SLAVERY World and American History Slavery. Just mention the word and most black people will have some opinion, mostly negative, about Colonial America, White Americans, and black treatment by Whites. We are not about to defend the practice of slavery in the United States of America What we are going to do is give historical background Facts that you may not be aware of, and other important information. It's also important to understand that White people suffered from slavery As a matter of fact Four months before the first blacks landed on American shores Great Britain shipped the first 100 slaves to Jamestown -- they were White children with many more to follow When the first 20 Africans arrived they were unintended and they were bartered for food and provisions This did not start slavery in America Slavery had already been established with Whites! No flood of Africans followed these first blacks There was no market for them in Virginia Six years later there were still only Twenty-three Africans in the colony Does this sound like a major slave trade? Even decades later there were only a few hundred Africans. Of course, this would change. But for decades, the poor of England, the riff-raff of England, the prisoners of England, Scotland and Ireland These were the slaves of America See the extraordinary book "White Cargo: The Forgotten History of Britain's White Slaves in America" by Don Jordan and Michael Walsh for more information on how the rich elite enslaved their own countrymen for profit and personal gain Color didn't matter -- Just money The Irish were considered "Niggers turned inside out"
"Negro slavery was efficiently established in colonial America because Black slaves were governed, organized and controlled by the structures and organization that were first used to enslave and control Whites. Black slaves were 'late comers fitted into a system already developed.'"
(Michael Hoffman, They Were White and They Were Slaves and Ulrich B. Phillips, Life and Labor in the Old South, pp. 25, 26) Historian Oscar Handlin writes that in colonial America, White "servants (SLAVES) could be bartered for profit, sold to the highest bidder for the unpaid debts of their masters, and otherwise transferred like movable goods or chattels...The condition of the first Negroes in the continental English colonies must be viewed within the perspective of these conceptions and realities of White servitude."
(Michael A Hoffman, They Were White and They Were Slaves, p. 39) Why don't you know about White slavery? Why haven't you been taught this aspect of your history and Heritage in school? Ask a different question: who benefits from racial unrest? Notice this advertisement includes negro, Indian and a "fresh complexion servant" who has run away All slaves The politically correct media and educational system would have you believe that the evil White man enslaved only the negro and only Whites have responsibility for slavery. This same establishment would also have you believe that
Only negroes were the victims of slavery and only Whites owned slaves The truth is that by around 1626 White slaves outnumbered blacks in the Chesapeake by more than Twenty to one And even by 1700 the ration was still three to one 6000 White slaves 2000 black slaves The gap was closing fast, but Whites were still enslaved in greater numbers then blacks.
The Forgotten Slaves: Whites in Servitude in Early America and Industrial Britain![]()
White children enslaved in a mine in 19th century England. The two on the left are virtually naked. Children of both sexes worked in this manner.
by Michael A. Hoffman II ©Copyright 1999. All Rights Reserved Two years ago, Prime Minister Paul Keating of Australia refused to show "proper respect" to Britain's Queen Elizabeth II during her state visit. In response, Terry Dicks, a Conservative member of the British Parliament said, "It's a country of ex-convicts, so we should not be surprised by the rudeness of their prime minister."
A slur such as this would be considered unthinkable if it were uttered against any other class or race of people except the descendants of White slavery. Dicks' remark is not only offensive, it is ignorant and false. Most of Australia's "convicts" were shipped into servitude for such "crimes" as stealing seven yards of lace, cutting trees on an aristocrat's estate or poaching sheep to feed a starving family.
The arrogant disregard for the holocaust visited upon the poor and working class Whites of Britain by the aristocracy continues in our time because the history of that epoch has been almost completely extirpated from our collective memory.
When White servitude is acknowledged as having existed in America, it is almost always termed as temporary "indentured servitude" or part of the convict trade, which, after the Revolution of 1776, centered on Australia instead of America. The "convicts" transported to America under the 1723 Waltham Act, perhaps numbered 100,000.
The indentured servants who served a tidy little period of 4 to 7 years polishing the master's silver and china and then taking their place in colonial high society, were a minuscule fraction of the great unsung hundreds of thousands of White slaves who were worked to death in this country from the early l7th century onward.
Up to one-half of all the arrivals in the American colonies were Whites slaves and they were America's first slaves. These Whites were slaves for life, long before Blacks ever were. This slavery was even hereditary. White children born to White slaves were enslaved too. Whites were auctioned on the block with children sold and separated from their parents and wives sold and separated from their husbands. Free Black property owners strutted the streets of northern and southern American cities while White slaves were worked to death in the sugar mills of Barbados and Jamaica and the plantations of Virginia.
The Establishment has created the misnomer of "indentured servitude" to explain away and minimize the fact of White slavery. But bound Whites in early America called themselves slaves. Nine-tenths of the White slavery in America was conducted without indentures of any kind but according to the so-called "custom of the country," as it was known, which was lifetime slavery administered by the White slave merchants themselves.
In George Sandys laws for Virginia, Whites were enslaved "forever." The service of Whites bound to Berkeley's Hundred was deemed "perpetual." These accounts have been policed out of the much touted "standard reference works" such as Abbott Emerson Smith's laughable whitewash, Colonists in Bondage.
I challenge any researcher to study 17th century colonial America, sifting the documents, the jargon and the statutes on both sides of the Atlantic and one will discover that White slavery was a far more extensive operation than Black enslavement. It is when we come to the 18th century that one begins to encounter more "servitude" on the basis of a contract of indenture. But even in that period there was kidnapping of Anglo-Saxons into slavery as well as convict slavery.
In 1855, Frederic Law Olmsted, the landscape architect who designed New York's Central Park, was in Alabama on a pleasure trip and saw bales of cotton being thrown from a considerable height into a cargo ship's hold. The men tossing the bales somewhat recklessly into the hold were Negroes, the men in the hold were Irish.
Olmsted inquired about this to a shipworker. "Oh," said the worker, "the niggers are worth too much to be risked here; if the Paddies are knocked overboard or get their backs broke, nobody loses anything."
Before British slavers traveled to Africa's western coast to buy Black slaves from African chieftains, they sold their own White working class kindred ("the surplus poor" as they were known) from the streets and towns of England, into slavery. Tens of thousands of these White slaves were kidnapped children. In fact the very origin of the word kidnapped is kid-nabbed, the stealing of White children for enslavement.
According to the English Dictionary of the Underworld, under the heading kidnapper is the following definition: "A stealer of human beings, esp. of children; originally for exportation to the plantations of North America."
The center of the trade in child-slaves was in the port cities of Britain and Scotland:
"Press gangs in the hire of local merchants roamed the streets, seizing 'by force such boys as seemed proper subjects for the slave trade.' Children were driven in flocks through the town and confined for shipment in barns...So flagrant was the practice that people in the countryside about Aberdeen avoided bringing children into the city for fear they might be stolen; and so widespread was the collusion of merchants, shippers, suppliers and even magistrates that the man who exposed it was forced to recant and run out of town." (Van der Zee, Bound Over, p. 210).
White slaves transported to the colonies suffered a staggering loss of life in the 17th and 18th century. During the voyage to America it was customary to keep the White slaves below deck for the entire nine to twelve week journey. A White slave would be confined to a hole not more than sixteen feet long, chained with 50 other men to a board, with padlocked collars around their necks. The weeks of confinement below deck in the ship's stifling hold often resulted in outbreaks of contagious disease which would sweep through the "cargo" of White "freight" chained in the bowels of the ship.
Ships carrying White slaves to America often lost half their slaves to death. According to historian Sharon V. Salinger, "Scattered data reveal that the mortality for [White] servants at certain times equaled that for [Black] slaves in the 'middle passage,' and during other periods actually exceeded the death rate for [Black] slaves." Salinger reports a death rate of ten to twenty percent over the entire 18th century for Black slaves on board ships enroute to America compared with a death rate of 25% for White slaves enroute to America.
Foster R. Dulles writing in Labor in America: A History, states that whether convicts, children 'spirited' from the countryside or political prisoners, White slaves "experienced discomforts and sufferings on their voyage across the Atlantic that paralleled the cruel hardships undergone by negro slaves on the notorious Middle Passage."
Dulles says the Whites were "indiscriminately herded aboard the 'white guineamen,' often as many as 300 passengers on little vessels of not more than 200 tons burden--overcrowded, unsanitary...The mortality rate was sometimes as high as 50% and young children seldom survived the horrors of a voyage which might last anywhere from seven to twelve weeks."
Independent investigator A.B. Ellis in the Argosy writes concerning the transport of White slaves, "The human cargo, many of whom were still tormented by unhealed wounds, could not all lie down at once without lying on each other. They were never suffered to go on deck. The hatchway was constantly watched by sentinels armed with hangers and blunder busses. In the dungeons below all was darkness, stench, lamentation, disease and death."
Marcus Jernegan describes the greed of the shipmasters which led to horrendous loss of life for White slaves transported to America:
"The voyage over often repeated the horrors of the famous 'middle passage' of slavery fame. An average cargo was three hundred, but the shipmaster, for greater profit, would sometimes crowd as many as six hundred into a small vessel...The mortality under such circumstances was tremendous, sometimes more than half...Mittelberger (an eyewitness) says he saw thirty-two children thrown into the ocean during one voyage."
