Slavery and the Numbers Name Stephen Small, Ph.D.

I was a guest curator at the Merseyside Maritime Museums gallery on Transatlantic Slavery that opened in 1992. I contributed several chapters to the book that the gallery produced Transatlantic Slavery. Against Human Dignity edited by Tony Tibbles and published in 1994. The gallery became the International Slavery Museum in 2007 and offers a major contribution to discussions of slavery not only in the British Empire, but across the Atlantic world, past and present. As the guest curators were being selected for the gallery, there was a meeting of more than 15 experts on the slave trade, slavery and transatlantic shipping to discuss its nature, scope and consequences. This included Alissandra Cummings, Toyin Falola, Paul Lovejoy, Patrick Manning, David Richardson, Tony Tibbles, James Walvin and others. I was also present. During that meeting we had a discussion of how many Africans were kidnapped, enslaved or died during the slave trade and the middle passage. The numbers discussed varied greatly from 12 million to more than 60 million. We could not agree on a final number in that meeting. One of the experts there said that we will never know exactly how many people were kidnapped, enslaved or died during transatlantic slavery, but we do have records from all of the nations involved in slavery that provide estimates of how many Africans were loaded onto ships, how many died during the middle passage and how many were landed in the Americas. The best current scholarly estimate of these numbers based on the records and on some calculation of records missing is offered by David Eltis and David Richardson in their book Atlas of the Transatlantic Slave Trade published by Yale University Press, in 2010. Overall, they calculate that between 1501 and 1867 an estimated 12.5 million Africans were captured by the European nations involved in the slave trade. This is an excellent book and must be the solid basis for any discussion of the numbers game. However, other scholars, including myself, insist, that while we must use these records, we should also recognize that these records can never be accurate. Why? Because we know that many records are missing, other records were falsified, and many people simply refused to keep records. In addition, there were many ships that sailed even after the slave trade was legally abolished. The debate continues. I was introduced to this debate in the Netherlands when I began my research there in 2006. The debate has continued since I became the Ninsee Extraordinary Professor of Slavery and its Legacy at the University of Amsterdam in 2010. This is because whenever I met Dutch people and they asked me what my research involved, they frequently responded but the Dutch did not have that many slaves. I came to the conclusion that there was a great deal of ignorance about how many Africans were kidnapped, transported and enslaved by the Dutch over the course of their several hundred years of involvement in the slave trade and slavery. And I came to the conclusion that people who said the Dutch did not have that many slaves either had no idea about the actual numbers involved; or they had a narrow conception of how many were involved; or they compared the Dutch nation with the

British and the Spanish, who had much larger numbers. I found this a troubling discussion. Not just because people on the street made such claims. But also because several of the publications I read by Dutch scholars also made similar claims. I call this the numbers game. I have seen and heard the numbers game being played in Britain. I have seen and heard it being played in the United States. And I have seen and heard it being played in Brazil. It is important not just because it raises questions of fact and methods. But also because it is frequently used as a moral compass to suggest that because the Dutch did not have that many slaves they should somehow be considered guilty than the other nations. I also find that this issue often results in many Dutch people suggesting that because the Dutch did not have that many slaves there is no need for any serious research on Dutch slavery and its legacies. But I disagree. I disagree fundamentally. Any one of us concerned with examining the legacy of slavery, and concerned to see a rigorous, accurate and inclusive account of what happened during slavery and the slave trade must confront the assumptions and arguments of this numbers game. It is a fact that one of the most researched issues in the history of slavery and the European slave trade is the question of numbers. How many Africans were kidnapped from Africa? How many were shipped across the Atlanta to become enslaved in the Americas? How many survived the Atlantic crossing and how many were killed during the crossing? Most work has been done on the middle passage the victims that were loaded like animals onto ships, and those that survived or were killed during the middle passage. And we have very substantial evidence for the numbers kidnapped and transported by the British, Dutch, French, Portuguese and Spanish. All slavery was inhuman and should be condemned regardless of numbers. But the issue of numbers is important, because it conveys the scope of the human suffering, as well as the scope of economic activity and profits. But this issue is not only an issue of counting the numbers. It is also an issue of what kind of counting should be done. And it is a moral issue. So the first thing that needs to be said is that I reject the underlying assumptions of the numbers game. Violence is violence, suffering is suffering and murder is murder. It is inhumane to say that violence only matters if it includes large numbers of people. It is of no consolation to the victims of such inhumanity to learn that the Dutch only transported 5% of the Africans kidnapped from Africa. It is no consolation to the families of those kidnapped to know that the Dutch only transported 5% of Africans kidnapped. Nor is it any consolidate to the descendants of those that were enslaved people of African origin born in the societies across the Americas to know that the Dutch only kidnapped 5% of those kidnapped. But, people like to play the numbers game, and young impressionable people are affected by it. So we must challenge the numbers game. And when we challenge the numbers game we quickly discover that the current estimates are also highly problematic, incorrect and conceptually flawed.

