SLO#1 Slave Port in Bristol (what i learned)

 

John Fowler owned the Trans-Atlantic slave trade ship named Africa. The Africa made two voyages, one in 1766 and in 1788, and each voyages began in Bristol.¹ I learned that Bristol was a major slaving port of the British Trade to Africa with 600 voyages which was a majority of the slave exports between 1747-1769. Because there was a demand for slaves in North America well before the American Revolution, slave export rose from 20,000 a year in 1750 to 40,000 a year in 1770,² so John Fowler contributed to the enslavement of humans in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.

1“Voyages”, The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, 2016, www.slavevoyages.org

2David Richardson, “Bristol, Africa and the Eighteenth Century Slave Trade to America Volume 3 The Year of Decline 1746-1769”, Bristol Records Society's Publications VOL. XLII, (1991)



SLO#1 Slave Trade Ships in Common (discovery)

After analyzing the time period of the American Revolution (1763-1788) in the Voyages Database, I located 3,100 total ships involved in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. Under the flag of Great Britain, there was a reoccurring ship named Africa, and it made 42 slave trade voyages during this time period. I uncovered two other ships; the African Queen and the Royal African and both may have more in common than their ship names. All three ships, a total of 47 slave trade voyages, have at least one similar principle region of slave purchase, Bight of Biarfa and Gulf of Guinea Islands. The ship's slave landing also had similarities, their common landings include Jamaica, Grenada, Dominica and Barbados.¹ I'm going to dive a bit deeper to see what more I can find on these slave trade ships!

1“Voyages”, The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, 2016, www.slavevoyages.org

SLO# 1 A Journey Towards Naming Names (initial)

So the journey of naming names of slave trade ships begins. Since I'm boarding uncharted territory, it will be a new learning experience but I hope to find the connections between well known History and slavery with slavery in the forefront. I am excited to see were this takes me in discovering who these people were and how the American Revolution (1763-1788) affected slavery.