Triangular Trade
The triangular Commerce , also called Treats Atlantic or Western Traite , indicates the exchanges between the Europe, the Africa and the America S, set up to ensure the distribution of black slaves necessary to the colonies of the Nouveau World, to supply Europe in products of these colonies and to provide to Africa European and American products.
The triangular expression trade should not be reduced only to one passage in three times out of three continents: Western ships going on the African coasts to exchange Slave S against goods; then transfer of the slaves in America and exchange against a bill of exchange, Sugar, Coffee, Cocoa, Indigo and Tobacco; finally routing of the American products towards the European ports.
Actually, the course of the triangular trade was much vaster and there existed several roads: " Europe activated itself, upstream draft, in order to join together the capital, the goods, the men and the ships necessary, like finding alibis to justify this traffic; while in downstream, it dealt with the transformation of the colonial produces. Arrows on the chart representing the " trade triangulaire" also result in considering Africa and America only through stopovers, more or less secondary in the organization and the logic of the traffic. One low esteem thus heavily importance of the black continent, where the prisoners, who did not appear by enchantment on the sites of the draft, were " produits" , transported, parked and estimated by black slave traders. On their side, Americas did not constitute only places by which the prisoners forwarded, since it is the logic of the slave system which involved the draft. And it is known today that Rio de Janeiro, and not Liverpool, was the first port slave trader of planet. In addition to the Eastern and internal drafts in Africa, one by no means forgets finally the oceanic traffics fitting in a triangle. That connecting Brazil to Africa, and in particular to the Angola, was essential because it made forward most of the prisoners of the Atlantic draft. That putting in contact Eastern Africa and the Mascareignes was not negligible, just as that connecting Africa to the the Caribbean ".
Unfolding
Preparation of a forwarding French négrière at the 18th century
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the ship-owners
The Armateurs slave traders were not delivered solely to the draft. In France, they had other activities, less speculative, like the insurance, uprightness towards the islands or fishing with the cod. They often occupied a very important place in the harbor companies and they were very influential. Between 1815 and 1830, almost all the mayors of Nantes had been slave traders.
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the capital
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the ship ''
- It was to be general-purpose, i.e., to be able to contain goods like prisoners.
- the volume of the fixes was to be very important for water and the vivres: while supposing that one needs 2,8 liters of water per anybody and day, for 45 sailors and 600 prisoners, on a voyage of two months and half, the requirements out of water were assembled to 140.000 liters of water; it was necessary to hope 40 kilos to live by anybody.
- the height of the tween deck was to be ranging between 1,40 and 1,70 meter. The tween deck was used as parks with slaves and with this height, the slave traders increased surface available by installing platforms to middle height on the sides, over a width of 1,90 meter.
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the goods '
The cargo of a slave trader in departure for the coasts of Africa accounted for 60 to 70% of the amount of setting-out necessary to the armament of the ship. Indeed, of many products of draft were relatively expensive. They was the case of the " Indian " , of the textiles which represented between 60 and 80% of the value of the cargo.
The standard composition of the Set, described above, was built gradually. It became effective only starting from the last third of the 17th century, that is to say more than one century after the beginning of the draft. Previously, the European slave traders had offered various products. But if they did not satisfy the request, the latter were withdrawn from the negotiations. It was the case, for example, of food, the animals and the Agrume S, present in the first Portuguese cargoes.
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the crew
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essential sailors '
- the Charpentier which was to build the orlop deck once the ship approached the African sites of draft;
- the Wet cooper which was to make sure of the good conservation of water and the vivres, in very large quantity in the hold;
- the Cook which was to nourish hundreds of prisoners and the crew.
- the Surgery N which was to make sure of the good health of the prisoners to the purchase. It was also in charge of marking with the red iron of the prisoners. But it could not anything against the diseases which were declared on board (J. - C. Nardin counts 45 different).
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the captain '
- of nautical competences. The captain was to know to sail but it was to also surmount the many natural obstacles which it was going to meet on his road.
- of commercial competences. The captain was to know to haggle with treating African. Certain captains (especially French) also haggled with the colonists.
- of competences of manager of men and slave-driver.
Production of slaves
The production of prisoners was a nearly exclusive business of the Africans. Daniel Pratt Mannix estimates that only 2% of the prisoners of the Atlantic draft were kidnapped by white slave traders. As of 1448, Henri the Navigator had given the order to privilege the establishment of commercial relations with the Africans.
The lançados, mongrels of Portuguese, played the intermediaries between the Western slave traders and the African slave traders starting from the last third of the 16th century in Gambia and with the Liberia. Others lançados had been established in the kingdom of the Dahomey. At the 19th century, their role as intermediaries and producers of slaves were very important there, especially when Francisco Felix da Souza obtained from the king Ghézo, in 1818, the load of Chacha (responsible for the trade for the kingdom of Dahomey).
With the Congo, as from the 17th century, of the caravans of Pombeiros (commercial natives accultérés and financed by the Portuguese) were inserted inside the continent to go to produce or buy slaves.
Elsewhere, the production of prisoners was purely African business.
Methods of reduction in slavery
According to Orlando Patterson, the principal methods of reduction in slavery were the capture with the war, kidnapping, the payments of tributes and taxes, the debts, the punishment for crimes, the abandonment and the sale of children, voluntary control and the birth.The confrontation of several sources show that there could be, according to the areas, one or more prevalent modes of reduction in constraint:
- According to an investigation of Mr. Gillet established in 1863 in the area of the Congo, only forty slaves surroundings, into total of 2571, were prisoners of war or had been taken and sold by nearby people. One counted 1519 “slaves of births”, 413 people had been sold “by people of their own tribe without, according to (they), to have made any offense”. Finally 399 had been condemned (for inaccuracy, adultery, flight, crimes and various offenses, made by them or some their close relations).
- In 1850, S. Koelle questioned 142 slaves in Sierra Leone. 34% said that they had been taken with the war, 30% which they had been kidnapped, 7% that they had been sold by members of their family or superiors. In addition, 7% had been sold to balance debts and 11% condemned during lawsuit.
Mortality of the prisoners on the African ground
One has few elements on the number of prisoners died on the African ground. However, for the Angola, there exist such information: according to Miller, the losses would have been there of 10% at the time of the operations of capture, of 25% during transport towards the coast, from 10 to 15% when the prisoners were parked in the Barracons on the coast. On the whole, the losses would range between 45 and 50%.It is impossible to extrapolate these data to draw the conclusions on the unit of the Africa. It is supposed that the losses were related on the distance covered and the duration necessary to reach the coastal sites of draft. Thus the losses could be very different according to the areas.