First, the numbers most commonly mentioned by some of the foremost scholars on Dutch slavery and the slave trade are significant understatement of the actual number involved. The numbers most often quoted are actually the lowest possible number in the entire process. That is, the most common number quoted usually refers only to the numbers of Africans landed by Dutch ships in the Americas. But we know that many more Africans were loaded on to ships than those that were landed in the Americas. And we know that an even larger number of Africans were forced into storage areas and castles on the coast of Africa, than those that were loaded onto ships. And we know that even larger numbers were kidnapped from inland areas in Africa, than were loaded into castles or storage areas. And we know that a significant number were killed or murdered before they were even transported to the coast. And finally, we know that all those that were killed, kidnapped, loaded onto ships or landed in the Americas, left before lots of family members. So we are really talking about numbers much bigger than the millions transported in ships. What are the actual numbers? We know that between 1576 and 1850, the Dutch were responsible for landing in the Americas at least 475,200 Africans that had been kidnapped from Africa. A large number of these people were later transported to other places, in South America and the Caribbean mainly via the Spanish Asiento. We know that at the same time the Dutch were responsible for loading onto ships at least 554,300 African captives. That means that at least 79,100 Africans were killed but the Dutch during this transportation process. (Note it is typical to say that these people died during this passage but this is misleading and distortion. To say someone died implies that they did not die as a result of the hostile actions of someone else. In fact these people died because they were kidnapped, treated inhumanely and transported against their will across the Atlantic Ocean. So I think it is more accurate to say that they were killed rather than that they died). We know that many Africans were killed in the unsanitary and violent conditions of the many castles built by the Dutch in Africa, before they were even loaded onto ships. We dont have exact numbers but we know that thousands more were killed during this time. And we know that thousands more Africans were killed by their captors while being transported from inland areas in Africa, to the coast. Finally, we know that in Africa, between the 1570s and the 1850s) Africans had extended families with an average of more than 5 members. So if 554,200 were loaded onto ships, than at least thousand more were either killed during the kidnapping and imprisonment process or were left behind as survivors of families. And it means that another several million more Africans who were not kidnapped, or killed, saw their family members kidnapped and killed or transported and enslaved. In other words a focus just on the number of Africans loaded onto ships or landed in the Americas is a significant underestimate of the total number of Africans that were affected by the European slave trade. The most common estimates of numbers typically focuses on the smallest possible numbers (those landed in the Americas); uses primarily official documents (ship and government records which are known to be flawed); and thus ignores the very large numbers of other Africans affected

(those killed during capture or imprisonment in Africa). So it is time for us to revise the numbers that are being used, and we need to utilize this broader conceptualization of the numbers involved before we even begin to play this numbers game. In light of these concerns I find it difficult to accept that the Dutch did not have that many slaves when the best estimates produced by scholars indicate that the Dutch were responsible for landing at least 475,200 Africans in the Americas; we know that the Dutch were responsible for loading onto ships at least 554,300 African captives; and thus, we know that the Dutch were responsible for the killing of at least 79,100 Africans during this process. And according to my analysis this is a significant understatement of the total number of Africans affected when we take account of those killed in the castle prisons in Africa, or on the trail from inland to the coast, and those children, siblings and parents who were left behind. And all of this is before we begin to calculate the exploitation, suffering and brutality experienced by Africans and their descendants enslaved in Dutch Colonies such as Suriname and the Dutch Antilles over a period of more than 200 years. But that is another question. The European slave trade and slavery are inherently inhumane and immoral. And we should not hesitate to condemn them. Even a single person affected by slavery is an outrage. And so we shouldnt even play the numbers game. But because the numbers game is so prevalent in the work of academics; because the numbers game is used by Dutch scholars and many Dutch people to suggest that Dutch involvement in slavery and the slave trade was not so bad (as compared with say the British or Spanish) then we must challenge their numbers and the assumptions upon which their numbers are based.