World History: West African Jihadist Movements

A sketch of one of Sokoto's cities, Kano

Around the beginning of the nineteenth century in West Africa a series of movements, inspired by jihad, establishing several Jihadi states. These states were integral in forming a strong sense of Islamic, and ethnic, identity in the region which exists to this day. Just before the formal takeover of Africa by European states these jihadi movements created new forms of governments and society, and would serve as a way to resist European domination. Today we will look at some of these movements.

Background

A map of the region

Thanks to a mixture of conquest and trade Islam has had a long established presence in West Africa. A while ago we looked at the empires of Mali and Songhai, two Islamic empires whose legacy lives on today. However, we saw the blending of local and Islamic belief - this is common worldwide. Well into the nineteenth century it was common in rural Ireland for pre-Christian beliefs to exist alongside Christian belief, and many modern Peruvian churches contain Incan imagery. When on pilgrimage the ruler of Mali, Mansa Musa, slept with the daughters of his followers in Egypt, something which an Egyptian told him was 'un-Islamic'. West Africa regularly saw the rise and fall of various Islamic states, and populations were in flux. The notable example is the slave trade - over a period of four centuries 11 million people were shipped from the centre of Africa and off to the Atlantic. This does not include those who remained in West Africa, or those killed during wars to obtain slaves. A century before the movements we will be looking at today there were other jihadist movements - primarily against animist or polytheists. Also, the leadership of the movements came from rural areas, not the cities, especially from the ranks of Fulbe cattle herders. In the 1690s, a Tukolor cleric called Malik Sy managed to lead a movement with pastoralists around the Gambia River forming a new state. The most important ones - which would inspire the most important movement a century later - were in the Futa Jalon highlands in 1725. Fulani challenged the right that Mande-speakers had to tax and dominate them, so clerics encouraged them to rise up and oust them from power. From the 1770s a jihadi movement rose up in Futa Toro against pagan rulers. These jihadi movements would inspire the later, and more influential, movements to the east - these earlier ones were close to Senegal and Gambia, the later one originated in northern Nigeria.

Uthman dan Fodio and the Sokoto Caliphate

A sketch of Uthman dan Fodio

The next big jihadi movement - which would inspire the later movements - rose in the Hausa-Fulani region in what is now northern Nigeria. Fulbe pastoralists in the Hausaland were given the name of Fulani, and we largely see a urban Hausa ruling population over a rural Fulani population. Of course, there were many rural Hausa and urban Fulani. Several Hausaland cities were particularly wealthy thanks to trade with coastal states and booming kola nuts. The rulers were Muslim, but in continuation with West African Islam there was blending of polytheistic and Islamic belief. In 1754 a Fulani family had a son, Uthman dan Fodio, and thanks to his family being torodbe, urban intellectuals, in the city of Gobir. Thanks to this, he became well educated, especially in Islamic law, and he could speak three languages (Arabic, Fulani, and Hausa). Dan Fodio became increasingly critical of the ruling elites of Hausaland, and his reasoning have led to debates about the nature of his movement. Was it a religious movement, a reformist one, or an ethnic one? Dan Fodio focused on the exploitation and taxation that were levied on Fulani communities, while also criticising rulers for their lapses in Islam. Slavery, and access to the slave trade, was a component Hausaland society and economy, so Hausa rulers would enslave captured soldiers, including Muslims - something explicitly denounced in the Qu'ran. Quoting Uthman dan Fodio's poems 'And one who enslaves a Freeman/ The Fire shall enslave him'. He also disliked how pre-Islamic belief continued, and how rulers would openly ignore Islamic law - such as by gambling and drinking. Finally, Uthman dan Fodio criticised the corruption in government and arbitrary rule. His book, Kitab al-Farq (Book of Differences), stated that:

One of the ways their government is succession to the emirate by hereditary right and by force to the exclusion of consultation. And one of the ways of government is the building of their sovereignty upon three things: the people's person's, their honour, and their possessions; and whomsoever they wish to kill or exile or violate his honour or devour his wealth they do so in pursuit of their lusts.

The jihadi movements have been placed within a larger trend in the Islamic world of this time. Movements emerged attempting to reform Islam, and for a long time this was seen as one homogeneous movement. Uthman was inspired more by neo-Sufism than anything close to Wahhabism - an 'ultraconservative' branch of Islam which is the official policy of contemporary Saudi Arabia. He became the head of his local branch of the Qadiriyya brotherhood - a Sufi order wanting to purify Islamic practices - and in later life he stated that, in a dream, the founder of the Qadiriyya 'girded me with the Sword of Truth, to unshackle it against the enemies of God.'  He developed a following mainly among the Fulani, but also among Hausa peasants and Taureg nomads who resented the harsh city rule. As his following grew Gobir's rulers tried to crack down on the movement causing him to the city of Gudu in 1804. Seeing how his peaceful methods of trying to reform Gobir from within had failed he, and his followers, opted to directly fight. Using guerrilla tactics which drew support from rural area, and by exploiting divisions between the Hausa cities the jihadi movement managed to topple city after city. In 1808 the Hausaland kingdoms had came under Uthamn's rule and the following year a new capital of Sokoto was created. Uthman was recognised as both sultan and caliph in the new Sokoto Caliphate. His son, Mohammed Bello, and brother, Abdullahi dan Fodio, continued conquering lands, and by the time of Bello's death in 1832 it had a population of over 10 million.

Forging the Caliphate

Residents of Sokoto in 1900

Creating a state over a wide area was not Uthman dan Fodio's intention - after 1808 he retired from conquering and focused on administration instead. Power was shifted from the traditional Hausa elites to Fulani aristocrats who were placed in control of conquered cities as emirates. In an attempt to make land more egalitarian - one of the main reasons why people supported the jihad - all land was declared waqf, this made land communally owned. However, the sultan, or some emirs, were allowed to grant land to families who could keep it indefinitely - slave plantations grew rapidly and become a cornerstone of Sokoto's economy. Throughout the nineteenth century around half of the population was enslaved, and many land owners would form a new elite. Now ruling a united state covering what is now northern Nigeria it needed a new administration. To ensure that sharia, Islamic law, was implemented the Qadiriyya served as a way to unite the various cities together. This system forged such a strong bureaucracy that it took Britain inferring in it during the conquest for it to come apart - even then it evolved into the Sokoto Sultante Council which today remains very influential in today's Nigeria. German traveller, Heinrich Barth, visited Kano in 1851 praised the city stating that 'commerce and manufactures go hand in hand, and that almost every family has its share in them'. In the giant market he found slaves and vegetables from across Africa as well as calicoes from Manchester, French silks, red cloth from Saxony, Italian beads and paper, and sword blades from Solingen. Sokoto markets were a wonder to see.

Sharia was also a key component in Sokoto. Uthman in particular rooted the founding of the state in Islam - his flight from Gobir was purposefully linked to the Prophet Mohammad's flight from Mecca to Medina. The conquests were often against other Muslim states which caused controversy - jihad had been imagined to be against 'pagans' and other 'unbelievers'. In 1808 at Bornu a jihad happened which Mohammad Bello argued was 'emulating the Shaikh [Uthman]' led by Mohammad al-Amin ibn Mohammad Ninga, better known as Sheikh al-Kanami. Like Uthman, he was well educated and had studied in both Cairo and Medina. Sokoto and Bornu went to war, and there were a series of letters between Mohammad Bello and al-Kanami debating the ethics of Sokoto's jihad. Al-Kanami believed the Mohammad Bello, and Borno's Fulbe, were instead wanting political power - not Islamic renewal. Dan Fodio had justified jihad by arguing that jihad against lapsed Muslims was not against sharia. Al-Kanami strongly disagreed stating that: The taking of bribes, embezzlement of the property of orphans and injustice in the courts are all major sins which God has forbidden. But sin does not make anyone a pagan when he has confessed his faith. In contrast, Uthman and Mohammad Bello replied that their jihad was defensive - Bello wrote, 'we did not war against the people for the reasons you have been told. Rather we warred against them in order to protect ourselves, our religion and our people'. Education was key for Sokoto and this what we will get to.

