The Igbo and their neighbours during the era of the Atlantic slave-trade

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes D. Northrup, ‘Igbo and Myth Igbo: Culture and Ethnicity in the Atlantic World, 1600–1850’, Slavery and Abolition, 23, 3 (2000). D.B. Chambers' article is in Slavery and Abolition, 18 (1997), pp.72–97. The reference here is to J. Thornton, Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400–1800 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998). Northrup, ‘Igbo and Myth Igbo’, p.14. D.B. Chambers, ‘Ethnicity in the Diaspora: The Slave-trade and the Creation of African “Nations” in the Americas’, Slavery and Abolition, 22 (Dec. 2001), pp.25–39 and ‘The Significance of Igbo in the Bight of Biafra Slave-Trade: A Rejoinder to Northrup's “Myth Igbo” Slavery and Abolition, 23 (April 2002), pp.101–20. See his ‘Tracing Igbo into the Diaspora’, Identifying Enslaved Africans: The ‘Nigerian’ Hinterland and the African Diaspora, Proceedings of the UNESCO/SSHRCC Summer Institute, York University, Toronto, Canada, 14 July–1 Aug. 1997, pp.302–33 and ‘Source Material for Studying Igbo in the Diaspora’, Source Material for Studying the Slave Trade and the African Diaspora: Papers from a conference of the Centre of Commonwealth Studies, University of Stirling, April 1996, Occasional Paper Number 5 (Centre of Commonwealth Studies, University of Stirling), pp.90–118. F.J. Kolapo, ‘Military Turbulence, Population Displacement and Commerce on a Southern Frontier of the Sokoto Caliphate: Nupe, C.1810–1857’ (PhD Thesis, York University, Ontario, Canada, 1999); and ‘Post-abolition Niger River Commerce and the 19th Century Igala Political Crisis’, African Economic History, 27 (1999), pp.45–67. The Bight of Biafran slave export/import is usually grouped into Igbo and Ibibio sections, with the Igbo component consistently higher. See P.E. Lovejoy, ‘The Impact of the Atlantic Slave Trade on Africa: A Review of the Literature’, The Journal of African History, 30, 3 (1989), p.375: ‘The overwhelming majority of slaves from the Bight of Biafra were Igbo, with a secondary concentration of Ibibio. Those from the Bight of Benin were more diverse in ethnic origin’; but for the mention of Igbo near neighbours, see Chambers ‘The Significance’, p.107. Also, see D. Geggus, ‘Sex Ratio, Age and Ethnicity in the Atlantic Slave Trade: Data from French Shipping and Plantation Records’, The Journal of African History, 30 (1989), p.32, table 4; and p.36, fn.53. Chambers' concepts in ‘Tracing Igbo’, pp.91–2. F.J. Kolapo, ‘Trading Ports of the Niger-Benue Confluence Area, c.1830–1873’, in R.C. Law and Silke Strickrodt (eds.), Ports of the Slave Trade (Bights of Benin and Biafra) Papers from a Conference of the Centre of Commonwealth Studies, University of Stirling, June 1998, Centre of Commonwealth Studies, University of Stirling, 1999, pp.96–121. R.A. Sargent, Economics, Politics and Social Change In the Benue Basin c.1300–1700. A Regional Approach to Pre-colonial West African History (Enugu: Forth Dimension Publishers, 1999); E.O. Erim, Idoma Nationality 1600–1900 Problems in Studying the Origins and Development of Ethnicity (Enugu: Fourth Dimension Publishers, 1981). Sargent, Benue Basin c.1300–1700, pp.175–80. Northrup, ‘Igbo and Myth Igbo’, pp.7–10. Ibid. p.9, quoting figures from William Butterworth [Henry Schroeder], Three Years Adventures of a Minor in England, Africa, the West Indies, South-Carolina and Georgia (Leeds: Thomas Inchbold, 1831), p.85. D. Eltis, The Rise of African Slavery in the Americas (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), pp.249, fn.96. Northrup, ‘Igbo and Myth Igbo’, p.7. Ibid., p.8. Ibid., p.7. C.K. Meek, Law and Authority in a Nigerian Tribe. A Study in Indirect Rule (NY: Barnes & Noble, 1970), p.6, quoting Talbot, Vol.1, pp.240–41. Ibid. This is his estimate for 1701–1810. His all-time total is 75 per cent. Chambers, ‘Significance of Igbo’, pp.108–11. He also reproduces estimates suggested by other scholars like David Northrup (60 per cent, revised downward eventually to 25 per cent), Joseph Inikori (33.3 per cent). See p.107. E. Isichie, A History of the Igbo People (London: Macmillan Press, 1976), p.43. P.E. Lovejoy's statement that the ‘overwhelming majority of slaves from the Bight of Biafra were Igbo, with a secondary concentration of Ibibio’ seems to have relied on a general impression like those obtained from Captain Adams's speculation above. P.E. Lovejoy, ‘The Impact’, p.375. J.E. Inikori, in ‘The Sources of Supply for the Atlantic Slave Exports from the Bight of Benin and the Bight of Bonny (Biafra)’, in S. Daget (ed.), De la traite a l'esclavage: Actes du colloque international sur la traite des Noirs, Vol.2 (Nantes 1985), p.35. The details of these studies come up in the next