Chapter 4 - Supplying or Supplanting the Americas

Summary

Focusing on the years between 1763 and 1789, Chapter 4 explores French attempts to embark on cash crop cultivation in Senegambia alongside the trans-Atlantic slave trade. When the French crown took control of the French holdings in Senegambia at the end of the Seven Years War, it abolished the monopoly of the Compagnie des Indes and installed a colonial official on the island of Gorée. From here, local officials started exploring opportunities for sugar, cotton, coffee, indigo, and tobacco cultivation in the region, often against the wishes of the central government. As the future of French colonial empire looked increasingly uncertain, and the cost of slave labour appeared unnecessarily costly, private merchants and semi-private commercial companies joined such activities, eager to exploit African resources for private gain. The chapter explores the language with which colonial entrepreneurs articulated these projects. It also studies endeavours to create agricultural plantations on land leased from local rulers on the mainland opposite the island of Gorée and along the Senegal River. The chapter uncovers how French officials made some headway with cash crop cultivation before the French Revolution disrupted such experiments.