Southampton and the slave trade

Slavery and Southampton

Southampton has been associated in the slave trade for over 500 years and there is a great deal of history still to be explored. There is evidence to suggest that there were slaves and indentured labour in the city but much of the trade related to the business benefits of slavery which included sugar and chocolate.

The City of Southampton has a rich history, made richer by the presence of its black citizens and the legacy that they have left. Southampton's direct involvement in "Slavery" itself was limited, but it still took place.

In 1591 a Venetian merchant named Piero Paolo Corsi offered an African slave for sale in Southampton. In 1626 Thomas Combes, a local merchant sent 60 slaves to the island of St. Kitts in the Caribbean. Combes owned a sugar plantation on St. Kitts.

In 1678 and 1682 Jean Barbot sent voyages to the west coast of Africa to deal in slaves. He was an agent for the French African company. In the late 1600s Barbot moved to Southampton but mostly traded from London.

Trade and Southampton

Huge profits were made by people who set up plantations.

To keep profits high and costs down they used slaves rather than paid workers. The main crops were sugar, tobacco, coffee and chocolate. Sugar cane grown by slaves in the Caribbean was shipped into Britain to be refined. This took places in factories like the one in Sugar House Lane.

The factory opened in the 1740's and produced sugar for forty years. The finest sugar in the country was made in Southampton. All of these were consumed in the fashionable coffee shops and the inns of Europe.

Southampton had a number of these shops in the 1700s, including The Sun, The George, The Coach and Horses and The Star.

Many wealthy people came to visit the spa near Western Esplanade, to drink the waters and bathe in the sea. There were also a number of well-off families living in the town. Some of these families made their money from involvement with the slave trade.

Notable residents involved in the slave trade

Thomas Holmes - Mayor of Southampton - Employed black servants
Walter Taylor - A local businessman - Employed black servants
Maria Groce - Left money and bedding to her black servant in her will
Bryan Edwards - A local MP who owned a sugar plantation in the West Indies
James Amyatt - Who owned Freemantle Park, christened his black servant George Freemantle in 1774.