The Journal of Negro History, Volume 2, 1917 | Page 4

were usually absent
from one week to a month, and at times brought in considerable
numbers," mostly from the Bambaras. "The slaves thus brought in were
chiefly women and children, who, after being detained a day or two at
the king's house, were sent away to other parts for sale."[4]
The Fellatahs, who, since the beginning of the nineteenth century, have
been the dominators of the Nigritians in West Africa, used to carry on a
merciless campaign against their subjects, destroying their homes and
fields, and seizing women and children by the thousands to barter away
to the West, or to send across the desert. Describing the effects of a
Fellatah raid, Barth says: "The whole village, which only a few

moments before had been the abode of comfort and happiness, was
destroyed by fire and made desolate. Slaughtered men, with their limbs
severed from their bodies, were lying about in all directions and made
passers-by shudder with horror."[5]
The slave traffic in the Sudan gave rise at a very early date to regular
slave markets. The city of Jenné on the Niger was, in the middle ages,
the greatest emporium in West Africa, far outshining Timbuktu. From
the fifteenth century to the present time, the most celebrated slave
markets have been Kuka, on Lake Chad, Timbuktu, capital of the
Songhay empire, Kano, capital of the Haussa empire, and Katsena,
capital of a district of the same name. Rohlfs found at the Kuka slave
market, white haired old men and women, children suckling strange
breasts, young girls and strong boys who had come from Bornu,
Baghirmi, Haussa, Logun, Musgu, Waday and from lands still more
distant.[6]
The slaves were carried across the desert by two kinds of caravans.
First, those composed of nomad tribes, which migrated periodically
from north to south. During the winter the tribes would pasture their
camels along the edges of the desert, but in the spring they would visit
the cities in the oases to gather up a supply of dates and other desert
products to sell in the north. They would then in the same season
proceed north to the cultivated regions of the Atlas mountains and
arrive there in the midst of the harvest, exchanging their southern
commodities for grain, raw-wool, and a variety of European goods. At
the end of the summer they would return to the south, arriving at the
oases just as the dates were ripening. Here the grain, wool and other
stuffs from the north would be exchanged for dates and manufactured
articles of the desert. The same tribes which advanced from the oases of
the desert to the north also descended towards the south, thus
establishing intercourse between the Barbary States and Timbuktu.
Many slaves picked up by these immigrating tribes were carried from
one oasis to another until they were finally sold into the states
bordering the Mediterranean.
The second kind of caravans were those conducted by merchants,

traveling with hired camels, and making rapid and direct journeys
across the desert to and from the chief slave markets. These caravans
would come into the Sudan composed of men mounted upon camels,
asses and mules, bringing salt, hides, cloth, and sundry articles from
civilized North Africa, and return with slaves through Tibbu to Fezzan,
and there fatten them for the Tripoli slave markets. Those that came to
Timbuktu returned to any of the Barbary States, and there transferred
their slaves to other traders who carried them as far as Turkey in Asia.
Those that came to Kano usually passed out by way of Kuka or Katsena
and proceeded thence by several routes to markets in North Africa.
The journey across the desert was exceedingly fatal to the blacks, since
they were not accustomed to the northern climate. They suffered from
hunger, thirst and cold, and a large per cent. of them perished along the
way. Damberger, who traveled through the interior of Africa between
1781 and 1797, relates, as follows, his experience as a slave-captive in
crossing the desert. Passing through the Sudan he fell in with some
Moors, journeying to Tegorarin, where he was sold to a slave dealer,
who resold him to a Mussulman en route to Mezzabath, a town on the
river Oniwoh. Here again he was sold to a merchant who carried him to
Marocco. He narrates that "On the 6th of September, my new master
and I departed with the caravan. It consisted of merchants from various
nations, of persons of distinction, who had been performing a
pilgrimage to Mecca, and of slaves. We proceeded slowly on our
journey, as the roads were bad and our beasts were very heavily laden.
Every day some of our company left the caravan, as we approached or
passed the respective destinations. We traveled over mountains where
the path was