Education and Nana Asma'u

An example of Nana Asma'u's writing

The most important person in the first years of Sokoto was Uthman's daughter, Nana Asma'u. She was very intelligent, fluent in four languages, independent, and an established scholar. She was a prolific writer - we have over 60 preserved poems by her. Asma'u had a deep understanding of Sufism and was a key role in the Qadiriyya - her knowledge is effectively shown in her book Kitab ulum al-mu'amala (The Sciences of Behaviour). The book focused on her understanding of Sufism, jurisprudence, and the Oneness of God. Literacy and education was seen as being vital in forging a new Islamic identity. It was a form of jihad - a jihad of the mind rather than a jihad of the soul. Dan Fodio and Asma'u translated the Qu'ran into Hausa and Fulani - having a direct link to the words of the Qu'ran was seen as enabling piety. Asma'u particularly wanted to educate women - she believed that through women old practices and customs would continue as they would teach it to their children. Education was seen as being the way to break this link to the past. As Asma'u held major roles in the courts of dan Fodio and Mohammad Bello she used this to push for education. In 1820 she translated dan Fodio's writings into vernacular languages, added her own, and issued them in The Way of the Pious. A decade later, in 1831, she compiled even more of his untranslated work and her writings in Be Sure of God's Truth. The various wars and jihads created a large refugee population so, to ensure that they became devout Muslims, women were sent to live with Muslim families. Due to their continued suffering Asma'u wrote Medicine of the Prophet using excerpts from the Qu'ran to give advice on child birth, protecting pregnant women, protection of children, and anxieties over poverty, illness, safety, and tyranny to those with authority. From 1830 she created a cadre of women teachers who would educate women in their homes regardless of wealth and location. Asma'u's commitment to educating women, and her influence in the state, has made her be remembered fondly in northern Nigeria and among Nigerian women - she has been viewed as the precursor to Nigerian feminism.

Other Jihads
Sokoto began a wave of jihadi movements across West Africa borrowing the same style of rules and tactics. Masina along the Middle Niger delta was ruled by pagan rulers with Fulbe clans paying tribute to the Bambara rulers of Segu. Another Fulbe member of the Qadiriyya called Ahmadu Lobbo. Like Uthman dan Fodio he criticised the ruling elite on grounds of faith, corruption, and ethnic issues - Lobbo specifically appealed to Fulbe identity so much that Islam and Fulbe became synonymous in Segu. With a growth in support Lobbo specifically appealed to Uthman in 1817 for permission to lead a jihad - Sokoto had evolved into the moral power in the region. Lobbo managed to break Segu hegemony and expanded into the local area, including Timbuktu, one of the major cities of the Malian Empire. Like Uthman, Lobbo constructed a new city to serve as a capital called Hamdullahi - 'Praise God'. He aimed to build a state like Sokoto by enforcing Islamic theocracy and breaking Bambara hegemony. In cities like Jenne and Timbuktu dancing, alcohol, tobacco, and extravagant clothing were outright banned as pagan sites were destroyed. To weaken Bambara domination in the cities and to protect Fulbe from bandits he had entire communities forced into the cities. Lobbo's Islamisation of Masina was not successful. For one, it was far more of a top-down implementation compared to Sokoto and the linking of Islam to Fulbe identity excluded the Bambara who largely continued their original belief, or a mixture of the two faiths. When Lobbo died in 1845 attempts to enforce Islamisation were reduced, especially due to rebellions by Bambara, so much so, that Masina after 1845 could be described as an Islamic state, not a jihadi state.

The last major jihadi movement was that of the Tukolor Empire. The Tukolor jihad is the most independent of the three movements which we've discussed. Al-Hajj Umar Tal was a Tukolor torodbe, the Tukolor are close culturally to the Fulbe, born into a clerical family in Futa Toro in 1796. Umar Tal was already deeply invested in Islam, and unlike dan Fodio or Lobbo, he made a pilgrimage to Mecca in the 1820s. There he joined a Sufi order called the Tijaniyya - this order placed emphasis on mysticism and grassroots education compared to the Qadiriyya. Becoming head of the Tijaniyya he introduced West Africa to the order when he returned. He lived for eight years in Sokoto where he became close friends with Mohammad Bello, he even married one of Bello's daughters, and in 1839 visited Masina. Through the 1840s and 1850s Umar Tal began developing an armed following among the Fulbe and Tukolor back at Futa Toro, however, his intention was not to purify Muslim governments. Instead he intended to expand dar al-Islam into pagan territories. In 1852 the Mande state of Tamba was conquered and for the next decade he continued his conquests. Umar Tal never made an attempt to actually integrate the conquered lands into dar al-Islam - efforts to convert the conquered were lacklustre and often were retracted in the face of organised opposition. Conquests brought the Tukolor Empire in contact with Mesina in the east and, by conquering Senegambia, with France in the west. In a twist of fate in 1860 the jihad against France was called off as it disrupted trade and Masina was even conquered in 1862! Umar Tal was killed in a battle in 1862 but the empire managed to limp on for another thirty years.

Jihad and Europe

The only known photo of Amadu Bamba

In the second half of the nineteenth century Europe started expanding from the coast and into the heart of Africa. The Berlin Conference in 1884 and 1885 divided Africa between the European powers. In 1890 France created an alliance with Bambara to conquer the Tukolor Empire, and the remnants of Masina, and after 1900 Britain sent Frederick Lugard to conquer the Sokoto Caliphate. By setting emirs against one another Lugard managed to weaken the Caliphate and in 1903 Britain placed it under their rule, as well as abolishing the title of 'caliph'. Conflict and conquest by Christian powers offered a crisis of identity for the jihadi states. Lugard advocated for 'indirect rule' in Sokoto; British forces were too few on the ground to properly occupy the land so local rulers were tasked with enforcing British policy. Sokoto lived on as a sultanate under British rule which reduced resistance. Other regions of West Africa saw jihad used as a rallying cry against colonial domination. One who called for jihad was Sheikh Amadu Bamba from what is now Senegal. Unlike the previous jihadi movements Amadu Bamba's Muridiyya order advocated for peaceful jihad - through adherence to Islam and hard work it would be possible to shake of French rule. Symbolic prayer was done to resist colonial evangelists and attempts to enforce French culture onto Senegal. Amadu Bamba also opposed local rulers from cooperating with French authorities; in 1896 he and the Muridiyya publicly broke with tradition of sheikhs remaining neutral when chiefs were being chosen, and starting endorsing chiefs. This angered local leaders, who saw him as threatening their position, and a misunderstanding of Islam placed a target on Amadu Bamba. For thirty-two years he was placed under house arrest or exiled before France viewed his pacifism as non-threatening.

Conclusion
The jihadi movements of West Africa offer an interesting case study in the changes in Islam out of the main focus of the Middle East. These movements greatly shaped West Africa and their legacies live on today. From Sokoto, Islam became integral to local identity - it is no coincidence that one of the largest Islamic organisations, Boko Haram, exists in the former lands of the Caliphate. However, Boko Haram has based its identity from Wahhabism than the neo-Sufism that influenced the ideas of Sokoto, Masina, and Tukolor. At the same time we have the image of Nana Asma'u who promoted education and independence for women. With these movements emerging just before the advent of colonialism they offered a way for anti-colonial movements to look to the past for inspiration.

