The Slave Trade

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The Slave Trade

• The Middle passage

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The workings of the triangular trade

• The transatlantic slave trade is often described
  as the triangular trade, which summarizes the
  movement of goods first from Britain to West
  Africa, then across the Atlantic Ocean to the
  Americas, and finally back to Britain.
• Copper, cloth, glassware, ammunition, guns and
  manila ( fibre used for rope and matting) went
  from Britain to West Africa
• People were then transported as slaves from
  Africa to the Americas. This was called the
  Middle Passage.
• Finally raw sugar, rum, rice, coffee, tobacco and
  cotton from the plantations were then shipped
  from the Americas back to Britain.

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The trade triangle
The Middle Passage. Why?
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• The reason the trade was so phenomenally
  profitable was that the ships were able to sail
  full on each leg of the journey, maximizing the
  returns at every stage.
• However, the triangular trade concept
  oversimplifies the commercial exchanges involved.
  
• The web of economic ties across the world made
  this a global enterprise.Three continents came
  to be inextricably linked in the years after the
  European settlement of the Americas the money,
  commercial expertise and migrating instincts of
  maritime Europe, the land and economic potential
  of the Americas and the peoples of Africa.
• Walvin, 2001

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Did the 'Middle Passage' deserve its awful
reputation?

• Of all the horrors associated with the African
  slave trade it was probably the 'Middle Passage'
  that caused most consternation amongst eighteenth
  and nineteenth century reformers. During a
  parliamentary debate on slavery in 1791, William
  Pitt, who was then the Prime Minister, said that
  'the circumstances of the Middle Passage alone,
  would in his mind, be reason enough for the
  Abolition.'
• The 'Middle Passage' referred to the long
  transatlantic crossing taking the enslaved
  Africans away from their homeland to work on the
  plantations of the West Indies and Americas.
  Since it was the second of the three legs of the
  triangular trade it became known as the 'Middle
  Passage'.

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Diagram showing how slaves could be accommodated
aboard a slave ship
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Detail.
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Taken from Thomas Clarkson, The history of the
rise, progress and accomplishment of the
abolition of the African slave-trade, 1808.

• The committee thought that they should now allow
  a certain amount of space for every man, woman
  and child and then see how many people could be
  stowed aboard the ship. The space they allowed
  was as follows for every male slave - six feet x
  one foot four inches for every female slave -
  five feet x one foot four inches for every boy
  slave - five feet x one foot two inches and for
  every girl slave four feet six inches x one foot.
  They then tried to put them on board the ship (as
  in the diagram) and found that they could only
  fit four hundred and fifty aboard.

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• The committee thought that they should ask how
  many slaves the act of Sir William Dolben allowed
  this ship to carry. They discovered that this Act
  allowed her to carry four hundred and fifty four.
  This is four more than could be put in without
  taking some room meant for someone else. You can
  see from the diagram that the bodies of the
  slaves already touch each other and that no
  allowance has been made for any of the posts that
  support the platforms and decks.
• This was the picture, which the committee were
  obliged to draw, of the room allotted to the
  slaves in this ship. The picture demonstrated the
  happy place which Mr Norris and others had
  invented for slaves during their transportation
  from their own country. The picture also showed
  the advantages of Sir William Dolben's bill. Many
  people thought that the regulation itself was
  barbaric. The advantages it gave, however, were
  considerable. The Brookes was now restricted to
  four hundred and fifty slaves, whereas it had
  carried six hundred and nine in a former voyage

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The source refers to Sir William Dolben's Act.

• This was a law passed in 1788 which restricted
  the number of slaves that could be carried aboard
  a ship according to its weight. Dolben (who was
  the MP for Oxford University and an abolitionist)
  hoped that the law would improve conditions for
  slaves on the Middle Passage. As the source
  explains, Dolben's Act meant that the Brookes
  could now only carry 450 slaves - a reduction of
  over 150 from the number that had been carried in
  the past.

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Things to consider 1 ...

• Do you think that the space allowance made for
  each man, woman and child is sufficient?
• What does the report say hasn't been taken into
  consideration when showing the layout of slaves?
  What impact would this have on living conditions?
• Does William Dolben's Act seem like a good thing
  or a bad thing? Why?
• The illustration of the slave ship was used as
  propaganda by the Society for the Abolition of
  the Slave Trade. Do you think it would have
  worked? What impact do you think it would have
  made?

