The Shortest Middle Passage: Slave Trafficking in East African Waters After 1873

Abstract This article examines British official sources to understand the nature of coastal slave trading after the signing of the 1873 treaty between Great Britain and the Sultanate of Zanzibar to end the maritime shipment of slaves from continental Africa. It focuses on British accounts of this traffic and highlights the reported testimony of “liberated” enslaved Africans and African captives. It identifies the difficulties the British encountered in distinguishing recent captives from previously enslaved individuals while also pointing to the different kinds of work that the enslaved performed. Finally, despite the limitations of these sources, it points to their significance as sources of African voices, however mediated.