Slave Trade within Europe in the 1800's

“In the history of the Atlantic slave trade, the French turned four times as many Africans into slaves as the Americans did, they continued the slave trade -- legally -- until 1830, long after the rest of Europe had given it up” (“French Slavery”). The negatives and positives of slave trade come to a stalemate because slave trade both increased the economies of France and Britain, while undermining the human work force. As slave trade began to be questioned by morality, France became the dominant slave trade power. While European political leaders encouraged the colonization of Africa in order to collect cheap labor to compete with neighboring countries, British and French societies suffered from internal disputes, leading to the termination of slave trade in Europe.

The French went to West Africa to not only collect slaves but saw the West Indies as a way to gain economic power in Europe. As French desired to keep the British at bay, they gained power to compete with them in the seas (“French Slavery.”). With this, the French declared, in 1664 The Compagnie des Indes Occidentales, which “was a commercial enterprise used to compete with the British and Dutch”, as their main set of laws to follow (“French Slavery.”). These laws proved that most countries wanted to have the best economy and those countries who didn’t were out of question. The French always competed with Britain so by trading slaves and collecting the cheap labor from West Africa, they brought in a greater profit. They then, with the intentions against Britain, used the majority of that money to escalate their military.

Both slave trade and West Indies slavery were essential for the prosperity of France (“French Slavery.”). Over five million French men re...

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