0:00:01.608,0:00:05.103
- (Narrator) This is the story of a world[br]whose borders and territories

0:00:05.103,0:00:07.074
were drawn by the slave trade,

0:00:07.074,0:00:11.411
where violence, subjugation, [br]and profit imposed their own routes.

0:00:11.411,0:00:15.353
This criminal system shaped our history,[br]and our world.

0:00:16.511,0:00:19.673
On São Tomé, the Portuguese[br]invented an economic model

0:00:19.673,0:00:23.330
with unprecedented profitability:[br]the sugar plantation.

0:00:23.330,0:00:26.454
- (English voiceover) This was [br]the first black colony,

0:00:26.454,0:00:28.321
the first slave society.

0:00:29.222,0:00:32.490
- (English voiceover) We witnessed[br]the marriage of the black man

0:00:32.490,0:00:34.055
with sugar cane.

0:00:35.243,0:00:38.448
- (Narrator) In the 16th century,[br]other European powers

0:00:38.448,0:00:40.898
were eager to follow their model.

0:00:40.898,0:00:44.032
Their greed would plunge [br]an entire continent

0:00:44.032,0:00:46.259
into chaos and violence.

0:00:46.259,0:00:50.876
Nearly 13 million Africans were cast onto[br]new slavery routes to the new world,

0:00:50.876,0:00:55.108
where the English, the French,[br]and the Dutch hoped to become wealthy;

0:00:55.108,0:00:57.412
immeasurably wealthy.

0:00:58.545,0:01:01.761
[intense music with strong bass drum beat]

0:01:16.861,0:01:21.212
Because the Caribbean[br]has similar climatic features to São Tomé,

0:01:21.212,0:01:23.686
it eventually became[br]the principal crossroads

0:01:23.686,0:01:26.062
of the slave trader's routes.

0:01:26.062,0:01:28.132
For people in the western world,

0:01:28.132,0:01:30.966
these islands are today[br]associated with vacation.

0:01:31.681,0:01:35.325
Guadeloupe offers tourists[br]a dream destination.

0:01:35.325,0:01:37.793
Sunshine and pristine nature,

0:01:37.793,0:01:41.046
rekindling myths of a lost paradise.

0:01:41.046,0:01:44.765
Holidaymakers tend to confine themselves[br]to the beaches of Le Gosier,

0:01:44.765,0:01:46.923
Sainte-Anne, and Saint François.

0:01:46.923,0:01:50.117
But as this sign indicates,[br]they are all-too-close

0:01:50.117,0:01:52.465
to another side of the island's heritage

0:01:52.465,0:01:55.171
that was anything but a paradise.

0:01:55.976,0:01:58.136
Just a few meters away from the bathers

0:01:58.136,0:02:01.521
is a burial site where countless[br]skeletons were discovered.

0:02:02.950,0:02:07.371
Between 500 and 1,000 graves[br]are still buried beneath the sand.

0:02:08.810,0:02:13.458
The Raisins Clairs beach is one of 15 [br]slave cemeteries that have been excavated.

0:02:14.658,0:02:18.534
Fifteen, among the 1,000[br]that exist in the Caribbean.

0:02:24.561,0:02:30.099
89 skeletons have been exhumed[br]by French archaeological research experts.

0:02:30.099,0:02:34.290
Judging by the state of the bones,[br]they concluded that these men and women

0:02:34.290,0:02:36.699
had not reached the age of 30.

0:02:36.699,0:02:40.039
By the time of their death,[br]the toll from working on the plantations

0:02:40.039,0:02:44.530
had so deformed their bodies[br]that they seemed more like 75 year olds.

0:02:47.996,0:02:51.914
These people were human guinea pigs[br]for the sugar experiment,

0:02:51.914,0:02:55.579
the collateral damage[br]of an unprecedented trade war:

0:02:55.579,0:02:57.253
The Sugar War.

0:02:59.043,0:03:02.846
- 74% of all slaves carried off,

0:03:04.183,0:03:06.133
were carried off because of sugar.

0:03:06.133,0:03:10.137
If you want to understand the slave trade,[br]you just need to know about sugar.

0:03:12.100,0:03:15.610
Sugar proved more addictive[br]than pepper or cinnamon.

0:03:15.610,0:03:18.034
From the 17th century onward,

0:03:18.034,0:03:21.938
Europeans craved this rare[br]and expensive commodity.

0:03:21.938,0:03:26.029
In London, Amsterdam, and Paris,[br]sugar fever was rampant,

0:03:26.029,0:03:30.501
prompting a new generation of adventurers[br]to go to any extremes to get it.

0:03:31.523,0:03:34.668
Shipowners and fitters,[br]merchants and pirates,

0:03:34.668,0:03:38.337
all knew that to produce sugar,[br]you needed a lot of slaves.

0:03:39.300,0:03:42.071
John Hawkins was one of these[br]new entrepreneurs

0:03:42.071,0:03:44.831
for whom profit reigned supreme.

0:03:44.831,0:03:48.739
The English privateer was a pioneer[br]in understanding that a fortune

0:03:48.739,0:03:52.624
could be made by shipping[br]Black captives to the New World.

0:03:52.624,0:03:56.643
In the mid 16th century,[br]he convinced Queen Elizabeth I

0:03:56.643,0:03:59.836
to lend him a ship, The Jesus of Lubec.

0:03:59.836,0:04:03.306
For the expedition,[br]Hawkins conspicuously set the tone

0:04:03.306,0:04:06.441
by choosing a trussed-up Black man[br]on his emblem.

0:04:09.013,0:04:11.323
- (Male speaker) "I do confirm[br]to your highness

0:04:11.323,0:04:15.558
"that I will bring home 40,000 marks[br]without any offense of the least

0:04:15.558,0:04:18.534
to any of Your Highness'[br]allies or friends.

0:04:19.425,0:04:22.886
"I will conduct this enterprise[br]and turn it to the benefit

0:04:22.886,0:04:26.822
"of your whole realm,[br]with Your Highness' consent.

0:04:26.822,0:04:30.155
"The voyage I propose[br]is to load negroes in Guinea

0:04:30.155,0:04:32.437
"and sell them in the West Indies,

0:04:32.437,0:04:37.144
"in truck of pearls, gold, and emeralds[br]that I will bring back in abundance."

0:04:39.329,0:04:42.980
- (Narrator) 1620,[br]a century after sugar plantations

0:04:42.980,0:04:44.902
were introduced in Brazil,

0:04:44.902,0:04:48.014
the Atlantic became the battleground[br]for the Sugar War.

0:04:48.014,0:04:50.255
England, The Netherlands, and France

0:04:50.255,0:04:53.032
wanted to break Spain[br]and Portugal's hegemony.