"The mercantile firms, as importers of (White) servants, were not too careful about their treatment, as the more important purpose of the transaction was to get ships over to South Carolina which could carry local produce back to Europe. Consequently the Irish--as well as others--suffered greatly...
"It was almost as if the British merchants had redirected their vessels from the African coast to the Irish coast, with the white servants coming over in much the same fashion as the African slaves." (Warren B. Smith, White Servitude in Colonial South Carolina).
A study of the middle passage of White slaves was included in a Parliamentary Petition of 1659. It reported that White slaves were locked below deck for two weeks while the slaveship was still in port. Once under way, they were "all the way locked up under decks...amongst horses." They were chained from their legs to their necks.
Those academics who insist that slavery is an exclusively Black racial condition forget or deliberately omit the fact that the word slave originally was a reference to Whites of East European origin - "Slavs."
Moreover, in the 18th century in Britain and America, the Industrial Revolution spawned the factory system whose first laborers were miserably oppressed White children as young as six years of age. They were locked in the factories for sixteen hours a day and mangled by the primitive machinery. Hands and arms were regularly ripped to pieces. Little girls often had their hair caught in the machinery and were scalped from their foreheads to the back of their necks.
White Children wounded and crippled in the factories were turned out without compensation of any kind and left to die of their injuries. Children late to work or who fell asleep were beaten with iron bars. Lest we imagine these horrors were limited to only the early years of the Industrial Revolution, eight and ten year old White children throughout America were hard at work in miserable factories and mines as late as 1920.
Because of the rank prostitution, stupidity and cowardice of America's teachers and educational system, White youth are taught that Black slaves, Mexican peons and Chinese coolies built this country while the vast majority of the Whites lorded it over them with a lash in one hand and a mint julep in the other.
The documentary record tells a very different story, however. When White Congressman David Wilmot authored the Wilmot Proviso to keep Black slaves out of the American West he did so, he said, to preserve that vast expanse of territory for "the sons of toil, my own race and color."
This is precisely what most White people in America were, "sons of toil," performing backbreaking labor such as few of us today can envision. They had no paternalistic welfare system; no Freedman's Bureau to coo sweet platitudes to them; no army of bleeding hearts to worry over their hardships. These Whites were the expendable frontline soldiers in the expansion of the American frontier. They won the country, felled the trees, cleared and planted the land.
The wealthy, educated White elite in America are the sick heirs of what Charles Dickens in Bleak House termed "telescopic philanthropy"--the concern for the condition of distant peoples while the plight of kindred in one's own backyard are ignored.
Today much of what we see on "Turner Television" and Pat Robertson's misnamed "Family Channel," are TV films depicting Blacks in chains, Blacks being whipped, Blacks oppressed. Nowhere can we find a cinematic chronicle of the Whites who were beaten and killed in White slavery. Four-fifths of the White slaves sent to Britain's sugar colonies in the West Indies did not survive their first year.
Soldiers in the American Revolution and sailors impressed into the American navy received upwards of two hundred whiplashes for minor infractions. But no TV show lifts the shirt of these White yeoman to reveal the scars on their backs.
The Establishment would rather weep over the poor persecuted Negroes, but leave the White working class "rednecks" and "crackers" (both of these terms of derision were first applied to White slaves), to live next door to the Blacks.
Little has changed since the early 1800s when the men of property and station of the English Parliament outlawed Black slavery throughout the Empire. While this Parliament was in session to enact this law, ragged five year old White orphan boys, beaten, starved and whipped, were being forced up the chimneys of the English parliament, to clean them. Sometimes the chimney masonry collapsed on these boys. Other times they suffocated to death inside their narrow smoke channels.
Long after Blacks were free throughout the British Empire, the British House of Lords refused to abolish chimney-sweeping by White children under the age of ten. The Lords contended that to do so would interfere with "property rights." The lives of the White children were not worth a farthing and were considered no subject for humanitarian concern.
The chronicle of White slavery in America comprises the dustiest shelf in the darkest corner of suppressed American history. Should the truth about that epoch ever emerge into the public consciousness of Americans, the whole basis for the swindle of "Affirmative action,""minority set-asides" and proposed "Reparations to African-Americans" will be swept away. The fact is, the White working people of this country owe no one. They are themselves the descendants, as Congressman Wilmot so aptly said, of "the sons of toil."
There will only be racial peace when knowledge of radical historical truths are widespread and both sides negotiate from positions of strength and not from fantasies of White working class guilt and the uniqueness of Black suffering.
Let it be said, in many cases Blacks in slavery had it better than poor Whites in the antebellum South. This is why there was such strong resistance to the Confederacy in the poverty-stricken areas of the mountain south, such as Winston County in Alabama and the Beech mountains of North Carolina. Those poor Whites could not imagine why any White laborer would want to die for the slave-owning plutocracy that more often than not, gave better care and attention to their Black servants than they did to the free white labor they scorned as "trash."
To this day, the White ruling class denigrates the White poor and patronizes Blacks.
If this seems admirable from the pathological viewpoint of Marxism or cosmopolitan liberalism, the Black and Third World "beneficiaries" of White ruling class "esteem" ought to consider what sort of "friends" they actually have.
The Bible declares that the man who does not take care of his own family is "worse than an infidel." This also applies to one's racial kindred. The man who neglects his own children to care for yours has true love for neither.
White, self-hating liberals and greed-head conservatives who claim to care for the "civil rights" of Black and Third World people, discard the working class of their own people on the garbage heap of history. When they are finished with their own they shall surely turn on others.
Those who care for their own kind first are not practicing "hate" but kindness, which is the very root of the word.
Michael A. Hoffman II is the author of "They Were White and They Were Slaves: The Untold History of the Enslavement of Whites in Early America and Industrial Britain" to order a copy of this book click on the link below
|
Click here to learn more about ![White Slavery]() With this history in mind, let's look at the history of slavery Especially black slavery in the United States History of Slavery Slavery is the systematic exploitation of labor. Slavery is a legal or informal institution under which a person (called "a slave") is compelled to work for another (sometimes called "the master" or "slave owner"). Evidence of slavery predates written records, and has existed to varying extents, forms and periods in almost all cultures and countries. Slaves are held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase, or birth, and are deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to receive compensation in return for their labor. Today, slavery is formally outlawed in nearly all countries, but the continues to exist in various forms around the world. Prior to the 10th century, words other than "slave" were used for all kinds of unfree laborers. For instance, the old Latin word servus was used for both serfs and chattel slaves.In Modern English, the word slave originates from "sclave" around 1290. It's based on the Byzantine Greek "sklabos" meaning Slavic people". The term originally referred to various peoples from Eastern and Central Europe since many Slavic and other people from these areas were captured and sold as slaves by the Vikings and later the Holy Roman Emperor Otto I.The enslavement of so many White Christian people is where the word slave originated.
The Slave Market is a painting by 19th century artist Gustave Boulanger. It depicts a Roman slave auction and appears to be intended to show the horrific aspects of human beings being for sale. It shows the marketing of seven young people, ranging in age from children to young adults, as slaves. Both male slaves, as well as two of the female slaves, bear a similarity in appearance, perhaps suggesting that they are members of a family forced into slavery by economic conditions. All are wearing tags to indicate their availability as slaves. The auctioneer adds to the sense of horror with his very casual attitude. |
13th Century slave market in Yemen |
Slavery traces back to the earliest records, such as the Code of Hammurabi around 1760 BC, which refers to it as an established institution. Slavery in ancient cultures was known to occur in civilizations as old as Sumer and is found in every civilization including ancient Egypt, Assyria, Ancient Greece, Ancient Persia, Rome and the Islamic Caliphate. Slavery is mentioned in the Bible.As the Roman Republic expanded outward, entire populations were enslaved, thus creating an ample supply. The Romans enslaved Greeks, Berbers, Germans, Britons, Thracians, Gauls (Celts), Jews, Arabs and many more not only for labor but for their amusement (e.g. gladiators and sex slaves). This oppression by an elite minority eventually led to slave revolts, the most famous led by Spartacus. Most of these populations were White, the majority Christian.The early medieval slave trade was mainly to the East: the Byzantine Empire and the Muslim World were the destinations, pagan Central and Eastern Europe, along with the Caucasus and Tartary, were important sources. Viking, Arab, Greek and Jewish merchants (known as Radhanites) were all involved in the slave trade during the Early Middle Ages.During the constant warfare between Muslims and Christians in Medieval Spain and Portugal, Muslim raiding parties took Christian slaves by the thousands, mainly women and children.Over 10% of England's population entered in the Domesday Book in 1086 were slaves. This would be White, English slaves.
Copy of a page from the Domesday Book for Warwickshire
![]()
The great survey of England completed in 1086 for William I
|
On December 10, 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 4 states:No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.