- P. Manning estimates that for 9 million deportees to the Americas, 21 million would have been captured in Africa (7 million would have become slaves in Africa and 5 million would have died in the year following their capture).
- Joseph Inikory estimates that the Atlantic draft and the various natural disasters would have made 112 million victims.
- Raymond L. Cohn estimates that 20 to 40% of the prisoners died during their transport with forced march towards the coast, and that 3 to 10% disappeared while waiting for the ships slave traders there. One arrives at a total included/understood enters 23 and 50%.
The exchange
Methods of the exchange
The exchanges were done either with ground, or on the boat. In both cases, the methods of the exchange between African slave traders and slave traders European had varied little during the centuries. The European goods were spread out in comparison of the brokers and the African intermediaries. Then the European slave traders paid the habits, i.e. taxes of anchoring and trade. Then the two parts agreed on the basic value of a prisoner. This bargaining was bitterly discussed.
Disconnected Units of Account
It is only as from the 19th century that currencies Western fiducières were introduced in sub-Saharan Africa. It was in particular of the American Dollar, the Piastre and the Thaler of Marie-Therese.
Before the African brokers used their own Unit of Account as the Barre in Sénégambie or the ounce with Ouidah. With regard to the European goods, they did not take account of the Western prices.
In certain areas, it is the choice in the Assortiment which determined the value of a batch of slaves. In 1724, in the area of the Senegal river, 50 prisoners had been treated for:
- 201 pataques with 4 books the part
- 1 money macaton small and its chain
- 1 horn, ditto
- 5 rifles
- 8 cords
- 1,5 ell, scarlet cloth
- 24 pints brandy
- 12 iron bars
- 75 pounds of gunpowder
- 104 pounds of lead in ball
- 225 ells, blue and black fabric
- 69 ells, fabric of Rouen
- 12 thousands, red roller.
In other areas, the price of a slave was fixed in local Unit of Account. But for the Western slave traders, the cost of a slave could easily vary. In 1773, at Ouidah, the price of a prisoner man was fixed at 11 ounce S. has this value, the exchanged goods were different following the brokers:
Prices of the slaves between 1440 and 1870
The prices had evolved/moved during the four centuries of the draft Western négrière.
Hugh Thomas presents the list below:
Years 1440: in Sénégambie, a horse was worth from 25 to 30 slaves.
1500: a slave was worth 12 to 15 Manilles on the Côte of Guinea.
1500 - 1510: in Sénégambie, a horse was worth from 6 to 8 slaves; with the Benign , a slave was worth 20 to 25 Manilles.
1698: in Guinea, the prices had increased by 3 to 4 Livres serling.
1701: with Calabar, a man was worth 12 bars and a woman was worth 9 Barre S. years 1750: from 12 to 16 Books with the mouth of the Gambia.
1753: a slave of the Côte of Gold was worth 16 Livres; Coast of the wind, 12 to 14.
1801 - 1810: average costs of a slave of Sénégambie, 29 Books 5 Shillings, 2 Pence and half.
1850: With Saint Louis of the Senegal, the average costs were of 28 Livres sterling.
1851: the price of the slaves to the Mozambique was from approximately 3 to 5 Dollars; with Pongas, approximately 12; with Luanda, approximately 14 to 16.
Serge daget also gives us another of them:
In the middle of the XVII, to Whydah, the cost of the average prisoner was equivalent to 72 Livres tournaments.
In 1670, in Whydah, the cost of the average prisoner went up to 192 Livres.
In 1712, on the Coast of Gold, a prisoner cost 384 to 410 Livres tournaments.
At the end from the XVIII, with Whydah, it could reach 480 Livres.
Between 1830 and 1840, with Whydah and Lagos, a prisoner was worth 360 to 480 F In 1847, Whydah, it cost 1.680 to 1.920 F.
In 1847, with Lagos, the cost of a prisoner was of 480 F.
Methods of loading
If the boat belonged to a company, it went to the Comptoirs pertaining to their nation. There, of the prisoners were stored for their deportation. With the free trade, the ship-owner fixed the places of coastal traffic of the ship: in the best of the cases, the ship coasted in a preset zone; in the worst of the cases, the ship proceeded to a slow coastal traffic between each hearth slave trader (also called the treats flying , of the Sénégambie until the Gabon and further still.
The duration of the Cabotage very frequently exceeded the three months.
The loading of the prisoners was done by small groups from four to six people. Some preferred to jump and drown rather than to undergo the fate which they thought: they believed that the White were going to eat them.
As soon as they were on board, the men were separated from the women and the children. They were connected two to two by the ankles and those which resisted were blocked with the wrists.
The crossing of the Atlantic
Black passage
Hubert Deschamps qualified the crossing of the Atlantique of " black passage".
The crossing generally lasted between one and three months. The intermediate duration of a crossing was 66,4 days. But according to arrival and the starting points, the duration could be very different. Thus the Dutchmen put 71 to 81 days to join the the Antilles whereas the Brazilian ones carried out Luanda - Brazil in 35 days. Before starting the crossing, it often happened that the slave trader wets in the islands of Principe and São Tomé. Indeed, the prisoners were exhausted by a long stay, either in the Baracons, or in the case of an itinerant draft under veil.
The women and the children were parked on the strong of back while the men were on the forecastle. The surface of the forecastle was higher than that of the quarter-deck. They were separated by rambarde.
The prisoners were enferrés two by two. They slept naked on the boards. To gain on the surface, the carpenter built a scaffold, a false bridge, on the sides. The rate of accumulation was relatively important. In a volume representing 1,44 m ³ (either a " barrel of encombrement" , 170×160×53), the Portuguese placed to five adults, the English and the French, from two to three. For the Nantes slave traders, between 1707 and 1793, the general relationship between tonnage and many Blacks can be brought back to an average of 1,41.
