1697-1803: Nantes rapidly became the premier port for the organization of French slaving voyages following the early eighteenth century, a position it held u…

1697-1803: Nantes rapidly became the premier port for the organization of French slaving voyages following the early eighteenth century, a position it held until the outbreak of war in 1793. Its merchants maintained dominance in two of Africa’s largest slave-trading centers, Loango and Ouidah, while also trading in the British-dominated Bight of Biafra. Vessels from Nantes provided a consistent supply of labor to all parts of the French plantation Americas, particularly Saint-Domingue. The scale of this trade made Nantes the central engine of the French Atlantic economy during the height of the plantation era.