That hasn't stopped slavery Although outlawed in nearly all countries, forms of slavery still exist in many parts of the world. According to Kevin Bales of Free the Slaves (FTS), an advocacy group linked with Anti-Slavery International, there were 27 million people (although some put the number as high as 200 million) who worked in virtual slavery in 2007, spread all over the world. According to FTS, these slaves represent the largest number of people that has ever been in slavery at any point in world history and the smallest percentage of the total human population that has ever been enslaved at once.FTS claims that present-day slaves have been sold for $40 in Mali for young adult male workers and as much as $1,000 in Thailand for HIV-free females able to work in brothels. The lower limit represents the lowest price that there has ever been for a slave: the price of a comparable male slave in 1850 in the United States would have been about $25,800 in present-day terms (US$1,000 in 1850). That difference, even allowing for differences in purchasing power, is significant. As a result of the lower price, the economic advantages of present-day slavery are clear.Today (2008) Enslavement is also taking place in parts of Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia. The Middle East Quarterly reports that slavery is still endemic in Sudan. The Chinese government freed 570 people from brick manufacturers in June and July 2007. Among those rescued were 69 children. In response, the Chinese government assembled a force of 35,000 police to check northern Chinese brick kilns for slaves, sent dozens of kiln supervisors to prison, punished 95 officials in Shanxi province for dereliction of duty, and sentenced one kiln foreman to death for killing an enslaved worker.In Mauritania (northwest Africa) alone, it is estimated that up to 600,000 men, women and children, or 20% of the population, are enslaved, many of them used as bonded labor. Slavery in Mauritania was criminalized in August 2007. It should be interesting to note that it's the lighter skinned Muslim majority ("white Moors" or bidhan) that's enslaving the darker skinned descendants of black Africans abducted into slavery who now live in Mauritania as "black Moors" or haratin in Mauritania.
Three Abyssinian slaves in chains. Anti-Slavery Society estimated there were 2 million slaves in Ethiopia in the early 1930s, out of an estimated population of between 8 and 16 million. | Francis Bok former Sudanese slave |
Sexual Slavery In Africa with institutional slavery "abolished" in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in most countries, other forms of slavery have become more widespread. Reports of women sex slaves in Sudan, Liberia, Sierra Leone, northern Uganda, Congo, Niger and Mauritania are common. In Ghana, Togo and Benin a form of religious prostitution known as trokosi (ritual servitude) forcibly keeps thousands of girls and women in traditional shrines as "wives of the gods", where priests perform the sexual function in place of the gods.In India as many as 200,000 Nepali girls, many under the age of 14, have been sold into sexual slavery. Nepalese women and girls are favored in India because of their fair skin and they look young.In Pakistan girls as young as nine years old have been sold by their families to brothels as sex slaves in big cities, often due to poverty or debt, but occasionally to pay for gambling, drinking or drug debt. Girls from Afghanistan have been tricked into coming to Pakistan and then used as sex slaves.Asia is rampant with crimes against women in the sex slave business. Tens of thousands of women and girls, some very young, are forced into the sex business in countries such as Vietnam, Cambodia, Burma, China, and others. Thailand is a big offender in this disgusting business. Japan recently apologized for forcing women to be used as sex slaves during World War II.Israel has smuggled between 3,000 and 5,000 women over the past four years in a burgeoning, illegal sex industry, according to a parliamentary committee report issued in 2005. The women are smuggled across the Egyptian border into Israel and, according to Zehava Galon who heads the Committee Against Trade in Women, these women are "raped, beaten, and then sold in public auctions." Most of the women are from the former Soviet Union, she said. In other words, White.The United States has rescued Asian and Mexican women from being held captive as used as sex slaves.These are just some of the known cases of modern day slavery Human traffickingTrafficking in human beings (also called human trafficking) is sometimes referred to as a form of slavery. The opponents of the practice point out that victims are tricked, lured by false promises, or forced into a "debt slavery" situation by the use against them of coercion, deception, fraud, intimidation, isolation, threat and use of physical force, debt bondage or even force-feeding with drugs of abuse to control their victims.While the majority of victims are women, and sometimes children, who are forced into prostitution (in which case the practice is called sex trafficking), victims also include men, women and children who are forced into manual labor.Due to the illegal nature of human trafficking, its exact extent is unknown. A US Government report published in 2005, estimates that 600,000-800,000 people worldwide are trafficked across borders each year (10,000 to 20,000 into the United States). This figure does not include those who are trafficked internally. This number is probably very low.As you can see, slavery has its victims in all races, male and female, young and old Stalin and Forced Labor Even though Stalin's gulags weren't technically slavery we feel compelled to mention the Communist forced prison labor camps. There were at least 476 separate camps, some of them comprising hundreds, even thousands of camp units. The most infamous complexes were those at arctic or subarctic regions. Started in 1918 after the Communist takeover of Russia, more than 14 million people passed through the Gulag from 1929 to 1953, with a further 6 to 7 million being deported and exiled to remote areas of the Soviet Union. According to de-classified archive data released by the successor agency to the KGB after Perestroika, a total of 1,053,829 people died in the GULAG from 1934 to 1953, not counting those who died in labor colonies. The total population of the camps varied from 510,307 (in 1934) to 1,727,970 (in 1953). Notice they haven't released earlier numbers.Some estimates are that at least 20,000,000 -- that's twenty million people died in the Soviet Gulags A Large majority of them White Christians Most Gulag inmates were not political prisoners, although the political prisoner population was always significant. People could be imprisoned in a Gulag camp for crimes such as unexcused absences from work, petty theft, or anti-government jokes. About half of the political prisoners were sent to Gulag prison camps without trial. Per official data, there were more than 2.6 million imprisonment sentences in cases investigated by the secret police, 1921-1953. While the Gulag was radically reduced in size following Stalin's death in 1953, forced labor camps and political prisoners continued to exist in the Soviet Union right up to the Gorbachev era. However, the camps in Siberia still house a labor force of about a million prisoners.* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * History of Slavery in America First Legal Slave Owned by a Negro! In 1619 the Dutch ship, the White Lion, damaged by battle with a Spanish ship and by a great storm, came ashore at Old Point Comfort with 20 captured enslaved Africans that they had taken from the Spanish. The Dutch were in need of repairs and supplies and the colonists were in need of able-bodied workers. So the Africans were traded for food and services. One could argue that being traded to the Jamestown colonists freed these 20 Africans. If they had continued with the Dutch they most certainly would have spent their lives in slavery. Instead, they became indentured servants and earned their freedom after a period of time. These 20 became "servants" and went to work in tobacco fields alongside the White servants from England. Conditions were hard for both groups but their servitude eventually would end. In addition to Africans, Irish, Scottish, English and Germans were brought over in substantial numbers as slaves. Over half of all white immigrants to the English colonies consisted of these slaves, which historians want to call "indentured servants," during the 17th and 18th centuries. Most of the Whites were slaves. Only a handful were actually true indentured servants. At first, the Africans in Virginia were treated just the same as the European indentured servants. The Africans were freed after a stated period and given the use of land and supplies by their former owners. One African, Anthony Johnson, arrived in Jamestown in 1621, fulfilled his obligation of servitude, married and eventually became a landowner. The transformation from indentured servitude to racial slavery for the Africans happened gradually since there were no laws regarding slavery early in Virginia's history. Yet in 1640 at least one black servant had been sentence to slavery. John Punch, an indentured servant, ran away. His sentence? A lifetime of slavery. The two White indentured servants who ran away with him are given extended terms of servitude. The first legally-recognized slave in the area that was to become the United States was John Casor, a black man. A court in Northampton County, Virginia declared him property for life. Casor was "owned" by the Black colonist Anthony Johnson. Yes, the first legally owned slave in the American colonies was owned by a black man! What irony. But remember, Anthony Johnson came from Africa where slavery was common and expected. He only wanted to continue the practice of his homeland! It's our opinion that, even though Mr. Johnson was the first to apply for a legal slave, it's obvious that the rest of society was quick to follow his actions. It's also our opinion that if white landowners didn't want the cheap labor that slavery provided there never would have been a market for this horrific practice. That's obvious. What isn't so obvious is that this is the start of the downfall of our nation. Just like ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome, when cheap labor becomes more important then doing the work yourself and maintaining your racial purity, your country will fall. The Africans suffered from White laziness. And ultimately, the White race, and America, has suffered. In 1653 Virginia, one of Anthony Johnson’s involuntary African laborers, a man named John Casor, claimed his freedom because his term of indenture had allegedly expired seven years before. He fled his master’s plantation and took refuge with a nearby farmer, Captain Gouldsmith. Johnson insisted that his runaway laborer was not indentured, but was a lifelong slave and demanded the African’s return. Not wanting to become embroiled in a legal fight with a powerful plantation owner, Gouldsmith turned the worker over to another wealthy planter, Robert Parker. Parker took the worker’s side in the dispute, kept him on his own plantation’s workforce, and argued on his behalf in court. The case dragged on for two years, with Johnson at one point agreeing to manumit Casor, but then reneging on the settlement. On March 8, 1655, the Northampton County Court ruled that Casor had been a slave all along, ordered that the worker be returned immediately to Anthony Johnson, and ordered Robert Parker to pay damages for sheltering the runaway for two years, as well as court costs. A few years later, Parker abandoned his career as a Virginia planter and returned to England. Twenty years later, Casor was still owned by Mary Johnson—Anthony Johnson’s widow. What is important about this tale is that Anthony Johnson was also African. His plantation, from whence Casor fled, was named “Angola,” and it exploited European forced laborers as well as Africans.
Read the rest of this essay for a fascinating insight on early America and the question of color The color-line was not what we have been taught to believe |
The Virginia Slave Codes of 1705 made clear the status of slaves. During the British colonial period, every colony had slavery. Those in the north were primarily house servants and those in the South worked on farms and plantations. Subsistence farmers seldom owned slaves.