sections of this paper. Eltis, The Rise of African Slavery, p.248. See D. Richardson, ‘Quantifying the Atlantic Slave Trade: The W.E.B. Du Bois Institute Database’, Source Material for Studying the Slave Trade and the African Diaspora: Papers from a Conference of the Centre of Commonwealth Studies, University of Stirling, April 1996, Occasional Paper Number 5 (Centre of Commonwealth Studies, University of Stirling), p.65. As calculated by Lovejoy, Geggus' data on the ethnic origins of eighteenth-century Haitian plantations slaves shows that the major six ethnic groupings comprised of 80 per cent of all. ‘Impact of the Atlantic Slave Trade’, p.376. P. Lovejoy, ‘The African Diaspora: Revisionist Interpretations of Ethnicity, Culture and Religion under Slavery’, Studies in the World History of Slavery, Abolition and Emancipation, II, 1 (1997), p.2, in ⟨http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/∼slavery/essays/esy9701love.html⟩ (30 May 2003). Chambers, ‘Ethnicity in the Diaspora’, p.28. G. Barraclough, Main Trends in History (London: Holmes & Meier, 1991), pp.86–7 quoting Marczewski, ‘Quantitative History’, Journal of Contemporary History (1968), pp.190–91. N.C. Ejituwu, ‘Old Calabar Rediscovered’, The Multi-Disciplinary Approach to African History. Essays in Honour of Ebiegberi Joe Alagoa, ed. N.C. Ejituwu (Port Harcourt: University of Port Harcourt Press, 1998), pp.133–50. Kolapo, ‘Ports’; and P. Lovejoy, ‘Background to Rebellion: The Origins of Muslim Slaves in Bahia’, in P. Lovejoy and N. Rogers (eds.), Unfree Labour in the Development of the Atlantic World (London, 1994). Sargent, Benue Basin c.1300–1700, pp.175–80. Ibid., p.189. Ibid., p.191. Ibid., p.193. Ibid., pp.195–201. J. Oriji, Traditions of Igbo Origin. A Study of Pre-Colonial Population Movements in Africa (New York: Peter Lang, 1990). D. Northrup, Trade Without Rulers: Pre-Colonial Economic Development in South-Eastern Nigeria (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978); A.E. Afigbo, ‘Southeastern Nigeria, the Niger-Benue Confluence, and the Benue in the Precolonial period: Some Issues of Historiography’, History in Africa, 24 (1997), pp.1–8; P.A. Oguagha and A.U. Okpoko, History and Ethnoarcheaology In Eastern Nigeria; A Study of Igbo-Igala relations with special reference to the Anambra Valley. Cambridge Monographs in African Archaeology 7, BAR International Series 195, 1984. Afigbo, ‘Southeastern Nigeria’, p.5. Kolapo, ‘Trading Ports’, p.115 Ibid. W.B. Baikie, Narrative of an Exploring Voyage Up the Rivers Kwora and Binue Commonly Known as the Niger and Tsadda in 1854 (London, 1966 [1856]), p.317. Alagoa, ‘Long Distance Trade’, p.322. E.J. Alagoa, ‘Long Distance Trade’, p.322. Quoting Pacheco from G.H.T. Kimble, Esmeraldo de situ orbis, p.132. Several similar reports for early nineteenth century are found in M. Laird and R.A.K. Oldfield, Expedition into the Interior of Africa by the River Niger in the Steam Vessels Quorra and Alburkah in 1832, 1833 and 1834, 2 Vols. (London, 1837); Baikie, Narrative; R. Lander and J. Lander, The Journal of Richard and John Lander. Edited and Abridge with an Introduction by Robin Hallet, (London, 1965); S. Crowther, Journal of an Expedition up the Niger and Tshadda Rivers, undertaken by MacGregor Laird, Esq., in connection with the British Government in 1854 (London, 1970); and J.F. Schon and S. Crowther, Journals of the Rev. James Frederick Schon and Mr. Samuel Crowther who accompanied the Expedition up the Niger in 1841, with a new Introduction by Prof. J.F.A. Ajayi (London, 1970). Ibid., p.125. This assertion correlates with and bolsters Boniface Obichere: ‘Slavery and the Slave Trade in Niger Delta Cross River Basin’, Daget, De la traite a l'esclavage, p.50. Paul Lovejoy, ‘Identifying Enslaved Africans: Methodological and Conceptual Considerations in Studying the African Diaspora’, Identifying Enslaved Africans: The Nigerian Hinterland and the African Diaspora, Proceedings of the UNESCO/SSHRCC Summer Institute (York University Toronto, Canada. 14 July–1 Aug. 1997), pp.17–19; and his ‘The African Diaspora’. See also Chambers' publications already referred to. D. Geggus, also, in ‘Sex Ratio, Age and Ethnicity’, makes attempts at every turn to interpret his data and base his analyses on the contemporary historical contexts of the societies in Africa to which the data applied. I consider this study a revisionist Africa-centric work ahead of its time. Excellent in this regard also is G. Midlo Hall's Africans in Colonial Louisiana: The Development of Afro-Creole Culture in the Eighteenth Century (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1995). Lovejoy, ‘The African Diaspora’, p.5. Lovejoy, ‘Identifying Enslaved Africans’, pp.18–19.

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