Boom and Bust

Abstract

The trans-Saharan slave trade is a much older institution than the trans-Atlantic slave trade. It also lasted long after the British abolition of the trans-Atlantic trade (1807) and its subsequent southward relocation. This chapter first documents the key empirical facts about the trans-Saharan slave trade during the 19th century. It discusses the long-term trends of the trade volume by destination country in North Africa, the geographic sources of slave supply, the slave trade routes, and the sources of the demand for slaves in North Africa. The chapter then highlights four potential drivers of the shifting patterns of the trans-Saharan slave trade: (1) the abolition of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, (2) wars including Egypt’s invasion of Sudan in 1820, (3) export booms, and especially the Egyptian cotton boom in 1861–65, and (4) the growing external pressure on North African destination countries to prohibit slave trading.