Inspired by the Mapping Slavery–The Netherlands project, which in turn was influenced by the Legacies of British Slave-ownership project, Mapping Slavery-Germany seeks to map places, families, and institutions in Germany that are connected to the transatlantic slave trade and the enslavement of black Africans, as well as sites in Germany connected to German colonialism in Africa. Unlike Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, France, Britain, and Denmark, Germany is not immediately associated with a history of slavery or the slave trade. However, northern cities like Hamburg, Bremen, Berlin, Flensburg, and Emden, and southern cities like Augsburg and Nuremberg can be linked historically to transatlantic slavery through their connection to trade with European colonial powers.
Typically, the history of slavery and the slave trade is often relegated to the Americas, the Caribbean, and Africa. Like Mapping Slavery–The Netherlands and the Legacies of British Slave-ownership, this project seeks to locate the history of slavery “at home” in Europe. British slavery was abolished in 1833 and Dutch slavery in 1863 and projects like Mapping Slavery–The Netherlands at Free University in Amsterdam and the Legacies of British Slave-Ownership at the University College of London use compensation records of slave owners after the abolition of slavery to map slavery and its role in the public history of many British and Dutch cities and towns. Germany, however, has a very different history because, other than the Electorate of Brandenburg’s involvement in the slave trade, which lasted a little over 30 years, approximately from 1683 to 1717, the German states were not directly involved in the transatlantic slave trade. Instead, their connection to slavery and the slave trade was indirect through economic and trade connections to nations such as the Netherlands, Denmark, France, Britain, Spain, and Portugal, which introduced colonial goods such as cane sugar, coffee, chocolate, and tobacco, as well as mahogany and indigo and cochineal dyes, thus forever changing the tastes, consumption habits, and material culture in Germany and Europe as a whole. In addition, certain goods produced in the German states, such as linen, metal wares, and weapons were exported to the colonies in the Americas and to the west coast of Africa in exchange for colonial goods. The Mapping Slavery–Germany project therefore locates Germany within the broader colonial history of Europe as well as showcases the role that transatlantic slavery, the slave trade, and black African labor play in the public histories of many German cities and towns.
Wendy-Lou Sutherland, PhD
Cal Murgu, MA MLS