- Theophilus Conneau thus testified in 1854: “Two of the officers have the responsibility of fasten the men. To laying down sun, the lieutenant and his second go down, the whip with the hand, and set up the Negros for the night. Those which are with starboard are arranged like spoons, according to the current expression, turned forwards and encasing itself one in another. To port side, they are turned backwards. This position is regarded as preferable, because it lets the heart beat more freely. ”
If time allowed it, the deportees spent the day on the bridge. Always connected, the men remained separate women and children. They went up by groups on the higher bridge around eight hours of the morning. Irons were checked and they were washed with sea water. Twice per week, they were coated with Palm oil. Every fifteen days, the nails were cut and the shaven head. The every day, the buckets with dejection were emptied, the tween deck was scraped and cleaned with the vinegar. Around nine hours, the meal was been useful: broad beans, beans, rice, corn, Yam, banana and Manioc. the afternoon the slaves were incited to occupy itself (organization of dances). Around five hours the deportees turned over in the Entrepont.
On the other hand, in the event of bad weather and of storm, the deportees remained confined in the tween deck. There was no draining, neither of rectal injection of the bodies, nor of cleaning of the grounds. The contents of the buckets ran on the boards of the Entrepont, mixed with the rotted things, the emanations of those victims of the sea sickness, with the vomits, the “flow of belly, white or red”. All the hatchways could be closed. The darkness, the air made unbreathable by the inversion of the buckets with dejection, rolling which made rub the naked bodies on the boards, the belief of a cannibalism of the white slave traders terrorized and weakened the prisoners.
Revolts on board
The majority of the revolts were carried out along the African coasts. They could also take place in open sea but it was much rarer. According to Hugh Thomas, there was at least an insurrection all the eight voyages.Some succeeded:
- in 1532, 109 slaves were made main of the Misericordia , a Portuguese ship. Of the crew, there remained only 3 survivors. Those succeeded in fleeing. One heard never again of the ship.
- In 1650, a Spanish ship sank with broad of the course of San Francisco. The surviving Spaniards were killed by the African prisoners.
- In 1742, the prisoners of the galère Mary were raised. Only the Captain and his second escaped from it.
- In 1752, the slaves of the Marlborough revolted. One heard never again of them.
But most of the time, the revolts were subdued and the leaders were used as example: they were publicly beaten and hung, even worse. Some could be victims of barbarous acts:
- the captain did not hesitate to cut part of the body of the victim to terrify the other prisoners. Indeed, much of Blacks believed that if they were killed without being dismembered, they would regain their country after being thrown to the sea.
- a captain did not hesitate to force two prisoners to eat the heart and the liver of a third before killing them.
- According to Hugh Thomas, the most brutal punishment seems to have been that inflicted to the leader of a revolt on the Danish boat Friedericius Quartus in 1709. The first day, it had the cut hand and this one was exhibée in front of all the deportees. The second day, one cut the second hand to him which was also exposed. The third day, it had the distinct head and its chest was hoisted on the main-yard where there remained exhibé during two days.
The mortality of the deportees during the crossing
Various factors of mortality were listed: duration of the voyage, the medical condition of the slaves at the time of the loading, the area of origin of the prisoners, revolts, shipwrecks, the insufficiency of water and food in the event of prolongation of the crossing, lack of hygiene, the epidemics (Dysentery, Variola, Measles,…), promiscuity.The children of less than 15 years were more fragile than the men. The women were more resistant than the men.
The mortality of the deportees at the time of the crossing would lie between 11,9% and 13,25%. It happened that some reach 40%, even 100%.
In the case of forwardings Nantes négrières, the death rate of the deportees bordered 13,6%.
Evolution of the average mortality of the deportees
In Americas
The sale
The Esclave S were to be systematically subjected to a Forty before being unloaded. But arrangements with the authorities were frequent. The surgeon took care to give again a suitable appearance: the cutaneous lesions and the wounds were dissimulated, the hair was cut and the body was coated with palm oil. They were then ready to be sold on the markets with the slaves. In the majority of the colonies, the slaves were sold by batches. An advertisement was transmitted to the local growers. The sale could take place on the ship or with ground. There existed several sales engineering like the Enchère S or the scramble. The colonies which imported the most slaves were Brazil followed by the Antilles.
Employment of the slaves in Americas
The plantation of cane with sugar
It is with the sugar revolution in America that the draft known such a width. According to Robert William Fogel, " between 60 and 70% of all the Africans who survived the crossing of the Atlantic finished in one or the other of the colonies sucrières". The sugar revolution began with the Brésil in the years 1600, then it was propagated in the the Caribbean starting from the middle of the 17th century. They were large plantations which cultivated only the cane with sugar to export it. The slaves cut the cane to the machete before transporting it by oxcarts towards the mills.The typical plantation, of a surface of 375 hectares, included/understood 120 slaves, 40 oxen, a large house, commun runs and boxes for the slaves.
At the end of the 18th century, the coffee culture developed.
Slaves in the plantations of the 18th century
At the 18th century, in the French sugar plantations, one often tends to believe that the majority of the slaves were uniformly subjected to a treatment of a free cruelty which would exceed the understanding. However that would go against the interests of the Master. This one kept an eye on the health condition of the slaves.The Bossales , or new arrived, were not immediately put at work. During at more the six months, they were put at the variation to acclimatize itself.
The mortality of the slaves on the plantations of the 18th century
At the end of the 18th century, in Guadeloupe, the Death rate of the slaves oscillated between 30 and 50 per 1000. In metropolis, death rate was included/understood between 30 and 38 per thousand. Three factors explained these differences between the metropolis and the French West Indies:
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surmortality of the Bossales .
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infantile surmortality .
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diseases and bad conditions of hygiene . The diseases resulting in death were very numerous:
- metabolic Turbid : Scurvy, languor (the Haitian historian Louis E. Elie sees there the symptoms of the Maladie of the sleep brought from Africa), the Hydropisie.
- the infectious illness: the Tuberculosis, the pulmoniques ones, evil of throat, the Dysentery, the Variola.
- skin troubles: the Leprosy, the Scale, the Malingres.
Proportion of the Blacks and the White in the French West Indies
The return in Europe
The mortality of the sailors
For the Nantes slave traders, average mortality was of 17,8%. It is only about one average. Certain crossings could be done without any death while others could recorded a mortality of 80% even more.
History of the triangular trade
It is generally considered that the beginning of the Western draft goes back to 1441, when navigator S Portuguese removed Africans to make of them Esclave S in their country.
