This slow-down of the transatlantic slave trade meant a change in the trading activities of the merchants in Bristol. Some local observers, however, put the decrease in slave trading activity down to the ‘humanity and benevolence’ of the merchants of Bristol who felt that they no longer wanted to be involved in such an inhumane trade. It was also affected by the repeated threats from the government that they would soon end the slave trade. James Rogers, the city’s leading slave trader, went bankrupt soon afterwards. This economic crisis affected all the city’s merchants. At the height of a building frenzy in Bristol, building firms went bankrupt, leaving terraces of unfinished houses in the newly fashionable areas of Clifton, Kingsdown and St Pauls. War with France, famine and a financial collapse threatened many local banks with closure (there were no major banking companies as there are today). Were some traders feeling guilty about their involvement in the slave trade? Or did they fear that the movement to end the slave trade was likely to succeed and affect their business?Īnother reason for the decline in Bristol’s slave trading activity was the financial collapse of 1793. The anti-slave trade movement was strong. Changes in people’s attitudes towards the slave trade may have affected it. They may have given up on competing with the port of Liverpool, which had better dock facilities and had become the leading slaving port. It is not clear why Bristol’s merchants lost interest in the trade. The level of financial investment in the slave trade remained high, but the risk was carried by a small number of investors. Instead the leading slave traders after 1780, John Anderson, James Rogers and James and Thomas Jones, were relative newcomers. Many of the older leading merchant families had withdrawn from the trade. The Caesar was there to protect the other ships.īy the late 18th century, fewer merchants were involved in the slave trade. This image shows a privateer, the Caesar, beating off a French ship that attacked a convoy of ships sailing from Jamaica in the Caribbean. At time of war, merchant ships often sailed in convoy (several ships together) with a privateer or Royal Navy ships to protect them. The ship’s owners bought the right from the government to take enemy ships and share the profits of the sale of the ship and cargo. The American War of Independence in 1776 and a war with France in 1793 meant that shipping was at risk from attack by privateers and enemy naval ships. There may have been several reasons for this. In the late 18th century fewer slaving voyages were leaving Bristol each year. The Caesar, privateer, protects Jamaican convoy.
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