Abstract of the evidence for the abolition of the slave-trade (1791)/Chapter 3
The Natives of Africa having been made slaves in the manner described in the former chapters, are brought down for sale to the European ships.
On being brought on board, says Dr. Trotter, they shew signs of extreme distress and despair, from a feeling of their situation, and regret at being torn from their friends and connections; many retain those impressions for a long time; in proof of which, the slaves on board his ship being often heard in the night, making an howling melancholy noise, expressive of extreme anguish, he repeatedly ordered the woman, who had been his interpreter, to inquire into the cause. She discovered it to be owing to their having dreamt they were in their own country again, and finding themselves when awake, in the hold of a slave ship. This exquisite sensibility was particularly observable among the women, many of whom, on such occasions, he found in hysteric fits.
The foregoing description as far as relates to their dejection when brought on board, and the cause of it is confirmed by Hall, Wilson, Claxton, Ellison, Towne, and Falconbridge, the latter of whom relates an instance of a young woman who cried and pined away after being brought on board, who recovered when put on shore, and who hung herself when informed she was to be sent again to the ship.
Captain Hall says, after the first eight or ten of them come on board, the men are put into irons. They are linked two and two together by the hands and feet, in which situation they continue till they arrive in the West Indies, except such as may be sick, whose irons are then taken off. The women however, he says, are always loose.
On being brought up in a morning, says Surgeon Wilson, an additional mode of securing them takes place, for to the shackles of each pair of them there is a ring, through which is reeved a large chain, which locks them all in a body to ring-bolts fastened to the deck.
The time of their coming up in the morning, if fair, is described by Mr Towne to be between eight and nine, and the time of their remaining there to be till four in the afternoon, when they are again put below till the next morning. In the interval of being upon deck they are fed twice. They have also a pint of water allowed to each of them a day, which being divided is served out to them at two different times, namely, after their meals.
These meals, says Mr. Falconbridge, consist of rice, yams, and horse-beans, with now and then a little beef and bread. After meals they are made to jump in their irons. This is called dancing by the slave-dealers. In every ship he has been desired to flog such as would not jump. He had generally a cat of nine tails in his hand among the women, and the chief mate, he believes, another among the men.
The parts, says Mr. Claxton, (to continue the account) on which their shackles are fastened, are often excoriated by the violent exercise they are thus forced to take, of which they made many grievous complaints to him. In his ship even those who had the flux, scurvy, and such œdematous swellings in their legs as made it painful to them to move at all, were compelled to dance by the cat.
He says also that on board his ship they sometimes sung, but not for their amusement. The captain ordered them to sing, and they sung songs of sorrow. The subject of these songs were their wretched situation, and the idea of never returning home. He recollects their very words upon these occasions.
The above account of shackling, messing, [1] dancing, and singing the slaves, is allowed by all the evidences as far as they speak to the same points, except by Mr. Falconbridge, in whose ships the slaves had a pint and and half of water per day.
On the subject of the stowage and its consequences, Dr. Trotter says, that the slaves in the passage are so crowded below, that it is impossible to walk through them, without treading on them. Those, who are out of irons, are locked spoonways (in the technical phrase) to one another. It is the first mate's duty to see them stowed in this way every morning; those who do not get quickly into their places, are compelled by a cat-of-nine-tails.
When the scuttles are obliged to be shut, the gratings are not sufficient for airing the rooms. He never himself could breathe freely, unless immediately under the hatchway. He has seen the slaves drawing their breath with all those laborious and anxious efforts for life, which are observed in expiring animals, subjected by experiment to foul air, or in the exhausted receiver of an air pump. He has also seen them when the tarpawlings have inadvertently been thrown over the gratings, atempting to heave them up; crying out in their own language, "We are dying:" on removing the tarpawlings and 
gratings, they would fly to the hatchway with all the signs of terror, and dread of suffocation. Many of them he has seen in a dying state, but some have recovered by being brought hither, or on the deck; others were irrecoverably lost, by suffocation, having had no previous signs of indisposition.
