Bristol slave trade

The Royal African Company, a London-based trading company, had control over all trade between countries in Britain and Africa from 1672 to 1698.[4] At this time, only ships owned by the Royal African Company could trade for anything, including slaves. Slaves were an increasingly important commodity at the time, since the British colonisation of the Caribbean and the Americas in the 17th century which necessitated cheap labour to work on Sugar, Rum, Tobacco and Cotton Plantations.[2]

The Society of Merchant Venturers, an organisation of elite merchants in Bristol, wanted to participate in the African slave trade, and after much pressure from them and other cities such as Liverpool and Hull, the Royal African Company's control over the slave trade was broken in 1698. As soon as the monopoly was broken, Bristol commenced its participation, though it is thought that illegal involvement preceded this.[2] What is thought to have been the first "legitimate" Bristol slave ship, the Beginning, owned by Stephen Barker, purchased a cargo of enslaved Africans and delivered them to the Caribbean[5]. Some average slave prices were £20, £50, or £100. In her will of 1693, Jane Bridges, Widow of Leigh Upon Mendip bequeathes her interest of £130 in this ship to her grandson Thomas Bridges and indicates that the vessel was owned by the City of Bristol. Due to the over-crowding and harsh conditions on the ships, it is estimated that approximately half of each cargo of slaves did not survive the trip across the Atlantic.[6][2][2]

Bristol became one of the biggest centres of the transatlantic slave trade between 1725 and 1740, when it is estimated that profits of 5-20% were made from the trading of black slaves. One estimate suggests that over 500,000 Africans were brought into slavery by Bristol traders.[7] By the 1730s, an average of 39 slave ships left Bristol each year, and between 1739 and 1748, there were 245 slave voyages from Bristol (about 37.6% of the whole British trade). In the last years of the British slave trade, however, Bristol's share fell to 62 voyages, a mere 3.3% of the trade – compared to Liverpool's 62% (1,605 voyages).[8]

An estimated 2108 slaving ventures departed from Bristol between 1698 and 1807. The average amount of enslaved people on a ship was considered to be in excess of 250. It is therefore estimated that merchants in Bristol were responsible for, in excess of, 500'000 enslaved African people being shipped to the Caribbean and North America[9].

The triangular trade was a route taken by slave merchants between England, Northwest Africa and the Caribbean during the years 1697 to 1807.[10] Bristol ships traded their goods for slaves from south-east Nigeria and Angola, which were then known as Calabar and Bonny. They exchanged goods produced in Bristol like copper and brass goods as well as gunpowder. [11] The ships then set sail to St Kitts, Barbados and Virginia which were English colonies where slaves worked on sugar and tobacco plantations.[8] Alongside slaves, British colonies were supplied with a wide range of goods for the plantations by the Bristol ships; this included guns, agricultural implements, foodstuffs, soap, candles, ladies’ boots and 'Negro cloaths' for the enslaved, from which the British economy benefited.[2] Bristol additionally profited from slave-produced Caribbean goods such as sugar, rum, indigo and cocoa which were brought to Bristol for sugar refining, tobacco processing and chocolate manufacturing; all important local industries. Thousands of working-class people were employed in these processing industries.[2]

The slave trade significantly influenced the growth of racist theory as a method for society to justify itself.[2] Stories of slave rebellions, runaways and attacks on plantation owners in the colonies were printed in the British press to perpetuate the myth that Black people were unreasonable and violent. Such narratives impacted how black people were treated in Bristol long into the 20th century. For example, in the 1960s, the Bristol Omnibus Company openly employed only white bus drivers and conductors,[2] resulting in the Bristol Bus Boycott of 1963.[12]

Street names such as Guinea Street, Jamaica Street, Codrington Place, Tyndall's Park, Worral and Stapleton Roads are references to Bristol's involvement in the transatlantic slave trade.[2] Using the wealth generated from the slave trade, merchants invested in purchasing land, cultural buildings and upgrading ships in Bristol. The Theatre Royal in Bristol, which is the second oldest working theatre in the country, was built as a result of very wealthy subscribers (that directly or indirectly benefitted from businesses involved in the slave trade) each pledging a sum of money for the building.[7] Some buildings and institutions such as schools were named after their slave trading benefactors; for example, Colston Hall, Colston Girls School and Colston Primary School (renamed recently to Cotham Gardens Primary School) were named after Edward Colston, a Bristol-born slave trader and member of the Royal African Company and the Merchant Venturers Society.[13]

Several Bristol banks, such as the Bristol Old Bank, were founded by prominent slave traders and merchants, such as Isaac Elton.[14][15][16] They have amalgamated and changed names many times before becoming part of other institutions, notably NatWest.[17]

Whilst the Bristol economy benefited, it was primarily the merchants that owned the ships who made significant material gains in their personal family wealth. The merchants were organised as a group in the Merchant Venturers Society. Given their status with holding leadership positions in Bristol, the Society was able to successfully oppose movements to abolish the slave trade in the late 1700s in order to maintain their power and source of wealth. The slave trade in Britain was officially outlawed in 1834.[2] Following Britain's Slave Compensation Act of 1837, which compensated slave owners for the loss of what was considered their property, according to the Bristol Museums, plantation owners based in Bristol claimed over £500,000, equivalent to £2bn in 2020.[18]

The folk duo Show of Hands have written and performed a song entitled "The Bristol Slaver" covering the subject.