In general, the late 1700s and early 1800s, European explorers forced their way through the insides of western and central Africa. During this time, European nations greatly traded for slaves, ivory and gold. Slaves were purely treated as property, and often times separated from their families and forced from their homelands at an extremely young age to spend their lives working.
In "Epistle to William Wilberfroce," Anna Laeticia Barbauld mentions Africa when she says:
"She knows and she persists—Still Afric bleeds,
Unchecked, the human traffic still proceeds;
She stamps her infamy to future time,
And on her hardened forehead seals the crime."
In "A Negro's Complaint," William Cowper includes:
"By our blood in Afric wasted
Ere our necks received the chain;
By the miseries that we tasted,
Crossing in your barks the main;"
Click here to view African slaves in around 1800.
Parent Map
Vetted?
No