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Many of the first slaves used by colonial superpowers consisted of Northern African and Arabian forced laborers. The Berbers originated in the Barbary region, south of the Iberian Peninsula. The exhibitions to capture the slaves were led by Prince Henry the Navigator, with many beginning as war campaigns.
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The enslavement of natives and Africans in Haiti began as soon as Columbus landed upon the territory, seeing the land and indigenous people as a business and laborers. Columbus' son, Diego Columbus helped cultivate the slave trade in Haiti during the 1500s, with slave rebellions occurring beginning in the 1510s.
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Enslavement in Jamaica began with Spaniards enslaving the native Arawaks in the early 1500s, with nearly the entire population being wiped out by foreign disease. By 1655, England had invaded and taken claim to Jamaica, seizing all enslaved natives and Africans, as well as the plantations they toiled on. Source
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Passed under King Charles V of Spain, the Holy Roman Emperor. these laws were passed to lessen the exploitation of native populations by Spaniards in the New World colonies. Enforced by figures such as Blasco Vela, these laws sought to liberate the angry and suffering indigenous workers. Spanish landlords in the colonies did revolt but were unsuccessful in their attempts at overturning the law, prompting a focus on African slavery instead.
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By 1778, France has imported over 13,000 African slaves to the French West Indies which consisted of the regions of Nantes, La Rochelle, Bordeaux, and Le Havre. This not only developed businesses in the New World, but also emerging societies, such as Creole settlements.
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When Britain seized Jamaica from Spain, its primary motivation was the profitable sugar industry on the island. Paired with the Asiento treaty that allowed Britain to monopolize upon the Spanish Slave Trade, Jamaica provided a valuable foothold in the New World for British business and colonial prospects.
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Founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, Penn was a prominent British officer, whose abilities emerged during the First English Civil War as he fought for Parliament, commanding ships against the Irish. When granted power over the Jamaican Commonwealth, Penn established the Jamaica Station which served as an important navy port and trading post.
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These wars were fought throughout Jamaica between the Jamaican Maroons and British authorities. Tensions initially rose when Britain took control of Jamaica from Spain in 1655, with the Jamaican Maroons, previously freed slaves, were enslaved. The population of black slaves very soon began to greatly outnumber that of white settlers. This resulted in several revolts and full-on warfare between the groups. This fighting would continue until British peace-negotiator Edward Trevelyan would arrive.
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Parliament's Slave Trade Act of 1807 prohibited the practice of the Slave trade by British merchants and within British colonies. This was enforced by the Royal Navy's West Africa Squadron. British legal scholars had argued for decades that slavery was an immoral deed and violated unalienable rights and ideals such as habeaus corpus, as it violated one's person hood.
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Following the Demerara Rebellion of 1823, France finalized its stance on slavery within its colonies and the slave trade all together. Slavery was initially abolished in 1794 by the French Republic, but that order was overturned by Napoleon in 1802. However, the Republic continued its fight for abolition, succeeding with policy in 1815 and action in the 1820s.