Mr. Falconbridge also states on this head, that when employed in stowing the slaves he made the most of the room and wedged them in. They had not so much room as a man in his coffin either in length or breadth. It was impossible for them to turn or shift with any degree of ease. He had often occasion to go from one side of their rooms to the other, in which case he always took off his shoes, but could not avoid pinching them; he has the marks on his feet where they bit and scratched him. In every voyage when the ship was full they complained of heat and want of air. Confinement in this situation was so injurious, that he has known them go down apparently in good health at night and found dead in the morning. On his last voyage he opened a stout man who so died. He found the contents of the thorax and abdomen healthy, and therefore concludes he died of suffocation in the night.
He was never among them for ten minutes below together, but his shirt was as wet as if dipt in water.
One of his ships, the Alexander, coming out of Bonny, got aground on the bar, and was detained there six or seven days, with a great swell and heavy rain. At this time the air ports were obliged to be shut, and part of the gratings on the weather side covered: almost all the men slaves were taken ill with the flux. The last time he went down to see them it was so hot that he took off his shirt. More than twenty of them had then fainted, or were fainting. He got, however, several of them hawled on deck. Two or three of these died, and most of the rest before they reached the West Indies. He was down only about fifteen minutes, and became so ill by it that he could not get up without help, and was disabled (the dysentery seizing him also) from doing duty the rest of the passage. On board the same ship he has known two or three instances of a dead and living slave found in the morning shackled together.
The crowded state of the slaves, and the pulling off the shoes by the surgeons as described above, that they might not hurt them in traversing their rooms, are additionally mentioned by Surgeons Wilson and Claxton. The slaves are said also by Hall and Wilson to complain on account of heat. Both Hall, Towne, and Morley, describe them as often in a violent perspiration, or dew sweat. Mr. Ellison has seen them faint through heat, and obliged to be brought on deck, the steam coming up through the gratings like a furnace. In Wilson's and Towne's ships some have gone below well in an evening, and in the morning have been found dead, and Mr. Newton has often seen a dead and living man chained together, and to use his own words, one of the pair dead.
To prove that this stowage, and of course that the consequences of it, must unavoidably be as described by the Gentlemen above, the following species of evidence and calculation may be resorted to.
Captain Parrey of the Royal Navy was sent by Government in the year 1788, to measure such of the slave vessels as were then lying at Liverpool, and to make a report of the same to the House of Commons. In this Report are mentioned the names of the different vessels, and their respective dimensions as taken by him. The first of these, as delivered in by himself, is the Brookes, and as some one ship must be taken to make out the proof intended, it will be less objectionable to take the first that comes than any other. The dimensions then of the Brookes as reported by Captain Parrey will be found as in the annexed Plans.
| Feet | Inches | |
| Length of the Lower Deck, gratings and bulk-heads included at AA | 100 | 0 |
| Breadth of Beam on the Lower Deck inside, BB | 25 | 4 |
| Depth of Hold OOO from cieling to cieling | 10 | 0 |
| Height between decks from deck to deck | 5 | 8 |
| Length Of the Mens Room, CC on the lower deck | 46 | 0 |
| Breadth of the Mens Room, CC on the lower deck | 25 | 4 |
| Length of the Platforms, DD in the mens room | 46 | 0 |
| Breadth of the Platforms in the mens room on each side | 6 | 0 |
| Length of the Boys Room, EE | 13 | 9 |
| Breadth of the Boys Room | 25 | 0 |
| Breadth of Platforms, FF in boys room | 6 | 0 |
| Length of Womens Room, GG | 28 | 6 |
| Breadth of Womens Room | 23 | 6 |
| Length of Platforms, HH in womens room | 28 | 6 |
| Breadth of Platforms, in womens room | 6 | 0 |
| Length of the Gun Room, II on the lower deck | 10 | 6 |
| Breadth of the Gun Room, on the lower deck | 12 | 0 |
| Length of the Quarter Deck, KK | 33 | 6 |
