6 Slavers and Raiders

Slavers & Raiders

The Arab slave trade lasted from 700 to 1911 AD

The European slave trade began in Africa 1441 when the first shipment of African slaves were sent directly from Africa to Portugal. The Portuguese would come to dominate the gold, spice and slave trade for almost a century before other European nations became involved.

photo below:

At an exhibition in Fort Worth, while waiting for a group of students to arrive, a photographer caught the artist resting on the floor beside one of his works, Defended Village.

Defended Village~12 x 40 x 12 inches~Wire and Aluminum~1991

Congo Captive

One moment a man or woman might be walking to their fields to tend to their crops and the next caught in a net, and taken away. Other times entire villages were raided, many people killed and the survivors taken captive.

The Kidnapping of Olaudah

In the mid-1700s, when Olaudah Equiano was 10 or 11, he and his sister were kidnapped while their parents were working in the fields in what is now Nigeria. They were sold to different people and Olaudah never saw his family again.

Olaudah Wrote:One day, when all our people were gone out to their works as usual, and only I and my dear sister were left to mind the house, two men and a woman got over our walls and in a moment seized us both, and, without giving us time to cry out, or make resistance, they stopped our mouths, and ran off with us into the nearest wood. Here they tied our hands, and continued to carry us as far as they could, till night came on, when we reached a small house where the robbers halted for refreshment, and spent the night. We were then unbound, but were unable to take any food; and, being quite overpowered by fatigue and grief, our only relief was some sleep. Source: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USASships.htm

Journey to the Coast

1992, 23x43x11", Portfolio 35

The journey to the slave markets in the north or to the coasts were arduous, thousands of captives would die or be killed along the way when they could not keep the pace.

Coup de Grace

1993 Wire & Aluminum, 29 x 48 x 12 inches, Portfolio #39

Scottish explorer and humanitarian Dr. David Livingstone wrote the following about the slave trade:

"To overdraw its evils is a simple impossibility.... We passed a slave woman shot or stabbed through the body and lying on the path. [Onlookers] said an Arab who passed early that morning had done it in anger at losing the price he had given for her, because she was unable to walk any longer. We passed a woman tied by the neck to a tree and dead.... We came upon a man dead from starvation.... The strangest disease I have seen in this country seems really to be broken heartedness, and it attacks free men who have been captured and made slaves."

Dr. Livingstone estimated that 80,000 Africans died each year before ever reaching the slave markets of Zanzibar

Overnight Resting

H. 24" W. 12" D. 11" Portfolio # 110

A mother clutches her child to her breast during an overnight rest stop.

Road Resting II

H. 8" W. 14" D. 8" Portfo # 44

With feet and hands tied and a stick wedged in the bends of the elbows and knees in this manner it was impossible for the captive to even raise himself up if pushed over. This is one of the methods used to restrain captives while stopped during the trek through the interior of Africa. This might be done when the slavers waited to meet up with buyers.

Britain moved into the slave trade in Africa in 1562. Slave trade increased significantly with development of plantation colonies of the Americas, especially in Brazil. Other countries involved in the European slave trade included Spain (beginning in 1479); North America (1619); Holland (1625); France (1642); Sweden (1647); and Denmark (1697).