The sources I have used are as follows:
-Martin Meredith, The Fortunes of Africa: A 5,000 Year History of Wealth, Greed, and Endeavour, (London: 2014)
-Marie Miran-Guyon and Jean-Louis Triaud, 'Islam', in Richard Reid and John Parker, The Oxford Handbook of Modern African History, (Oxford: 2013), 243-262
-Nikki Keddie, 'The Revolt of Islam, 1700-1993: Comparative Considerations and Relations to Imperialism', Comparative Studies in Society and History, 36, (1994), 363-387
-Louis Brenner, 'The Jihad Debate between Sokoto and Borno: A Historical Analysis of Islamic Political Discourse in Nigeria', in J.A. Ajayi and J.D.Y. Peel, (eds.), People and Empires in African History: Essays in Memory of Michael Crowder, (Harlow: 1992), 21-44
-Murray Last, 'Reform in West Africa: The Jihad Movements of the Nineteenth Century', in J.A. Ajayi and Michael Crowder, (eds.), History of Africa, Vol. 2, (London: 1973), 1-29
-Eugene Mendonsa, West Africa: An Introduction to its History, Civilization and its Contemporary Situation, (Durham: 2002)
-Robert O'Collins, (ed.), African History in Documents: Western African History, Vol. 1, (Santa Barbara: 1990)
-Beverly Mack and Jean Boyd, (eds.), One Woman's Jihad: Nana Asma'u, Scholar and Scribe, (Bloomington, 2000)
-Sheikh Anta Babou, Fighting the Greater Jihad: Amadu Bamba and the Founding of the Muridiyya of Senegal, 1853-1913, (Athens: 2007)

Thank you for reading. For other World History posts please see our list. Next time we will be looking at Russia's attempt to reform itself during the 1800s and the beginnings of revolution. For future blog updates please see our Facebook or find me on Twitter @LewisTwiby.

Comics Explained: Doom Patrol

The original Doom Patrol, left to right: Beast Boy, Negative Man, Robotman, the Chief, and Elasti-Girl

Yesterday, as of writing, DC's new TV show Doom Patrol finally debuted after first being shown in the show Titans. The Doom Patrol is a misfit team of superheroes first appearing in the Silver Age of Comics back in the 1960s. After their initial appearance they became a smash hit with comic readers for most of the 1960s. Since then their popularity has fallen and risen each decade, and the current Doom Patrol is extremely popular - it helps that it is being written by the very talented Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance.

Origins and First Run

My Greatest Adventure #80

The Doom Patrol debuted in My Greatest Adventure #80 in 1963. As you can tell, My Greatest Adventure started out as an adventure comic, but with the resurgence of the superhero genre DC wanted to change it into a superhero comic. Writer Arnold Drake was hired to make a new superhero comic, and he was joined by fellow writer Bob Haney and artist Bruno Premiani. The trio decided to break with DC's traditional way of making superhero teams. Normally DC's heroes were almost entirely flawless, had no overt problems (other than fighting crime), and never bickered with other heroes. Marvel challenged this. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby with the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man and others created stories where heroes argued, dealt with family problems, were flawed, and doubted themselves. A wheelchair-bound scientific genius nicknamed 'The Chief' brought together three remarkable individuals. Rita Farr, Elasti-Girl (later Elasti-Woman), was an actress exposed to gases which allowed her to change size, but she couldn't control her powers; Cliff Steele, Robotman (originally called Automaton), a former race driver whose brain was moved into a robot body after a deadly crash causing him to develop depression; and Larry Trainor, Negative Man, a pilot exposed to radiation giving him superpowers, but to avoid infecting others with radiation he had to wear bandages. The Chief brought together these outcasts from society to give them a purpose. If you notice the similarities with X-Men you might be right - Drake once in an interview accused Stan Lee of taking the idea. However, shortly before his death he said 'Since we were working in the same vineyards, and if you do enough of that stuff, sooner or later, you will kind of look like you are imitating each other.' How much influence Doom Patrol had on the X-Men we might not fully know.

My Greatest Adventure #80 featured the Chief bring together the Doom Patrol together seeing that they are outsides. An alien spaceship crashed which attracted the attention of supervillain General Immortus who wanted the ship's technology. In a surprise in a comic book Immortus proved to be a match for the new heroes, and he is seemingly killed when the ship exploded. Doom Patrol's debut proved to be a resounding success and, just like the X-Men, started attracting many readers. The failing My Greatest Adventure saw record sales and after six issues the title was even renamed to The Doom Patrol! The comics combined the harsh emotion of being an outcast with out-there events and villains. Immortus returned, a shapeshifting villain called Madame Rouge arrived, and they faced a villainous duo, the Brain and Monsieur Mallah - the Brain was a scientist who is a brain in a jar and Monsieur Mallah was a gorilla whom the Brain made intelligent...and gave him a machine gun. Since then the Brain and Monsieur Mallah have since became lovers just showing how much fun the writers of Doom Patrol had with the characters. The villains even came together to form the Brotherhood of Evil - naturally they were often defeated by the Doom Patrol. In The Doom Patrol #99 a fan favourite was introduced. The Doom Patrol arrived back at base to find it ransacked by different animals, and to their surprise they found a green boy who could turn into different animals who gets the nickname Beast Boy. After he helps them prevent a jewel heist he would join the team.

Disbanding and After

Doom Patrol #121

By 1968 The Doom Patrol had started to lose support from readers. The popularity of other DC and Marvel teams meant that it was hard for the comic to compete. An ultimatum was issued with The Doom Patrol #121 which declared 'Is this the Beginning of the End of the Doom Patrol? You Decide' with Negative Man, Elasti-Girl, and Robotman standing behind their own graves. Editor Murray Boltinoff and artist Bruno Premiani even appeared in the comic urging readers to help the team. An enraged Madame Rouge teamed up with a literal Nazi, Captain Zahl, to destroy everyone: the Doom Patrol, the Brotherhood, and the Brain and Mallah. The lairs of the Brotherhood and the Brain were soon destroyed and the Doom Patrol was given an ultimatum. Zahl had placed a bomb at the Doom Patrol's island base and one in the town of Codsville, Maine with a population of 14. Either the team could save themselves or save Codsville, and, surprising Zahl, the team decided to save Codsville. The bomb detonated killing off the Chief, Robotman, Elasti-Girl, and Negative Man. Never before had a comic ended so brutally - comics never really actually killed off characters.

It would take almost a decade for Doom Patrol to make a return. In 1977 DC re-released Showcase seeing how well the previous run had been, and how successful Marvel's had been. Showcase was an anthology series which would feature new stories and characters for a single issue to a few issues to test the water - if they were well received they could get their own series. DC asked The Doom Patrol fans Paul Kupperburg and Joe Staton to bring back the team. Ironically, Kupperburg was inspired how Marvel created a new team of X-Men and aimed to do the same with Doom Patrol. Wanting to respect the original team's sacrifice he created a new one formed by Arani Desai, Celsius, the widow of the Chief - Kupperburg never approached the issue of why the Chief's superpowered wife never was even mentioned before. Robotman was brought back in a new body, and two new members were introduced. The Negative Spirit which gave Negative Man his powers was attached to a Russian cosmonaut called Valentina Vostok who became the Negative Woman, unlike he predecessor she could control her powers far better. Finally, we have the natural metahuman, an African-American man named Joshua Clay who adopted the moniker of Tempest. Sent to Vietnam he saw a massacre which caused him to have a breakdown, kill the officer in charge, and go AWOL. This new series only lasted a few issues - it was not well received. Kupperburg quite bluntly said why: I was missing the point of the Doom Patrol. The original group were outsiders and freaks, while my new guys were just comic-book superheroes. I was young and inexperienced and new to writing, with about two years under my belt before getting the gig. The new Doom Patrol would make several appearances in other comics, but the only one to truly survive was Beast Boy. Under the name of Changeling in 1980 he joined the Teen Titans which he is most recognised from.

