Report from the Select Committee on Slave Trade (East Coast of Africa); together with the proceedings of the Committee, minutes of evidence, appendix and index

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 832922498

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-79587

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Report from the Select Committee on Slave Trade (East Coast of Africa); together with the proceedings of the Committee, minutes of evidence, appendix and index

Place of publication:: [London]

Publisher:: [The House of Commons]

Year of publication:: 1871

Scope:: 1 Online-Ressource (XXIV, 242 S.)

Collection:: Economics Books

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XIV PROCEEDINGS OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE ^‘ 2. The negro slave in general passes through three stages ere he reaches his final destination. “ 3. These are, (1) the land journey from his home to the coast, (2) a short sea voyage to the Ish.nd of Zanzibar, where is the open slave market, and (3) the final sea passage from Zanzibar to Arabia, Persia, or Madagascar. ‘‘ 4. From the evidence laid before the Committee it appears that the large majority of the slaves are now brought from the western side of the Lake Nyassa (a distance of nearly 500 miles from the coast) to Kilwa, which is the principal port of shipment for Zan zibar, and is near the southern limit of the Zanzibar dominions. 5. Your Committee had before them extracts from Despatches of Dr. Livingstone, addressed to the Earl of Clarendon, when Her Majesty’s Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and his testimony as to the methods resorted to by ihe slave hunters, and the cruel ties and horrors of the trade is fully supported by the evidence of witness who had travelled in the interior. This evidence is well summed up in the Report of the Committee on the East African Slave Trade addressed to the Earl of Clarendon, a quotation from v/hich is as follows:— The persons by whom this traffic is carried on are for the most part Arabs, subjects of the Sultan of Zanzibar. These slave dealers start for the interior, well armed, and ‘ provided with articles for the harter of slaves, such as beads and cotton cloth. On arriving at the scene of their operations they incite and sometimes help the natives of one tribe to ‘ make war upon another. Their assistance almost invariably secures victory to the side ' which they support, and the captives become their property, either by right or by pur- ^ chase, the price in the latter case being only a few yards of cotton cloth. In the course ' of these operations, thousands are killed, or die subsequently of their wounds or of star vation, villages are burnt, and the women and children carried away as slaves. The ' complete depopulation of the country between the coast and the present field of slave ‘ dealers’ operations attest the fearful character of these raids. Having by these and other means obtained a sufficient number of slaves to allow for ‘ the heavy losses on the road, the slave dealers start with them for the coast. The horrors ‘ attending this long journey have been full) described by Dr. Livingstone and others. ‘ The slaves are marched in gangs, the males with their necks yoked in heavy forked ‘ sticks, which at night are fastened to the ground, or lashed together so as to make escape ‘ impossible. The women and children are bound with thongs. Any attempt at escape ' or to untie their bonds, or any wavering or lagging on the journey, has but one punish ment immediate death. Ihe sick are left behind, and the route of a slave caravan can ‘ be tracked by the dying and the dead. The Arabs only value these poor creatures at the price which they fetch in the market, and if they are not likely to pay the cost of their conveyance they are got rid of. The result is, that a large number of the slaves ' die or are murdered on their journey, and the survivors arrive at their destination in a ^ state of the greatest misery and emaciation.’ “ 6. From Kilwa the main body of the slaves are shipped to Zanzibar, but some are carried direct to the northern ports. “7. At Zanzibar the slaves are sold either in open market or direct to the dealer, and they are then shipped in Arab dhows for Arabia and Persia ; the numbers of each cargo vary from one or two slaves to between three and four hundred. “ whole slave trade by sea, whether for the supply of the Sultan’s African dominions or the markets in Arabia and Persia, is carried on by Arabs from Muscat and other ports on the Arabian coast. They are not subjects of Zanzibar, but chiefly belong to tribes of roving and predatory habits, who come down to Zanzibar during the first four months of the year, carrying merchandise; they then make their purchases either at Kilwa or Zanzibar, and start on their return journey north in August and September. 9. The sea passage exposes the slave to much suffering ; and, in addition to the danger from overcrowding and insufficient food, the loss of life connected with the attempt to escape Her Majesty’s cruisers is very considerable, it being the practice to use any means to get rid of the slaves in order to escape condemnation, should the dhow be captured. Between Kilwa and Zanzibar a dhow lately lost a third of the slaves ; there were 90 thrown overboard, dead or dying, many of them horribly emaciated and in a terrible state. “ 10. The ready market founá for the slave'in Arabia and Persia, and the large profit upon the sale, are quite sufficient inducements for the continuance of the traffic. ^ 11. It seems impossible to arrive at an exact conclusion as to the actual number of slaves who leave the African coast in one year, but from the Returns laid before the Com mittee an estimate may be formed. At the port of Kilwa is the Custom-house of the Sultan of Zanzibar, through which pass all slaves that are not smuggled, and there a tax is levied on all that pass the Custom-house. 12. The following is a Return of the number of slaves exported through the Custom house

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