Latest / The Atlantic Slave Trade: Empire Built on Human Suffering — Fexingo History / The 1820s Anglo-Brazilian Anti-Slave Trade Patrols and Their Legacy
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked a lot about the slave trade from Africa to the Americas — the Middle Passage, the rebellions, the legal battles. But there's a whole chapter about how the trade was actually suppressed on the water, and it involves the British Navy, international treaties, and a kind of cat and mouse game that lasted decades. Luna: Right, I know Britain outlawed the slave trade in 1807, but they didn't just stop there, did they? Lucas: Exactly. By the 1820s, Britain was pressuring other nations to sign treaties banning the trade. One of the big ones was with Brazil, which had become the largest destination for enslaved Africans after independence from Portugal. In 1826, they signed the Anglo-Brazilian Treaty, which outlawed the slave trade and set up Mixed Commission courts in Rio de Janeiro and Freetown, Sierra Leone, to judge captured slave ships. Luna: Mixed Commission courts — so British and Brazilian judges sitting together? Lucas: Yes, exactly. The idea was that if a British cruiser captured a Brazilian slaver, the case would go before these joint courts. If the ship was condemned, the enslaved people on board would be declared 'liberated Africans' and apprenticed out in Brazil or sent to Sierra Leone. But there were huge loopholes. The treaty only applied to ships actually caught with slaves onboard, and the Brazilian government was often slow to enforce it. Lucas: Commodore Sir George Collier was one of the first British officers tasked with patrolling the African coast and the waters off Brazil. He wrote extensively about the difficulties — the slavers would use fast schooners, fly false flags, and dump slaves overboard if they saw a British ship approaching. Luna: That's horrifying. So the patrols could actually make things worse in some cases? Lucas: In a way, yes. The British presence pushed slavers to use faster, more dangerous ships, and the risk of capture led some captains to jettison their human cargo — just like the Zong case we covered earlier. But the British kept up the pressure. They called it a 'guerre aux côtes' — a war on the coasts — intercepting slavers close to shore before they could even load captives. Lucas: One of the most effective tactics was to patrol the 'Slave Coast' — modern-day Benin and Nigeria — where the slave forts were. British cruisers would lie in wait near Lagos and Ouidah, capturing ships before they sailed. Between 1819 and 1845, the British navy seized over 500 slave ships and liberated around 150,000 Africans. Luna: That's huge. But what about the liberated Africans in Brazil? What happened to them? Lucas: That's a complicated part of the story. In theory, they were supposed to be apprenticed for 14 years, then free. But many were effectively forced into unpaid labor on public works or private plantations. The British consul in Rio, Henry Chamberlain, reported that liberated Africans were often treated no better than slaves. The system was rife with abuse. Luna: So the British were trying to stop the trade, but their own system of 'liberation' was flawed? Lucas: Exactly. It's a classic example of good intentions colliding with colonial reality. The British saw themselves as moral crusaders, but they also wanted to protect their own economic interests. They weren't above using the liberated Africans as cheap labor for their own projects. Lucas: The treaty was supposed to end the Brazilian slave trade entirely by 1830, but in practice, it actually increased. Brazilian slavers found new ways to evade patrols, landing slaves in remote coves south of Rio. It took another treaty in 1845 — the Aberdeen Act — which unilaterally allowed Britain to seize any Brazilian ship suspected of slaving, even in Brazilian waters. That finally choked the trade. Luna: So the British basically bullied Brazil into compliance? Lucas: In a way, yes. And it worked. By the 1850s, the Brazilian slave trade had virtually ceased. But the legacy is mixed. The British naval patrols saved many lives, but they also set a precedent for gunboat diplomacy. And the liberated Africans who were supposed to be free often ended up in a kind of legal limbo. Lucas: If you've been stepping into history with us episode by episode, you know we put a lot of work into getting the details right. And a couple of dollars a month is genuinely what keeps these going — buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo, if you've gotten something out of them. Luna: Yeah, it really helps keep the show ad-free and lets us do the deep dives we love. Lucas: So back to the patrols — one of the most interesting aspects is how the British used Sierra Leone as a base. Freetown became a hub for liberated Africans, many of whom formed their own communities. Some even became sailors on British anti-slavery ships. Luna: I didn't know that. So former captives were helping to catch slavers? Lucas: Yes, it's a remarkable twist. The British Navy recruited liberados — freed Africans — as interpreters and crew. They knew the languages and the coastlines. Some rose to positions of authority. It's one of the few places in this whole story where the oppressed became agents of their own liberation. Luna: That's a powerful image. And it's a side of the story we don't often hear. Lucas: Absolutely. And it shows how complex the suppression of the slave trade really was — not just a top-down British moral crusade, but a messy, human story with heroes, victims, and everything in between.