African Slavery A Different Look

By Spencer Gantt

This title follows the Atlantic Slave Trade from the deep interior of the Dark Continent to the shores of the Caribbean Islands, South America and beyond. Departure and arrival points for 12,000,000 people captured, sold and transported are noted. The slave centers of Europe and New England are described along with the businessmen and ship captains responsible for the Middle Passage. Presented are many facts which are generally distorted or completely ignored by today's mainstream writers and media. Also noted are several books and film which provide surprising facts that are seldom addressed or noted in today's publications

This is the fourth book written by Spencer Gantt. His topics generally address subjects such as slavery and Lincoln's War in a manner not typically used by conventional writers. In his books he addresses little known historical facts which are usually distorted or ignored by these writers. He intends to write more books.

Spencer is a native South Carolinian … a graduate of Charleston High School and the University of South Carolina. Although his favorite subjects are history and literature (especially British), he has a Bachelor of Science degree and worked 33 years for the Westinghouse Nuclear Fuel Division. He is married with three grown children and nine grandchildren. Spencer loves his home State from the "mountains to the sea", especially the beaches of Myrtle, Charleston and Hilton Head and the People therein.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Spencer Gantt
• Release date: Nov 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223366294

Book preview

Dedicated to the

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95%

Also by Spencer Gantt

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WHY LINCOLN CHOSE WAR

and how he ran his war

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SLAVERY AND LINCOLN'S WAR

unnecessary, unconstitutional, uncivil

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VOTE THE BASTARDS OUT!

democrats, republicans, incumbents

Quotes

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We want three things ... powder, ball and brandy. And, we have three things to sell ... men, women and children.

African Chief

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Why should we see Great Britain getting all the slave trade to themselves? Why shouldn't our country be enriched by that lucrative traffic?

John Brown

US Representative Rhode Island

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Nothing will compensate me for the loss of the slave trade. If I cannot sell my captives taken in war, I must kill them, and surely the English would not like that.

King Gelele of Dahomey

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Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.

Aldous Huxley

Introduction

As noted in a previous work, history to me has five factors. These are what, when, where, who & who said. Answer these, and these only, and you have an accurate historical fact from which you can form a personal opinion. The problem with history as it is presented today and, actually, as it has always been presented is that historians add two more. These are how and why, especially why.

Historians write huge history books, hundreds of pages long, with dates galore and many minute, boring details. Since they are self-appointed experts they tell you just how events unfolded and why, especially why, they happened. No opinion by the reader is necessary as the historians do your thinking for you.

These short books which I write are about very specific happenings and events which are factual only with no how or why offered by me, the writer, except as noted in the topic section entitled Summary and Questions. And, of course, you should form your own opinion of the material presented.

Practically everything we have ever been taught about the enslavement of black Africans centers on the theme that it’s the South’s fault. Books, movies, the media and the hate merchants will tell

you how the white man went into the dark jungles of Africa and attacked black villages, kidnapped men, women and children, then hauled them on ships to the Americas. They will tell you these Africans were sold only in the slave ports of Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia and other Southern States. There is hardly a mention of who actually captured and imprisoned these unfortunate people, and force-marched them to African slave ports to then endure the Middle Passage. Hardly ever is there a mention of where the slave-ships were home-ported or where the crew and captain were from. Little is mentioned of the Middle Passage, who was responsible for it and what horrors the African prisoners had to endure just to live through the ordeal. No complaints about any facet of African slavery except for that which concerns the South.

Whenever the terms New World, plantations and the Americas are used in connection with African slavery, the first thought of any reader is of the South. Slavery in the New World means slaves in the South. Slavery on plantations means slaves in the South. Slavery in the Americas means slaves in the South. And, yet, of the 12,000,000 (twelve million) Africans kidnapped and shipped to the New World, ninety-five per cent (95%) went primarily to South America, Central America and the Caribbean Islands. The reason for such a large importation of Africans is that they were generally worked to death in about three years or less. Most

died by age 21. They did not procreate. They had to be replaced with more slaves from Africa.

The 5% remaining went to the New England colonies in North America first, and then to northern Virginia and Maryland. Next they were sent to primarily South Carolina and Georgia. They did procreate and the population expanded to 4,000,000 people by the start of Lincoln's War.

All the writing, all the talking, all the so-called history regarding African slavery in the Americas is about the 5% who ended up in North America. What about the 95%? What happened to these 11,500,000 souls? This book will address the 95 and their captors, drivers, shippers, abusers, sellers.

Slavery in Africa

It’s always been there in some form or another. Many writers or historians tend to push the thought that African slavery wasn’t so bad ... that it was harmless; that slaves were like part of the family and so on. Maybe. But there were many forms of slavery on the Dark Continent, and most were not of the family type. Many still exist today.

Chattel slavery is when a person is totally and completely owned by another person. They are, quite simply, property such as livestock or farming implements or land. The owner, or master, has complete control over the slave’s life and livelihood. A slave can be sold anytime the master wishes regardless of the slave’s position in the master’s hierarchy. More than likely, this type of slavery dominated in Africa as it did in all other places worldwide where slavery was the primary labor system. It was definitely the type of slavery promoted by the black slavers of the African interior who captured and force-marched, imprisoned and sold other black Africans as chattel slaves.

Other forms of African slavery included domestic, military, debt and sacrifice. Domestic slavery was servant work. Military slavery is self-explanatory. In debt slavery, a person would sell himself into slavery to pay a debt. Or, he would sell a family member into slavery, usually a child. The fourth

type, sacrifice, is seldom written about, but certainly deserves attention.

On the death of a king or chief of some African tribes or kingdoms, it was the custom to sacrifice certain individuals to accompany the king into his new life. Many times these numbered in the thousands, and the victims were ALWAYS slaves. Sometimes