Grant Morrison and Rachel Pollack

Under Morrison Doom Patrol regularly parodied other comics, such as this one parodying X-Force

Doom Patrol was brought back fully with an extended cast but it was far from well received. DC decided in 1989 to put Grant Morrison in charge of the comic with #19. To pave the way for him taking over the Invasion storyline was even used to eliminate some of the other new members of the team. Morrison is known for his out-there and fantastical stories, and his run on Doom Patrol set the stage for how current audiences view the team. He brought in Dadaism, surrealism, and conspiracies to the comic, and Arnold Drake said that only Morrison's run reflected his original story. The Chief was back in charge, Robotman and Negative Man were back, and he kept on Joshua Clay. Negative Man was changed as well. The Negative Spirit merged him with his doctor, Eleanor Poole, forming a transgender and transracial entity named Rebis. They were also joined by new heroes: Dorothy Spinner, who had been introduced in #14, who had the face of an ape and could bring her imaginary friends into the real world; 'Crazy Jane', a woman with multiple-personality disorder where each personality has its own power; and Danny the Street, a literal living street which can teleport. I would highly recommend Morrison's run on Doom Patrol - I would argue that it is one of the best comics period. It features stories including the Patrol battling an inter-dimensional invasion who invade by cutting people from reality, called the 'Scissormen'; Red Jack, a man who thinks he is both Jack the Ripper and God, who gets power from torture, so he has thousands of butterflies pinned to his walls; and, my personal favourite, the Brotherhood of Dada. This surreal group had people with unique powers like Sleepwalk, she has super-strength only when she's asleep, and The Quiz, she has every power 'that you hadn't thought of' but as soon as you think of a power she loses it. She's also terrified of dirt. Morrison also revealed that the Chief was not a DC version of Professor X - #57 revealed that he caused Robotman, Elasti-Girl, and Negative Man to get their powers. He also intended to use nano-bots to 'improve' humanity.

Here's an example of one of the tamer panels from Pollack's run 

In #63 spiritualist Rachel Pollack, a good friend of the fantastic author Neil Gaiman, took over the series. Pollack was so eager to write that she sent many, many letters to DC. Doom Patrol was moved also to Vertigo - then newly formed so DC could publish more graphic and adult titles. If you now want to by reprinted issues of Morrison's run they are now published under Vertigo. Pollack continued the surrealist imagery and stories that fans had come to love, and she added more to it. With a freer reign with Vertigo she could explore far more ideas: transgender identity, humanity, bisexuality, sexual identity, menstruation, religion, and generations gaps. Pollack even made comic history by introducing the one of the first transgender characters in comics: Coagula. After having sex with Rebis she developed the ability to turn solids into liquids, and vice versa, so she joined the Doom Patrol. The Chief is also now a head in cryogenic storage, and the team moved to a house haunted by those who died in sexual accidents. Pollack really embraced the surreal nature of the comic. Eventually, Doom Patrol was cancelled in 1995 and was brought back into mainstream DC publishing in 2001. However, that, and successive series, really failed to reignite the love that fans had for Morrison's and Pollack's run.

Gerard Way and Vol. 6

The current Doom Patrol, Casey in the middle

Other than music Gerard Way has a talent for writing, and it was a match made in Heaven when he took the reigns of the new Doom Patrol volume. Naturally, Way continued the surrealist nature that Doom Patrol is known for. Danny the Street has been writing comics including one about a young woman called Casey Brinke: an EMT and gadget-wielding superhero whose mother had sacrificed herself to stop her supervillain father. Danny accidentally pulled Casey into the real world, and allowed her to lead a normal life until he was attacked by aliens named the Vectra. In order to save him she had to recreate the Doom Patrol. Casey brought together Elasti-Woman, Robotman, Negative Man, the super-strong Flex Mentallo, and Fugg, a furry creature made by Danny to help Casey. Together they defeated the aliens, and Casey's father who had been brought to life by Danny while being tortured, and had taken over the aliens. The team also found Crazy Jane again - a homicidal personality took over and aimed to destroy the other personalities. To do this the 'Dr. Harrison' personality created a cult with the intention to give the cult members the other personalities, and then kill the cult with the personalities going with them. They managed to destroy Dr Harrison and save Jane. They even briefly reunited with Chief but kicked him thanks to his disastrous leadership skills and gambling.

Thank you for reading and I hope you found it interesting. For future blog updates please see our Facebook or catch me on Twitter @LewisTwiby.

Paleo Profiles: Brachiosaurus

Today on Paleo Profiles we're looking at one of the best known dinosaurs to ever walk the face of the planet: Brachiosaurus. When first discovered it was described as being 'the largest known dinosaur' and is one of the dinosaurs which come to mind when we think of the prehistoric reptiles. One of the most iconic scenes in Jurassic Park featured the Brachiosaurus - when we first fully see a dinosaur. However, quite ironically our image of the Brachiosaurus over the last decade has been shown to be inaccurate - another dinosaur for almost a century believed to be Brachiosaurus was used for reconstructions.

Discovery and Fossils

An excavator next to the humerus of a Brachiosaurus

Dentist and amateur collector Stanton Merill Bradbury wrote to palaeontologists believing that he had found signs of dinosaur fossils. He struck up a conversation with one in particular - Elmer Riggs - who believed they were more likely to be mammal fossils from the Eocene, a time not too long after the dinosaurs went extinct. Going out to Colorado in 1900 he discovered something far bigger than any mammal to walk the land. During excavation they happened upon the humerus which was so long that Riggs thought it be to a deformed femur - the longest bone in the body. He quickly surmised that the bones were from a group of dinosaurs called sauropods - large herbivorous dinosaurs characterised by long necks and tails. At first he believed it to be an Apatosaurus but looking at the ribs realised it was a new animal. Due to the length of the femur and the size of the animal's chest he named it Brachiosaurus altithorax - 'Arm lizard of deep chest' - in 1903. The specimen wasn't complete - it lacked a head for one - but other specimens were discovered. In 1914 German palaeontologist Werner Janensch found several specimens from the Tendaguru Formation in what is now Tanzania which he described as being two new species of Brachiosaurus - B. altithorax and B. fraasi. However, since then, as well as another one from Portugal and a much younger specimen, they have been separated into a new genus entirely. The African species were reclassified as Giraffititan and most reconstructions were based on Giraffatitan before it was known to be distinct.

We have discovered several different specimens of Brachiosaurus since the initial one in 1900. However, they are far from complete, and it is only because of how closely Brachiosaurus resembles its African cousin that we picture what it looked like. In fact, the most complete specimen that we have is from a sub-adult so it died before all of its bones could fuse together. In 2012 in Wyoming a 2-metre long skeleton missing a skull was discovered, and for some time was it was initially thought to be a diplodocid. In 2018 a foot was discovered, the largest to be discovered in the region, in Wyoming but missing the femus - it is thought to be the largest Brachiosaurus discovered based on the foot's size.

