Weather and climate intertwined with slavery and conflict, yielding lessons that resonate today
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA – DAVIS
According to a study from the University of California, Davis, El Niño, an oceanic phenomenon that affects weather patterns worldwide, significantly affects the number of enslaved Africans shipped from West Africa. to the Americas between the 1600s and mid-1800s, according to a study from the University of California, Davis.
Researchpublished in the journal of the American Meteorological Association Weather, Climate and Society, which bridges atmospheric science with African history. It also shares lessons for today amid a warming future that threatens to exacerbate conflict and human migration.
Research shows that El Niño can be used as a proxy – like tree and coral belts – for historical rainfall and temperature patterns in West Africa. The authors used reconstructed El Niño indices and the Slave Journey dataset to examine the relationship between El Niño and the transatlantic slave trade.
Historians have suggested, based on qualitative reviews of journals, documents, and chronicles, that drought affected the transatlantic slave trade. But they were unable to quantify that relationship or identify a mechanism that causes the drought.
“The transatlantic slave trade dates back to the 1400s, but instrumental precipitation data only go back to about the 1800s,” said William Turner IV, PhD, lead author. student at UC Davis in the Department of Land, Air, and Water Resources. “To fill this data gap, we relied on the association between El Niño and precipitation. We found that during El Niño, West Africa experienced drier conditions.”
Delayed response
The authors found that El Niño-induced dry conditions were associated with a decrease in the number of enslaved people arriving in the Americas, and that it occurred with a two-year lag. Latency is important, suggesting that El Niño-induced arid conditions caused a delayed response in the slave trade.
The authors suggest that agricultural stresses may have reduced demand for slaves during droughts, leading to a reduction in enslaved populations shipped from Africa. However, they note that sociological studies are needed to fully understand how West African societies responded to drought during the slave trade. However, they did find a clear link between El Niño and the slave trade.
When ‘commodities’ are slaves, people
“What amazed me was how detailed the ship’s log was,” said co-author Terrence Nathan, a professor in the UC Davis Department of Land, Air, and Water Resources. “Diary records the weather, as well as the number of individual slaves who left port and survived the arduous journey on ships carrying 700 enslaved Africans with only 3 square feet allotted for each person. Individuals enslaved were simply treated as commodities for insurance purposes, further emphasizing the inhumanity of the slave trade.”
“In recognition of their humanity, we used the term ‘slave’ instead of ‘slave’ throughout the article,” says Turner.
Learn from the past
“In this study, we have shown that weather is one of the driving forces behind the transatlantic slave trade,” says Nathan. “The lessons learned from this study still resonate today, as evidenced by the Syrian civil war, which studies have shown was exacerbated by extreme drought. With current projections of climate change, one can only wonder what the future holds for potential future conflicts as people are forced to move away from hotter and drier areas. “.
The authors end the study with the West African word “sankofa”, which roughly translates as “the past informs the future”.
“’Sankofa’ means not leaning on the past but learning from it and understanding how we got here today so we can have a better future for tomorrow,” Turner said.
The research was funded by the National Science Foundation.
JOURNEYS
Weather Climate and Society
DOI
RESEARCH METHODS
Data analysis / statistics
ARTICLE TITLE
El Niño-Southern Oscillation and the Transatlantic Slave Trade
ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE
December 6, 2021
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