Theodore Canot (1804–1860)

The slave trade was the product of life in Africa where human beings were specie by custom and tradition immemorial. Commerce was by and between the black people of Africa and with the Europeans, in the west, and the Arabs, in the east. (See, Tippu Tip.)

Lacking any involved philosophy or an eschatology or advanced civilization the Africans gave no thought and suffered no moral dilemma by selling their tribal enemies in exchange for the magnificent delights and technology of Europe. The current notion that whites solely controlled the trade is belied by the facts in this book which show that, aside from European bastions on islands off shore, Africans controlled their land and their people. Instead, it was the ultimate symbiotic relationship with the blacks offering their fellow men in exchange for the mercantile wonders brought by the whites not the least of which included firearms, whiskey, and manufactured goods.

During this same period the Corsairs of the Barbary Coast routinely raided the coastal areas of Europe, as far north as Ireland, and took millions of white Europeans for sale in the North African slave markets. Then as now white pussy was a most sought after luxury in the dark world. Not much has been written about that trade though as whites do not kvetch like others and, besides, many of them soon rose to the top of the societies into which they had been introduced. (See - "White Slaves, African Masters: An Anthology of American Barbary Captivity Narratives", 1st Edition, by Paul Baepler (Editor).)

Theodore Conneau (Canot) was born in Italy to French parents but by age 12 or so had sailed to Boston where he resided for some time. His early experiences at sea did not include slavery and allowed him to visit most every corner of the Earth (Caribbean, India, Greece, Africa, Europe). After many adventures he came in contact with the slave trade which could be, if not interdicted by the British Navy, a most rewarding enterprise.

It was the Europeans, mainly the English, who first (1803 or so) outlawed the slave trade and thereafter aggressively attempted to stop the business altogether. Conneau comments that the effect of British interdiction was to drive the value of slaves upward making their shipping and sale an even more lucrative endeavor - if not caught. Conneau never talks about slavery in terms of morality. This is what he did. This is what the Africans did. This was done all over the world and the only people who questioned it on a moral level were the Europeans who, as time passed, became more and more convinced of the immorality of buying and selling human beings and who expanded their efforts to stop it altogether.

One currently hears about the horrors of the middle passage and how the Africans were brutalized and beaten and whipped, but, Conneau's credible writings do not support those allegations. The reason is obvious. Each slave was enormously valuable and the notion that they would be routinely tortured and killed seems implausible simply because humans are greedy. Conneau's memoirs do establish that at certain times the slaves were kept in cramped quarters below-decks, but, they were also often brought on deck for fresh air and sunshine and exercise and they were permitted to dance and sing and to groom themselves. It was slavery - it was mentally horrible - it was inhumane - but they were commodities. The seamen who brought them to Cuba did not have lives that were all that much better. The punishment of English sailors in the Royal Navy was so dreadful that the Admiralty needed to step in and regulate and ameliorate the punishment process.

The book's "Introduction" by a "Mabel M. Smythe" is galling as it is filled with the smug, well-fed, safe, rich, educated condescension common to the West's educated class. Looking back and judging from her completely inapposite existence Mabel sneers at Conneau's "ethnocentric" observations (can there be any other kind?) because, by gum, if she had been there she would have recognized and renounced the trade and offered her life in defense of the people of Africa ("Onward Christian soldier ...").

After all - seriously - the blacks of the United States of America should thank God daily that they were taken from Africa - because they could still be living in Liberia or Sierra Leone or Angola or Gabon - where despair and poverty and cannibalism and corruption and lack of drinking water and sewage and modern medical care are the norms - they could all be just "another black man" in Africa and there is nothing worse than that as currently and indisputably proved by the gigantic migration of blacks from sub-Saharan Africa to Eden/Nirvana/Disney Land - Europe. The slave trade in black Africa continues to this very day.… (más)