Biology

Femur (left) and the humerus (right) of a Brachiosaurus

As mentioned Brachiosaurus was a sauropod which were some of the largest land animals to ever exist - a giant named Patagotitan weighed the same as 10 African elephants. Brachiosaurus was a giant in both height and weight. With what fossil evidence we have it is very difficult to estimate how much one weighed so we have results varying from 28 metric tons to a staggering 58 tons! To put it in perspective, the smallest estimate will put Brachiosaurus as weighing the same as four and a half bull African elephants. Sauropods normally had long tails to act as a counterbalance their long necks so Brachiosaurus had a shorter but muscly tail - about 7 metres in length. A large part of this is due to the dinosaur's neck posture - although long it was held in an S-pose or at an angle. Past depictions in museums, which continue in popular media, try and portrayed extinct animals as large as they could, so Brachiosaurus was portrayed holding its long neck directly upwards. Instead, it likely would have held it at a slight angle in the same way that giraffes do. From snout to tail the Brachiosaurus was around 26 metres long. Due to their size it was once believed that sauropods were aquatic using the water to support their immense size - Elmer Riggs argued against this when he described the Brachiosaurus. The theory has, for a very longtime, been disproved - if anything the water could have crushed the dinosaur's chest.

A Giraffatitan in the Berlin Natural History Museum

Most of what we know about Brachiosaurus comes from what we know about Giraffatitan. Luckily, several important parts of the dinosaur is known. The arms were exceptionally long, the humerus was longer than the femur causing confusion for Riggs, making the shoulders very high. This allowed Brachiosaurus to be like a giraffe and browse from the tops of trees. Like many other sauropods the feet were wide, mostly for balance, but they could also be used for communication. Elephants make rumbles which humans cannot detect which travel along the ground - their wide feet pick up these rumbles. Quite possibly sauropods did so as well. How did such a large animal function? Steven Perry and Christian Reuter have hypothesised what types of lungs the dinosaur would have, and they believed that one found in birds would be the best. In 2016 Mark Hallett and Mathew Weddel used Brachiosaurus to find how sauropods managed to breathe. Instead of acting like a bellows, as in our lungs, birds have 'air sacs' where one pumps in air and another pumps waste out allowing quick air exchange. Sauropods had openings in their bones to allow air sacs to sit in and pump the oxygen to their muscles. As we discover more fossils we have begun to understand that all dinosaurs were closer to birds than crocodiles - before the discovery of the air sacs it was thought that if it was warm-blooded Brachiosaurus would overheat. Air sacs also served to cool the body so they were likely endothermic and homeothermic. 

A reconstructed skull in the Denver Museum of Nature and Science

Finally, we get to the skull - the most iconic and yet dubious part of the dinosaur. We only have a partial skull and most reconstructions are based on Giraffatitan. There were enough distinctions between the two skulls, however, to present evidence that they were distinct. The skull was small for its size - so small, in fact, that Fabien Knoll and Daniel Schwarz-Wings believed that they could not accurately work out the animal's intelligence. A key feature of the skull is the crest and there have been various theories about what its use was. One major theory is that these crests were where the nostrils were located; as the animal drank it could keep its nostrils out of the water. Another theory has been suggested that they were really a resonating chamber for communication. Finally, we have the dinosaur's teeth. These chisel-shaped teeth were replaced across the animal's life, and would nip off vegetation. Brachiosaurus could not chew - instead it had to slice through vegetation with its very muscular jaws and leave the rest to ferment in its gut. Due to that it had to eat a lot - possibly up to 400 kg of foliage a day.

When and Where

Brachiosaurus lived around 154 million years ago in the Jurassic period - in the original Jurassic Park it is one of two dinosaurs to appear on-screen which actually came from the Jurassic. The supercontinent Pangea had started to break apart, most of the world was humid, and the air was rich in oxygen. Brachiosaurus was found in the Morrison Formation - perhaps the most famous dinosaur fossil formation, tied with the home of the Tyrannosaurus Hell Creek. Today it covers a huge area of the US; most of it is in Colorado and Wyoming with outreaches into Montana, North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and even parts of Oklahoma and Texas. The Great Hall of Dinosaurs at Yale's Peabody Museum even has a mural by Rudolph Zallinger entitled The Age of Reptiles mostly depicts the inhabitants of Morrison Formation. The Morrison Formation was made of semiarid most of the year with the exception of the wet seasons - floodplain prairies and riverine forests were where Brachiosaurus could be found.

Neighbours

Zallinger's now outdated mural depicting some of the Morrison Formation dinosaurs

The Morrison Formation was rich in dinosaur life. Brachiosaurus was far from the only sauropod - Diplodocus, Camarasaurus, Apatosaurus, Brontosaurus, and Barosaurus were just some of the sauropods to call Morrison Formation their home. Brachiosaurus likely filled the same role as a giraffe; competition with other sauropods would drive it to reach the top of the trees, out of the way of the shorter sauropods. Other herbivores lived alongside the sauropods including nimble Dryosaurus and the formidable Stegosaurus. An adult Brachiosaurus had few natural predators - much like an elephant they were too big to attack without injury. However, younger ones had several potential predators. The horned Ceratosaurus, giant Torvosaurus and Saurophaganax, and the 'Lion of the Jurassic' Allosaurus all could prove deadly for a growing Brachiosaurus. As the Morrison Formation had floodplains and rivers which could easily burst their banks or flood the land during the wet season. These flash floods could easily drown helpless dinosaurs, and these floods help preserve their fossils. As a result, we know quite a bit about fauna in Jurassic Colorado and Wyoming, and every year we make new discoveries. 

Thank you for reading. The sources I have used are as follows:

-Gregory S. Paul, The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs, Second Edition, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2016)

-Steve Brusatte, The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: The Untold Story of a Lost World, (London: Macmillan, 2018)

-Mark Hallett and Mathew Wedel, The Sauropod Dinosaurs: Life in the Age of Giants, (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2016)

-'Brachiosaurus', Prehistoric-wildlife.com, [Accessed 06/02/2019]

-'Giraffatitan', Prehistoric-wildlife.com, [Accessed 06/02/2019]

-E.S. Riggs, 'Brachiosaurus altithorax, the largest known dinosaur', American Journal of Science, 4:15, (1904), 299-306

-Micahel Taylor, 'A Re-evaluation of Brachiosaurus altithorax Riggs 1903 (Dinosauria, Sauropoda) and Its Generic Separation from Giraffatitan brancai (Janensch 1914)', Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 29:3, (2009), 787-806

-Steven Perry and Christian Reuter, 'Hypothetical Lung Structure of Brachiosaurus (Dinosauria: Sauropoda) Based on Functional Constraints', Fossil Record, 2:1, (1999), 75-79

-Fabian Knoll and Daniela Schwarz-Wings, 'Palaeoneuroanatomy of Brachiosaurus', Annales de Paléontologie, 95, (2009), 165-175

-Anthony Maltese, Emanuel Tschopp, Femke Holwerda, and David Burnham, 'The real Bigfoot: a pes from Wyoming, USA is the largest sauropod pes ever reported and the northern-most occurrence of brachiosaurids in the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation', PeerJ, 6, (2018)

Thank you for reading. As this is a hobby of mine, not my speciality, if you feel that I have got something wrong or have omitted something please mention it in the comments. For other Paleo Profiles please see our list. For future blog updates please see our Facebook or catch me on Twitter @LewisTwiby.

World History: The End of Slavery: Abolition, Rebellion, Successes, Failures

The symbol of abolition 'Am I Not a Man and a Brother?'

Slavery has been a common stain on society throughout human history. Most societies which we have looked at on World History have practised slavery in some way or another, and the last time that we looked specifically at slavery was when we discussed the Atlantic Slave Trade. Today we're looking at how the slave trade and slavery came to an end, and how there were limitations to abolition. Due to how endemic slavery was, and how many forms it took, we cannot discuss the entire history of anti-slavery in just the 1700s and 1800s alone - for example, we'll be discussing the end of serfdom in Russia and slavery in the Ottoman Empire in future posts. Today we're looking at the end of slavery, and the movements against slavery, since the 1700s.

