Papers by David Richardson
The Journal of Economic History, 1995
This article challenges the widely held view that slave prices in Africa fell substantially and p... more This article challenges the widely held view that slave prices in Africa fell substantially and permanently after Britain abolished its slave trade in 1807. Examination of slave-price data shows that, when allowance is made for movements in prices of trade goods bartered for slaves, real slave prices fell sharply between 1807 and 1820 but that the fall was confined to West Africa. In West Central Africa prices remained steady before 1820. Thereafter, prices rose strongly in both areas, and between 1830 and 1850 prices were generally close to the levels reached between 1783 and 1807, the height of the Atlantic slave trade.
The British Parliament's decision in 1807 to outlaw slave carrying by British subjects had profou... more The British Parliament's decision in 1807 to outlaw slave carrying by British subjects had profound international consequences. Having supported transatlantic slave trading for centuries as a central pillar of colonial projects in the Americas, British governments in the nineteenth century pursued a range of policies designed not only to end slavery within British territories, but also to restrict the slave systems of other political communities. This international antislavery advocacy proved difficult, expensive, and politically divisive. In places untouched by organized antislavery, slavery and slave trading continued to be considered -as they had been in Britain up to the late eighteenth century -integral features of the prevailing social and economic order. Contests over the status of slavery challenged the economic interests of pro-slavery groups. They also brought into focus larger questions of collective honour and national virtue. Continental European elites commonly suspected that anti-slavery masked other goals, making them hesitant to embrace policies they knew to be politically unpopular and potentially damaging economically. Ultimately, however, they felt compelled to condemn publicly slavery in order to uphold their international credentials as ‹civilized› nations. Having taken steps to introduce anti-slavery measures, they went on publicly to celebrate their humanity and to downplay their earlier involvement in slavery. These individual national decisions had important cumulative effects: by the second half of the nineteenth century, anti-slavery was more a hallmark of European civilization than just a peculiarly British preoccupation.
Uploads
Papers by David Richardson