In 1808, the United States banned the transatlantic slave trade. Not everyone was happy about this, as Marcella Schute discovered. In her thesis, she shows how politicians from Louisiana made serious attempts to restart the slave trade in the mid-nineteenth century.
While searching for a topic for her PhD thesis, Schute came across a newspaper article about attempts to reopen the slave trade. 'That article was from the 1850s,' says Schute. 'Slavery was still legal in the United States at the time, but I knew that the transatlantic trade had been banned since 1808.'
This ban had led to a severe labour shortage, particularly in Louisiana. 'The state's economy was based on the sugar industry,' says Schute. 'That production is incredibly labour-intensive. Combined with the climate, this meant that Louisiana was the only state where the enslaved population did not increase naturally, but actually declined. People died young, and women had difficulty conceiving children.'
Less progressive than it seems
This led to the African Apprentice Bill, which proposed bringing people to the United States on 'apprenticeship contracts'. 'The bill is worded in a remarkably progressive way,' says Schute. 'Only when you look at what it actually says do you see that it is a roundabout way of opening up the slave trade.' This back-door proposal was particularly convenient for the sugar plantation owners in Louisiana. Schute: 'They received a sugar subsidy from the Union (the collection of states that supported the abolition of slavery during the Civil War). They would lose this subsidy as soon as they openly made proposals for reopening the slave trade.'
That the politicians in Louisiana were nevertheless serious in their endeavours became apparent when the African Apprentice Bill failed. 'They then tried to buy Cuba from Spain,' says Schute. 'A lot of sugar was produced there, and Cuba was also involved in the illegal slave trade. The ships that still arrived there would also provide Louisiana with new recruits and, moreover, create a virtual sugar monopoly.'
In the Netherlands too
This attempt to reopen the slave trade also failed, but not before the proposal was discussed in parliament. 'My research shows how far politicians are willing to go to protect their economic interests,' says Schute. 'This applies not only to America, but equally to the Netherlands. In 1858, Chinese contract workers were taken to Suriname, where they were put to work under appalling conditions. At the same time, debates were also held in the House of Representatives in the Netherlands about the possibility of transporting African contract workers to Suriname in the mid-nineteenth century. I am currently writing an article about this.'