Anti-Slavery before 1700

As long as there have been slaves there have always been an anti-slavery movement. Anti-slavery in the Americas had for a longtime been condemned by both Europeans and the Americas, however, not in a way that we would imagine. Originally in the Americas the indigenous population was enslaved which proved to be one of the prime reasons for the Great Dying - where 90% of the indigenous population were killed thanks to colonialism. The original criticisms of slavery were directed at the enslavement of indigenous peoples - in 1609 Philip III of Spain spoke of 'the great excesses that might occur if slavery were to be permitted in any instance' and in 1639 Pope Urban VIII threatened excommunication for anyone practising slavery. Some of it was pragmatic though - slavery was evidently wiping out the indigenous communities which in turn was wiping out available labour. The enslavement of black Africans were seen as being fine; despite condemning the enslavement of indigenous communities Bartolome de Casas argued that Africans were 'natural' for hard labour. Slavery had also been brought to an end by several areas across Europe - 1315 France banned slavery and the idea of 'English Law' created an anti-slavery impulse on the continent. This was actually used to free slaves - 1755 to 1769 saw several court cases in Britain where slaves arriving in Britain used this idea to obtain their freedom, and Thomas-Alexandre Dumas in 1776 got his freedom when he was sent to France. These ideas were planted and would come into fruition later on. Also, before we move onto abolitionist movements it should also be noted that quite a few Christian denominations opposed slavery on moral grounds - the Quakers in the US are a particularly good example.

Abolitionist Movements

A depiction of the Zong Massacre

One of the key aspects of the end of slavery is the importance of abolitionist groups raising public awareness of the horrors of slavery. As expected, abolitionist movements had existed for a longtime but it was following the Zong Massacre in 1781; a Liverpool slave ship, the Zong, sailed by Luke Collingwood set sail from Sao Tome in September 1781 with 442 slaves, but on their way to Jamaica they got lost. With resources running scarce, and with many slaves dying of illness, and for every slave that died it would be on his head, unless if there was a risk to the crew. As a result, Collingwood had the surviving 133 slaves 'thrown alive into the sea, [so] it would be the loss of the underwriters.' These events were common but it managed to go to court in 1783, and major abolitionist, Granville Sharp, got other abolitionists to spread the word of the massacre. Thomas Day composed a poem entitled The Dying Negro, Dr Beilby Porteus issued sermons denouncing slavery, and George Gregory denounced slavery in Essays Historical and Moral. Although at this stage the general public seemed disinterested, it did influence abolitionists - especially after 1788 when Parliament passed an act for the first time to try and control the Slave Trade. Particularly in the Anglo-American world the Zong Massacre influenced a rise in abolitionist movements. The most notable was the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade which was founded by Quakers as well as Sharp and publisher Thomas Clarkson. However, the most famous member was William Wilberforce - an evangelical philanthropist and politician he provided a key leadership role in the abolitionist movement.

This image of Gordon the slave was distributed by American abolitionists

How did abolitionists get support? Largely it was through public speeches, publications, the funding of African accounts of slavery, and funding anti-slavery missionary societies. Granville Sharp and Wilberforce are the best know abolitionists due to this - their presence in parliament and public society, thanks to their wealth, made them publicly known. Josiah Wedgewood could use his wealth to make the famous 'Am I Not a Man and a Brother?' which became adopted across the abolitionist movement. Women were very important to the abolitionist movement - especially in the United States. Especially wealthy women, like Hannah More and Mary Wollstonecroft in the UK and Susan B Anthony in the US, were integral in publishing anti-slavery publications. From 1787-8 it is estimated that 10% of subscribers to the Abolition Society were women. A female version of Wedgewood's ceramic was also produced. It is important to not overlook the working-class aspect to abolition. In the UK working-class abolitionists, although sidelined in the movement, could help by boycotting produce made through the slave-trade. The religious Great Awakening in the United States in the North allowed working-class Americans to oppose slavery on moral terms - by 1838, after five years of existence, the American Anti-Slavery Society obtained 250,000 members. The American anti-slavery movement could be more radical. First published in 1831 The Liberator journal featuring the writing of William Lloyd Garrison savaged the American system of slavery ,and even called for abrogating the Constitution and dissolving the Union to end the US' complicity in slavery.

'Am I Not a Woman and a Sister?'

Continental Europe and Brazil abolitionist societies were fairly different from their English-speaking counterparts. The French abolitionist societies, such as the Amis de Noirs formed in 1788, were a more wealthy, elite movement preferring to work within the system and acting as brokers with external pressure groups. This is particularly noted in Brazil whose 'three stages of abolition' (abolishing of the trade in 1851; 'freedom of the womb' in 1871; and the 'Golden Law', abolition for all in 1888) were largely done behind closed doors. Of course, from the 1860s there was a grassroots abolitionist movement, and free and slave black opposition, so it is important to not ignore this aspect. The more radical nature of the French Enlightenment also brought in abolitionist ideas - as David Hume in Edinburgh and Thomas Jefferson in the US criticised but not condemned slavery, whereas Denis Diderot in the Encyclopedie overtly denounced it. In the US and Latin America their independence movements had used the rhetoric of freedom and liberty. As we saw when we looked at Latin America slaves used this language to justify their freedom, but it also caused a conundrum. How could people call for liberty as they kept slaves? Across parts of Latin America and the Northern US slavery came to an end when slaves successfully showed their own enslavement went against these ideas - Elizabeth Freeman in 1780 used the Constitution to get slavery abolished in Massachusetts as an example.

Black Abolition

Olaudah Equiano, the key abolitionist

Abolition was far from a white movement - in fact white abolitionists sometimes hindered black attempts to bring about their own emancipation. Slave uprisings, especially the Haitian Revolution, were at times condemned by white abolitionists, including Olympe de Gouges, and were even dehumanised. Especially female slaves were stripped of agency - in an attempt disprove the idea that black Africans were violent they were stripped of humanity. As a result black abolitionists, with perhaps the exception of American abolitionists, have been overlooked. The best known individual is perhaps Olaudah Equiano, also known as Gustavus Vassa. Equiano, in his account, was born around 1745 in what is now Nigeria - some historians have argued that he was born in South Carolina and combined narratives of African slaves, although it is heavily debated. Equiano lived a truly fascinating life - traumatised by being taken from his sister, he became a slave, a sailor, a devout Christian, and then an abolitionist. In 1794 he published a story of his life, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, The African, where he showed the horrors of slavery, and the trauma of being separated from his sister, and it became a bestseller. Like many abolitionists he was a devout Christian and that is shown in his text - Equiano later was a key figure in the London Missionary Society. His text was so controversial that pro-slavery individuals tried to smear it as being fictitious. Equiano was very important in the abolitionist movement before he was published - Sharp learnt about the Zong Massacre due to Equiano. Britain had the Sons of Africa - an abolitionist group, working closely with Wilberforce etc, made up of freed slaves. In 1731 Ignatious Sancho arrived in the UK where he managed to published speeches denouncing slavery along a Christian lens, and there was also Ottabah Cuguano. Born in Ghana he was freed in 1752 in Grenada and went to Britain where he published Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil and Wicked Traffic of the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species. Here he denounced slavery, and argued it was morally right for slaves to resist their masters.