0:04:54.016,0:04:56.518
In the Caribbean,[br]the Dutch took control

0:04:56.518,0:05:00.601
of Curaçao, Sint Eustatius,[br]and Saint Martin.

0:05:00.601,0:05:05.093
The French: Guadeloupe, Martinique,[br]Grenada and Saint-Domingue.

0:05:05.093,0:05:10.692
The English occupied The Bahamas,[br]Jamaica, Antigua, Barbados and Dominica.

0:05:12.374,0:05:16.511
Only Cuba and Puerto Rico[br]remained under Spanish rule.

0:05:16.511,0:05:19.886
After the extermination[br]of the native Arawak people,

0:05:19.886,0:05:22.991
the first sugar canes flourished[br]on this fertile land.

0:05:23.893,0:05:26.389
- The Caribbean became[br]a space of conquest

0:05:26.389,0:05:28.414
for the Europeans very early on.

0:05:28.414,0:05:31.657
Really, it was the first place[br]that Columbus landed in the new world,

0:05:31.657,0:05:35.195
the first place that the Spanish[br]began to search for gold,

0:05:35.195,0:05:37.923
and the first place they began[br]to enslave the Indians.

0:05:37.923,0:05:40.499
So they were thoroughgoing[br]colonial spaces

0:05:40.499,0:05:44.318
created by design of European planters

0:05:44.318,0:05:46.020
and imperial policy makers.

0:05:46.020,0:05:48.202
And for their profit, right?

0:05:48.202,0:05:49.525
There aren't so many places

0:05:49.525,0:05:52.302
where you can completely[br]overlay a territory like that.

0:05:52.302,0:05:55.393
So, in some ways, the Caribbean[br]is the space where you find

0:05:55.393,0:05:57.492
the purest of Colonial territories.

0:05:57.492,0:06:01.549
Where the masters of the space[br]actually get to create the space

0:06:01.549,0:06:03.323
to suit their own needs.

0:06:04.965,0:06:07.326
- (Narrator) In Guadalupe,[br]every plot of land,

0:06:07.326,0:06:09.755
every single square inch of ground,

0:06:09.755,0:06:12.816
is connected to this violent[br]and deeply-rooted history.

0:06:25.300,0:06:29.555
Today, all that is left of the Sugar War[br]is a field of ruins.

0:06:35.613,0:06:40.105
Of the 250 sugar refineries active[br]in the late 19th century,

0:06:40.105,0:06:42.332
only two remain in operation.

0:06:56.118,0:06:58.972
In 2017, experts from France's

0:06:58.972,0:07:02.297
National Institute of Preventive[br]Archeological Research

0:07:02.297,0:07:06.063
exhumed the remains of the Saint Jacques[br]residence and sugar refinery

0:07:06.063,0:07:08.334
in Anse-Bertrand:

0:07:08.334,0:07:12.024
a mill, stock rooms,[br]and three rows of so-called "negro huts"

0:07:12.024,0:07:14.855
where hundreds of slaves[br]were penned up together.

0:07:16.043,0:07:20.626
In this brutal work camp, human beings[br]were but one tool among others.

0:07:21.484,0:07:24.590
Each became a mechanized, emaciated body,

0:07:24.590,0:07:27.487
consumed by work until their final breath.

0:07:29.103,0:07:32.337
- Both the time in which the slaves[br]were digging the cane holes

0:07:32.337,0:07:34.555
and the times in which they're harvesting

0:07:34.555,0:07:37.229
were really the peak of the labor[br]on a plantation.

0:07:37.229,0:07:39.435
You could almost see the slaves[br]wasting away

0:07:39.435,0:07:42.865
when they were digging these cane holes[br]because the work was so strenuous

0:07:42.865,0:07:44.921
and they were getting fed so poorly.

0:07:51.482,0:07:53.274
You found women in all of the gangs,

0:07:53.274,0:07:57.274
often times doing the hardest,[br]dirtiest labor on the plantation.

0:07:57.274,0:07:59.607
Alongside the men, or even before the men.

0:07:59.607,0:08:01.500
And one of the things that means,

0:08:01.500,0:08:04.440
when you find young women doing[br]this quite debilitating labor,

0:08:04.440,0:08:07.640
is that the birth rates are very low[br]and the mortality rates,

0:08:07.640,0:08:10.166
the infant mortality[br]rate is shockingly high.

0:08:10.166,0:08:12.511
In the mid-18th century,[br]people talked about

0:08:12.511,0:08:16.520
9 out of 10 infants born [br]to enslaved Jamaican women

0:08:16.520,0:08:19.324
dying, right, within the first year.

0:08:20.048,0:08:23.168
So, there's no way in which the plantation[br]can reproduce itself

0:08:23.168,0:08:24.919
under those kinds of conditions.

0:08:27.830,0:08:29.250
- [speaking French]

0:08:29.250,0:08:32.357
- (English voiceover) The plantations[br]were managed by overseers

0:08:32.357,0:08:34.767
who saw the slaves[br]in purely functional terms.

0:08:37.035,0:08:40.146
This was absolute exploitation[br]of the workforce.

0:08:40.146,0:08:42.186
It was a very particular society

0:08:42.186,0:08:47.132
because the average rate[br]of life expectancy on a plantation

0:08:47.132,0:08:48.739
was extremely low,

0:08:48.739,0:08:51.592
about 8 to 10 years after arriving.

0:08:54.912,0:08:56.332
- [speaking French]

0:08:56.332,0:08:58.803
- (English voiceover)[br]The logic of the slave system

0:08:58.803,0:09:02.246
was one where the availability[br]of the workforce had to be absolute.

0:09:03.658,0:09:07.043
And for this, man was conceived[br]as an accessory of the land.

0:09:08.957,0:09:10.944
He appeared as such in house inventories.

0:09:13.307,0:09:17.567
Slaves are listed next to records[br]for livestock or manufacturing implements.

0:09:23.254,0:09:25.938
That's the archaic aspect,

0:09:25.938,0:09:28.599
which was put to use[br]by a capitalist system,

0:09:28.599,0:09:31.511
and which largely met[br]market supply and demand,

0:09:31.511,0:09:34.373
with its fluctuations, needs,[br]and competition;

0:09:34.373,0:09:35.772
free competition.

0:09:40.284,0:09:44.161
- (Narrator) The sugar plantations[br]saw slavery enter a new era.

0:09:44.161,0:09:47.886
The stronger the demand for sugar,[br]the more the slave trade expanded,

0:09:47.886,0:09:51.193
and the more the slave traders[br]sought support from banks

0:09:51.193,0:09:53.292
to finance their expeditions.

0:09:55.142,0:09:58.676
London is one of the oldest centers[br]of global finance.