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A slave's description of life aboard a slave
ship.

• Soon after this, the blacks who brought me on
  board went back ashore and left me in despair.
• I now saw that I had no chance of returning to my
  native country or any hope of reaching the shore.
  
• I even wished for my former slavery rather than
  being in this situation, which seemed even worse
  because I did not know what was going to happen
  to me.
• I was not allowed to indulge my grief for very
  long. I was soon put down under the decks. The
  smell was so bad that, together with the crying,
  I felt so ill that I could not eat.

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A slave's description of life aboard a slave ship
by Equiano

• But soon, to my grief, two of the white men
  offered me something to eat.
• When I refused, one of them held me by the hands,
  laid me across the windlass and tied my feet
  together, while the other flogged me severely.
• I had never experienced anything like this before
  and, although I was scared of the water, if I
  could have got over the nettings I would have
  jumped overboard.
• But I could not, and, besides, the crew used to
  watch those of us who were not chained to the
  decks very closely in case we leapt into the
  water.
• I have seen some of the poor African prisoners
  very badly whipped for trying to jump and hourly
  whipped for not eating.

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A slave's description of life aboard a slave ship
by Equiano

• I soon found, amongst the poor chained men, some
  of my own nation, which helped a little bit.
• I asked them what would happen to us and they
  told men that we were to be carried to the white
  people's country to work for them. I felt a
  little better and thought that if was to be no
  worse than working then my situation was not as
  bad as it could be.
• But I was still afraid that I would be killed.
  The white people looked and acted in such a
  savage manner - I had never seen such cruel and
  brutal behaviour. This was not only towards us
  blacks but also to some of the whites themselves.
  When we were on deck once, I saw a white man
  flogged so badly that he died and they tossed his
  body over the side as they would have done a
  brute.

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Things to consider 2 .

• Make a list of the things that Equiano says
  frightened him.
• Equiano was approximately 10 or 11 years of age
  when he was enslaved. Did his age have any impact
  on the way he was treated?
• How would you have felt if you were in his
  situation?
• What impression does Equiano give of life on
  board?

Olaudah Equiano was one of the most prominent
people of African heritage in the British debate
for the abolition of slavery. A former slave
himself, he managed to buy his freedom and work
as a seaman, merchant and explorer before writing
an autobiography depicting the horrors of
slavery.
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Evidence of Mr Knox, a captain, describing
conditions on board a slave ship.

• Slaves on board are, most assuredly, treated
  humanely. Rice is a principal article of their
  food on the Windward Coast, also cassava,
  palm-oil, many glutinous herbs, pepper on the
  coast often fish. When rice enough cannot be got,
  ships carry out beans and stock-fish and from
  Africa, palm-oil, pepper, sheep, goats, fowl. The
  beans are generally split, but has seen them
  otherwise. Never knew slaves on board without
  plenty of food. It is also the sole employment of
  the officers to serve them.

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Evidence of Mr Knox, a captain, describing
conditions on board a slave ship.

• In most ships you may stand upright under the
  gratings, in others all over the ship. In very
  small ships often not above four feet. His ship 5
  feet 10 inches, under the gratings 6 feet 10
  inches, with platforms all round nearly in the
  middle between the decks, about 2 feet 11 inches
  each, quite full of slaves.
• Slaves who speak the same language are chained
  together. Recollects not an instance to the
  contrary
• Never saw it necessary to force the slaves to
  dance. 

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Things to consider 3...

• Knox describes conditions aboard a slave ship.
• How does his account compare to the accounts
  given in the other sources?
• the headers of food and diet,
• space and living conditions,
• and treatment of the slaves to help structure
  your answer.
• Do you think Knox's description of life aboard a
  slave ship is accurate?
• Would there be any reason for Knox to exaggerate
  or not tell the truth?

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Homework

• http//old.antislavery.org/breakingthesilence/up_f
  rom_slavery/stage1_intro.htm

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2. Click here to find out more
1. Click here to read
3. Click here to find out the question
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You will find the question and the choice of
answers on the homework sheet - highlight or
underline the correct one - make sure you get it
right and everyone should get 100