| Breadth of the Quarter Deck | 19 | 6 |
| Length of the Cabin, LL | 14 | 0 |
| Height of the Cabin | 6 | 2 |
| Length of the Half Deck, MM | 16 | 6 |
| Height of the Half Deck | 6 | 2 |
| Length of the Platforms, NN on the half deck | 16 | 6 |
| Breadth of the Platforms, on the half deck | 6 | 0 |
| Upper deck, PP |
Let it now be supposed that the above are the real dimensions of the ship Brookes, and farther, that every man slave is to be allowed six feet by one foot four inches for room, every woman five feet ten by one foot four, every boy five feet by one foot two, and every girl four feet six by one foot, it will follow that the annexed Plan of a slave-vessel will be precisely the representation of the ship Brookes, and of the exact number of persons neither more nor less, that could be stowed in the different rooms of it upon these data. These, if counted, ( [2] deducting the women stowed in Z of Figures VI. and VII.) will be found to amount to four hundred and fifty-one. Now, if it be considered that the ship Brookes is of 320 tons, and that she is allowed to carry by Act of Parliament four hundred and fifty-four persons, it is evident that if three more could be wedged among the number represented in the plan, this plan would contain precisely the number which the Act directs; and if it should be farther considered that there ought to be in each apartment in the plan one or more tubs, as well as stanchions to support the platforms and decks, for which no deduction has been made, in order to give every possible advantage in stowing, then the above plan may be considered as giving a very favourable representation of the stowing of the negroes even since the late regulating Act. The plan therefore abundantly proves that the stowage of these poor people as well as the consequences of it must have been as described by the Evidences above; for, if when four hundred and fifty-one slaves are put into the different rooms of the Brooks, the floors are not only covered with bodies, but these bodies actually touch each other, what must have been their situation, when six hundred were stowed in them at the time alluded to by Dr. Trotter, who belonged to this ship, and six hundred and nine by the confession of the slave-merchants in a subsequent voyage [3].
To come now to the different incidents on the passage. Mr. Falconbridge says, that there is a place in every ship for the sick slaves, but there are no accommodations for them, for they lie on the bare planks. He has seen frequently the prominent parts of their bones about the shoulder-blade and knees bare.
He says he cannot conceive any situation so dreadful and disgusting as that of slaves when ill of the flux: in the Alexander, the deck was covered with blood and mucus, and resembled a slaughter-house. The stench and foul air were intolerable.
The slaves, shackled together, frequently quarrel. In each apartment there are three or four tubs placed for their convenience: those however at a distance find it difficult to get over other slaves to these tubs: sometimes if one wants to go to them, his companion refuses to go with him; if relaxed, he exonerates while disputing over his neighbours. This causes great disturbance.
He has known several slaves on board refuse sustenance with a design to starve themselves. Compulsion was used in every ship he was in to make them take their food. He has known also many instances of their refusing to take medicines when sick, because they wished to die. A woman on board the Alexander, was dejected from the moment she came on board, and refused both food and medicine: being asked by the interpreter what she wanted, she replied, nothing but to die — and she did die. Many other slaves expressed the same wish.
The ships, he says, are fitted up with a view to prevent slaves jumping overboard; notwithstanding which he has known instances of their doing so. In the Alexander two were lost in this way. In the same voyage, near twenty jumped overboard out of the Enterprize, Capt. Wilson, and several from a large Frenchman in Bonny River.
In his first voyage he saw at Bonny, on board the Emilia, a woman chained to the deck, who, the chief mate said, was mad. On his second voyage, there was a woman on board his own ship, whom they were forced to chain at certain times. In a lucid interval she was sold at Jamaica. He ascribes this insanity to their being torn from their connections and country.