First stage, of the 15th century in the middle of the 17th century
European kingdoms and the first forwardings négrières
They are the Portuguese who were distinguished. They off-set nearly 757.000 slaves, that is to say three quarters of the deportees over this period. Three deportees out of four were embarked starting from central Africa and they were intended for Brazil (34%) and the continental Spanish America (43%).
the first years
At the 15th century, with the Trans-Saharan trade, of many African products, like gold, the slaves or the pepper of malaguette (also called the seed of the paradise), were present on some European markets. With the catch of Ceuta in 1415, the Portuguese informed themselves on the Trans-Saharan trade. They knew many details of them. Their objective was to reach the African gold mines. For that purpose, they did not try to take the control of the Trans-Saharan roads. They privileged a new road, the sea route.
The Portuguese were the first Europeans to be risked on the Atlantic coasts of Africa. Several factors contributed to it:
- these seas were theirs;
- they was good sailors who used the charts and the compass;
- they had good ships;
- the trade was very dynamic. Europe of North came in the Portuguese ports to supply itself in Mediterranean products;
- the other European kingdoms were more occupied being made the war.
In 1441, Antao Gonçalves captured black Africans, of Azenègues, who were offered in trophy to prince Henri. This event is regarded as the beginning of the Atlantic draft. But at the time, this episode was pain-killer. Indeed, for several decades, the Trans-Saharan draft had provided black slaves to Portugal. The Portuguese continued the raids. Those got an immediate profit and they made profitable forwardings.
A new process of obtaining prisoners took form very early, the trade. As of 1446, Antao Gonçalves bought slaves. In 1448, 1.000 prisoners were off-set in Portugal and on the Portuguese islands (the the Azores and Madeira). In the years 1450, Venetian the Ca' da Mosto accepted 10 to 15 slaves in " Guinée" in exchange of a horse. It tried to come into contact with Sonni Ali, the emperor of Songhaïs. These efforts remained vain.
Supposing Portuguese successes, Castillannais and Gênois launched their own forwardings. They were countered by the Portuguese diplomacy which accepted the approval of three successive popes.
pontifical bubbles
The omnipresence of the Portuguese along the African coasts of the Atlantic during this period is also explained by the policy of the popes with regard to Africa:
- In 1442, the pope Eugene IV, by the bubble, It which approved forwardings of the prince Henri the Navigator in Africa.
- Then the pope Nicolas V published two bubbles, Dum diversas and Romanus pontifex .
- the first bubble, 1452, gave any latitude to the Portuguese to subject Buckwheats, pagan and other incroyants.
- the second bubble, of the January 8th 1454, approved what the Portuguese had undertaken, conversion with the Christianity of the natural populations hoped, gave its approval commercial express to the monopoly of the Portuguese in Africa. The conquests in the south of the Cape Bojador would be forever Portuguese. It was the same for " all the coast of Guinea, including Indes" (this name indicating about all the supposed territories then to be located on the road of China). This bubble also spoke about the salutary consequences which would result from the control of the pagan ones.
- Lastly, its successor, Calixte III, published the bubble Inter will caetera in March 1456.
The Portuguese also obtained from the pope that he declares that Portugal had conquered Africa to Guinea. Extremely of these bubbles, the Portuguese did not hesitate to hail any boat which was on the African coasts and to hang the crew (especially Spaniards).
All these famous bubbles approving Portuguese forwardings had been promulgated because papacy considered it necessary to act with strength against the Islam which seemed to threaten, after the fall of Constantinople, Italy itself, as much as the Central Europe. Calixte III made many efforts to set up an ultimate crusade. The projects of prince Henri fell under this overall plan.
a Portuguese presence which continued
The Portuguese had several objectives.
- They wanted to come into contact with the kingdom of the Prêtre Jean (the Ethiopia) to obtain an alliance. They thus thought of taking out of clipper the Muslim world.
- the relations with Africa were largely justified by the trade with Asia. For their imports, the Portuguese needed gold (for the Ottoman Empire), money (for the the Far East and copper (for the India).
- the main aim remained the profit.
Thus, in second half of the 15th century, Portuguese enhardirent itself. The Portuguese Crown undertook to establish stable commercial relations with sub-Saharan Africa. In 1458, the prince Henri the navigator wished that its men rather buy the slaves than of the razzier. This mission was entrusted to Diogo Gomez (it returned with 650 razziés slaves). The Portuguese Crown decided to leave the management of new forwardings to Portuguese business men and merchants. The first of them was Fernando Po in 1460. N the other hand, it was committed to pour each year 200.000 reis and exploring 100 miles of unknown coasts. The right to transport slaves was then entrusted to a succession of privileged merchants, obliged to pour an annual tax fixed by the crown.
The payment with respect to forwardings evolved/moved: any imported slave was to be unloaded in Lisbon (1473) and any out-going vessel for Africa was to be recorded in Lisbon (1481). The Portuguese started to be established on several points of the African littoral. In 1461, the first counter and the strong first were completed in Arguin. In 1462, they settled in the Cape Verde Islands. In 1481, the construction of the forterress of El Mina started. The local prince, Ansa de Casamance, saw of an evil eye this new masonry. In 1486, they were on the island of Sao Tome.
These forwardings were often of brilliant commercial successes. The Portuguese were very good intermediaries and, thanks to their caravel, they could convoy any kind of goods along the African littoral. They were interested especially in gold, the ivory and seed of Guinea. But the slaves took an increasingly important place. Indeed, starting from 1475, the Portuguese provided slaves to Akans with Elmina and the success of the establishments of the cane with sugar with Madeira (1452), in the Canary islands (1484), then in Sao Tome (1486) required a growing number of slaves. The goods exchanged with the African chiefs flowed from all Europe and the Mediterranean (fabrics of Flanders and France, of corn of Northern Europe, bracelets of Bavaria, glass shots, wine, knives, iron bars. In 1486, Joao Afonso Aveiro entered the kingdom of the Benign one. It grown that he was close to Ethiopia, the kingdom of the Jean priest. In Europe, in 1474, the prince claimed and obtained the property of Africa. In 1479, the Spaniards ceased their forwardings towards Africa. They recognized the Portuguese monopoly. However, there was a political failure. In 1486, the Portuguese helped king Bemoin in Senegal. But it deposed and was carried out.
The Oba of Benign the ends up prohibiting the export of prisoners. For copper, the Portuguese provided themselves to the Congo.
the Asiento
Incompetent to provide sufficient slaves to his colonies, Spain set up the Asiento. It was about a privilege by which the recipient committed himself providing a certain number of slaves to the Spanish colonies. In return, it was in situation of monopoly: Spain engaged so that the empire bought prisoners only with the holders of the Asiento. The Asiento was thus granted in turn the Portuguese, then in Génois (and their Company of the Grids), with the Dutchmen, the French Company of Guinea, or with the English.