Frderick Douglass, c.1879

In Cuba, the independence movement became closely tied with abolition. In 1868 Carlos Manuel de Cespedes declared that 'The Cuban Revolution...could hardly accept the great contradiction of limiting these to only one part of the population of the country.' There were limits to this - pro-independence slaveowners could keep their slaves - but former slaves, or their descendants, became leaders in the movement. The US is particularly known for black abolitionists. Largely this was due to the Underground Railroad which by 1850 is believed to have helped 100,000 escape. Harriet Tubman was a key figure in the Railroad; born into slavery herself she operated under the name of 'Moses' and managed to free over seventy individuals. Southern police could not fathom the idea that a black woman could be the mysterious Moses which aided in her success, as well as her own intelligence. Frederick Douglass has been cited as being one of the most important US abolitionists. Born a slave he taught himself to read and managed to make his way to New York and freedom - his books, like Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845), became instant bestsellers. In his Narrative his depiction of the brutality of slavery, both physical and emotional, resonated with audiences, and his discussion of how a friendly old lady, who owned him, was forced to keep him illiterate by her husband showed how destructive slavery was. It destroyed the humanity of even the owners. However, we get a skewed image of slavery through many narratives - mostly young men from a few states had the opportunity to free themselves. Other narratives are exceptional - Solomon Northup was free but taken as a slave, Harriet Jacobs hid in an attic (tragically she had to downplay sexual violence enacted on her to be published), and Henry 'Box' Brown managed to mail himself to Philadelphia. Hence, we only have a small account of what lives of slaves were like.

Rebellion

The statute of Samuel Sharpe

Often it is overlooked how important slave rebellions were in bringing an end to slavery. As mentioned earlier, and a previous World History post, was the Haitian Revolution. Slaves in the French colony Saint-Domingue rose up, defeated European powers, established a black republic, and defeated Napoleon's brother-in-law. Due to the success of the Haitian revolutionaries, such as Toussaint L'Ouverture, fighting French forces for the Spanish and British the French republicans finally abolished slavery in 1794. Napoleon hoped to bring back slavery to enrich his empire so tried to reintroduce slavery and restore French rule to the island - France was roundly defeated. It would take until 1848, however, for France to abolish slavery across the entire empire. Haiti offered a beacon across the enslaved world - freedom was possible. Meanwhile, despite abolishing the slave trade in 1807 Britain continued the practice in its empire; the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade was transformed in 1823 by William Wilberforce into the Anti-Slavery Society. The emergence of black deacons, including Baptists, in Jamaica gave slaves increased independence on religious lines. On Christmas Day 1831 a black Baptist preacher, Samuel Sharpe, encouraged slaves to strike and between 60,000 and 300,000 slaves took part in one of the largest slave rebellions. Although suppressed it shattered the colonial system - Hugh Thomas places it as one of three reasons why slavery was abolished in the British Empire (the other two was the willingness of a reformist Whig government, and a renewal of the anti-slavery movement with Thomas Fowell Buxton in parliament). Spain similarly abolished slavery in Cuba for similar reasons - hoping to keep a lid on Cuban nationalism Spain abolished slavery to show that it could be reformist. 

The United States and Brazil saw numerous slave rebellions - if anything it was traditional in Brazil with the quilombos. Unlike in Haiti, Jamaica, and Cuba slave rebellions did not bring abolition in Brazil and the US. The spectre of Haiti hung over both slave states - the US was keen to hamstring the Haitian economy to prevent it inspiring other slave rebellions - and reaction against slave rebellions were harsh. In the US, rebellions in Richmond (1800), Louisiana (1811), and Charleston (1822) were just some rebellions brutally crushed. The most famous one was Nat Turner's Rebellion in Southampton Valley, Virginia on August 22 1831. Turner was a slave preacher and upon seeing an eclipse (albeit he originally wanted to lead a revolt on July 4) led a revolt attacking white families and plantations - despite the idea that he ordered all white people killed he actually called for Quakers and the Dutch to be spared. It was crushed and Turner hung stating just before he died, 'Was not Christ crucified?'. A fear of 'a Turner being in any family' swept the South - Virginia through out a plan to gradually emancipate slaves, blacks (slave and free) were banned from being preachers, and slaves were prohibited from being taught to read. Slave rebellions could see success, however. An abolitionist from Sao Paulo in 1918 recalled how a slave named Pio allowed around 100 slaves to flee, and then there was the Amistad. The Amistad was moving from one Cuban port to another in 1839 when 53 slaves took over the ship and demanded that they been returned to Africa. The captain instead took them to Long Island, New York, and while the president wanted to return the slaves to Cuba abolitionists, including former president John Quincy Adams, convinced the Supreme Court that the Amistad had violated international laws against the slave trade. The slaves were returned to Africa. Albeit it was to Sierra Leone - not where they came from. 

Anti-Abolition

Slavery existed because it was popular and profitable. As argued by Hugh Thomas, the Industrial Revolution in Liverpool and Glasgow were funded thanks to the profits from sugar plantations in the Caribbean. Planters had considerable political power - profits from sugar, tobacco and coffee. In the British Caribbean in the 1770s profits came to £3.8 million (£450 million on today's money), and Saint-Domingue held most of the French wealth. Those who owed their wealth to slavery in Britain, France, Spain, Brazil, the Netherlands, and the US offered a very strong bulwark against abolition. During Cuba's Ten Years' War (1868-1878) support for independence was far less strong in the sugar plantation dominated west compared to the east. Similarly, opposition to abolition was strongest in states reliant on slavery, and slave-states in the US were even willing to secede in order to preserve slavery. Modern racism, partially, emerged thanks to the slavery. As abolitionists dehumanised slaves by stripping them of agency pro-slavery propaganda portrayed the free slave as a mindless brute prone to murder and rape. Fears of racial mixing were pervasive in colonial societies. Haiti, and other slave uprisings, caused hysterical fears of a race war. Haiti freed its slaves and there was violence, we therefore cannot free our slaves. During the Ten Years' War Spain, and loyalist Cubans, portrayed the revolt as a black insurrection wanting to establish a black republic along the lines of Haiti.

The US and the Civil War

African-Americans in the Union Army

I want to devote a World History post to the Civil War so I won't go into too much detail here. Contrary to the 'Lost Cause' myth the US Civil War was about slavery. Naturally, there were other factors, Northern economic domination and states' rights, but even then they were due to slavery - slavery kept the Southern economy rural and it was states' rights to keep slaves. Autonomy and pride in your own state helped convince everyday people in the South to the Confederacy but so was slavery. There are three reasons for this: there was a hope that a regular farmer could own slaves in the future; there was a fear that emancipating slaves would create competition for manual work; and poor whites had the knowledge that they weren't at the bottom of society. Since independence there had always been tension between the North and South - Washington D.C. was even built as a compromise - and the growth of abolition in the North angered the South. Tensions continued to grow as Abraham Lincoln was elected. The Republican Party had emerged as a Northern, abolition supporting party and although it is debated if Lincoln was an abolitionist the South definitely viewed him as one - the Republicans didn't even appear on Southern voting tickets. The South seceded and the Civil War began. The war would end slavery. One part pragmatism and one part genuine abolition Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 declaring slaves in seceded states freed. African-Americans were then encouraged to enlist in the Union army, and in 1865 the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery - to an extent.

