Bristol slave trade

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Bristol is a city in the South West of England. It is located on the River Avon which flows into the Severn Estuary, which itself flows into the North Atlantic. Because of Bristol’s position on the River Avon it was an ideal trading port.

Before the slave trade, Bristol used its position on the river to trade all types of goods. Bristol's port was the second largest in England after London. Countries that Bristol traded with included France, Spain, Ireland, Portugal, and North Africa’s Barbary Coast. Bristol’s main export was woollen cloth. Other exports included coal, lead, and animal hides. Imports into Bristol included wine, grain, slate, timber, and olive oil. After the English civil war in 1650, trade with the Caribbean also known as The West Indies, and the Americas flourished.

The Royal African Company, a London based trading company, had control over all trade between countries in Britain and Africa before the year 1698. At this time, only ships owned by the Royal African Company could trade for anything, including slaves. Slaves were becoming a big commodity at the time since the British colonization in the Caribbean and the Americas in the 17th century. The Society of Merchants Ventures, and organization of elite merchants in Bristol, wanted to be a part of the African Slave trade. After much pressure from the Society of Merchants Ventures and many other ports in and around Britain, the Royal African Company’s control over the slave trade was broken in 1698.

As soon as the monopoly was broken, the first Bristol slave ship, the Beginning, owned by Stephen Barker, purchased enslaved Africans and delivered them to the Caribbean. Business in the slave trade got so good that merchants began buying more and more slaves to trade at one time. However, due to the over-crowding and harsh conditions on the ships, only about half of the slaves survived the trip across the Atlantic.

Between 1697 and 1807, 2,108 known ships left Bristol to make the trip across the Atlantic with slaves. Profits from the slave trade ranged from 50% to 100% during the early 18th century. Bristol was already a wealthy city due to trade before the slave trade, but the slave trade made it even wealthier.