Then the Dutchmen, the English and the French came. They treated in particular with the Africans of gum, gold, the pepper of malaguette, the ivory… and the slaves.
However, in spite of the pontifical bubbles, of the French and the English made some forwardings on the coasts of Africa, with the great despair of the Portuguese.
A slow structuring of the offer on the African coasts
The draft on the African coasts was very slowly structured.Towards 1475, the Portuguese bought slaves in the Golfe of Benign the. The Ijos and the Itsekiris were devoted then to this draft. The slaves whom they treated, either were bought inside the grounds, or of the condemned criminals. Part of the slaves was conveyed with Elmina. They were sold to other Africans against gold.
From 1486, the Portuguese started to treat with the kingdom of the Benign one. In 1530, the Kingdom of Benign the emitted reserves on the draft of the slaves and, towards 1550, the Oba of Benign the prohibits the draft.
In 1485, the Portuguese bought the first slaves with the Congo. Towards 1550, Congo became the principal zone of draft. But the Portuguese demand for prisoners was so high that the monarch was quickly exceeded. Other people intended themselves to satisfy this request (the Pangu in Lungu, the people Tio). Of 1000 slaves off-set in 1500, there was between 4000 and 5000 who were off-set annually of Congo starting from 1530.
The Angola (or Ndongo) also provided slaves to the Portuguese. As of 1550, the kings of Congo and Angola disputed supremacy in the supply of prisoners to the Portuguese. Towards 1553, a new African State delivers slaves. It is about the monarchy of Ode Itsekiri on the Forcados (close to the kingdom to Benign).
At the beginning of the 17th century, many villages of fishermen on the estuary of Niger became autonomous cities with significant markets with the slaves. Some of these cities ended up becoming powerful monarchies: Bonny, New Calabar, Warri, Beautiful Town and Akwa Town with the Cameroun; and there were powerful commercial republics, like Old Calabar and Brass.
A slow structuring of the request in Americas
Very slowly, the black slaves started to populate the new Spanish imperial possessions. The phenomenon was gradual, discrete, rich in false starts. Thus a decree of 1501 prohibited to the deportations in the Indies of slaves born in Spain, as well as Jews, Moors and of " new chrétiens" , i.e. converted Jews. However, certainds commercial and captains obtained the authorization private to take along to the Indies some black slaves.The beginning of the Draft of slaves towards Americas began only on January 22nd, 1510, when the king Ferdinand gave the permission to send fifty slaves on Hispaniola in the interest of the mines. These slaves were to be " the best slaves and strongest who may be trouver". It is certain that it thought then of the Blacks. As for the Indians, they did not resist the ill treatments in the fields and the mines. In 1510, it remained nothing any more but 25.000 about it on Hispaniola. Until 1550, the majority of the African prisoners were intended for the Iberian peninsula, with Madeira, Sao Tome and Principe. Starting from 1550, the Spanish request for America took off. The Africans were then fishing of pearl to the News-Grenade, dockers with Veracruz, in the money mines of Zacatecas, in the gold mines of the Honduras, the Venezuela and the Peru, cowherds in the area of Plata. Others were blacksmiths, tailors, carpenters and servants. The slaves women were used as chambermaid, of mistress, nurses or prostitutes. One took the practice to entrust the most ungrateful tasks to them.
In the North-East of the Brazil, in the harbor offices of Pernambouc and Bahia, the first sugar plantations transfer the day on the American ground. The servile application for a job exploded. The Portuguese then had at their disposal the Indians. But the perseverance of Bartolomé de Las Put and others Dominicains ended up making the control of the Indians illicit. Moreover, the epidemic of Dysenterie associated with the Grippe had decimated the Indian population in Brazil in the years 1560. Finally the growers were not satisfied of the work of the Indians. Those did not resist the ill treatments which were inflicted to them. For all these reasons, the request of black slaves coming from the Congo and of the Angola is hardened. From 2.000 to 3.000, in 1570, the black population of the Brésil amounted to 15.000 in 1600. The daily newspaper of these slaves was very hard. Their life expectancy was of approximately ten years. One thus needed unceasingly new arrivals of Angola and Congo. The Brésil became the sugar leading vendor of the Europe.
In the first quarter of the 17th century, the full number of off-set slaves of Africa was to approach the 200.000, from which 100.000 went to the Brésil, more than 75.000 in Spanish America, 12.500 with São Tomé and a few hundreds in Europe.
The number of African slaves working then in the West-Indian colonies was then relatively weak. With the Guadeloupe, in 1671, 47% of the Masters had one slave. In the first times, in the thirteen English colonies, servants, white and blacks, worked side by side, within the framework of small-scale farmings. Conversely in the French islands, the white volunteers then were treated hard.
Second phase, of the middle of the 17th century at the beginning of the 19th century
The Atlantic draft took truly its rise only starting from the last third of the 17th century.
The increase in European négrière activity
Three phenomena concurrèrent to accelerate the request of the European slave traders: products were done rarer (gold and ivory) or were competed with (the pepper of malaguette by spices of the Indies); the Canne with sugar was put in production at Brazil and in the Antilles; the choice of African slaves was essential.
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the United Provinces
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England
Between 1651 and 1675, 115.000 slaves were off-set. Between 1676 and 1700, they were 243.000. Between 1701 and 1725, they were 380.000. Between 1726 and 1750, they were 490.000. Between 1751 and 1775, they were 859.000. The fall amorça as of 1776 and the draft was prohibited in 1807.
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France
The starting of the French draft was late. Bordeaux in 1672, Nantes and Saint-Malo in 1688 dispatched their first slave traders. Before 1692, 42 slave traders had started from La Rochelle. Between 1745 and 1747, there were on average 34 forwardings négrières per annum. Between 1763 and 1778, there were 51 of it per annum. Between 1783 and 1792, there were 101 of it per annum.
A relative concentration of the African offer
The African offer was relatively concentrated at the XVIII century: in the gulf of Guinea, there was Coast-in-the Or and the coast of the Slaves; in central Africa, the three quarters of the prisoners were sold between Cabinda and Luanda, a 300 miles long coastal space; coastal sites like Ouidah.
