An
estimated 15 million Africans were transported to the Americas between
1540 and 1850. To maximize their profits slave merchants carried as
many slaves as was physically possible on their ships. A House
of Commons committee in 1788 discovered that one slave-ship, The
Brookes,
was originally built to to carry a maximum of 451 people, but was
carrying over 600 slaves from Africa to the Americas.
Chained together by their hands and feet, the slaves had little room
to move. It has been estimated that only about half of the slaves
taken from Africa became effective workers in the Americas. A large
number of slaves died on the journey from diseases such as smallpox
and dysentery. Others committed suicide
by refusing to eat. Many of the slaves were crippled for life as a
consequence of the way they were chained up on the ship.
By the 17th century slaves could be purchased in Africa for about
$25 and sold in the Americas for about $150. After the slave-trade
was declared illegal, prices went much higher. Even with a death-rate
of 50 per cent, merchants could expect to make tremendous profits
from the trade.
(1)
Ottobah Cugoano, Narrative of the
Enslavement of a Native of Africa (1787)
We were taken in the ship that came for us, to
another that was ready to sail from Cape Coast. When we were put into
the ship, we saw several black merchants coming on board, but we were
all drove into our holes, and not suffered to speak to any of them.
In this situation we continued several days in sight of our native
land. And when we found ourselves at last taken away, death was more
preferable than life; and a plan was concerted amongst us, that we
might burn and blow up the ship, and to perish all together in the
flames: but we were betrayed by one of our own countrywomen, who slept
with some of the headmen of the ship, for it was common for the dirty
filthy sailors to take the African women and lie upon their bodies;
but the men were chained and pent up in holes. It was the women and
boys which were to burn the ship, with the approbation and groans
of the rest; though that was prevented, the discovery was likewise
a cruel bloody scene.
But it would be needless to give a description
of all the horrible scenes which we saw, and the base treatment
which we met with in this dreadful captive situation, as the similar
cases of thousands, which suffer by this infernal traffic, are well
known. Let it suffice to say that I was thus lost to my dear indulgent
parents and relations, and they to me. All my help was cries and tears,
and these could not avail, nor suffered long, till one succeeding
woe and dread swelled up another. Brought from a state of innocence
and freedom, and, in a barbarous and cruel manner, conveyed to a state
of horror and slavery, this abandoned situation may be easier conceived
than described.
(2)
Olaudah
Equiano,
was captured and sold as a slave in the kingdom of Benin in Africa.
He wrote about his experiences in The Life of Olaudah Equiano the
African
(1789)
The first object which saluted my eyes when I arrived on the coast,
was the sea, and a slave ship, which was then riding at anchor, and
waiting for its cargo. These filled me with astonishment, which was
soon converted into terror, when I was carried on board. I was immediately
handled, and tossed up to see if I were sound, by some of the crew;
and I was now persuaded that I had gotten into a world of bad spirits,
and that they were going to kill me.
I was soon put down under the decks, and there I received such a greeting
in my nostrils as I had never experienced in my life; so that, with
the loathsomeness of the stench, and crying together, I became so
sick and low that I was not able to eat, nor had I the least desire
to taste anything. I now wished for the last friend, death, to relieve
me; but soon, to my grief, two of the white men offered me eatables;
and, on my refusing to eat, one of them held me fast by the hands,
and laid me across, I think, the windlass, and tied my feet, while
the other flogged me severely.
The white people looked and acted, as I thought, in so savage a manner;
for I had never seen among my people such instances of brutal cruelty.
The closeness of the place, and the heat of the climate, added to
the number in the ship, which was so crowded that each had scarcely
room to turn himself, almost suffocated us.
The air soon became unfit for respiration, from a variety of loathsome
smells, and brought on a sickness among the slaves, of which many
died. The wretched situation was again aggravated by the chains, now
unsupportable, and the filth of the necessary tubs, into which the
children often fell, and were almost suffocated. The shrieks of the
women, and the groans of the dying, rendered the whole a scene of
horror almost inconceivable.
(3)
Zamba Zembola, The Life and Adventures
of Zamba and African Slave (1847)
Captain Winton told me in the course of our voyage, that, in the early
part of his experience in the slave-trade, he had seen slaves where
they were literally packed on the top of each other; and consequently,
from ill air, confinement, and scanty or unwholesome provision, disease
was generated to such an extent that in several cases he had known
only one-half survive to the end of the voyage; and these, as he termed
it, in a very unmarketable condition. He found, therefore, that, by
allowing them what he called sufficient room and good provisions,
with kind treatment, his speculations turned out much better in regard
to the amount of dollars received; and that was all he cared for.
After being about 15 days out to sea a heavy squall struck the ship.
The poor slaves below, altogether unprepared for such an occurrence,
were mostly thrown to the side, where they lay heaped on the top of
each other; their fetters rendered many of them helpless, and before
they could be arranged in their proper places, and relived from their
pressure on each other, it was found that 15 of them were smothered
or crushed to death. The captain seemed considerably vexed; but the
only grievance to him was the sudden loss of some five or six thousand
dollars.
(4)
Thomas Phillips, a slave-ship captain, wrote an account of his
activities in A Journal of a Voyage (1746)
I have been informed that some commanders
have cut off the legs or arms of the most willful slaves, to terrify
the rest, for they believe that, if they lose a member, they cannot
return home again: I was advised by some of my officers to do
the same, but I could not be persuaded to entertain the least
thought of it, much less to put in practice such barbarity and
cruelty to poor creatures who, excepting their want of Christianity
and true religion (their misfortune more than fault), are as much
the works of God's hands, and no doubt as dear to him as ourselves.
(5)
Thomas Clarkson interviewed a sailor
who worked on a slave-ship and published the account in his book,
Essay on the Slave Trade (1789)
The misery which the slaves endure in consequence
of too close a stowage is not easy to describe. I have heard them
frequently complaining of heat, and have seen them fainting, almost
dying for want of water. Their situation is worse in rainy weather.
We do everything for them in our power. In all the vessels in
which I have sailed in the slave trade, we never covered the gratings
with a tarpawling, but made a tarpawling awning over the booms,
but some were still panting for breath.
(6)
Dr. Thomas Trotter, a physician working on the slave-ship, Brookes,
was interviewed by a House of Commons
committee in 1790. This is how he replied when he was asked if
the "slaves had room to turn themselves".
No. The slaves that are out of irons are
locked "spoonways"" and locked to one another.
It is the duty of the first mate to see them stowed in this manner
every morning; those which do not get quickly into their places
are compelled by the cat and, such was the situation when stowed
in this manner, and when the ship had much motion at sea, they
were often miserably bruised against the deck or against each
other. I have seen their breasts heaving and observed them draw
their breath, with all those laborious and anxious efforts for
life which we observe in expiring animals subjected by experiment
to bad air of various kinds.
(7)
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