and in return, Europeans needed a massive amount of cheap labor which was provided to them by the Africans in the form of slaves. In this illustration Klein shows that Europeans obtained slaves from Africa for the sake of convenience and not solely based in the belief of racial superiority. This dispels a common assumption among many today, mainly Americans, who think this way because over time slavery did become an overtly racist practice; while the practice was seen in most of the world as archaic and barbaric it was practiced in America through the justification of the idea that Africans were lesser people.

    

    Additionally, there exists the idea that it was white Western Europeans who ruthlessly tore men, women, and children from their homeland and enslaved them. Klein illustrates that this notion is also mythical. In fact, he clarifies how Africans truly were enslaved as well as providing examples of numbers of ethnic groups that looked to Africa as a resource for slaves. In the first chapter of his book Klein states that slavery’s presence in the continent of Africa dates back to the beginning of recorded times (7). In addition to the prevalence of Africans having African slaves, Klein tells how the Islamic World engaged in the African slave trade through caravan routes a considerable amount of time prior to Europe’s involvement in the Atlantic slave trade (7-9). Although considerably later in time, another instance which discredits the idea that African slaves were used exclusively by white Western Europeans is the strong demand for slave labor called for by people of mixed European and Native American decent in Latin America.

                Klein further reveals lesser known facts in his book. Europeans, who have been demonized in modern times for practicing slavery, were purchasing slaves sold to them by Africans (103). It is because slavery had seemingly existed forever that it was not seen as detestable by Europeans or Africans. As one of the main points Klein’s book makes, the slave trade was not a matter of morality in its day but it first and foremost, it was an economic reality. As Europeans began to colonize the New World and Plantation Economies began to spring up, the demand for slave labor would skyrocket. This will be very beneficial to both colonists as well as African slave merchants. Free labor allowed colonists to make sizable profits on goods coming from the New World, while the high demand for slaves allowed Africans to get the prices and goods they wanted in exchange for them. It is not until the 19^th Century that the view of the practice slavery becomes something immoral, as a prevailing belief among Europeans. It was during this time that Britain, the United States, and eventually all European nations would end the practice of importing slaves from Africa. Klein points out that this would eventually lead to major social and economic problems for the people of Africa. After the exporting of slaves had dried up the continent had fairly insignificant amounts of other resources demanded by the former slave buyers. Furthermore, the termination of the slave trade meant a large supply of slaves within Africa at low prices, causing a dramatic increase in the practice of slavery on the continent of Africa. Klein concludes his narrative on how the slave trade affected Africa by saying: “Thus the end of the Atlantic slave trade did not bring an end to enslavement within Africa” (129).

               

                The problems presented by the end of the slave trade and the less well-known economic and social aspects of slavery contribute to the unique and unconventional picture that Klein paints, and his readers can take much away from this. However, if there is any feature of his writing that is questionable it is the depiction that he provides of the Middle Passage. Even by Klein’s understated account it seems considerably brutal when the reality of it is taken into full consideration. Klein argues that there are two reasons to see the Middle Passage as much less brutal as literature and popular culture have led many to believe. The first is the fact that significantly fewer slaves died on ships than the much higher mortality rates of slaves dying in struggles shortly after being enslaved on their way to the coast (130). The second is the popular culture image of “tight packing” on the ships. Klein says that the notion that slave ships were so tightly packed that they could just barely float is absurd; rather, he rationalizes that slaves were not packed too tightly because shipmen wanted fast ships to get to and from Africa as quick as possible (131-32). It was of no benefit to bring back dead slaves, so Klein contends that slaves were transported as quickly as possible and the intent was to bring them back alive.

                Herbert Klein brings raises some valid points in this respect to the Middle Passage. However, the reality is that the journey would have had to be horrifying and also the death rates were much higher than in passenger ships and even in ships that transported prisoners. Klein compares some death rate figures of convicts who were taken to Australia on ship to the death rates of slaves who were crossing the Atlantic. Bearing in mind, Europe to Australia was a much longer and treacherous voyage than was Africa to the other side of the Atlantic. The figures of convict deaths on their way to Australia were at about 4% around the time of the turn of the 19^th Century; they would go down to under 1% just a few decades later. Also at the turn of the century, slaves crossing the Atlantic were perishing at a rate just under 9% (although over 14% died on Spanish ships); however, unlike the Australia-bound prisoners the overall death rate of slaves would increase over the next few decades to over 11% (134-35, 139). The conclusion that one can draw from this data is that the well-being of slaves was less considered than that of criminals of the day.

                Those figures were in the final years of the Atlantic slave trade. Death rates in the slave trade’s heyday were much greater; near the turn of the 17^th Century slaves died at a rate just under 30% on Spanish ships. Before the English government mandated that slaves be given at least 8 square feet on their ships, the average amount of room allowed to a slave on an English ship was 6 to 7 feet; slaves on the deck of the French ship La Vigilante had 5.6 square feet (133). This is almost unfathomable in today’s world. A full-size mattress, which is the smallest one made for two people, is over 30 square feet. If slaves were able to lie down on board, a conservative estimate would be to say they were as comfortable as five adults on a full-size mattress. The deaths that did occur must have been violent and horrifying as well. Klein identifies disease, rebellion, suicide, and natural disasters as main killers aboard slave ships (159). It is hard to imagine there being an efficient system to dispose of wastes as well. In addition to the prevalence of illness, slaves probably had to sit in the filth of the urine and defecation of the numerous people on board, and it wouldn’t be entirely unimaginable to spend a night next to a corpse either, unless inventory of living and dead was routinely checked throughout the day. When the complete reality of the Middle Passage is considered Klein’s depiction of it is rather soft. Overall, Klein offers a new and thought provoking view of the Atlantic slave trade, and does the job of an effective historian by getting his readers to see things in a new light by challenging assertions and supporting his claims with a great deal of evidence.