Development
With the Age of Enlightenment, the request for American products in Western Europe knows a very strong growth: it was the case for example Sucre, in particular that of the colony of Saint-Domingue, whose production was intensified by the use of approximately 550.000 slaves at the 18th century. The sugar consumption, which was almost null at the 16th century, had passed to 4 kilograms by anybody and per annum at the end of the 18th century. These new needs had involved the creation of new plantations and the contribution of a labor increasingly more important which did not exist on the spot.Brazil had been the first destination of the ships slave traders: on the whole, more than 40% of the deportees triangular commercial were transported there.
2) Middle of the 17th century at the beginning of the 19th century
of the Portuguese, of the French and the English. On all the African coasts, the draft between Europeans and Africans set up themselves: - on the Coast sénégambienne, the French, the English and the Portuguese traded with the Ouolof, the Seereer, the Manden, the Dioulaa, the Balante and the Felupe. - On the coasts of the rivers of the south, the Portuguese treated with the Lançados, the Bijago, the Kokoli, the Nalu, the Sosoe, the Baya and the Tyapi. - On the coasts of Sierra Leone, the English traded with the Bulu, the Sherbo, the Krim, the Temne, the Kono, the Morodugu and the Vaï. - The Côte of the teeth contained some hearths slave traders - On the Coast of gold and the Coast of the " esclaves", Europeans were established in fortresses but their influence is subjected to the African authority of very powerful coastal States (Nzima, Akan, Fante, Ewe, Ge, Huéd, Hula, Fon, Yoruba). - The coast béninienne and the East of the Delta of Niger. The authority was purely African, either in the monarchical form, or under that which one named " Cities-Etats". The population was Yoruba and Ibo. One found there many ethnos groups minority like the Ijo, the Ibibio, the Efik, the Aro, the Ekoi, Efut. - The coast of the Gabon, under African authority, of settlement Mpongwé. - The coast of the Loango, under African royalty, of settlement Vili. - The coast of the Angola, under Portuguese colonial authority and African local authority, whose principal settlement was Mbundu and Jaga.
Continuation by the engagism
Form disguised draft when it freed, once bought and on the boat, of the Noir S reduced in slavery on the ivory coast, the Engagisme in its first form was décrié so much as perpetuation of the triangular trade which it was almost at once abolished.
The second attempt to make come from the Coolie S Chinese in the Caribbean was also a failure; this time not because they were disguised slaves, but because the Masters of the plantations found that these committed servants renâclaient with the work.
The third attempt was such a success that it brought the third exogenic settlement of the Caribbean. They were the Indien S of the sub-continent, in majority coming from the British Empire of the Indies, but also of others passing by the French counters of Chandernagor and Pondichéry.
Many deportees of the Western drafts
Increasingly precise statistics
In the Drafts négrières, Test of total history , Olivier Pétré-Grenouilleau written: It was necessary to await 1969 and the publication of the famous The Atlantic Slave Trade. With census , of Philip D. Curtin, so that the quantitative history of the draft by the Atlantic left truly the fogs of the imaginary one. What the Anglo-Saxon historians call the " play of the nombres" began then. For the first time, work relating to the question had screened of the analysis criticizes historical. The study of Curtin came at one time when the history of the draft of the Blacks took its take-off. It was also the time when the New Economic History started to be affirmed in the Anglo-Saxon world. A history borrowing from the econometrics which has, of continuation, found in the draft by the Atlantic a formidable lever. The results of the Census , of Curtin, thus were immediately at the origin of vast debates, contributing to impel very many research. In 1999, a CD-ROM was published counting 27.233 forwardings négrières, carried out between 1595 and 1866. Recoveries and with accompanying notes by Herbert S. Klein, in a book left the same year, supplemented by David Eltis, in a article published in 2001, these data will be still refined, during the publication of new a Census , announced by Steven Behrent, David Eltis and David Richardson. All that made of the Atlantic traffic the draft best known today, from a statistical point of view. No other human migration of the history - forced or not - was undoubtedly studied with such a luxury of détails. There is certainly no total agreement on the figures. Thus although having revised his estimates with the fall, Joseph Inikori indicated in 2002, qu ' approximately 12.700.000 Africans had been off-set through the Atlantic. However, a general consensus takes shape, confirming the overall analyzes of Curtin as for the total volume of the draft, while moderating them in detail, i.e. in its rates/rhythms. According to him, 9,5 million Africans would have been introduced into the various colonies of the New-World and, taking into account mortality during the middle passage , 11 million, approximately, would have left Africa. At the time of a conference held in Nantes in 1985, Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch announced that 11.698.000 Africans would have been off-set, adding in addition whom what one knows about the state of the European marines of the modern time hardly makes it possible to think that this figure could have been exceeded. In 2001, Eltis arrived at a total of 11.062.000 deportees and 9.599.000 slaves introduced into Americas between 1519 and 1867 . They are these last data used here. They were elaborate starting from extremely varied first hand sources, drawn from the three continents having been implied by the draft by Atlantique.
Rate/rhythm of the draft by the Atlantic
The peak was reached between 1751 and 1800 with an average of 76.000 departures per annum.By taking of account the evolution of growth rate, certain nuances appear. Thus, so between the end of the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th century, the rate/rhythm of annual average increase in draft was of 3,3%, it stabilized around the 2,2% between 1500 and 1700, for then increasing only by 0,7% during the first forty years of 18th century. There is then stabilization then the retreat was observed starting from 1790. The 18th century can thus be crossed into two: the first part recording a constant progression though slowed down; the second being characterized by a stabilization then by the decline.
Starting areas of the slaves of the Atlantic draft
Many prisoners per thousands
Principal areas of arrival of the slaves
Many prisoners per thousands
Many deportees per European country
Many prisoners per thousands
Economic aspects
A traffic with random profitability '
profitability on average with most extremely of the draft
The idea that the benefit of the ships slave traders were extraordinary, definitely higher than 100%, ignited imaginary several generations. However of recent work on the profitability of the Western draft tend to show that the profits were very far from being amazing:
- According to W.Unger, the Dutch shareholders of Midelburgsche commercie Compagnie derived only one annual average profit of 2,1% between 1730 and 1790.
- According to J. Postman, on the Dutch draft (between 1600 and 1815), the profits were about 5 to 10% per 54% of forwardings. Even the free draft knew losses.
- For J.Meyer, the profits for the Nantes ones ranged between 4 and 10%.
- According to D. Richardson, W. Davenport, slave trader of Liverpool, would have obtained an annual average revenue of 10,5% out of 67 forwardings between 1757 and 1785). Moreover, the cost of the goods of draft was less low and the number of sailors on an English building was less important than on a French building.
