Bristol, a port city in south-west England, was involved in the transatlantic slave trade. Bristol's part in the trade was prominent in the 17th and 18th centuries as the city's merchants used their position to gain involvement. It is estimated that over 500,000 enslaved African people were traded by Bristol merchants.
Background
Located on the banks of the River Avon in the South West of England, the city of Bristol has been an important location for maritime trade for centuries. In the Anglo-Saxon period slaves were exported from a number of ports, but after the Norman Conquest churchmen called for its abolition. Bristol was the main centre and slaves were brought there from all over the country for export to Ireland. The trade there was especially hard to eradicate, and it was only brought to an end when William the Conqueror reluctantly agreed to ban the Anglo-Irish slave trade as a result of a vigorous campaign by Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester, supported by Lanfranc, the Archbishop of Canterbury. The city's later involvement with the slave trade peaked between 1730 and 1745, when it became the leading slaving port. Bristol's port facilitated, and benefited from, the transport of half a million slaves. In 1750 alone, Bristol ships transported approximately 8,000 of the 20,000 enslaved Africans sent that year to the British Caribbean and North America.
Transatlantic slave trade
Bristol's entry into the slave trade
The Royal African Company, a London-based trading company, had control over all trade between the Kingdom of England and Africa from 1672 to 1698. At this time, only ships owned by the Royal African Company could trade for anything, including slaves. Slaves were an increasingly important commodity at the time, since the British colonisation of the Caribbean and the Americas in the 17th century which necessitated cheap labour to work on Sugar, Rum, Tobacco and Cotton Plantations.
The Society of Merchant Venturers, an organisation of elite merchants in Bristol, wanted to participate in the African slave trade, and after much pressure from them and other cities such as Liverpool and Hull, the Royal African Company's control over the slave trade was broken in 1698. As soon as the monopoly was broken, Bristol commenced its participation, though it is thought that illegal involvement preceded this. What is thought to have been the first "legitimate" Bristol slave ship, the Beginning, owned by Stephen Barker, purchased a cargo of enslaved Africans and delivered them to the Caribbean. Some average slave prices were £20, £50, or £100. In her will of 1693, Jane Bridges, Widow of Leigh Upon Mendip bequeathes her interest of £130 in this ship to her grandson Thomas Bridges and indicates that the vessel was owned by the City of Bristol. Due to the over-crowding and harsh conditions on the ships, it is estimated that approximately half of each cargo of slaves did not survive the trip across the Atlantic.
Bristol became one of the biggest centres of the transatlantic slave trade between 1725 and 1740, when it is estimated that profits of 5-20% were made from the trading of black slaves. One estimate suggests that over 500,000 Africans were brought into slavery by Bristol traders. By the 1730s, an average of 39 slave ships left Bristol each year, and between 1739 and 1748, there were 245 slave voyages from Bristol (about 37.6% of the whole British trade). In the last years of the British slave trade, Bristol's share decreased to 62 voyages or, 3.3% of the trade in Great Britain – in comparison, Liverpool's share increased to 62% (1,605 voyages).
Number of enslaved African people traded
An estimated 2108 slaving ventures departed from Bristol between 1698 and 1807. The average number of enslaved people on a ship was considered to be in excess of 250. It is therefore estimated that merchants in Bristol were responsible for more than 500,000 enslaved African people being shipped to the Caribbean and North America.