0:09:58.676,0:10:03.349
The city of London was the first[br]to create a commodities exchange,

0:10:03.349,0:10:07.664
to develop credit markets,[br]and to issue banknotes on a massive scale.

0:10:07.664,0:10:10.704
Without the invention[br]of a centralized banking system,

0:10:10.704,0:10:13.663
the explosion of the slave trade[br]in the 17th century

0:10:13.663,0:10:15.534
would not have been possible.

0:10:15.534,0:10:18.483
Preparing for a slave expedition[br]was expensive,

0:10:18.483,0:10:20.179
and having a financial arsenal

0:10:20.179,0:10:23.379
gave England a decisive advantage[br]over its competitors.

0:10:24.598,0:10:28.571
- You've got to remember that the State[br]is getting a tremendous amount of revenue

0:10:28.571,0:10:30.780
from the plantation complex,

0:10:30.780,0:10:34.386
so they had a very strong,[br]vested interest in the slave trade.

0:10:35.357,0:10:40.151
If you had gone to the king of England[br]in 1680 and said,

0:10:40.151,0:10:41.950
"Look, I'm gonna give you a choice.

0:10:41.950,0:10:46.062
"You can either have these 13 colonies[br]in North America,

0:10:46.062,0:10:48.942
"or you can have this one little island[br]called Barbados."

0:10:48.942,0:10:51.605
He would have taken Barbados[br]in a split second

0:10:51.605,0:10:53.746
because of the sugar revenues.

0:10:53.746,0:10:56.135
And this is something[br]that's going to persist

0:10:56.135,0:10:59.583
as a very important interest[br]for European states

0:10:59.583,0:11:01.830
up until the very end of slavery.

0:11:04.271,0:11:08.333
- (Narrator) To support the sugar war,[br]the city lent money on a colossal scale.

0:11:08.333,0:11:11.642
In the midst of these[br]steel and glass buildings,

0:11:11.642,0:11:15.395
the two pillars of the English economy[br]that financed the slave trade

0:11:15.395,0:11:17.813
are still prominent on the London skyline.

0:11:20.908,0:11:24.754
At the heart of the financial district[br]is the venerable bank of England,

0:11:24.754,0:11:26.528
the world's first central bank.

0:11:27.624,0:11:30.234
A couple of blocks away[br]is Britain's most powerful

0:11:30.234,0:11:33.912
insurance company,[br]the prestigious Lloyd's of London.

0:11:33.912,0:11:37.118
Atlantic slave traders[br]had to take on heavy debts

0:11:37.118,0:11:39.295
to charter their ships.

0:11:39.295,0:11:40.952
Without an insurance company,

0:11:40.952,0:11:43.993
most would risk ruin[br]on their first expedition.

0:11:48.236,0:11:52.509
The slave traders made investments[br]as if playing a game of poker.

0:11:52.509,0:11:55.613
The risks were high, but if successful,

0:11:55.613,0:11:59.865
the return would far outweigh[br]any other type of investment.

0:11:59.865,0:12:02.560
Insurers like Lloyd's[br]had everything to gain

0:12:02.560,0:12:04.788
by participating in this game of chance.

0:12:05.724,0:12:09.680
A successful expedition could yield[br]up to three times the initial stake.

0:12:10.642,0:12:13.443
In the Lloyd's archives,[br]little evidence remains

0:12:13.443,0:12:17.626
of the profits amassed by insuring[br]these high-risk expeditions.

0:12:17.626,0:12:21.629
Most accounting records were lost[br]in a fire in 1838,

0:12:21.629,0:12:25.320
the same year that slavery[br]was abolished in the British Caribbean.

0:12:29.916,0:12:32.794
Ports had to adapt[br]to this initial scramble

0:12:32.794,0:12:35.055
for Africa and the Caribbean.

0:12:35.055,0:12:39.151
In London, Blackwall became[br]the slave trade's principal wharf.

0:12:39.151,0:12:41.863
All manner of goods were sold here.

0:12:41.863,0:12:45.549
Precious fabrics, jewels, porcelain,[br]weapons, and brandy.

0:12:45.549,0:12:48.599
All bought on credit [br]with the bank's money.

0:12:48.599,0:12:51.620
A giant port complex gradually evolved;

0:12:51.620,0:12:55.595
a city within a city,[br]entirely devoted to this new business.

0:12:58.478,0:13:01.311
Following London in 1663,

0:13:01.311,0:13:05.688
other seaports rushed to take advantage[br]of this lucrative trade.

0:13:05.688,0:13:08.756
Lorient, Copenhagen, La Rochelle,

0:13:08.756,0:13:11.109
Bristol, Nantes, Liverpool,

0:13:11.109,0:13:13.055
Bordeaux, Antwerp.

0:13:13.055,0:13:17.195
From all over Europe,[br]slave ships set sail for Africa.

0:13:17.195,0:13:19.740
- When I began to see slave ships leaving

0:13:19.740,0:13:23.518
from not just Liverpool and Nantes,

0:13:23.518,0:13:25.591
but from every port in the Atlantic.

0:13:25.591,0:13:31.344
As soon as a port becomes big enough[br]to contemplate a transoceanic voyage,

0:13:31.344,0:13:34.843
there's a good chance that voyage[br]is going to be a slave trade voyage.

0:13:34.843,0:13:39.639
And we've got like 170 separate ports, [br]tiny places.

0:13:39.639,0:13:42.406
Today, they've got no idea [br]that once upon a time,

0:13:42.406,0:13:44.799
they sent out slave voyages.

0:13:44.799,0:13:47.772
Saint Peter's Port in the Channel Islands,[br]charming place.

0:13:47.772,0:13:50.484
And yet, it's a slave trade port.

0:13:50.719,0:13:52.434
[drum cadence]

0:13:55.473,0:13:59.358
Over a period of two centuries,[br]more than 3,500 expeditions

0:13:59.358,0:14:01.926
set sail from French ports.

0:14:01.926,0:14:04.804
More than half of them[br]left from the port of Nantes,

0:14:04.804,0:14:07.165
the main French hub of triangular trade.

0:14:10.667,0:14:14.402
The sculpted figures along[br]the Quai de la Fosse, or Feydeau Island,

0:14:14.402,0:14:15.823
are reminders of an era

0:14:15.823,0:14:19.003
when the great slave trading families[br]displayed their pride

0:14:19.003,0:14:22.055
in being the main architects[br]of the city's wealth.

0:14:22.055,0:14:25.894
It was they who made Nantes[br]France's leading commercial port.

0:14:25.894,0:14:27.309
- [speaking French]

0:14:27.309,0:14:29.638
- (English voiceover)[br]Wealth came from slavery.