- For Stephen Berhent, the profits of the English draft turned around 7,1- 7,5% between 1785 and 1807.
" A kind of lottery where each one hopes for rafler the mise"
The figures presented above are only averages and, for this reason, they must be strongly moderate. All work meets to indicate a very great irregularity of the profits, at the origin of spectacular successes and resounding bankruptcies:
- 18 of 67 forwardings of W. Davenport is overdrawn.
- According to R. Stein, between 1784 and 1786, the profitability of Nantes forwardings oscillates between -42% and + 57%.
- In 1783, forwarding Nantes négrière of the Young person-Aimee brought back a profit of 135%.
- has Bristol, a ship-owner who organized 30 forwardings of draft made bankruptcy in 1726.
the profitability of the independent draft at the 18th century
On the independent draft, the dangers were multiplied but also the potential profits. Indeed, these traffickers did not undergo certain costs of the national companies with privilege (wages of the employees in metropolis and Africa).
the profitability of the draft at the 17th century and beginning 18th century
At that time, the profits were important and even companies with monopoly knew good fortunes.
- It was the case of the Royal African Company which garnered an average profit of 38% between 1680 and 1687 for 99 crossing.
- At the beginning of the 18th century, the Compagnie of the South Seas seems to have made a profit of 30% in its draft with Buenos Aires.
However, Meyer for the French and Unger for the Dutchmen show that there was a fall of profitability over the 18th century. Although certain factors (standardization of the goods of draft and rise of manufactures) contributed to reduce the costs, others (increased competition, military instability on the seas, considerable increase of the value of the human beings in Africa,…), more, had led to a fall of profitability.
profits at the 19th century
They exceeded those of the previous century.
- the Farmer , Nantes slave trader, brought back a profit of 83%.
- According to Howard, even if the English captured a boat on two, the profit was of 100%.
Draft in the economies occidentales'
draft, at the origin of the financing of the industrial revolution?
For Karl Marx, sources of " accumulation primitive" at the origin of the industrial revolution then the draft and the slave exploitation were country expropriation. E. Williams in 1944 supported that the draft, with it only, had been enough with the financing to the British takeoff . Following very many studies on the industrial revolution and industrialization in Europe, this thesis is exceeded today:
- according to François Crouzet, the first capitalists of the industrial era came from the layers from small and of middle class and the capital which they had at their disposal were modest and easily empruntables. These facts cancel the thesis of an essential accumulation of the capital to explain the beginnings of industrialization;
- the profits of the draft had not reached tops;
- of other factors, like the rise of the campaigns, the domestic trade and the constitution of a unified market, had played a determining role in the starting of the English industrial revolution;
- according to S. Engerman, the contribution of the capital slave trader in the formation of the national revenue was seldom higher than 1%, the maximum being reached in 1770 with 1,7%;
- R. Anstey estimates that the contribution of the traffic slave trader in the formation of the British capital was on average around 0,11%;
- O. Pétré-Grenouilleau shows that the Nantes slave traders, dominant elites until in 1840, invested in the bank and the insurances, contributed to the rise of the methods of new agriculture, were interested in the canning facility, naval construction and the metallurgy. There were growths, sometimes spectacular, in certain sectors but Nantes did not experience economic development. By diversifying their investments rather than to invest in a real and durable way, the Nantes slave traders as in England and everywhere in Europe, were traders and not industrialists.
draft, the outlet of the European production?
For P. Boulle, the draft was not " that a contribution among others with the développement" from England. It is the multiplicity of its markets and the integration of its sectors économiques" who provided to industry the means of supporting its development. At the beginning of the century, the share of Africa in the foreign trade was only of 2%. Over the 18th century, the English draft had strongly increased (50% of the draft négrière) so that in 1760, 43% of the exported fabrics were bound for Africa. But America and the Antilles, which offered then outlet almost such a broad, took an increasingly important place during time. As for the interior market, it becomes the principal outlet of English industry after 1750.
In France, the draft (which accounted for 20 to 25% of the traffic slave trader towards 1750) gave birth to from local industries. But those périclitèrent.
For the United Provinces, they had undergone the perverse effect or boomerang of their commercial success: the mass and the good market of the products did not allow the establishment of national industries it.
Role of the draft in economic development
Nobody today disputes the central role of the draft in the extension of the system of the large plantation, in the rise of the colonial productions, like in the increase in the international business of these products. It is undeniable that the international business of the products of the colonies was advantageous, that it allowed a spectacular growth of the sea traffic and that they were numerous to make fortune there. But it is not the causes Western development.
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Paul Bairoch shows that the intra-European trade had played a part much more important than the colonial trade in the rise of the Old continent.
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For Eltis, the draft constituted a so negligible share of the Atlantic trade of the European powers that, even by imagining that the resources employed in the draft could not have been employed elsewhere, its contribution to the economic growth of the European powers would have been unimportant . When the English draft was with its maximum that did not exceed the 1,5% of the ships the British fleet and the 3% of its tonnage. As for the gross product of the British slave colonies, it was hardly higher in 1700 than that of a small English county, and it hardly corresponded to that of a county a little richer in 1800. He said even " the size and the complexity of the English economy at the beginning of the 19th century suggest insignificance, and not the importance of sugar. The growth of no economy indeed can, whatever the place, to depend on only one industrie" . Eltis concludes from it that Great Britain could have experienced an important economic development in the absence of its relations with Africa and America.
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For France, the interruption of the draft (between 1792 and 1802, then between 1803 and 1815) did not cause a stop of the French economy.
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the origins of the Industrial revolution are remote and total. Certain historians do not hesitate to make them go back to the Moyen-âge. Thus the European interior markets and the early formation of a national market unified in Great Britain (progress of transport and small size of the country) played a big role. The relative shortage of labor could push the England created machines.
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the importance of the colonial trade in the total trade, if it had been spectacular during the 18th century, must be moderate. In France, the growth had been real between 1716 - 1736 and 1748. At the end of the 18th century, the growth of the French foreign trade is explained by the blaze of the prices of the colonial produce whereas the prices of the other products move back. Then, most of the colonial produce was immediately re-exported without to be transformed (of 17,7% in 1716, it was of 33% in 1787). The " colonisation" French economy leads to a traffic " little; productif". This trade benefitted with the traders, the various intermediaries and the State.
