AHC: Bring african slaves to australia

The British Empire introduced the practice of slavery to the majority of its overseas colonies and at the time of the founding of the 1st colony in 1788 the british slave trade was still in full swing.

Part of the reason for the attraction of african slaves was their ability to work in harsh or at least very hot climates. This would seem to fit in with australia somewhat.
 
Hmm, the Americas were closer, more populous, with a higher demand for slaves and more valuable products (sugar, etc) to be gained by their labor that could be easily shipped and refined in Europe.

Not sure if Australia fit any of these categories?

I can't imagine how horrible a Middle Passage from East Africa to Australia would be. :eek:
 
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East Africa, outside of the Arab shindig, to my knowledge was not a source of slaves and was far away from the slave coast traded in by the Europeans. For that matter Australia is gonna be colonized a bit to late for the slave trade to have much or any effect, and they lack any reason to use slaves (ex: as plantation workers).
 
This is rather difficult with a post-1788 point of departure.

Australia already had a form of slave labour (okay, indentured labour): convicts. It was the reason the place was set up, after all. There's no reason to import African slaves to a colony which was set up as a convict labour camp.

By the time the transportation of convicts had stopped - in fact, even before that - the British electorate had turned vehemently anti-slavery, so establishing a formal slave trade was politically impossible.

Even after that, when some Australians did turn to unofficial slave labour, they went to a closer source: the Pacific Islands. The "blackbirders" in Queensland amounted to slavery (or close to it) when growing sugar, but there was no need to set up a trade in slaves from Africa. This would apply to just about any form of slavery in eastern Australia, since it's closer to bring slaves from the Pacific Islands.

If you have an *Australia which is settled before 1788, and by someone other than the British, it may be possible. Here is one example of where it happened, for instance, but that's with a PoD well before 1788.
 
The British Empire introduced the practice of slavery to the majority of its overseas colonies and at the time of the founding of the 1st colony in 1788 the british slave trade was still in full swing.

Part of the reason for the attraction of african slaves was their ability to work in harsh or at least very hot climates. This would seem to fit in with australia somewhat.


I'll go with Jared & Daniwani on this one. East Africa wasn't slave-trading country and West Africa was simply too far away. That, and opposition to slavery really began to take off once the American Revolution ended.

Your best bet is to try a scenario similar to Mumby's Centuries of Shadow timeline. The PoD was in 1772 but it's close enough to your preferred timeline, I think.
 
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