0:14:29.638,0:14:33.364
There were negotiators, ship owners,[br]and all those who produced foodstuffs.

0:14:34.354,0:14:39.746
Vintners, flour producers,[br]fabric producers, hardware producers.

0:14:39.746,0:14:41.096
[speaking French]

0:14:42.893,0:14:44.296
- [speaking French]

0:14:44.296,0:14:47.297
- (English voiceover) The Atlantic ports[br]also generated wealth

0:14:47.297,0:14:49.631
for areas that stretched very far inland,

0:14:49.631,0:14:52.869
as far as Orléans, in the case of Nantes.

0:14:55.049,0:14:58.223
Goods were also transported along rivers.

0:15:00.310,0:15:04.063
So the wealth that slavery[br]produced was essential for France.

0:15:04.063,0:15:06.173
[speaking French]

0:15:08.418,0:15:13.514
- (Narrator) 1669. From Nantes,[br]Bordeaux, La Rochelle and Le Havre,

0:15:13.514,0:15:15.904
slavery money flowed back up rivers

0:15:15.904,0:15:19.144
to Rouen, Orléans and Angoulême.

0:15:19.144,0:15:24.016
It had such repercussions on inland areas[br]that it became a national objective.

0:15:25.126,0:15:28.118
Louis XIV knew that to win the Sugar War,

0:15:28.118,0:15:29.893
he would need a powerful fleet.

0:15:32.403,0:15:35.486
The king ordered the construction[br]of 500 galleons.

0:15:35.486,0:15:38.151
The Atlantic became the theater[br]of a naval war

0:15:38.151,0:15:40.782
between France, England and[br]the Netherlands.

0:15:40.782,0:15:44.870
A bitter fight, in which each sunken ship[br]was a total loss

0:15:44.870,0:15:46.967
for the respective country's economy.

0:15:48.641,0:15:49.917
- [speaking French]

0:15:49.917,0:15:52.850
- (English voiceover) It was[br]very expensive to build and equip

0:15:52.850,0:15:55.248
a 74-gun ship and pay its crew.

0:15:57.791,0:16:00.185
Ultimately, who bore the cost?

0:16:00.185,0:16:05.237
The bill for financing these wars,[br]the financing of ships and arsenals,

0:16:05.237,0:16:07.692
was mainly footed by French peasants.

0:16:11.187,0:16:13.758
- (Narrator) The slave trade fleets[br]were protected.

0:16:13.758,0:16:17.831
16,000 galleons were already protecting[br]Dutch commercial ships,

0:16:17.831,0:16:21.137
while the 3,000 light and fast[br]Royal Navy cruisers

0:16:21.137,0:16:22.965
terrified their adversaries.

0:16:22.965,0:16:25.737
France paled in comparison[br]to these armadas.

0:16:29.496,0:16:32.104
Each nation needed a fortress[br]in Africa

0:16:32.104,0:16:34.886
if it were to compete[br]in the Atlantic race.

0:16:34.886,0:16:37.064
Just like on the Caribbean islands,

0:16:37.064,0:16:40.307
these forts were the bastions of [br]triangular trade.

0:16:41.321,0:16:43.112
As military bases,

0:16:43.112,0:16:46.790
they offered a secure store[br]for bartered goods and captives

0:16:46.790,0:16:48.348
before departure by sea.

0:16:52.983,0:16:54.738
In less than 80 years,

0:16:54.738,0:16:58.512
43 such forts were built[br]from Senegal to the Niger Delta.

0:16:58.512,0:17:02.106
Every stone, every beam,[br]every element of masonry

0:17:02.106,0:17:04.190
was transported by boat from Europe.

0:17:06.513,0:17:09.554
- Most of these fortresses[br]are built by states.

0:17:09.554,0:17:14.093
Individual capitalists[br]or even groups of trading capitalists

0:17:14.093,0:17:16.577
did not have that kind of money

0:17:16.577,0:17:19.234
in order to build[br]those sorts of fortresses.

0:17:20.038,0:17:22.359
- (Narrator) The English[br]already had thirteen,

0:17:22.359,0:17:24.217
the Dutch ten, the Danish five.

0:17:24.217,0:17:26.471
Even the Prussians,[br]with their three forts,

0:17:26.471,0:17:28.102
surpassed the French.

0:17:28.102,0:17:30.754
On the Gold Coast, in today’s Ghana,

0:17:30.754,0:17:35.385
the Fante and Ashanti rented Europeans[br]plots of land to build their forts.

0:17:35.385,0:17:38.868
The Europeans established[br]trading posts and fortresses

0:17:38.868,0:17:40.555
all along the Atlantic coast,

0:17:40.555,0:17:43.223
from the Ewé territory[br]to the Kongo Kingdom.

0:17:44.154,0:17:47.821
Equatorial Africa became[br]the world’s principal source of slaves.

0:17:52.785,0:17:56.830
In this accounting document[br]written in 1688,

0:17:56.830,0:18:02.538
we learn that over an 8-year period,[br]it shipped 60,783 slaves.

0:18:03.480,0:18:08.038
Each cost the Royal African Company[br]8 to 12 pounds sterling,

0:18:08.038,0:18:13.071
the equivalent of between [br]€950 and €1500 today.

0:18:13.071,0:18:15.343
They were all bought with trade goods.

0:18:15.343,0:18:17.765
The demand for slaves was so high

0:18:17.765,0:18:21.352
that the Europeans pressured their[br]African partners to help them

0:18:21.352,0:18:26.173
plan, rationalize, and industrialize[br]their system of mass deportation.

0:18:30.450,0:18:33.977
- Slaves were often bought on credit.

0:18:33.977,0:18:38.067
And so that meant that European ships[br]would come,

0:18:38.067,0:18:42.809
they would have a whole cargo[br]full of textiles, different metal ware,

0:18:42.809,0:18:47.319
rum, tobacco, whatever.

0:18:47.319,0:18:51.201
And these would be given[br]to the local merchants,

0:18:51.201,0:18:53.080
extended to them on credit.

0:18:53.080,0:18:55.733
And then the merchants[br]would go inland with those goods

0:18:55.697,0:18:57.501
and buy slaves and come back.

0:18:57.501,0:19:02.384
- The biggest impact[br]was the level of violence,

0:19:02.384,0:19:04.263
the rising level of violence,

0:19:04.263,0:19:09.933
the level of uncertainty[br]that permeated society everywhere,

0:19:09.933,0:19:16.134
and also the opportunity [br]for new "big men" to emerge,

0:19:16.134,0:19:17.930
new powerful leaders.

