Calabar

=== Seaport, slave trade ===

When [[Portuguese Empire|Portuguese]] explorers in the 15th century reached this part of the [[Guinea (region)|Guinea]] coast, they called the tribes of the area "Calabar". These historic inhabitants were [[Ekoi people|Quas]]. It was not until the early part of the 18th century that the [[Efik people]] migrated from the area of the [[Niger River]] to the shores of the Calabar. They were fleeing civil war with their kindred and the [[Ibibio people]].<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Calabar|volume=4|page=962}}</ref>[[File:Nigeria Calabar Port 11.81.jpg|thumb|right|200px|A merchantman docked in Calabar, 1981]]

Since the 16th century, Calabar has served as an international [[seaport]], exporting such goods as [[palm oil]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Africans: The History of a Continent |first=John |last=Iliffe |edition=illustrated, reprint |publisher= Cambridge University Press |year=1995 |isbn=0-521-48422-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dlHE51ScKTUC&pg=PA149 |page=149}}</ref> During the centuries of the [[Atlantic slave trade]], it became a major port for shipment of African slaves to the Americas. The Spanish named it Calabar. 

Taken in slave raids, [[Igbo people|Igbo]] people formed the majority of Africans who were sold as slaves from Calabar. They were a minority and subject to slave raids by more powerful tribes or ethnic groups in the region.<ref>{{cite book |title=Murder at Montpelier: Igbo Africans in Virginia |first=Douglas B. |last=Chambers |edition=illustrated |publisher=Univ. Press of Mississippi |year=2005 |isbn=1-57806-706-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PrPxWLSrp78C&pg=RA1-PA22 |page=22}}</ref>

From 1725 until 1750, roughly 17,000 enslaved Africans were sold from Calabar to European slave traders; from 1772 to 1775, the number soared to more than 62,000.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Two Princes of Calabar: An Eighteenth-century Atlantic Odyssey |first=Randy J. |last=Sparks |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=2004 |isbn=0-674-01312-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Tt6BCT-9yEgC&pg=PA39 |page=39}}</ref> Old Calabar (Duke Town) and Creek Town, {{convert|10|mi|km|order=flip}} northeast, were crucial towns in the trade of slaves in that era.<ref name=overview/> 

In the early 19th century, Great Britain and the United States agreed to prohibit the slave trade. In 1815 {{HMS|Comus|1806|6}}, as part of the British [[blockade of Africa]], sailed into [[Duke Town]], where she captured seven Spanish and Portuguese [[slave ship]]s.<ref>{{cite RNB1823 |wstitle=Pierce, George |volume=4 |part=2 |page=129}}.</ref>

[[John Jea]], an enslaved African American, came from the area. He later became a writer. A small [[mulatto]] community of merchants was located here that had links to missionary and other merchant colonies in Igboland, [[Lagos]], and across the [[Atlantic Ocean|Atlantic.]]<ref>{{Cite web|title=Calabar Town in Cross-River Nigeria Guide|url=https://www.nigeriagalleria.com/Nigeria/States_Nigeria/Cross-River/History-of-Calabar-in-Cross-River.html|access-date=2022-02-03|website=www.nigeriagalleria.com}}</ref>

In 1846, Scottish Presbyterians established a mission station in Calabar. Among the missionaries, Hope Waddell, who worked in Calabar from 1845 to 1858, and Mary Slessor, who evangelized Christianity in Calabar from 1876 to 1915, worked to improve treatment by and among the native peoples. They influenced many Efik people to convert to Christianity.

They tried to change or abolish the following traditional practices:

* Killing newborn twins,
* Human sacrifice at the death of village elders (to provide servants for them in the afterlife),<ref>{{Cite web |title=Calabar {{!}} Nigeria, Map, & Facts {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Calabar |access-date=2024-01-19 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>
* "Convicting" suspects in crime by seeing if they survived  drinking poison (see judgement of God)

They founded a school to provide secondary education to Africans. They also worked to protect water supplies and limit mosquitoes in order to contain [[yellow fever]] epidemics.

Waddell and Slessor are still honoured in Calabar today; streets and squares in the city were named for them.