Interestingly, in 1670 the Lords Commissioners of Foreign Plantations enquired of the Governor of Virginia on the status of the colony. Sir William Berkeley answered in 1671. 15. What number of planters, servants and slaves; and how many parishes are there in your plantation?
Answer. We suppose, and I am very sure we do not much miscount, that there is in Virginia above forty thousand persons, men, women, and children, and of which there are two thousand black slaves, six thousand Christian servants (slaves), for a short time, the rest are born in the country or have come in to settle and seat, in bettering their condition in a growing country.
16. What number of English, Scots, or Irish have for these seven yeares last past come yearly to plant and inhabite within your government; as also what blacks or slaves have been brought in within the said time?
Answer. Yearly, we suppose there comes in, of servants, about fifteen hundred, of which, most are English, few Scotch, and fewer Irish, and not above two or three ships of negroes in seven years.
17. What number of people have yearly died, within your plantation and government for these seven years last past, both whites and blacks?
Answer. All new plantations are, for an age or two, unhealthy, 'till they are thoroughly cleared of wood; but unless we have a particular register office, for the denoting of all that died, I cannot give a particular answer to this query, only this I can say, that there is not often unseasoned hands (as we term them) that die now, whereas heretofore not one of five escaped the first year. |
Notice that there were more White "servants" than black slaves at that timeSlavery was not just black
Passage To America, 1750 | | At the end of the seventeenth century approximately 200,000 people inhabited the British colonies in North America. The following century saw an explosion in numbers with the population doubling about every 25 years. The majority of these new immigrants were Scotch-Irish, Germans or African slaves. Between 1700 and the beginning of the American Revolution, approximately 250,000 Africans, 210,000 Europeans and 50,000 convicts had reached the colonial shores. The passage to America was treacherous by any standard. Many of the immigrants were too poor to pay for the journey and therefore indentured themselves to wealthier colonialists - selling their services for a period of years in return for the price of the passage. Crammed into a small wooden ship, rolling and rocking at the mercy of the sea, the voyagers - men, women and children - endured hardships unimaginable to us today. Misery was the most common description of a journey that typically lasted seven weeks.
Gottleb Mittelberger was an organ master and schoolmaster who left one of the small German states in May 1750 to make his way to America. He arrived at the port of Philadelphia on October 10. He represents the thousands of Germans who settled in middle Pennsylvania during this period. He returned to his homeland in 1754. His diary was published in this country in 1898:
".during the voyage there is on board these ships terrible misery, stench, fumes, horror, vomiting, many kinds of seasickness, fever, dysentery, headache, heat, constipation, boils, scurvy, cancer, mouth rot, and the like, all of which come from old and sharply-salted food and meat, also from very bad and foul water, so that many die miserably.
Add to this want of provisions, hunger, thirst, frost, heat, dampness, anxiety, want, afflictions and lamentations, together with other trouble, as e.g., the lice abound so frightfully, especially on sick people, that they can be scraped off the body. The misery reaches a climax when a gale rages for two or three nights and days, so that every one believes that the ship will go to the bottom with all human beings on board. In such a visitation the people cry and pray most piteously.
![]() No one can have an idea of the sufferings which women in confinement have to bear with their innocent children on board these ships. Few of this class escape with their lives; many a mother is cast into the water with her child as soon as she is dead. One day, just as we had a heavy gale, a woman in our ship, who was to give birth and could not give birth under the circumstances, was pushed through a loophole (porthole) in the ship and dropped into the sea, because she was far in the rear of the ship and could not be brought forward.
Children from one to seven years rarely survive the voyage; and many a time parents are compelled to see their children miserably suffer and die from hunger, thirst, and sickness, and then to see them cast into the water. I witnessed such misery in no less than thirty-two children in our ship, all of whom were thrown into the sea. The parents grieve all the more since their children find no resting place in the earth, but are devoured by the monsters of the sea. It is a notable fact that children who have not yet had the measles or smallpox generally get them on board the ship, and mostly die of them.
When the ships have landed at Philadelphia after their long voyage, no one is permitted to leave them except those who pay for their passage or can give good security; the others, who cannot pay, must remain on board the ships till they are purchased and are released from the ships by their purchasers. The sick always fare the worst, for the healthy are naturally preferred and purchased first; and so the sick and wretched must often remain on board in front of the city for two or three weeks, and frequently die, whereas many a one, if he could pay his debt and were permitted to leave the ship immediately, might recover and remain alive.
The sale of human beings in the market on board the ship is carried on thus: Every day Englishmen, Dutchmen, and High German people come from the city of Philadelphia and other places, in part from a great distance, say twenty, thirty, or forty hours away, and go on board the newly-arrived ship that has brought and offers for sale passengers from Europe, and select among the healthy persons such as they deem suitable for their business, and bargain with them how long they will serve for their passage money, which most of them are still in debt for, When they have come to an agreement, it happens that adult persons bind themselves in writing to serve three, four, five, or six years for the amount due by them, according to their age and strength. But very young people, from ten to fifteen years, must serve till they are twenty-one years old.
Many parents must sell and trade away their children like so many head of cattle, for if their children take the debt upon them- selves, the parents can leave the ship free and unrestrained; but as the parents often do not know where and to what people their children are going, it often happens that such parents and children, after leaving the ship, do not see each other again for many years, perhaps no more in all their lives.
It often happens that whole families, husband, wife, and children, are separated by being sold to different purchasers, especially when they have not paid any part of their passage money.
When a husband or wife has died at sea, when the ship has made more than half of her trip, the survivor must pay or serve not only for himself or herself, but also for the deceased. When both parents have died over halfway at sea, their children, especially when they are young and have nothing to pawn or to pay, must stand for their own and their parents' passage, and serve till they are twenty-one years old. When one has served his or her term, he or she is entitled to a new suit of clothes at parting; and if it has been so stipulated, a man gets in addition a horse, a woman, a cow."
References:
Mittelberger, Gottleb, Gottleb Mittelberger's Journey to Pennsylvania in the Year 1750 and Return to Germany in the year 1754 (published by the German Society of Pennsylvania 1898)
How To Cite This Article:
"Passage To America, 1750," EyeWitness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com (2000). |
If this doesn't put history in perspective for you, nothing will Slavery was not just southern -- or White owned! Bet this one may surprise you! Yes, slavery was also in the Northern states. From the University of Virginia Library has a historical census browser where you can get a variety of statistics relating to the census including slave statistics. One of these tables even lists slaves by state, county and the number of slaves that each county had in a particular census year (remember, the census was done every 10 years starting in 1790.) Guess what, Connecticut had slaves in 1790! Every county. So did Delaware. As a matter of fact, Delaware had slaves in every county, every census, until slavery was abolished. Alabama's first slave wasn't until the 1820 census! And then it wasn't even in every county. Georgia, of course, had some slaves in 1790 but certainly not every county, only a handful. Illinois, land of Lincoln, had slaves! Yes, several counties in Illinois owned slaves up until the 1850 census and even a handful of counties in Indiana were slave owners. We're well aware that Louisiana, Mississippi and the Carolinas were big slave owning states. But did you know that Maryland, except for Howard County, (until 1860) and one or two others owned slaves! That's right. NewHampshire had a handful of slaves. Most counties in NewJersey were slave owning, New York and Pennsylvania until 1850 HAD SLAVES! These northern states owned slaves before the southern states. The Northern States owned slaves starting from the 1790 census. Some Southern States started later, the Carolinas were by 1790, so was Virginia. Georgia and Tennessee had a handful by 1800, but others didn't start their slave ownership until the 1820 census. So what does this prove? That slavery started in the industrial north. It was not a southern invention. The southern economy may have depended on slavery but the northern states benefited from slavery as well. By 1860 on the eve of the War of Northern Aggression, most northern states had outlawed slavery. Yet interestingly, Maryland (87,189) Delaware (1,798) and NewJersey (18) still owned slaves. Nebraska, which was supposed to be a "free" state, had 15 and Kansas had 2. (Maryland was technically a border, slave owning state but remained part of the Union during the Civil War). According to the 1860 Census 1.4% of Whites in the country (or 4.8% of southern Whites) owned one or more slaves. The majority owned between 1 and 5 slaves. The few individuals who owned 50 or more slaves were confined to the top one percent, and have been defined as slave magnates. Back to the 1860 Census, there were almost 4.5 million blacks in the country, most of them in the south. Almost half a million of them were free. Of those, over 10,000 lived in New Orleans and over 3,000 of them owned slaves a whopping 28% of the free blacks of that city! The 1860 Census also shows that at least six blacks in Louisiana owned more than 65 slaves, one, C. Richards and her son P.C. Richards, owned 152 slaves on a large sugar cane plantation. Another, Antoine Dubuclet, who was a sugar planter, had over 100 slaves and was valued, in 1860 dollars, at $264,000. That year the mean wealth of southern Whit men was $3,978. In Charleston, South Carolina in 1860, 125 free blacks owned slaves, six of whom owned ten or more. In North Carolina 69 free blacks were slave owners. Historians will say that black slave owners only owned their family or friends. The book "Black Slave Owners: Free Black Slave Masters in South Carolina, 1790-1860" proves this to be false. The author, a black man named Larry Koger, proves that blacks who owned slaves did so for two reasons. Some of them purchased their family members. And because of laws were unable to then free them and then "owned" their husbands, wives, or children for life. But a large majority of free black slave owners purchased their slaves for profit. These blacks were plantation owners and business owners, tailors, cooks, dress makers, etc. They needed slaves to make their business a success. In other words, just like the Whites of their day, the black slave owners took advantage of the practice of slavery in order to advance their business and make money. It was the economic system and they took advantage of it. These black slave owners separated families, sold unprofitable slaves and purchased their human property for profit. Just like the White man.