0:19:17.930,0:19:21.370
Somebody gets a hold of more firearms,[br]somebody gets more aggressive,

0:19:21.370,0:19:24.911
they build their own personal chieftain[br]and, suddenly, they’re powerful.

0:19:27.191,0:19:29.924
- (Narrator) Among these leaders[br]was Antera Duke,

0:19:29.924,0:19:34.161
a major African trader [br]from Calabar in what is now Nigeria.

0:19:34.161,0:19:39.004
In his diary, he spoke of the methods[br]he used to terrorize captives:

0:19:39.004,0:19:42.022
kidnapping, detention, and murder.

0:19:50.179,0:19:52.668
[fire roars and crackles]

0:19:56.872,0:20:00.031
- (Man) "About 4am, I got up.

0:20:00.031,0:20:01.673
"Awful rain.

0:20:01.673,0:20:03.867
"I walked up to the city trading house,

0:20:03.867,0:20:06.379
"where I met all the gentlemen.

0:20:06.379,0:20:08.310
"We got ready to cut off heads.

0:20:16.220,0:20:19.785
"5am, we began decapitating slaves.

0:20:27.379,0:20:29.527
"50 heads fell that day."

0:20:43.460,0:20:48.130
- Very clearly, these sacrifices[br]were intended as a form of terrorism

0:20:48.130,0:20:51.582
that were meant to make it very clear[br]to the population

0:20:51.582,0:20:53.632
who was the boss and who was not,

0:20:53.632,0:21:00.064
in very much the way[br]the Mafioso type organizations behave

0:21:00.927,0:21:04.279
in terms of making sure[br]that the members of the association

0:21:04.279,0:21:06.465
respect whoever the Godfather is,

0:21:06.465,0:21:10.802
and if anybody steps out of line[br]they can be assassinated or killed.

0:21:10.802,0:21:13.408
And so they don't[br]step out of line, obviously.

0:21:14.438,0:21:18.938
- (Narrator) For the benefit of a handful[br]of enterprising & unscrupulous profiteers,

0:21:18.938,0:21:22.613
the entire continental economy[br]was transformed.

0:21:22.613,0:21:26.903
On the coast, African brokers [br]knew all of the inner workings

0:21:26.862,0:21:28.530
of the sugar plantation.

0:21:30.677,0:21:34.044
A slave ship from Saint-Malo,[br]“Le Marie Séraphique”,

0:21:34.044,0:21:36.955
docked at Loango in the Kingdom of Kongo.

0:21:42.395,0:21:45.298
Its captain’s drawings provide[br]exceptional details

0:21:45.298,0:21:49.017
of the negotiations[br]between Europeans and Africans.

0:21:49.017,0:21:51.245
The merchants from the coast knew

0:21:51.245,0:21:54.231
that the Marie Séraphique’s captain[br]was in a hurry:

0:21:54.231,0:21:57.759
he had to arrive in the West Indies[br]before harvest time.

0:21:57.759,0:22:01.062
This was the time of year[br]when slaves sold best,

0:22:01.062,0:22:03.704
and when the best sugar was available.

0:22:03.704,0:22:06.194
So they deliberately [br]prolonged negotiations

0:22:06.194,0:22:08.227
to drive prices up.

0:22:08.227,0:22:12.735
312 captives were rounded up[br]in 116 days.

0:22:15.058,0:22:18.729
The Marie Séraphique arrived[br]in Saint-Domingue, now Haiti,

0:22:18.729,0:22:20.882
one year after leaving France.

0:22:20.882,0:22:23.311
Only nine captives had perished:

0:22:23.311,0:22:26.680
a good ratio for the crew,[br]who celebrated their success.

0:22:27.652,0:22:29.852
In the drawings of the[br]Marie Séraphique,

0:22:29.852,0:22:32.977
no allusion to the[br]slaves’ suffering appears.

0:22:32.977,0:22:35.472
They were dehumanized shadows,

0:22:35.472,0:22:39.338
tallied and lined up like barrels[br]at the bottom of the hold,

0:22:40.382,0:22:44.302
the transportation of human beings[br]turned into a nightmare.

0:22:48.013,0:22:52.063
- It’s very important to understand[br]that violence onboard slave ships

0:22:52.063,0:22:53.806
would be used selectively.

0:22:53.806,0:22:55.406
In other words, no captain

0:22:55.406,0:22:59.829
wanted to kill the entire allotment[br]of people on board

0:22:59.829,0:23:02.328
because that voyage[br]would then have no profit.

0:23:02.328,0:23:06.248
So when there was resistance,[br]what the captains would do,

0:23:06.248,0:23:09.697
is organize a spectacle

0:23:09.697,0:23:14.378
in which a small number of people[br]would be executed

0:23:14.378,0:23:17.285
in extremely vicious, horrific ways

0:23:17.285,0:23:21.655
as a means of terrorizing everybody else.

0:23:21.655,0:23:24.598
All of the enslaved would be forced[br]to come up on deck

0:23:24.598,0:23:26.636
in order to view these executions.

0:23:26.636,0:23:31.107
One slave ship surgeon[br]said that frequently the decks,

0:23:31.107,0:23:34.875
the main deck of the ship[br]would just be completely awash in blood

0:23:34.875,0:23:37.760
in the aftermath of one of these[br]failed revolts.

0:23:37.760,0:23:41.417
Revolts were common, and they were[br]almost always suppressed.

0:23:41.417,0:23:46.696
But the captains would use that situation[br]to kill a small number,

0:23:46.696,0:23:49.097
in order to intimidate everybody else,

0:23:49.097,0:23:53.502
sending the message that if you resist us,[br]this will be your fate.

0:23:53.801,0:23:56.110
[flute and bass drum playing slowly]

0:24:04.421,0:24:09.443
I’ve also suggested that the slave ship[br]created categories of race.

0:24:10.645,0:24:14.106
For example, the multi-ethnic Africans

0:24:14.106,0:24:17.386
who are loaded on board a slave ship

0:24:17.386,0:24:24.201
go aboard as Ebo or Fante or Mende,

0:24:24.201,0:24:26.300
but when they come off the ship,

0:24:26.300,0:24:31.235
they are unloaded as members[br]of a “negro race”.

0:24:31.236,0:24:35.173
And the same parallel process[br]goes on among the sailors.

0:24:35.173,0:24:41.692
These motley crews, they are English,[br]Irish, also in some cases African.

0:24:41.692,0:24:44.381
They leave their European port,

0:24:44.381,0:24:47.402
but when they arrive[br]on the West coast of Africa,

0:24:47.402,0:24:49.354
they become the White people.

0:24:55.897,0:24:57.840
- (Narrator) On Caribbean beaches,

0:24:57.840,0:25:02.445
captives disembarked as “Blacks”[br]in a world dominated by “Whites”.