Other aspects
Arguments against abolition
- ideological arguments
Measure demographic puncture of the draft
The rates/rhythms of the draft evolved/moved between the 15th century and the 19th century. The draft was with its maximum between 1701 and 1800, period during which nearly 6 million prisoners had been off-set. That made an average of 60.000 departures per annum, that is to say 0,3% of a population estimated at 25 million inhabitants at the beginning of the 18th century. This percentage remained quite lower than the natural rate of increase (estimated around 1%?). Statistically, the effects of the draft on the African population would thus have been negligible. One can take account of births lost following the deportation of male young population. But polygamy undoubtedly even attenuated cancelled this possible deficit of the births. One can also take into account the deaths of prisoners which have occurred in Africa. By supposing that there was as much death than off-set prisoners, that could only, " localement" , to slow down the population growth and sometimes to cancel it completely.
Chronology by country
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Brazil
1888, abolition of slavery to the Brazil.
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Cuba
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Denmark
1803, the Denmark abolished the draft.
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Espagne'
1518, Charles-Quint authorized the draft and slavery.
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the United States
1807, the the United States abolished the draft.
1865, the the United States abolished slavery.
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France
1315, a Édit stipulated that any slave touching the French soil became automatically free. 1594, the first forwarding French négrière.
1626, authorization to off-set the first Slave S in a French colony.
1642, authorization of the draft by Louis XIII.
1664, creation of the company of the Western Indies by Colbert.
1685, promulgation of the “black Code” by Louis XIV. Under the regency of Philippe, duke of Orleans, the Letters patent of 1716 and 1727 made it possible the French main ports “to make the trade of the negros freely” and reduced half the taxation of the food products coming from the colonies as sugar. It remained to discharge a right of 20 books per Noir introduced to the islands.
1725, under Louis XV, end of the effective monopoly. The private draft became free in exchange of paid rights.
1767, total freedom of the draft without rights to pay. The Company of the Indies reassigned the Mascareignes with the king; beginning of the economic growth and intensification of slavery.
1768, the ports were exempted right of 20 books per Noir introduced to the Islands, right brought back meanwhile to 10 books.
1784 and 1786, Under Louis XVI, the financial efforts of the State were large: any ship slave trader received a premium of encouragement of 40 books per register ton paid before its departure and a premium of 160 or 200 pounds for each prisoner unloaded in the southern part of the island of Santo Domingo; these efforts bore their fruits: even the timorés ship-owners had regard for this traffic.
1788, creation of the Company of the friends of the Blacks.
1791, confirmation of slavery in the colonies by the constituent Assembly.
1793, the Convention refused to abolish slavery and removed the premiums for the draft of the slaves.
1794, Abolition of slavery by the Convention but the draft continues with the island Bourbon and the Ile de France.
May 20th 1802, the law of the 30 floréal year X maintained slavery in the colonies restored (Martinique, St Lucia) by the England with the France.
July 16th 1802, stopped consular on the re-establishment of slavery in the colonies where it had been abolished (Guadeloupe, Guyana, Saint-Domingue).
1815, During the Hundred Days, Napoleon issued the Abolition of the draft. With the Congress of Vienna, the draft was officially prohibited.
1817, Louis XVIII signed an ordinance prohibiting the draft in France.
1820, establishment of cruisings of repression along the African coasts.
1829, beginning of Indian immigration towards the French colonies.
1831, third and last law abolitionist Frenchwoman.
1848 France abolishes slavery in all its colonies.
1849 Tourville would have been the last French ship to carry out a forwarding négrière.
the United Kingdom
1807, the Great Britain abolished the draft.
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Holland
1863, slavery was abolished in the Dutch colonies of Surinam and Curaçao.
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Portugal
1441 Beginning of the draft négrière ocidentale. Portuguese navigators bring back the first black slaves to the Portugal.
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the Vatican
1839, the pope Gregoire XVI condemned officially the draft négrière.
Regulations
The first code aiming at regulating slavery goes back to 1680. It was carried out in Virginia. The Caroline made in the same way in 1690.
The black Code French
In France, the black Code regulated the treatment of the Esclave S in the Colonies. By certain sides, the slave was regarded as an human being, but it was also a thing with the legal direction of the term, placed apart from straight of the personality. Promulgated in 1685 by Louis XIV, the black Code was abolished only in 1848.the slave, an human being
- There were articles on the baptism (Article 2), the marriage (Article 11 and 13) and the burial (Article 14) of the slave. This one was thus regarded as an human being because, according to the canonical right, the sacrament of the baptism, the sacrament of the marriage and the Holy Land burial could be given only to the only human beings.
- the slave was responsible penally (Article 32,35 and 36). In the case of a crime, of a flight or offenses, the system of punishments set up was very severe but it was not basically different that to apply to many free men. The slave was thus an human being.
- There were measurements aiming at protecting the daily newspaper from the slave: obligation to provide a minimum of food to the slaves (Article 22), to dress them (Article 25 and 26), to ensure their retirement (Article 27), to respect crenels of rest (Article 6). There were also measurements limiting the capacity of the Master. The too serious corporal punishments and the setting with death were prohibited (Article 42 and 43). But in the facts, this part little, at all, will be even applied.
- Enfin the articles on stamping (Article 55,56 and 57) give a human quality to the slave.
the slave, a personal property
- By Article 44 and well of others, the black Esclave became a “movable” property, i.e. a Marchandise which could be sold, transmitted by heritage. It also returned in the capital of the company when it worked. In the event of bankruptcy of the company, the black slave could be sold with the biddings, since he was regarded as belonging to the credit (Article 46).
- It could also be assured. With XVIIIe, the life insurance was prohibited because the life depended on God, and thus that amounted making a bet on the divine will. On the other hand, the slave could be assured since it was a personal property.
- the slave could not have inheritance (Article 28).
- the slave could not go in justice (Article 31).
- the judgments in the event of revolt could be extreme. The slave who struck (without wounding it) his Master or a member of his family, risked death. At best, it was the whip and the mark with the red iron of a flower of lily (Article 33).
- the judgments in the event of escape (Article 38) or of gathering (Article 16) could also be extreme.
Ambiguity " human or marchandise" was not an innovation of the black Code. Already in Antiquity, the Roman legal system expressed it: according to the natural right, morals, the slave was a man, whereas, according to the substantive law, the precise Roman law, it was a thing.
A crime against humanity
The Western draft is regarded today in France as a Crime against humanity