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On the Jan. 1 anniversary of the Haitian Revolution, teleSUR takes the opportunity to take a historic look at the momentous and cataclysmic slave rebellion, focusing on the wider Translatlantic Slave Trade, which lasted for more than 300 years and took a tremendous toll on humanity.
Haiti: First Slave Rebellion
Toussaint Louverture was the leader of history's largest ever slave revolt, which started in 1791 and lasted for over 12 years. The result was the eventual transformation of the French colony of St. Domingue into the independent country of Haiti, the world's first truly anti-colonial, anti-slavery Black republic.
Louverture led the anti-slavery movement in his country into a war for independence, using his political and military genius to fight the French and Spanish colonial powers in what would later become a fully-fledged, independent nation-state.
Numbers of Slaves in Americas and Deaths
Over the period of the Atlantic Slave Trade, from approximately 1526 to 1867, some 12.5 million slaves were shipped from Africa, and 10.7 million arrived in the Americas.
By 1820, nearly four Africans for every one European had crossed the Atlantic. About four out of every five females who traversed the Atlantic were from Africa.
Well over 90 percent of enslaved Africans were brought to the Caribbean and South America.
Approximately 2.4 million Africans died during the journey to the Americas, known as the Middle Passage. Estimates by researchers suggest that at least 4 million Africans died in Africa during the raids and forced marches toward the ports.
Other estimates also say that up to 5 million might have died right after their arrival into the Americas in so-called “seasoning camps,” the most notorious being found in the Caribbean regions.
Brazil Had the Most Slaves in the Americas
From about 1600 to 1850, some 4.5 million enslaved Africans were taken to Brazil, which amounts to 40 percent of all slaves brought to the Americas.
Brazil was the last country in the Americas to abolish slavery in 1888. The 2010 Brazilian census found that “97 million Brazilians, or 50.7 percent of the population, now define themselves as Black or mixed race … making African-Brazilians the official majority for the first time.”
The Underground Railroad
The railroad was a network of secret routes and safe locations used by 19th-century slaves of African descent in the United States who had escaped from their owners in southern states and sought to settle in the 14 free states of the North and “the promised land” Canada. They were aided by abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause.
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The network's name had nothing to do with it being underground or with trains. The name came from the fact that the network was carrying out its activities in the dark and in secret while railway terms were used by those involved with the system to describe how it worked.
Routes were lines, stopping places were called stations, those who aided along the way were conductors and their charges were known as packages.
Slavery Financed the Industrial Revolution and the Rise of Capitalism
Slavery helped finance the Industrial Revolution in Europe. Plantation owners, shipbuilders, and merchants who dealt in the slave trade accumulated vast fortunes, leading to the establishment of banks and heavy industry in Europe and the strengthening and expansion of capitalism around the world.
In his ground-breaking work, "Capitalism and Slavery," published in 1944, Eric Williams countered the traditional view of the role of slavery in the world economy. He firmly established the African slave trade's central role in European economic development.
The African slave trade was also the backbone of the rise of the U.S. as a dominant capitalist power.
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