0:25:04.780,0:25:06.839
[singing in unison and cracking whips]

0:25:06.839,0:25:10.806
Providing an outlet for a society[br]founded on violence and race,

0:25:10.806,0:25:13.431
the Carnival maintains[br]the memory of the days

0:25:13.431,0:25:17.071
when the sugar industry imposed[br]its rhythms, rites, and seasons,

0:25:17.071,0:25:19.430
and set the pace for island life.

0:25:20.997,0:25:29.925
[singing in unison]

0:25:29.925,0:25:33.330
It was an era when drummers[br]announced the end of winter

0:25:33.330,0:25:35.435
and the resumption of cutting;

0:25:35.435,0:25:38.268
when fleeing slaves[br]covered themselves in molasses

0:25:38.268,0:25:40.531
to help prevent their re-capture.

0:25:43.061,0:25:45.761
- [speaking French]

0:25:45.761,0:25:49.385
- (English voiceover) What progressively[br]distinguished Atlantic slavery,

0:25:49.385,0:25:52.139
what made it different[br]from other systems of slavery,

0:25:52.139,0:25:53.992
was the construction of race.

0:25:57.552,0:26:00.376
It was precisely this superimposition[br]that developed

0:26:00.376,0:26:04.018
between physical appearance,[br]with its own term, and status.

0:26:08.006,0:26:12.287
At the extremities of this continuum [br]of both status and color,

0:26:12.287,0:26:15.578
there was the white master[br]and the black slave.

0:26:24.808,0:26:28.708
The term "White” did not exist[br]prior to slave societies.

0:26:33.166,0:26:36.630
The term "White" developed[br]specifically in the Antilles.

0:26:37.580,0:26:40.900
So you can see how vital[br]this Atlantic slave area was

0:26:40.900,0:26:43.152
to the construction [br]of the racial categories

0:26:43.152,0:26:44.657
that we still use now.

0:26:46.031,0:26:49.404
We use them as though they hadn't[br]changed throughout time,

0:26:49.404,0:26:51.146
when, in fact, they have.

0:26:57.339,0:26:59.814
- (Narrator) Race was[br]a weapon of submission,

0:26:59.814,0:27:04.465
meant to carve into flesh[br]the supposed inferiority of some people,

0:27:04.465,0:27:07.266
and the infinite superiority of others.

0:27:08.368,0:27:10.862
Cut off from their roots[br]and their families,

0:27:10.862,0:27:13.960
the Black slaves were reduced[br]to a servile mass,

0:27:13.960,0:27:16.644
without names and without orientation.

0:27:19.245,0:27:23.326
The plantation was a machine[br]that devoured its workforce.

0:27:23.326,0:27:26.244
It needed a constant supply[br]of new arrivals.

0:27:27.062,0:27:30.797
Landowners wanted to transform[br]the slaves’ bodies into tools.

0:27:31.828,0:27:34.261
On plantations, whipping and torture

0:27:34.261,0:27:36.690
were used to deprive them[br]of their humanity.

0:27:38.433,0:27:43.106
In this garden of torture,[br]the master’s authority was absolute.

0:27:52.649,0:27:56.308
- So you take, for example,[br]a character like Thomas Thistlewood.

0:27:56.308,0:28:00.261
And you can almost see in his diaries[br]the escalation in the violence

0:28:00.261,0:28:01.710
that he has to mete out,

0:28:01.710,0:28:04.432
or that he thinks he has to mete out [br]to the enslaved

0:28:04.432,0:28:06.488
to keep them working on the plantation.

0:28:13.970,0:28:17.033
- (Male voice) "I arrived as a foreman[br]on the new plantation

0:28:17.033,0:28:18.445
"barely two weeks ago.

0:28:19.490,0:28:22.653
"We had to carry out justice[br]on a negro who had escaped.

0:28:24.231,0:28:25.756
"We severely whipped him

0:28:25.756,0:28:29.602
"and rubbed pepper, salt,[br]and lime juice into his wounds.

0:28:34.268,0:28:37.879
"Three days later, the body[br]of another slave who had escaped

0:28:37.879,0:28:39.336
"was brought to us.

0:28:39.336,0:28:43.021
"I cut off his head[br]and we burned the body in public.

0:28:43.021,0:28:46.370
"That was the only way[br]to exert our control over the negroes.

0:28:49.241,0:28:53.169
"In this affair, my reasoning[br]was adopted by all the colonies.

0:28:54.200,0:28:58.762
"The unfortunate condition of the Negro[br]naturally led to us being hated.

0:28:58.762,0:29:01.950
"Only strength and violence[br]can hold them back."

0:29:27.108,0:29:30.672
- These kinds of tortures[br]and these kinds of punishments,

0:29:30.672,0:29:32.163
this kind of brutality,

0:29:32.163,0:29:35.051
actually became common-place[br]on these plantations

0:29:35.051,0:29:38.083
where you had white people[br]working out among armies of slaves

0:29:38.083,0:29:40.039
who they feared they could not control.

0:29:40.039,0:29:43.435
The sound of the screaming[br]and the stench of the burning bodies,

0:29:43.435,0:29:47.278
that also became a fundamental feature[br]of the Jamaican landscape, right?

0:29:47.278,0:29:49.493
That is what plantation society is.

0:29:49.493,0:29:52.955
It’s that smell, it’s that sound,[br]it’s that fear and terror

0:29:52.955,0:29:56.392
that’s compelling people to work[br]and to obey their masters.

0:29:56.392,0:29:59.479
There is no way to separate[br]that kind of terror

0:29:59.479,0:30:01.384
from the labor on the plantation,

0:30:01.384,0:30:04.025
from the profits that labor produced.

0:30:05.324,0:30:08.186
- (Narrator) But the plantation owners[br]could not squander

0:30:08.186,0:30:10.388
the slaves they had bought on credit.

0:30:10.388,0:30:12.919
The state had financed[br]the shipment of slaves,

0:30:12.919,0:30:15.249
and wanted[br]its return on investment.

0:30:22.735,0:30:26.310
The plantation society relied[br]solely on market forces.

0:30:26.310,0:30:30.815
Violence was a necessary cost,[br]and thus included in balance sheets.

0:30:31.825,0:30:35.262
It took 4 years to amortize[br]the price of a slave.

0:30:35.262,0:30:39.861
After that, they were valuable only[br]insofar as that they could hold a machete.

0:30:39.861,0:30:43.895
This was the price to pay[br]so that Europe could eat sugar.

0:30:47.715,0:30:49.532
- I don’t think that it’s possible

0:30:49.532,0:30:52.360
to reduce another human being[br]to a mere cypher,

0:30:52.360,0:30:54.246
to a mere extension of your will.