Notice that three of the four advertisements specifically advertise negroes Is the fourth advertising White slaves?
1835 Ad from the East India Company in London
| South Carolina Gazette, Charleston, 1760 |
Richmond, Virginia, 1823
| Charleston, 1769 |
Slave Ship Owners How did the slaves get here? Who owned the slave ships that brought the Africans to our country? Who profited from this horrific trafficking in human cargo? The following table is a list of Ship's names, dates that they sailed and who owned them. This is just a fraction of the ships that entered the United States. But it gives an idea of who was profiting from this. TSRBBAJ = The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews. | Name | Date | Owner | Nationality | Captain | Number of slaves | Departure | Destination | Source | | Abigail | ? | Aaron Lopez, Moses Levy, Jacob Francks | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.192) | | Active | ? | Aaron Lopez | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.192) | | Africa | ? | Jacob Rivera, Aaron Lopez | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.192) | | Albany | ? | Rodrigo Pacheco | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.192) | | Amedee | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | QLAELONDLE t.2 (p,59) | | Ann | 1806 | James DeWolf | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.195) | | Ann | ? | Aaron Lopez | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.192) | | Anne & Eliza | ? | Justus Bosh, John Abrams | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.192) | | Antigua | ? | Nathan Marston, Abram Lyell | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.192) | | Barbados Factor | 1743 | Joseph Marks | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.194) | | Belle | 1773 | Moses, David Franks | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.194) | | Betsey | ? | Samuel Jacobs | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.195) | | Betsy | ? | Jacob Rivera, Aaron Lopez | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.192) | | Braman | 1856 9 juin (saisie) | John Levi & Henriques da Costa | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.195) | | Brooks | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | QLAELONDLE t.2 (p,21-22) | | Butterfly | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | QLAELONDLE t.2 (p,62) | | Caracoa | ? | Moses & Sam Levy | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.192) | | Charlotte | ? | Moses & Sam Levy, Jacob Franks | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.192) | | Charlotte E. Tay | 1860 24 avril (saisie) | Fred K. Myer | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.195) | | Charming Betsey | 1760 | Samuel Levy | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.194) | | Charming Polly | 1751 | Joseph Marks | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.194) | | Charming Sally | 1743 | Joseph Marks | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.194) | | Cleopatra | ? | Jacob Rivera, Aaron Lopez | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.192) | | Confirmation | 1758 | Naphtali, Isaac, Abraham Hart | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.194) | | Crown | 1717 | Isaac Levy, Nathan Simson | Jewish | ? | 217 au total | Afrique | New York | TSRBBAJ (p.96) | | David | 1783 | Abraham Gradis | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.195) | | De Vrijheid | ? | David Senior, Jacob Senior | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.192) | | Deborah | 1771 | Samson Levy | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.194) | | Defiance | 1758 | Naphtali, Isaac, Abraham Hart | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.194) | | Delaware | 1773 | Moses, David Franks | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.194) | | Diamond | 1758 | Naphtali, Isaac, Abraham Hart | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.194) | | Dolphin | 1748 | Joseph Marks | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.194) | | Dolphin | 1758 | Naphtali, Isaac, Abraham Hart | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.194) | | Drake | 1743 | Nathan Levy & David Franks | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.194) | | Dreadnought | ? | Hayman Levy | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.195) | | Duke of Cumberland | ? | Judah Hays | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.195) | | Duke of York | ? | Jacob Franks | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.195) | | Eagle | ? | Moses Seixas | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.193) | | Elizabeth | ? | Mordecai & David Gomez | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.193) | | Fortunate | ? | Aaron Lopez | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.193) | | Four Sisters | ? | Moses Levy | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.193) | | General Well | 1758 | Naphtali, Isaac, Abraham Hart | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.194) | | General Well | ? | Moses Levy | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.195) | | George | ? | Aaron Levy | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.193) | | Gloucester | 1772 | Moses, David Franks & Isaac Levy | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.194) | | Greyhound | 1722 14 décembre (saisie) | Mardecai Gomez | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.195) | | Greyhound | ? | Jacob Rivera, Aaron Lopez (plus tard Moses Levy) | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.193) | | Hannah | ? | Jacob Rivera, | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.193) | | Hannah | 1746 | Joseph Marks | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.194) | | Hester | ? | Mordecai & David Gomez, Rodrigo Pacheco | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.193) | | Hetty | ? | Mordecai Sheftall | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.193) | | Hiram | ? | Moses Seixas | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.193) | | Hope | ? | Aaron Lopez, Myer Pollack | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.193) | | Jane | 1806 | David G. Seixas | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.195) | | Joseph & Rachel | 1702 | Moses, Joseph & Samuel Frazon | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.194) | | Josephine | 1860 28 mai (saisie) | Benjamin Isaacs | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.195) | | Juf Gracia | ? | Raphael Jesurun Sasportas | ? | Raphael Jesurun Sasportas | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.193) | | Juffr. Gerebrecht | ? | Philippe Henriquez, David Senior & Co. | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.193) | | King George | ? | Naphthali Hart | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.195) | | L Affriquaine | 8 mars 1713 | Compagnie du Sénégal | Française | Claude Gontard | 500 dont 140 morts | Nantes | Cap | LSELEDN | | L Amazone | 23 octobre 1709 | ,,,,,, | Française | Julien Glemeau | 500 | Nantes | Martinique | LSELEDN | | L Aurore | 6 janvier 1713 | Mathurin Joubert et consorts | Française | Jacques Nadreau | 266 | Nantes | martinique Buenos-Ayres | LSELEDN | | L Eclair | 23 octobre 1709 | Mathurin Joubert et consorts | Française | Joseph Joubert Demarais | confondue avec ceux du "le brillant" | Nantes | Martinique | LSELEDN | | L Eclair | 29 Septembre 1712 | Mathurin Joubert et consorts | Française | Jean Terrien | ,,,,,,,,,,, | Nantes | Petit Goave | LSELEDN | | L Emmanuel Fortune | 11 novembre 1713 | Compagnie de L'assiente | Française | Maurice de Cananville | 224 | Nantes | Guadeloupe, | LSELEDN | | L Esperance | 6 decembre 1713 | J, Danssainct | Française | J, Cavers | 183 dont 86 morts | Nantes | Martinique | LSELEDN | | L Esperance | 15 janvier 1714 | Mathurin Joubert | Française | Kermark de Kerlinir | 270 dont 40 morts | Nantes | Cayenne | LSELEDN | | L Hercule | 20 juin 1709 | Montaudoin et consorts | Française | Samuel Morisse | 485 dont 82 morts | Nantes | Martinique | LSELEDN | | La Belle Pauline | 1783 | WEISS Et fils | suisse | ? | 568 | La Rochelle | ? | LSELEDN (p.50-51) | | La Concorde | 13 avril 1713 | Montaudoin et consorts | Française | Isaac Thomas | 418 dont 55 morts | Nantes | Martinique | LSELEDN | | La Fauvette | 1791 | Baux Balguerie & Cie | suisse | ? | ? | Bordeaux | ? | LSELEDN (p.50-51) | | La Fidelite | 28 aout 1713 | Jean Montaudois et consorts | Française | Julien Glemeau | 440 dont 30 morts | Nantes | Martinique | LSELEDN | | La Gaillarde | 26 avril 1710 | Sébastien Perises | Française | Jean Terrien | 395 | Nantes | La Havane | LSELEDN | | La Gaillarde | 25 juillet 1713 | Périssel et consorts | Française | Michel Denis | 433 dont 33 morts | Nantes | Martinique Cap | LSELEDN | | La Genereuse | 13 avril 1713 | Montaudoin et consorts | Française | Guillaume Thomas | 95 dont 14 morts | Nantes | Cayenne | LSELEDN | | La Genevieve | 20 novembre 1714 | Pierre Bernier | Française | Pierre Allesne | 242 dont 40 morts | Nantes | Martinique | LSELEDN | | La Georgette | 1788 | RIEDY & THURNINGER | suisse | ? | 33 | Nantes | ? | LSELEDN (p.50-51) | | La Georgette | 1789 | RIEDY & THURNINGER | suisse | ? | 278 | Nantes | ? | LSELEDN (p.50-51) | | La Georgette | 1790 | RIEDY & THURNINGER | suisse | ? | 269 | Nantes | ? | LSELEDN (p.50-51) | | La Georgette | 1791 | RIEDY & THURNINGER | suisse | ? | 306 | Nantes | ? | LSELEDN (p.50-51) | | La Gracieuse | 4 juin 1713 | Robin et consorts | Française | P, Burgevin | 287 dont 87 morts | Nantes | Cayenne Martinique | LSELEDN | | La Marie | 15 juillet 1714 | Sarrebourse de Hauteville et consorts | Française | Jean Terrien | 200 dont 25 ou 35 morts | Nantes | Martinique | LSELEDN | | La Marie Magdelaine | 10 juin 1714 | Sarrebourse de Hauteville et consorts | Française | F, Avril | 350 dont 91 morts | Nantes | Martinique et Cap | LSELEDN | | La Marie-Thérese | 1783 | VAN BERBERSHEM | suisse | ? | ? | Nantes | ? | LSELEDN (p.50-51) | | La Nymphe | 28 aout 1713 | Robin et consorts | Française | Pierre Grillaud | 225 | Nantes | Cap | LSELEDN | | La Paix | 24 juin 1714 | Delaunay Montaudoin | Française | Pierre Jaheu | 240 dont 18 morts | Nantes | Martinique | LSELEDN | | La Reine | 16 decembre 1713 | Louis Danssainct | Française | Jean Danssainct | 450 ou 480 dont 167 morts | Nantes | Rio de Janeiro, Bahia | LSELEDN | | La Sainte-Agnes | 22 janvier 1714 | Luc Schiell | Française | Desmarais Joubert | 504 dont 289 morts | Nantes | Martinique | LSELEDN | | La Vigilante | 1774 | J, Montet, Henry & Cie | suisse | ? | ? | Bordeaux | ? | LSELEDN (p.50-51) | | La Ville De Basle | 1786 | WEISS Et fils | suisse | ? | 236 | La Rochelle | ? | LSELEDN (p.50-51) | | La Ville De Lausanne | 1790 | D'Illens, Van Berchem | suisse | ? | 550 | Marseille | ? | LSELEDN (p.50-51) | | L'Adelle | 1787 | Rivier et Cie | suisse | ? | 272 | Le Havre | ? | LSELEDN (p.50-51) | | L'Adelle | 1789 | Rivier et Cie | suisse | ? | 325 | Le Havre | ? | LSELEDN (p.50-51) | | L'Affriquain | 1783 | RIEDY & THURNINGER | suisse | ? | 485 | Nantes | ? | LSELEDN (p.50-51) | | L'Affriquain | 28 Septembre 1712 | Montaudoin et consorts | Française | Jean Le Roux | ,,,,,,,,,,, | Nantes | ,,,,, | LSELEDN | | L'Affriquain | 26 septembre 1714 | René Montaudoin | Française | René Budan | 467 dont 105 morts | Nantes | Cap | LSELEDN | | L'aimable Flore | 1788 | J,R, Wirz & Cie | suisse | ? | 59 | Bordeaux | ? | LSELEDN (p.50-51) | | L'aimable Julie | 1786 | J,R, Wirz & Cie | suisse | ? | 62 | Bordeaux | ? | LSELEDN (p.50-51) | | L'Alliance | 1783 | Abraham Gradis | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.195) | | L'Anaz | 1791 | D'Illens, Van Berchem | suisse | ? | ? | Marseille | ? | LSELEDN (p.50-51) | | Lark * | 1774 | Aaron Lopez | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.194) | | Le Blason | 17 mars 1714 | Jean Simon pour la Compagnie de l'assiento | Française | Gaspard Le Blanc | 386 dont 114 morts | Nantes | Martinique | LSELEDN | | Le Brillant | 23 octobre 1709 | | Française | Antoine de Cazalis | 590 dont 62 morts | Nantes | Martinique | LSELEDN | | Le Cerf | 1789 | Baux Balguerie & Cie | suisse | ? | ? | Bordeaux | ? | LSELEDN (p.50-51) | | Le Cerf | 1790 | Baux Balguerie & Cie | suisse | ? | ? | Bordeaux | ? | LSELEDN (p.50-51) | | Le Cesar | 6 janvier 1709 | ,,,, | Française | Jean de Cazalis | 210 dont 30 morts | Nantes | Grenade et Saint-Domingue | LSELEDN | | Le Chasseur | 1789 | Baux Balguerie & Cie | suisse | ? | 300 | Bordeaux | ? | LSELEDN (p.50-51) | | Le Comte De Lamoignon | 10 mars 1712 | | Française | Gabriel Legac | 465 | Nantes | Carthagène, Portobello, La Havane | LSELEDN | | Le Conquerant | 1788 | Rivier et Cie | suisse | ? | 420 | Le Havre | ? | LSELEDN (p.50-51) | | Le Conquerant | 1791 | Rivier et Cie | suisse | ? | 400 | Le Havre | ? | LSELEDN (p.50-51) | | Le Cultivateur | 1815 | ROSSEL et BOUDET | suisse | ? | 519 | Nantes | ? | LSELEDN (p.50-51) | | Le Dauphin | 1822 | ROSSEL et BOUDET | suisse | ? | ? | Nantes | ? | LSELEDN (p.50-51) | | Le Dauphin | 18 octobre 1710 | ,,,, | Française | Louis Lepage | 64 dont 4 morts | Nantes | Cayenne La Havane | LSELEDN | | Le Duc De Bretagne | 27 novembre 1708 | Compagnie Royale de Guinée | Française | Jean Le Roux | 592 | Nantes | Grenade et Saint-Domingue | LSELEDN | | Le Duc De Bretagne | 7 novembre 1710 | ,,,,, | Française | Samuel Morisse | ,,,,, | Nantes | Saint-Domingue | LSELEDN | | Le Duc De Bretagne | 4 septembre 1714 | Dumotay Bossinot | Française | Jacques Prado | 470 dont 72 morts | Nantes | Cap | LSELEDN | | Le Duc De Normandie | 1786 | J,R, Wirz & Cie | suisse | ? | 203 | Bordeaux | ? | LSELEDN (p.50-51) | | Le Duc de normandie | 1790 | J,R, Wirz & Cie | suisse | ? | 279 | Bordeaux | ? | LSELEDN (p.50-51) | | Le Fleurissant | 23 avril 1714 | Michel Le Ray et consorts | Française | Julien Marchais | 118 dont 50 morts | Nantes | Cayenne | LSELEDN | | Le Francois(Vaisseau Du Roi) | 1712 | Compagnie de L'assiente | Française | Bigot | 470 ou 570 | Nantes | Martinique | LSELEDN | | Le georges | 1787 | RIEDY & THURNINGER | suisse | ? | 553 | Nantes | ? | LSELEDN (p.50-51) | | Le Georges | 1789 | RIEDY & THURNINGER | suisse | ? | 440 | Nantes | ? | LSELEDN (p.50-51) | | Le Georges | 1790 | RIEDY & THURNINGER | suisse | ? | 382 | Nantes | ? | LSELEDN (p.50-51) | | Le Grand Duc De Bretagne | 25 janvier 1714 | Bertrand et consorts | Française | Achille Lavigne | 375 entre 25 et 50 morts | Nantes | Martinique | LSELEDN | | Le Jason | 26 mai 1710 | ,,,,, | Française | André Bremont | 291 dont 6 morts | Nantes | Grenade, La Havane, Martinique | LSELEDN | | Le Jason | 19 decembre 1712 | Martin Thiercelin et consorts | Française | Louis Lebourg | 250 dont 46 morts | Nantes | Jamaique Carthagène | LSELEDN | | Le Jeune Auguste | 1790 | RIEDY & THURNINGER | suisse | ? | 180 | Nantes | ? | LSELEDN (p.50-51) | | Le Leopard | 23 octobre 1709 | | Française | Guillaume Bouet | 366 dont 116 morts | Nantes | Martinique | LSELEDN | | Le Lévrier | 1789 | Baux Balguerie & Cie | suisse | ? | ? | Bordeaux | ? | LSELEDN (p.50-51) | | Le Luzancay | 19 septembre 1712 | Delaunay Montaudoin | Française | Samuel morisse | 300 | Nantes | Martinique | LSELEDN | | Le Luzancay | 27 septembre 1714 | Delaunay Montaudoin | Française | Jean Le Couteux | 345 dont 48 morts | Nantes | Martinique, Cap | LSELEDN | | Le Mercure | 12 juin 1713 | De Beaulieu Beloteau | Française | Guillaume Pichaud | 413 dont 42 morts | Nantes | Guadeloupe, Cap, Léogane | LSELEDN | | Le Nélée | 1789 | Baux Balguerie & Cie | suisse | ? | 339 | Bordeaux | ? | LSELEDN (p.50-51) | | Le Nélée | 1792 | Baux Balguerie & Cie | suisse | ? | ? | Bordeaux | ? | LSELEDN (p.50-51) | | Le Nestor | 1790 | J,Monet,Henry&Bellamy | suisse | ? | 150 | Bordeaux | ? | LSELEDN (p.50-51) | | Le Nouvel Achille | 1783 | WEISS Et fils | suisse | ? | 355 | La Rochelle | ? | LSELEDN (p.50-51) | | Le Parfait | 1783 | Abraham Gradis | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.195) | | Le Passepartout | 1790 | RIEDY & THURNINGER | suisse | ? | (naufrage) | Nantes | ? | LSELEDN (p.50-51) | | Le Pays De Vaud | 1790 | D'Illens, Van Berchem | suisse | ? | 485 | Marseille | ? | LSELEDN (p.50-51) | | Le Petit Blason | 17 mars 1714 | Jean Simon | Française | Jean Viau | 48 dont 4 morts | Nantes | Martinique | LSELEDN | | Le Petit Georges | 1791 | RIEDY & THURNINGER | suisse | ? | ? | Nantes | ? | LSELEDN (p.50-51) | | Le Phaeton | 7 septembre 1714 | De Cazalis Pradine | Française | Jean Ingrand | 220 dont 20 morts | Nantes | Martinique | LSELEDN | | Le Pontchartrain | 27 septembre 1714 | Compagnie du Sénégal | Française | Joseph Lemagnen | 341 dont 19 morts | Nantes | Cap | LSELEDN | | Le Réciproque | 1792 | Baux Balguerie & Cie | suisse | ? | ? | Bordeaux | ? | LSELEDN (p.50-51) | | Le Reparateur | 1786 | WEISS Et fils | suisse | ? | 410 | La Rochelle | ? | LSELEDN (p.50-51) | | Le Reparateur | 1787 | WEISS Et fils | suisse | ? | 469 | La Rochelle | ? | LSELEDN (p.50-51) | | Le Reparateur | 1790 | WEISS Et fils | suisse | ? | 362 | La Rochelle | ? | LSELEDN (p.50-51) | | Le Saint-Clement | 1784 | THURNINGER | suisse | ? | 150 | Rochefort | ? | LSELEDN (p.50-51) | | Le Saint-Joseph | 14 mai 1709 | Laurencin et consorts, | Française | Simon Catho | 300 dont 11 morts | Nantes | Cayenne | LSELEDN | | Le Scipion | 16 decembre 1713 | Pradine et consorts | Française | Alain Duguay | 110 dont 43 morts | Nantes | Martinique | LSELEDN | | Le Superbe | 24 octobre 1710 | ,,,,,,,,, | Française | jacques Monfort | 240 dont 10 morts | Nantes | Martinique | LSELEDN | | Le Vainqueur | 1783 | Abraham Gradis | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.195) | | Le Vainqueur | 21 octobre 1714 | Charles Trochon | Française | Raymond Billet | le bateau echoue en afrique | Nantes | ,,,,,,,,,,, | LSELEDN | | Le Vigilant | 1774 | J, Montet, Henry & Cie | suisse | ? | 351 | Bordeaux | ? | LSELEDN (p.50-51) | | Le Zephir | 1 juin 1713 | Le Coq et Sigougne et consorts | Française | Charles Fontaine | 260 dont 118 morts | Nantes | Cap | LSELEDN | | Leghorn | ? | Rodrigo Pacheco | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.193) | | L'Elise | 1783 | WEISS Et fils | suisse | ? | 120 | La Rochelle | ? | LSELEDN (p.50-51) | | L'Elise | 1822 | ROSSEL et BOUDET | suisse | ? | ? | Nantes | ? | LSELEDN (p.50-51) | | Les 13 cantons | 1783 | WEISS Et fils | suisse | ? | 499 | La Rochelle | ? | LSELEDN (p.50-51) | | Les 13 Cantons | 1786 | WEISS Et fils | suisse | ? | 283 | La Rochelle | ? | LSELEDN (p.50-51) | | L'Espiegle | 1790 | RIEDY & THURNINGER | suisse | ? | 28 | Nantes | ? | LSELEDN (p.50-51) | | L'Helvtie | 1791 | D'Illens, Van Berchem | suisse | ? | ? | Marseille | ? | LSELEDN (p.50-51) | | L'Iris | 1783 | WEISS Et fils | suisse | ? | ? | La Rochelle | ? | LSELEDN (p.50-51) | | Lord Howe | 1758 | Naphtali, Isaac, Abraham Hart | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.194) | | L'Union | 1787 | J,Monet,Henry&Bellamy | suisse | ? | 250 | Bordeaux | ? | LSELEDN (p.50-51) | | L'Union | 1789 | J,Monet,Henry&Bellamy | suisse | ? | 113 | Bordeaux | ? | LSELEDN (p.50-51) (p.50-51) | | Mars | 1773 | Moses, David Franks | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.194) | | Mary | ? | Jacob Rivera, Aaron Lopez | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.193) | | Mary & Abigail | 1713 | Abraham de Lucena & Justus Bosch | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.194) | | Mary and Ann | ? | Moses Levy | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.195) | | Mendon | 1087 (saisie) | ? | ? | Johnathan Fitch | ? | Congo | Amérique | QLAELONDLE t.2 (p,64) | | Myrtilla | 1745 | Nathan Levy & David Franks | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.194) | | Nancy | 1806 | David G. Seixas & Benjamin S. Spitzer | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.195) | | Nancy | ? | Myer Pollack | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.193) | | Nassau | ? | Moses Levy | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.193) | | New York | 1771 | Aaron Lopez | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.194) | | Nina | ? | Luis de Santagel, Juan Cabrero | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.193) | | Orion | 1859 21 juin (saisie) | Rudolph Blumenberg | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.195) | | Orleans | ? | Hayman Levy | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.195) | | Parthenope | 1745 | Nathan Levy & David Franks | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.194) | | Patriarch Abraham | 1783 | Abraham Gradis | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.195) | | Pearl | ? | Emanuel Alvares Correa & Moses Cardozo & Abraham Hart | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.195) | | Peggy * | 1760 | Naphtali Hart | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.194) | | Perfect | 1758 | Naphtali, Isaac, Abraham Hart | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.194) | | Phila | 1745 | Nathan Levy & David Franks | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.194) | | Pinta | ? | Luis de Santagel, Juan Cabrero | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.193) | | Polly | 1783 | Abraham Gradis | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.195) | | Polly | 1747 | Joseph Marks | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.194) | | Postillion | 1721 | Nathan Simson | ? | ? | 217 au total | Afrique | New York | TSRBBAJ (p.96) | | Prince George | ? | Isaac Elizer, Samuel Moses | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.193) | | Prince Orange | 1749 | Joseph Marks | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.194) | | Prudent Betty | ? | Jacob Phoenix, Henry Cruger | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.193) | | Rabbit | 1758 | Naphtali, Isaac, Abraham Hart | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.194) | | Rachel Marks | 1737 | Lydia (54) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.194) | | Rebecca | 1806 | Joseph Bueno | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.195) | | Rebecca | ? | Moses Lopez | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.195) | | Rising Sun | 1758 | Naphtali, Isaac, Abraham Hart | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.194) | | Royal Charlotte | ? | Aaron Lopez | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.193) | | Sally | ? | Saul Brown & Bros | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.193) | | Santa Maria | ? | Luis de Santagel, Juan Cabrero | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.193) | | Sea Flower | 1745 | Nathan Levy & David Franks | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.194) | | Sherbo | ? | Jacob Rivera | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.193) | | Shiprah | ? | Naphtali Hart | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.193) | | Spry | ? | Jacob Rivera, Aaron Lopez | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.193) | | Three Friends | ? | Jacob Rivera & Co. | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.193) | | Two Sisters | 1760 | John Franks | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.194) | | Union | ? | Moses Seixas | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.193) | | Young Adrian | 1720 | Mordecai Gomez & Rodrigo Pacheco | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.194) | | Young Catherine | 1720 | Mordecai Gomez & Rodrigo Pacheco | Jewish | ? | ? | ? | ? | TSRBBAJ (p.194) | | Zong | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | QLAELONDLE t.2 (p,15) | | ? | 1655 | Benjamin D'Acosta | ? | ? | 1100 | Bresil | Martinique | TSRBBAJ (p.78) |
Other ships: White Hourse owned by Jan de Sweetvts, Jew, Expedition, owned by John and Jacob Roosevelt, Jews,
Where in Africa did the slaves come from? Where did they go? Europeans suffered from tropical diseases that the Africans were immune to. Africans were excellent workers and were used to a tropical climate. They had been traded as slaves for centuries, including among each other. The Muslims enslaved the Africans also. Between 1450 and the end of the 1800s, slaves were obtained from along the west coast of Africa with the full and active co-operation of African kings and merchants. These African kings and merchants received various trade goods including beads, cowrie shells (used as currency), textiles, alcohol, horses, and guns. Ironically, these same guns were then used against the Europeans who colonized Africa in later years.
| Trans-Atlantic exports by region
1650-1900 | | Region | Number of slaves
accounted for | | % | | | Senegambia | 479,900 | | 4.7 | | Upper Guinea | 411,200 | | 4.0 | | Windward Coast | 183,200 | | 1.8 | | Gold Coast | 1,035,600 | | 10.1 | | Blight of Benin | 2,016,200 |
| 19.7 | | Blight of Biafra | 1,463,700 |
| 14.3 | | West Central | 4,179,500 | | 40.8 | | South East | 470,900 | | 4.6 | | | Total | 10,240,200 | | 100.0 | | Data derived from tables 1.1, 3.2, 3.4, 4.1 and 7.4
as presented in:
Transformations in Slavery
by Paul E. Lovejoy
Cambridge University Press, 2000,
ISBN 0-521-78430-1 |
|
|
|
Trans-Atlantic imports by region
1450-1900 | | Region | Number of slaves
accounted for | | % | | | Brazil | 4,000,000 | | 35.4 | | Spanish Empire | 2,500,000 | | 22.1 | | British West Indies | 2,000,000 | | 17.7 | | French West Indies | 1,600,00 | | 14.1 | | British North America and United States | 500,000 |
| 4.4 | | Dutch West Indies | 500,000 | | 4.4 | | Danish West Indies | 28,000 | | 0.2 | | Europe (and Islands) | 200,000 | | 1.8 | | | Total | 11,328,000 | | 100.0 | | Data derived from table II as presented in:
The Slave Trade
by Hugh Thomas
Simon and Schuster, 1997,
ISBN 0-68481063-8 |
|
|
|
The trade, including slave, between Africa, Europe and the Americas is called the Triangular Trade. The export of trade goods from Europe to Africa forms the first side of the triangular trade. The transport of slaves from Africa to the Americas forms the middle passage of the triangular trade. The African slaves were introduced to new diseases and suffered from malnutrition long before they reached America. It's been suggested that the majority of deaths on the voyage across the Atlantic happened during the first couple of weeks due to malnutrition and disease encountered during the forced marches in Africa and the slave camps on the coast of Africa awaiting loading onto slave ships. In other words, thanks to the African kings, the slave were in terrible shape before they ever got on the slave ships. It didn't help that conditions on the slave ships were terrible, yet the estimated death rate of around 13% is still lower than the mortality rate for seamen, officers and passengers on the same voyages. Because of the slave trade, five times as many Africans arrived in the Americas than Europeans. They were used on plantations and mines. But, most went to Brazil, the Caribbean, and the Spanish Empire. Less than 5% went to the North American States. The third, and final, leg of the triangular trade involved the return to Europe with the produce from the slave-labour plantations: cotton, sugar, tobacco, molasses and rum. For more information see "Transformations in Slavery" by Paul E. Lovejoy, Cambridge University Press, 2000, and "The Slave Trade" by Hugh Thomas, Simon and Schuster, 1997 How did the African slaves get captures? This first-hand account is very interesting in its detail.
