Forms of Slave Procurement Used by Dutch and Portuguese in Western Africa, 1590s–1670s

Much of the literature on European slave procurement strategies on the Western coast of Africa has focused mainly on kidnaping and enslavement through war against African coastal authorities. In recent years, a growing scholarship has emerge on the role of pawnship and debt enslavement among Africans and the links between these two forms of slave procurement and the transatlantic slave trade (Falola, 1994; Lovejoy & Richardson, 1999, 2001 Falola & Lovejoy, 2003). However, little attention has been given to the economic mechanisms used by European merchants to acquire enslaved Africans on the coast and almost no comparisons have been established between the practices adopted by the different groups of Europeans merchants trading on the coast. Using the collection of Notarial contracts from Amsterdam’s Municipal Archive, the Dutch West India Company’s archives, the Portuguese Overseas Archive and a number of German and Dutch traveling accounts, this paper will begin to address this gap in the literature.

This paper will examine the forms of slave procurement adopted by merchants of Dutch, Flemish, German, Sephardic and Portuguese origin in Western Africa between 1590s and 1670s. We will outline the mechanisms used in Europe to acquire exchange commodities for the trade in Africa including the type, volume and value of commodities carried on board the vessels for these operations on the coast. Additionally, we study the role of the individuals responsible for the transactions on the coast, be they supercargoes on the ships or locally based agents. Finally, we will identify the commercial practices adopted by these merchants to obtain their ‘slave cargoes’.