Shipping in the Eighteenth-Century British Atlantic Slave Trade: A Quantitative Study

Abstract

This quantitative study of ships in the eighteenth-century British slave trade shows that nearly half were in the 100–200 ton range while just over a further quarter were between 200 and 300 tons, which lay within the normal range of ocean-going merchant vessels. Thus, large ‘Guinea’ vessels of over 300 tons were less frequently deployed, though some existed. Variations existed in the mean tonnage of vessels trading with different West African regions, with the Bight of Biafra and West-Central Africa attracting larger British slave ships than other regions. The main delivery areas in the Americas for slaves taken on British ships – Virginia, the Carolinas, Barbados and Jamaica – all registered an upward trend in the amount of shipping tonnage in the ‘Guinea’ traffic in the eighteenth century. Though eighteen different rigs can be found among eighteenth-century British slave vessels, six rigs were mainly used and, among them, ships were easily the most common, accounting for almost three-fifths of the vessels in the British slave trade. Though most ships were not specifically constructed as slave ships, some specialist vessels were built as such towards the end of the eighteenth century. Copper sheathing helped to protect the hulls of slave vessels from the American Revolutionary War onwards. Most ships in the British slave trade were between eight and ten years old. More armaments and more crew were found on slave ships in war years than in peacetime. The data analysed here show that the shipping in the British slave trade adapted over time to market demands and that, as the eighteenth century progressed, productivity improved in arming and manning those vessels.