Slave Trade:
the African Connection, ca 1788 | | The labor-intensive agriculture of the New World demanded a large workforce. Crops such as sugar cane, tobacco and cotton required an unlimited and inexpensive supply of strong backs to assure timely production for the European market. Slaves from Africa offered the solution. The slave trade between Western Africa and the America's reached its peak in the mid-18th century when it is estimated that over 80,000 Africans annually crossed the Atlantic to spend the rest of their lives in chains. Of those who survived the voyage, the final destination of approximately 40% was the Caribbean Islands. Thirty-eight percent ended up in Brazil, 17% in Spanish America and 6% in the United States.
It was a lucrative business. A slave purchased on the African coast for the equivalent of 14 English pounds in bartered goods in 1760 could sell for 45 pounds in the American market.
A slave's journey to a life of servitude often began in the interior of Africa with his or her capture as a prize of war, as tribute given by a weak tribal state to a more powerful one, or by outright kidnapping by local traders.European slave traders rarely ventured beyond Africa's coastal regions. The African interior was riddled with disease, the natives were often hostile and the land uncharted. The Europeans preferred to stay in the coastal region and have the natives bring the slaves to them.
Dr. Alexander Falconbridge served as the surgeon aboard a number of slave ships that plied their trade between the West African coast and the Caribbean in the late 1700s. He described his experiences in a popular book published in 1788. He became active in the Anti-Slavery Society and was appointed Governor of a colony established for freed slaves on the coast of modern-day Sierra Leone. His service was brief as he died in 1788 shortly after his appointment. We join his story as he describes the process through which the native African looses his freedom: "There is great reason to believe, that most of the Negroes shipped off from the coast of Africa, are kidnapped. But the extreme care taken by the black traders to prevent the Europeans from gaining any intelligence of their modes of proceeding; the great distance inland from whence the Negroes are brought; and our ignorance of their language (with which, very frequently, the black traders themselves are equally unacquainted), prevent our obtaining such information on this head as we could wish. I have, however, by means of occasional inquiries, made through interpreters, procured some intelligence relative to the point. . . . From these I shall select the following striking instances: While I was in employ on board one of the slave ships, a Negro informed me that being one evening invited to drink with some of the black traders, upon his going away, they attempted to seize him. As he was very active, he evaded their design, and got out of their hands. He was, however, prevented from effecting his escape by a large dog, which laid hold of him, and compelled him to submit. These creatures are kept by many of the traders for that purpose; and being trained to the inhuman sport, they appear to be much pleased with it. I was likewise told by a Negro woman that as she was on her return home, one evening, from some neighbors, to whom she had been making a visit by invitation, she was kidnapped; and, notwithstanding she was big with child, sold for a slave. This transaction happened a considerable way up the country, and she had passed through the hands of several purchasers before she reached the ship. A man and his son, according to their own information, were seized by professed kidnappers, while they were planting yams, and sold for slaves. This likewise happened in the interior parts of the country, and after passing through several hands, they were purchased for the ship to which I belonged. It frequently happens that those who kidnap others are themselves, in their turns, seized and sold. . . . During my stay on the coast of Africa, I was an eye-witness of the following transaction: a black trader invited a Negro, who resided a little way up the country, to come and see him. After the entertainment was over, the trader proposed to his guest, to treat him with a sight of one of the ships lying in the river. The unsuspicious countryman readily consented, and accompanied the trader in a canoe to the side of the ship, which he viewed with pleasure and astonishment. While he was thus employed, some black traders on board, who appeared to be in the secret, leaped into the canoe, seized the unfortunate man, and dragging him into the ship, immediately sold him. The preparations made at Bonny by the black traders, upon setting out for the fairs which are held up the country, are very considerable. From twenty to thirty canoes, capable of containing thirty or forty Negroes each, are assembled for this purpose; and such goods put on board them as they expect will be wanted for the purchase of the number of slaves they intend to buy. When their loading is completed, they commence their voyage, with colors flying, and music playing; and in about ten or eleven days, they generally return to Bonny with full cargoes. As soon as the canoes arrive at the trader's landing place, the purchased Negroes are cleaned, and oiled with palm-oil; and on the following day they are exposed for sale to the captains. When the Negroes, whom the black traders have to dispose of, are shown to the European purchasers, they first examine them relative to their age. They then minutely inspect their persons, and inquire into the state of their health, if they are afflicted with any infirmity, or are deformed, or have bad eyes or teeth; if they are lame, or weak in their joints, or distorted in the back, or of a slender make, or are narrow in the chest; in short, if they have been, or are afflicted in any manner, so as to render them incapable of much labor; if any of the foregoing defects are discovered in them, they are rejected. But if approved of, they are generally taken on board the ship the same evening. The purchaser has liberty to return on the following morning, but not afterwards, such as upon re-examination are found exceptionable. The traders frequently beat those Negroes which are objected to by the captains, and use them with great severity. It matters not whether they are refused on account of age, illness, deformity, or for any other reason. At New Calabar, in particular . . . the traders, when any of their Negroes have been objected to, have dropped their canoes under the stern of the vessel, and instantly be headed them, in sight of the captain. As soon as the wretched Africans, purchased at the fairs, fall into the hands of the black traders, they experience an earnest of those dreadful sufferings which they are doomed in future to undergo. . . . They are brought from the places where they are purchased to Bonny, etc. in canoes; at the bottom of which they lie, having their hands tied with a kind of willow twigs, and a strict watch is kept over them. Their usage in other respects, during the time of the passage, which generally lasts several days, is equally cruel. Their allowance of food is so scanty, that it is barely sufficient to support nature. They are, besides, much exposed to the violent rains which frequently fall here, being covered only with mats that afford but a slight defense; and as there is usually water at the bottom of the canoes, from their leaking, they are scarcely ever dry." References:
This eyewitness account appears in Falconbridge, Alexander, An Account of the Slave Trade on the Coast of Africa (1788); Curtin, Phillip D. Atlantic Slave Trade (1969); Matheson, William Law, Great Britain and the Slave Trade, 1839-1865 (1967).
How To Cite This Article:
"Slave Trade: the African Connection, ca 1788" EyeWitness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com (2007). |
The Black traders have mistreated the captured African long before the poor slave ever entered the hands of the ship's captain. They had been starved, beaten, and abused. And in some cases, murdered. It's no wonder that so many of them died on the way to their final destination, most of them in the first two weeks. Statistics prove that more European immigrants and ship's crews died on the Atlantic voyage than did African slaves. Yes, slavery was reprehensible, but let's be honest about the history of slavery. So you see, slavery was much more complicated than you've been told.
Finally, no discussion on slavery is complete without talking about "reparations," widely discussed in 2002 but not much in recent years. Should we, or shouldn't we, pay for the mis-deeds of those who came before us? |
Fugitive American sect leader caught in Brazil in relation... 
Iconic Joshua Tree made famous by U2 album cover is found... 
The amazing moment heroic state trooper saves driver from... 
![operation_cast_lead[1]](http://quenelplus.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/operation_cast_lead1.jpg)
Article rédigé par Dr. Kevin Barrett, du site VeteransToday. Docteur en philosophie arabe et islamique, il est l’un des plus célèbres critiques de la Guerre contre la Terreur. Il a été invité sur les plateaux de Fox, CNN, PBS et autres médias, et publié dans le New York Times, le Christian Science Monitor, le Chicago Tribune et d’autres journaux de premier ordre. Il a enseigné dans des lycées et des universités à San Francisco, à Paris, et dans le Wisconsin, où il a tenu une conférence en 2008. Il travaille actuellement en tant qu’organisateur d’ASBL, auteur et animateur radio.
No one can have an idea of the sufferings which women in confinement have to bear with their innocent children on board these ships. Few of this class escape with their lives; many a mother is cast into the water with her child as soon as she is dead. One day, just as we had a heavy gale, a woman in our ship, who was to give birth and could not give birth under the circumstances, was pushed through a loophole (porthole) in the ship and dropped into the sea, because she was far in the rear of the ship and could not be brought forward. 
28 commentaires