The Atlantic Slave Trade in the Bight of Benin in the Age of Abolition

Between 1807 and 1820, various European governments declared illegal the Atlantic slave trade in the Bight of Benin and put in place measures to stamp out the trade. Anti-slavery crusading by European navies raised the risks of seizure, prosecution of traders, high insurance premiums, and the overall cost of trade for merchants still involved in the trade especially Cubans and Brazilians who subsequently dominated the export of slaves from Yorubaland. Abolitionism forced some traders out of business while those left behind devised strategies for beating anti-slavery policies. Drawing on correspondences between Brazilian and Lagos slave traders, this paper explores the abolitionist process in the eastern Bight of Benin between 1808 and 1850. It argues that the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade was prolonged for a combination of reasons: the ingenuities of slave traders operating in the region such as abilities to disguise and/or relocate their operations, their superior knowledge of local geography, inadequacies of the anti-slavery naval patrol, and the continued existence of profitable slave markets in the Americas well into the mid-century.