Farmer’s Magazine 1779 – African Husbandry

 Following are the digitized pages of a “1779 Farmer’s Magazine published in Britain in 1779. Here we get an idea of some impressions prevalent in Britain regarding Africa her people around the turn of the 18th  century.   According to the writer the business conducted there is almost all profit, and the most valuable asset is not the wax, the gums, the ivory or even the gold but the people (the negroes) as he calls them. ”These are the hands whereby our plantations are at present improved; and it is by their labour that such quantities of sugar, cotton, ginger, ?ustic and indigo, are raised, which employ a great quantity of shipping transporting them thither ; and the great number of ships employ a greater number of handicraft trades at home. Spend more of our produce and manufactures, and breed more sailors, who are maintained by a separate employment.” And so on, this was a practise carried by all the countries of Europe that had the ability to do so.  It should be clear that the wealth of Europe came at the expense and labour of the continent and the people of Africa.