ABSTRACT
Having broken Portuguese control of Europe’s trade with West Africa, the Dutch tried to set up their own control. Slavery in Africa, generally, was a much less cruel servitude than the chattel slavery that developed in the Americas. The Europeans now began to ask for slaves more than anything else, because the European settlers in America needed cheap labour more than they needed gold and ivory. On the African side, the slave trade grew out of the old customs of chiefs and kings. When news of the French Revolution of 1789 reached St Domingue, these slaves claimed their share in its ideals and benefits. The slave trade grew ever larger because of settler demand for cheap labour in the distant lands beyond the Atlantic. Formed in self-defence against raids from Oyo and raids from the coast, the Fon and their rulers had developed a considerable military strength.