Africa and Abolition

A British depiction of a Dahomian sacrifice ceremony, c.1793

A key region that we have yet to discuss is Africa. As argued by Walter Rodney, the slave trade had made West African states heavily reliant on the slave trade. Britain in 1807 banned the slave trade and used its navy to enforce its ban across the Atlantic - Brazil quickly abolished slavery in 1851 due to British pressure. As a result, West African states saw a crisis - they had been made dependent on the slave trade and now it was throttled. Different states reacted differently. Asante, in modern Ghana, was receiving over 5,000 slaves a year between 1807 and 1816 but now they lost the ability to sell their slaves. Naturally, slaves disliked being enslaved and were starting to riot in the capital of Kumasi. Then Asante had a stroke of luck - to the north the Sokoto Caliphate was established. In need of slaves, gold, and kola nuts, to make a non-alcoholic drink, Sokoto offered a new market for Asante. Slaves were used en masse in gold mines and nut farms, Akan goldfields produced 27,000 ounces of gold in 1807 to 35,000 after 1850, and other slaves were sold to Sokoto. Local leaders who made a fortune through farming and mining bought slaves as a way to show economic power. Meanwhile, Dahomey (in modern Benin) suffered. Due to British pressure Dahomian king Gezo had started restricting slavery and human sacrifice - two things needed for legitimacy. Instead he placed less emphasis on slavery and more on palm oil exports losing him domestic support. In 1858 he was ousted in a coup by his own son.

Britain was keen to stamp out the slave trade in Africa and German writer Goethe described it best: Everybody knows their declamations against the slave trade; and, while they have palmed off on is all sorts of human maxims as the foundation of their proceedings...they themselves use the blacks. Anti-slavery was used as an excuse to exert British, and later European, power over Africa. As we saw already they intervened in Asante and Dahomey to control their economies and many famous explorers were integral in British rule. For example, the Universities' Mission to Central Africa (UMCA), formed by David Livingstone in 1857, prided itself on combating slavery in Zambia, Malawi and Tanzania - they often failed to mention that their first converts were bought by them. For centuries African slaves had been taken to the Arabian peninsula and India via Zanzibar. Britain established its own interests on Zanzibar, ostensibly to end slavery, in order to also monopolise trade in other goods. Slavery exploited Africa and abolition was used as a way to create a new exploitation.

A sketch of Granville Town

Finally, we also have colonisation in the name of abolition. Granville Sharp had read a pamphlet by Danish botanist Henry Smeathman called Plan of a Settlement to be made near Sierra Leona, on the Grain Coast of Africa. Sharp believed that charity was not enough to help freed slaves and convinced parliament that repatriation was needed. In May 1787 290 men and 41 women arrived in Africa and formed the settlement of Granville Town in land bought from a local sub-chief nicknamed King Tom. Things went bad quickly. Disease and rains wiped out half of the town's population and there was an issue of settlers going off to join slave traders! A new sub-chief, King Jimmy, in 1790 gave the settlers an ultimatum after his village had been attacked: leave in three days because I'll attack. Despite this, in 1791 the Sierra Leone Company was formed and 1,190 volunteers from Nova Scotia (mostly freed during the American Revolution) and 119 Europeans formed a new colony. Equiano even aided in this but was dismissed when he complained of financial mismanagement. Despite being burnt by the French in 1794 the colony soon grew and whenever Britain raided a slave ship they sent the slaves to Sierra Leone. Meanwhile, the US in 1820 formed the American Colonization Society - close to Sierra Leone Monrovia was formed in 1822 which grew to 5,000 occupants by 1840. 

Limits

A sketch of three members of the KKK in Mississippi, c.1871

Despite abolition there were immense limits to the end of slavery. When slavery was ended now freed slaves saw very little change. Britain chose to pay £20 million, about 40% of the treasury or £16.5 billion in today's money, in bailing out former slave owners - many of Britain's wealthy elite today, including former prime minister David Cameron, owe some of their wealth to this. Similar occurrences happened across the world. Brazilian former slaves often had to stay on their old plantations or became a significant portion of the urban poor. The Republicans after the Civil War attempted a policy called 'Reconstruction' to help former slaves, however, government intransigence and Southern opposition prevented its success. The Ku Klux Klan emerged in 1865 to terrorise and murder former slaves and their allies - centuries of slavery gave way to a century of Jim Crow. Racism as we know it today emerged in this time period. Africans in India was classified as 'Untouchable' and the bottom of society, and former slaves, and their descendants, were treated with contempt in society.

India indentured labourers in Mauritius, 1917

Slavery continued in another form in the British empire as they were exerting power over Africa on the pretence of ending slavery. Indians had been taken as slaves since the 1600s and a series of famines in the 1700s caused thousands to tens-of-thousands of Indians to be sold into slavery. Around a third of slaves in the Cape Colony were Indians and 500 were sold as weavers in Sri Lanka. When slavery was abolished indentured servitude was created. People would work for several years and be paid in a lump sum, but the employer basically owned their employee. Flogging, despite government restrictions, was common, the work was the same that slaves once did, and movement was restricted - the only difference was there was a chance that they would get paid after several years. From 1833 until around 1920 this policy took over 3.5 million Indians across the world creating a large Indian diaspora from Kenya to Guyana to Fiji. For example, by the 1940s 60,965 Indians lived in Fiji; 238,909 were in Mauritius; and 453,063 were in Mauritius. Mauritius' first prime minister was Indian, and his father had been an indentured labourer. 

Conclusion

Today we've only just glanced at the end of slavery and its repercussions. When we look at attempts to reform Russia and the Ottoman Empire, as well as the American Civil War, we'll focus more on certain aspects of the end of slavery. The end of slavery is often taught in schools, but it is often a simplified aspect - when I learnt about it we focused heavily on William Wilberforce, and it took until I went to university to learn of the Jamaican Rebellion. Women and men of all classes and races were instrumental in the end of slavery regardless of whether it was violent, peaceful, or otherwise. However, it is hard to imagine how ingrained slavery and its legacy remains today. Racism in its current form was born from slavery, and few attempts to improve the situation of freed slaves means that two centuries on their descendants are still suffering under oppression. Slavery still continues today. Mauritania only banned slavery in 1980 and its very likely that people are still enslaved, as we speak speak black Africans are being sold in markets in Libya, and human trafficking has once again become a global issue. Looking at how abolition and the end of slavery occurred in the nineteenth century we can maybe understand how to deal with the modern crisis and why inequality persists today.

The sources I have used are as follows:

-Hugh Thomas, The Slave Trade: The History of the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1440-1870, (London: Macmillan, 1998)

-Eric Foner, Give Me Liberty! An American History, Fourth Edition, (New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 2014)

-Martin Meredith, The Fortunes of Africa: A 5,000 Year History of Wealth, Greed, and Endeavor, (London: Simon & Schuster, 2014)

-Seymour Drescher, 'Brazilian Abolition in Comparative Perspectives', The Hispanic American Historical Review, 68:3, (1988), 429-460

-Robert Edgard Conrad, (ed.), Children of God's Fire: A Documentary History of Black Slavery in Brazil, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1983)

-Ada Ferrar, Insurgent Cuba: Race, Nation, and Revolution, 1868-1898, (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1999)

-Paul Lovejoy, Transformations in Slavery: A History of Slavery in Africa, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983)

-Vincent Carretta, (ed.), The Interesting Narrative and Other Writings of Olaudah Equiano, (London: Penguin, 2003)

-Solomon Northup, 12 Years a Slave, (London: Collins, 1852/2014)

-David Brion Davis, The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Revolution, 1770-1823, (London: Cornell University Press, 1975)
-Walter Rodney, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, (Dar es Salaam: Bogle-L'Ouvurture Publications, 1973)

-Marina Carter, ‘Slavery and Unfree Labour in the Indian Ocean’, History Compass, 4, 5 (2006), 800-813

-Megan Vaughan, ‘Slavery and Colonial Identity in Eighteenth-Century Mauritius’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 8 (1998), 189-214

Thank you for reading and I hope you found it useful. The next World History posts will look at the jihadi movements in West Africa in the early-1800s. For other World History posts please see our list here. For future blog updates please see our Facebook or catch me on Twitter @LewisTwiby.