In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

28 Chapter 2 The Crisis of Abolition, Legitimate Trade, and the Adaptation of Slavery The criminalization of the Atlantic slave trade did not produce a reversion to precontact traditions of slavery in West Africa. Rather, its termination induced a wide and sociologically signi¤cant set of new transformations of dominance relationships. For slaves, slave owners, and administrators, abolition was a prototype crisis, a practice round for emancipation. During this period slave-owning elites developed the strategies of negotiation, evasion, and opposition that they would put to effective use in subsequent periods. Similarly, European administrators learned to balance metropolitan demands for increased commercial productivity, potential threats to the political and economic integrity of the colonies from African opposition to antislavery legislation, and the stringent demands of the abolitionist lobby. The administrative structures and policies that emerged from this potent mix in the coastal enclaves of this period would form the models for later colonial states. Slavery itself changed in response to the crisis of abolition. The roles of slaves in cultivating trade goods and serving as laborers and soldiers expanded, even as ¶uctuating slave prices and increased demand for agricultural labor expanded slave ownership to individuals outside the traditionally powerful and af¶uent slave-owning classes. The trend toward a slave mode of production, begun by the Atlantic slave trade, was exacerbated by the expanding producYou are reading copyrighted material published by Ohio University Press/Swallow Press. Unauthorized posting, copying, or distributing of this work except as permitted under U.S. copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. Abolition, Legitimate Trade, and the Adaptation of Slavery 29 tion of legitimate goods in this era as a trade in raw materials gradually replaced the traf¤c of people. Abolition de Jure The abolition of the Atlantic slave trade was largely a nineteenth-century story. The ¤rst signi¤cant calls for the institution’s demise began in the 1780s in the Protestant northern European states. On March 16, 1792, Denmark became the¤rst European power to forbid the slave trade to its citizens.1 Only a small number of slaves were carried annually on Danish-¶agged ships, however, and the decree did not take effect until 1803. Even after this date British and German plantation owners in the Danish Caribbean continued to import slaves legally. More importantly, abolitionism ¤rmly took root in Britain during this period. Although there were distinct philosophical roots to British abolitionism, the near-legendary historian of abolition, Roger Antsey, has argued that “it was mainly religious conviction, insight and zeal which made it possible for antislavery feeling to be subsumed in a crusade against the slave trade and slavery.”2 In England , evangelical and missionary ideals took hold among a class beginning to accumulate capital. Beginning in the 1780s, educated English and Scotsmen such as Sir Samuel Romilly, Thomas Clarkson, and Thomas Walker—men who had links both to capitalist institutions and to nonconformist churches—began to lead petition drives meant to in¶uence Parliament to pass abolitionist legislation . Because of the credentials of the movement’s leaders, these efforts quickly gained the support of “cities and towns, churches and vestries, and a wide range of private and public organizations.”3 By 1793 lower-class radicals had emerged as a major force in the abolitionist movement, which was also driven by an environment of “intellectual and theological change.”4 The abolitionist movement was closely related to the mature state of capitalism within England. The mobilization of a massive system for exporting slaves during the previous centuries, accompanied as it was by con¶ict, the plundering of agricultural villages, and the reduction of production potential, interfered with the gathering and export of raw materials that British companies needed from Africa.5 The industrial revolution’s demand for these materials drove the abolitionist process among mercantilists.6 There is some debate as to which factor— ideological or commercial—was more signi¤cant in contributing to abolitionism in Britain. The general consensus of historians is that “industrialisation created social classes and political groups which, lacking any strong vested interest in You are reading copyrighted material published by Ohio University Press/Swallow Press. Unauthorized posting, copying, or distributing of this work except as permitted under U.S. copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. 30 Slavery and Reform in West Africa Atlantic slavery and jockeying for power with older mercantile forces which did, allied with those who opposed the dealings in human beings on theological and humanitarian...

Share