0:30:54.246,0:30:56.550
And that’s where a lot of the tension

0:30:56.550,0:31:00.398
and the possibilities for slave revolt[br]and resistance come in,

0:31:00.398,0:31:05.239
because if my purpose[br]is to subject you absolutely,

0:31:05.239,0:31:08.280
but you can never be subjected absolutely,

0:31:08.280,0:31:10.225
we're always gonna have conflict.

0:31:10.225,0:31:13.361
At the extremes of human domination,[br]even in slavery,

0:31:13.361,0:31:15.646
we find there is always resistance,

0:31:15.646,0:31:18.412
there is always tension,[br]and there is always struggle.

0:31:20.134,0:31:22.078
- (Narrator) Throughout the Caribbean,

0:31:22.078,0:31:26.357
escaped slaves took refuge[br]in the heart of the most remote forests.

0:31:26.357,0:31:29.161
They were called “maroon slaves”,

0:31:29.161,0:31:31.922
in reference to the Spanish word[br]“cimarrón”,

0:31:31.922,0:31:35.655
which originally designated cattle[br]that had escaped into the wild.

0:31:35.655,0:31:40.165
In these isolated places,[br]they began to organize resistance.

0:31:40.165,0:31:41.867
In Jamaica they included

0:31:41.867,0:31:44.831
Captain Leonard Parkinson,[br]the leader of the maroons,

0:31:44.831,0:31:48.757
and Grandy Nanny, an Ashanti,[br]known as the “maroon priestess”;

0:31:49.887,0:31:53.253
in Barbados, Boussa, an Igbo war chief.

0:31:53.253,0:31:57.712
Through rebellion, the insurgents[br]found a name and an identity.

0:32:05.941,0:32:08.614
- All throughout the mountainous areas[br]of Jamaica,

0:32:08.614,0:32:11.885
you have these communities[br]of formerly enslaved people

0:32:11.885,0:32:13.507
who have escaped,

0:32:13.507,0:32:18.288
and they learn the territory,[br]they learn to cultivate crops there,

0:32:18.288,0:32:21.929
and they learn to fight, as well:[br]harassing plantations,

0:32:21.929,0:32:24.379
taking gun powder, getting new recruits,

0:32:24.379,0:32:27.743
and maintaining and building communities[br]in the mountains, right?

0:32:27.743,0:32:30.375
This becomes increasingly[br]a problem for the British,

0:32:30.375,0:32:33.779
and by the second/third decade[br]of the 18th century,

0:32:33.779,0:32:35.769
it breaks out into major war.

0:32:35.769,0:32:38.446
And the British aren’t even sure[br]they're going to be able

0:32:38.446,0:32:39.940
to maintain the Island.

0:32:40.980,0:32:43.449
- (Narrator) The uprisings[br]spread to other islands,

0:32:43.449,0:32:45.676
and then to the coast of Africa.

0:32:45.676,0:32:49.048
Wars raged in the slave capturers'[br]hunting grounds,

0:32:49.048,0:32:52.878
notably in Senegambia,[br]where Muslim religious leaders

0:32:52.878,0:32:56.138
blamed slave-trade goods[br]for corrupting society.

0:32:58.112,0:33:03.038
These outbursts of violence[br]plunged the sugar industry into a crisis,

0:33:03.038,0:33:05.732
which also had an impact in Europe.

0:33:05.732,0:33:08.746
A growing number of voices[br]expressed outrage

0:33:08.746,0:33:10.615
at the horrors of the slave trade.

0:33:12.579,0:33:14.969
- In all of the major slave trading ports,

0:33:14.969,0:33:17.107
everybody knew the truth[br]of the slave trade.

0:33:17.107,0:33:19.506
And I’ll tell you one way[br]in which they knew it.

0:33:20.326,0:33:25.433
Slave-trading vessels[br]had a very specific smell,

0:33:25.433,0:33:29.347
and you could never[br]get the smell out of the wood.

0:33:30.242,0:33:35.605
In fact, it was said[br]in Charleston, South Carolina,

0:33:35.605,0:33:37.361
which was the major port

0:33:37.361,0:33:40.820
for the importation of slaves[br]into North America,

0:33:40.820,0:33:45.146
that when the wind was blowing[br]off the water a certain way,

0:33:45.146,0:33:48.678
you could smell a slave ship[br]before you could see it.

0:33:49.995,0:33:55.346
What that meant was that[br]in every port, these ships,

0:33:55.346,0:34:00.982
these ships of horror[br]that stank of human misery,

0:34:01.923,0:34:04.581
that this was all very well known.

0:34:11.837,0:34:16.231
- Certainly information about[br]the slave trade and its characteristics,

0:34:16.231,0:34:20.333
the experiences of enslaved Africans[br]in the course of the Middle Passage

0:34:20.333,0:34:24.315
came increasingly to public attention[br]in the late 1780s.

0:34:24.315,0:34:29.237
Abolitionist campaigners placed[br]particular emphasis on the Middle Passage.

0:34:29.237,0:34:34.306
- That’s when[br]the polemical arguments begin,

0:34:34.306,0:34:39.069
and many pamphlets being published,[br]and the case being argued,

0:34:39.069,0:34:42.878
slave owners realizing for the first time,

0:34:42.878,0:34:45.393
that they’re going to have[br]to make an argument

0:34:45.393,0:34:48.437
about the legitimacy of colonial slavery.

0:34:55.758,0:34:58.862
- (Narrator) Within this context,[br]in 1783,

0:34:58.862,0:35:02.055
a court case involving Lloyd's[br]and a slave trade company

0:35:02.055,0:35:04.531
enjoyed significant publicity in Britain.

0:35:05.716,0:35:08.041
Abolitionists used it as a platform

0:35:08.041,0:35:10.963
to reveal the slave traders’[br]barbaric practices.

0:35:12.645,0:35:18.350
- The so-called Zong Massacre,[br]which took place in the early 1780s,

0:35:18.350,0:35:20.929
was a very important event.

0:35:20.929,0:35:24.777
It basically consisted[br]of a slave ship captain

0:35:24.777,0:35:29.039
throwing a group[br]of living Africans overboard

0:35:29.039,0:35:32.021
in an effort to collect insurance money.

0:35:33.263,0:35:36.394
Now this was...this voyage went on,

0:35:36.394,0:35:40.340
and it only came to court[br]a couple of years later

0:35:40.340,0:35:44.028
because the insurance company[br]refused to pay.

0:35:44.028,0:35:46.521
And when this event came to court,

0:35:46.521,0:35:51.308
an abolitionist named Granville Sharp[br]shows up at this court case,

0:35:51.308,0:35:55.556
and the question being:[br]“Were they actually property or not?”

