A Slaver's Log Book: Or, 20 Years' Residence in Africa

by Theophilus Conneau

A Slaver's Log or 20 Years' Residence in Africa The Original 1853 Manuscript by Captain Theophilus Conneau.

Genres: History

443 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1976

Reviews

[Dave Carroll]

"The New Caledonians are fond of French flesh; fortunately I am an Italian and may not meet with their gastronomic taste." - from "A Slaver's Log Book or 20 Year's Residence in Africa" by Captain Theophilus Conneau

Such is the matter-of-fact, dark tone of this chronicle proported to be autobiographical. The book was originally released as a novel in 1854 as the author was the member of a family of note in service to the French king. I confess to being a bit put off by the cavalier nature of the author who is willfully participating in and handsomely profiting from human trafficking at a time when the capture and export of native Africans has long been rendered illegal. However, what made his trade both attractive and profitable was that, despite the illegallity of the slave trade, slavery was still legal in the United States and much of the Caribbean. Thus, enterprising and amoral people could grow filthy rich with just a load or two of human cargo. But as I read I could not help but think of the modern​ narco-traffickers and human smugglers whose trade and wealth only exist because of the demand. And that is the rub. So long as people crave and justify a deplorable product or practice, there will always be crazy and bold people willing to provide that product or service so long as it is lucrative. That the author/main character was so expert, ruthless and accommodating much less a heck of a storyteller is a testament to his success and made the book compelling as would the inevitably memoir of the likes of El Chapo. Lots of graphic description of brutal and untoward behavior is scattered among the pages so be forewarned.

[Judy]

This is so interesting because it was written in the 1820's to 1840's by a man who served as crew, then captain of slave ships, owned "factories" where slaves were collected for shipment, and eventually left the slave business. He also traveled in Africa, visiting several kingdoms. He described how African tribes practiced slavery. Europeans took advantage of the availability of slaves to create a business model that brought them great riches, but created a much more brutal kind of slavery in the new world.

[Jindřich Zapletal]

The book documents the illegal Atlantic slave trade of 1820-40's, mostly between Havana and the coasts of Guinea and Liberia. A slave trader describes the whole cycle of his career: entry to the trade, several ocean voyages, an 18-month stay in French prison after getting caught, serving as a clerk to factory owners on West African coast, exiting the trade under the pressure of the British naval blockade, including even letters regarding his audience at the court of Napoleon III after his slave trading years. We are getting autoptic testimony of the conditions in the Middle Passage, crew mutinies and shipping mishaps in the Caribbean, close social observations of West African courts of the time, and much more.

Critical reading is necessary as in all eyewitness testimonies, and it is a full-time job in this case. My edition provides hardly any guidance in this respect, with nearly no footnotes and no bibliography and only fairly perfunctory introduction. Get ready to switch between the book and a search engine of your choice all the time. As an example, I found that the publication Mouser: American colony on the Rio Pongo provides critical context to Chapters 10-45; in Sian Rees: Sweet water and bitter, the reader can find context to Chapters 65-87. The book Klein: Islam and Imperialism in Senegal provides context to Chapters 55-57; while Conneau says that he was captured by French gunboat patrol at Kahone on Saloum River in 1833, Klein tells us that the first French patrol visited Saloum only in 1847. Etc.