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In many parts of the world today, descendants of slaves still sing the praises of their ancestors and are spiritually connected to the motherland – surviving centuries of torture and near-annihilation.

The profits that came directly from the trans-Atlantic slave trade fuelled the British industrial revolution.

Britain became ‘Great Britain’ on the backs of Africans. African labour was the bedrock and the foundation for the development of the British economy from 1660 to 1800.

Three principal industries were responsible for this stupendous growth: sugar, rum and tobacco. The breeding ground for these lucrative products was the colonies of the West Indies. Every time we smoke a cigarette, put sugar in our tea, or sip a glass of rum, let us remember that the enjoyment of these products came from black blood. There are no two ways about it - it is what it is.

TRADE PROFITS

The 17th and the 18th centuries saw an incredible rise in trade profits which contributed greatly to the triangular trade.

The slave trade was the wheel that kept it moving and made Great Britain a very rich country indeed. It is estimated that by 1750 most towns and cities in England were making very profitable returns, thanks to the trade in goods coming in as a direct result of work on the plantation fields of the West Indies.

A writer once noted that that the British empire was a “magnificent superstructure of American commerce and naval power built on an African foundation”.

In the 18th century it was estimated that for every Englishman in the West Indies and his black labour force of workers and servants, he could easily employ an entire group of English men and pay the going rate.

For every white man or black man in the West Indies their net value was worth seven Englishmen back home. For every Englishman coming home those days from his profits accrued from the plantations, he easily brought over 10 pounds sterling (about a year’s income) which is 20 times less than what he would have made had he stayed in England.

The economist William Wood estimated that a profit of seven shillings per person per year in 17th century England was enough to enrich the country.

Each white worker in the West Indies alone was bringing in profit of over seven pounds a year. And so we discover that by 1775 the entire net value of the British colonies of the West Indies was worth a staggering 50 million pounds sterling - a significant figure for the British economy in the 18th century.

In 1798 the economist Pitt concluded that the annual income from the West Indian plantations stood at four million pounds as compared to one million pounds that came in annually from the rest of the world.

It is simply staggering to discover the amount of wealth that flowed into Britain as a result of the slave trade. Barbados alone supplied five times the number of imports that came in from the bread colonies.

According to Dr Eric Eustace Williams in his book Capitalism and Slavery he estimates that: “Little Barbados with its 166 square miles was worth more to British capitalism than New England, New York and Pennsylvania combined”.

Jamaica alone imported six times more lucrative goods than the imports from the bread colonies and was a significant factor in economic growth of this country during the entire period of the slave trade.

And all of these profits were fully sanctioned and commissioned by the monarchy in the able and trustworthy hands of the Royal African Company whose aim was to bring in wealth of sugar, gold, slaves and negroes.

And to think that Jamaicans were given such a hard time in Great Britain during the Windrush era.

Today William Willber-force is being praised as the ‘Great White Hero’ that abolished slavery; there is even a feature film detailing his amazing exploits to save the poor, beleagured blacks.

The abolition of slavery came about from economic self-interest and not humanitarianism.

There is no doubt that William Wilberforce contributed something towards its end, but so did countless others, Africans and Afro-Caribbeans especially, whose names go unpublished and their heroic deeds un-sung.

The fact of the matter remains that in 1807 Britain could no longer squeeze any more blood out of the stone of slavery that hung from the necks of millions of enslaved Africans.

POLITICALLY EXPEDIENT

It had become economically and politically expedient to abolish slavery in 1807 and not because thanks to William Wilberforce the British parliament had seen the light and was swinging from the chandeliers singing Amazing Grace while clasping the hands of their black brothers.

Amazing Grace? More like amazing race. What an amazing race of Africans to have come through so much torture and inhuman treatment to reclaim their rightful place in history.

It is a battle that is far from over.

Published: 21 March 2007
Issue: 1261

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