Doctor Trotter, examined on the same subject, says, that the man sold with his family for witchcraft, (of which be had been accused, out of revenge by a Cabosheer, p.II) refused all sustenance after he came on board. Early next morning it was found he had attempted to cut his throat. Dr. Trotter sewed up the wound, but the following night the man had not only torn out the sutures, but had made a similar attempt on the other side. From the ragged edges of the wound, and the blood upon his finger ends, it appeared to have been done with his nails, for though strict search was made through all the rooms, no instrument was found. He declared he never would go with white men, uttered incoherent sentences, and looked wishfully at the skies. His hands were secured, but persisting to refuse all sustenance, he died of hunger in eight or ten days.
He remembers also an instance of a woman who perished from refusing food: she was repeatedly flogged, and victuals forced into her mouth, but no means could make her swallow it, and she lived for the four last days in a state of torpid insensibility.
A man jumped overboard, at Anamaboe, and was drowned. Another also, on the Middle Passage, but he was taken up. A woman also, after having been taken up, was chained for some time to the mizen mast, but being let loose again made a second attempt, was again taken up, and expired under the floggings given her in consequence.
Mr. Wilson, speaking also on the same subject, relates, among many cases where force was necessary to oblige the slaves to take food, that of a young man. He had not been long on board before he perceived him get thin. On inquiry he found the man had not taken his food, and refused taking any. Mild means were then used to divert him from his resolution, as well as promises that he should have any thing he wished for: but still he refused to eat. They then whipped him with the cat, but this also was ineffectual. He always kept his teeth so fast, that it was impossible to get any thing down. They then endeavoured to introduce a Speculum Oris between them: but the points were too obtuse to enter, and next tried a bolus knife, but with the same effect. In this state he was for four or five days, when he was brought up as dead, to be thrown overboard; but Mr. Wilson finding life still existing, repeated his endeavours though in vain, and two days afterwards he was brought up again in the same state as before. He then seemed to wish to get up. The crew assisted him, and brought him aft to the fire place, when in a feeble voice, in his own tongue he asked for water, which was given him. Upon this they began to have hopes of dissuading him from his design, but he again shut his teeth as fast as ever, and resolved to die, and on the ninth day from his first refusal he died.
Mr. Wilson says it hurt his feelings much to be obliged to use the cat so frequently to force them to take their food. In the very act of chastisement, they have looked up at him with a smile, and in their own language have said, "presently we shall be no more."
In the same ship a woman found means to convey below the night preceding some rope-yarn, which she tied to the head of the armourer's vice, then in the women's room. She fastened it round her neck, and in the morning was found dead, with her head lying on her shoulder, whence it appeared, she must have used great exertions to accomplish her end. A young woman also hanged herself, by tying rope-yarns to a batten, near her usual sleeping- place, and then flipping off the platform. The next morning she was found warm, and he used the proper means for her recovery, but in vain.
In the same ship also, when off Annabona, a slave on the sick list jumped overboard, and was picked up by the natives, but died soon afterwards. At another time, when at sea, the captain and officers when at dinner, heard the alarm of a slave's being overboard, and found it true, for they perceived him making every exertion to drown himself. He put his head under water, but lifted his hands up; and thus went down, as if exulting that he had got away.
Besides the above instance, a man slave who came on board apparently well, became afterwards mad, and at length died insane.
Mr. Claxton, the fourth surgeon examined on these points, declares the steerage and boys room to have been insufficient to receive the sick; they were therefore obliged to place together those that were, and those that were not diseased, and in consequence the disease and mortality spread more and more. The captain treated them with more tenderness than he has heard was usual, but the men were not humane. Some of the most diseased were obliged to keep on deck with a sail spread for them to lie on. This, in a little time, became nearly covered with blood and mucus, which involuntarily issued from them, and therefore the sailors, who had the disagreeable task of cleaning the sail, grew angry with the slaves, and used to beat them inhumanly with their hands, or with a cat. The slaves in consequence grew fearful of committing this involuntary action, and when they perceived they had done it, would immediately creep to the tubs, and there fit straining with such violence, as to produce a prolapsus ani, which could not be cured.
