In the Portuguese colonized Angola, in West-Central Africa, at a moment when drought set off a series of wars that created thousands of refugees and captives who, in turn, were sold by African traders to the Europeans.
For the next century, the Portuguese and to a lesser extent the Dutch dominated the slave trade, with the French and English obtaining slaves mostly by stealing them from Portuguese ships. In , the Royal African Company received a monopoly charter over deliveries of captives to the English Caribbean islands of Barbados and Jamaica.
The captains of these ships sailed first to Africa, where they sold goods—textiles, metals, decorative items, and guns—for enslaved Africans, who were picked up either directly from African dealers or from coastal forts built by the company to hold already purchased slaves.
This human cargo, which usually numbered several hundred people per vessel, was then taken to America on the Middle Passage, suffering mortalities of about 15 percent. In , the Royal African Company lost its monopoly and soon was eclipsed by private British and American merchants.
Those based in Bristol and London dominated the Virginia trade until the s, when the London merchants were overtaken by others based in Liverpool. Nearly two-thirds of the Atlantic slave trade took place between and British abolition in — About a quarter of all African-born slaves came to the Americas after abolition of the British and United States trades. Slave ships ranged in size from the ten-ton Hesketh , which sailed out of Liverpool and delivered slaves to Saint Kitts in , to the ton Parr , another Liverpool ship that sailed in the s.
Ships comparable in size to the Hesketh were designed to carry as few as six pleasure passengers; refitted as a slaver, the Hesketh transported a crew plus thirty Africans. The Parr , on the other hand, carried a crew of and a cargo of as many as slaves. Most ships—nicknamed Guineamen, after the Gulf of Guinea on the west coast of Africa—were sized somewhere in between, growing in tonnage over time as the Atlantic trade itself grew.
American traders preferred somewhat smaller ships than their British counterparts: two-masted sloops 25 to 75 tons and schooners 30 to tons required smaller crews and shorter stays on the African coast, where tropical diseases were a constant threat to crew and cargo alike. At first, merchants adapted general merchant vessels for the slave trade. The low clearance would have precluded many of the Africans from standing.
The lower deck generally was divided into separate compartments for men and women, with the males shackled together in pairs. Most women were left unchained but confined below, while children had the run of the ship. African men and women used the children as means to communicate with one another and, in some cases, to plan insurrection.
The captain and his officers enjoyed personal cabin space, usually below the raised quarterdeck at the stern of the ships, while common sailors slept on the main deck, sometimes under cover of a tarpaulin or in the longboat. The Africans spent about eight hours a day on the main deck, and the so-called barricado separated the African men from the women.
Once the crew was ready to begin the Middle Passage, they removed the house and hung netting from the sides of the ship. This was designed to catch anyone who tried to escape by jumping overboard. In the warm waters, sharks often followed the ships, feeding off refuse. The dangers of the Middle Passage for its crew often were greater the closer the ship was to Africa.
While both Europeans and Africans suffered from dysentery, the leading cause of death, the sailors on the ship also were susceptible to diseases prevalent along the African coast, such as malaria and yellow fever. In addition, measles, smallpox, influenza, scurvy, dehydration, and depression took their tolls on the captives below decks as the journey progressed. Escape attempts and insurrections also presented a particular danger early in the voyage, when enslaved Africans clung to some hope of making it back to the mainland.
As an employee of a merchant or company in Europe or the Americas, he hired and managed the crew; outfitted the ship; sold its cargo for humans on the coast of Africa; enforced a harsh discipline on crew members and Africans alike on the Middle Passage; worked to prevent mutiny, insurrection, and sickness; aided other captains when in need; and sold the slaves in America for the best possible price.
Rebellion or mutiny could spread like a virus, and many captains attempted to snuff out resistance by terrorizing the accused either crew members or Africans in full view of their fellows. Merchants often put in writing that their captains should refrain from mistreating the African cargo, but few held their employees to account.
Fewer still were captains who, like John Newton, experienced a humane—in his case religious—awakening and attempted to treat their slaves well. Crew members were often the direct recipients of the cruelty. Crews still managed to inflict more than their share of suffering on Africans. Typical violence might include the punishment of slaves for some infraction, real or perceived, while an extreme example occurred aboard the slave ship Zong in Over several days, the crew—at the urging of the captain—bound and threw overboard living Africans.
An image had rarely been used as a propaganda tool in this way before and it proved to be very effective in raising awareness about the evils of the slave trade. By using this site, you agree we can set and use cookies. For more details of these cookies and how to disable them, see our cookie policy. Sign up for our e-newsletter. Search our website. Home Launch Flash Timeline.
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