0:35:55.556,0:35:58.572
and Sharp’s answer is:[br]“This is mass murder.

0:35:59.482,0:36:02.604
"This is just plain mass murder.

0:36:02.604,0:36:04.533
"This is not about property rights.

0:36:04.533,0:36:06.197
"These are human beings.”

0:36:11.831,0:36:15.112
- The judge actually upheld[br]the insurance companies,

0:36:15.112,0:36:19.691
which refused to pay insurance[br]on the murdered Africans.

0:36:19.691,0:36:24.497
And it was Vassa who brought this[br]to attention of Granville Sharp,

0:36:24.497,0:36:27.537
and it was Granville Sharp[br]who then turned it into a big issue

0:36:27.537,0:36:30.624
that helped to mobilize[br]public opinion in Britain.

0:36:32.476,0:36:34.842
- (Narrator) Gustavo Vassa[br]was one of England's

0:36:34.842,0:36:36.805
most fervent abolitionists.

0:36:36.805,0:36:41.278
Born in Nigeria, he was deported[br]to the Caribbean at the age of 11.

0:36:41.278,0:36:45.127
At the age of 21,[br]he managed to buy his freedom

0:36:45.127,0:36:47.180
while passing through England.

0:36:47.180,0:36:50.628
In his autobiography published in 1789,

0:36:50.628,0:36:54.878
he recounted his experience[br]of the Middle Passage down in the hold,

0:36:54.878,0:36:58.148
and delivered an impassioned plea[br]against slavery.

0:36:58.148,0:37:00.331
Vassa held up a mirror to the nations

0:37:00.331,0:37:03.863
that had reduced him[br]to the rank of a marketable object.

0:37:03.863,0:37:07.331
- (Male voice) "Gentlemen, such a tendency

0:37:07.331,0:37:09.776
"has the slave-trade [br]to debauch men's minds,

0:37:09.776,0:37:12.724
"and harden them[br]to every feeling of humanity!

0:37:15.511,0:37:18.277
"It is the fatality[br]of this mistaken avarice,

0:37:18.277,0:37:20.742
"that it corrupts the milk[br]of human kindness

0:37:20.742,0:37:22.470
"and turns it into gall.

0:37:24.270,0:37:30.283
"Which violates that first natural right[br]of mankind, equality and independency,

0:37:30.283,0:37:32.865
"and gives one man[br]a dominion over his fellows

0:37:32.865,0:37:35.281
"which God could never intend!

0:37:40.838,0:37:44.440
"Yet how mistaken is the avarice[br]even of the planters?

0:37:44.440,0:37:46.055
"Are slaves more useful

0:37:46.055,0:37:49.361
"by being thus humbled[br]to the condition of brutes,

0:37:49.361,0:37:52.861
"than they would be if suffered to enjoy[br]the privileges of men?"

0:38:07.856,0:38:11.950
- (Narrator) By the time Gustavo Vassa[br]spoke out in 1789,

0:38:11.950,0:38:15.765
7.7 million Africans had been deported:

0:38:15.765,0:38:19.347
1 million from Senegambia,

0:38:19.347,0:38:22.637
3.4 million from Benin and Biafra,

0:38:22.637,0:38:25.763
3.2 million from Central Africa,

0:38:25.763,0:38:28.911
and close to 73,000 from eastern Africa.

0:38:40.994,0:38:44.605
While David Eltis[br]and the Emory University research team

0:38:44.605,0:38:47.415
have established[br]precise deportation figures,

0:38:47.415,0:38:51.621
the income amassed by the slave trade[br]is still being estimated.

0:38:51.621,0:38:56.161
Historians are trying to assess today[br]how much profit the slave trade yielded

0:38:56.161,0:38:59.010
for banks and insurance companies.

0:39:04.441,0:39:07.766
- The slave trade is not only[br]a foundation of American capitalism;

0:39:07.766,0:39:12.265
it is a foundation of all of European[br]and Atlantic capitalism

0:39:12.265,0:39:18.897
because it created[br]this massively profitable economic system

0:39:18.897,0:39:22.017
that linked the countries[br]of Northwestern Europe

0:39:22.017,0:39:25.361
to the Americas[br]through the plantation system.

0:39:25.361,0:39:31.564
The great scholar-activist C. L. R. James[br]pointed out that the slave system

0:39:31.564,0:39:36.734
created the greatest[br]planned accumulation of wealth

0:39:36.734,0:39:40.816
the world had ever seen[br]up to that moment in time.

0:39:40.816,0:39:44.830
And this, of course, is a very important[br]part of Western prosperity.

0:39:46.926,0:39:48.968
- (Narrator) Between 1633

0:39:48.968,0:39:52.434
and Britain's abolition[br]of the slave trade in 1807,

0:39:52.434,0:39:54.375
English and then British companies

0:39:54.375,0:40:00.587
deported 2,755,830 African captives.

0:40:00.587,0:40:03.244
Most of them died on the plantations,

0:40:03.244,0:40:06.085
worn out from working[br]in the sugar cane fields.

0:40:06.085,0:40:08.681
All of this, for the sake of profit.

0:40:10.299,0:40:15.518
In 2007, London's Westminster Abbey[br]hosted a bicentennial commemoration

0:40:15.518,0:40:17.700
of the abolition of the slave trade

0:40:17.700,0:40:20.188
in the presence of[br]then-Prime Minister Tony Blair

0:40:20.188,0:40:22.558
and Queen Elizabeth II.

0:40:22.558,0:40:25.825
One guest,[br]human rights activist Toyin Agbetu,

0:40:25.825,0:40:27.359
disrupted the ceremony.

0:40:27.359,0:40:30.114
- (Toyin Agbetu, angrily)...

0:41:23.160,0:41:25.718
The plantation owners and slave traders

0:41:25.718,0:41:28.646
could not accept losing[br]the hard-won Caribbean,

0:41:28.646,0:41:33.484
the immensely lucrative driving force[br]behind the rise of global capitalism.

0:41:34.711,0:41:36.712
At the beginning of the 19th century,

0:41:36.712,0:41:40.089
they sought to thwart[br]the wave of protest in civil society.

0:41:41.078,0:41:42.907
By that time, slavery,

0:41:42.907,0:41:45.596
a practice that dated back[br]to the dawn of humanity,

0:41:45.596,0:41:48.590
seemed immoral,[br]and to belong to the past.

0:41:49.313,0:41:51.994
Britain had understood this[br]before the others,

0:41:51.994,0:41:54.987
and was thus one step[br]ahead of its rivals.

0:41:55.894,0:41:59.470
It was preparing itself[br]for world domination.

0:42:05.097,0:42:08.685
[slow string music with heavy bass drum]