Some of the slaves on board the same ship, says Mr. Claxton, had such an aversion to leaving their native places, that they threw themselves overboard, on an idea that they should get back to their own country. The captain, in order to obviate this idea, thought of an expedient, viz. to cut off the heads of those who died, intimating to them, that if determined to go, they must return without their heads. The slaves were accordingly brought up to witness the operation. One of them seeing, when on deck, the carpenter standing with his hatchet up ready to strike off the head of a dead slave, with a violent exertion got loose, and flying to the place where the nettings had been unloosed, in order to empty the tubs, he darted overboard. The ship brought to, and a man was placed in the main chains to catch him, which he perceiving, dived under water, and rising again at a distance from the ship, made signs, which words cannot describe, expressive of his happiness in escaping. He then went down, and was seen no more. This circumstance deterred the captain from trying the expedient any more, and therefore he resolved for the future (as he saw they were determined to throw themselves overboard) to keep a strict watch; notwithstanding which, some afterwards contrived to unloose the lashing, so that two actually threw themselves into the sea, and were lost; another was caught when about three parts overboard.
All the above incidents, described as to have happened on the Middle Passage, are amply corroborated by the other evidences. The slaves lie on the bare boards, says surgeon Wilson. They are frequently bruised, and the prominent parts of the body excoriated, adds the same gentleman, as also Trotter and Newton. Their being linked together, their quarrelling, and the difficulty of getting to their tubs, are additionally mentioned by Hall and Newton. They have been seen by Morley wallowing in their blood and excrement. Claxton, Ellison, and Hall describe them as refusing sustenance, and compelled to eat by the whip. Morley has seen the pannekin dashed against their teeth, and the rice held in their mouths, to make them swallow it, till they were almost strangled, and they have even been thumbscrewed [4] with this view in the ships of Town and Millar.
The man also, says the former, stolen at Galenas River, (p. 8.) refused to eat, and persisted till he died.
A woman, says the latter, who was brought on board, refused sustenance, neither would she speak. She was then ordered the thumb-screws, suspended in the mizen rigging, and every attempt was made with the cat to compell her to eat, but to no purpose. She died in three or four days afterwards. Mr. Millar was told that she had said the night before she died, "She was going to her friends."
As a third specific instance, in another vessel, may be mentioned that related by Mr. Isaac Parker. There was a child, says he, on board, of nine months old, which refused to eat, for which the captain took it up in his hand, and flogged it with a cat, saying at the same time, "Damn you, I'll make you eat, or I'll kill you." The same child having swelled feet, the captain ordered them to be put into water, though the ship's cook told him it was too hot. This brought off the skin and nails. He then ordered sweet oil and cloths, which Isaac Parker himself applied to the feet; and as the child at mess time again refused to eat, the captain again took it up and flogged it, and tied a log of mango-wood eighteen or twenty inches long, and of twelve or thirteen pounds weight round its neck, as a punishment. He repeated the flogging for four days together at mess time. The last time after flogging it, he let it drop out of his hand, with the same expression as before, and accordingly in about three quarters of an hour the child died. He then called its mother to heave it overboard, and beat her for refusing. He however forced her to take it up, and go to the ship's side, where holding her head on one side to avoid the sight, she dropped her child overboard, after which she cried for many hours.
Besides instances of slaves refusing to eat, with the view of destroying themselves, and dying in consequence of it, those of their going mad, are confirmed by Town, and of their jumping overboard, or attempting to do it, by Town, Millar, Ellison, and Hall.
Other incidents on the passage, mentioned by some of the evidences in their examination, may be divided into three kinds.
The first kind consists of insurrections on the part of the slaves. Some of these frequently attempted to rise, but were prevented, (Wilson, Town, Trotter, Newton, Dalrymple, Ellison,) others rose, but were quelled, (Ellison, Newton, Falconbridge,) and others rose, and succeeded, killing almost all the whites : (Falconbridge and Town). — Mr. Town says, that inquiring of the slaves into the cause of these insurrections, he has been asked, what business he had to carry them from their country, They had wives and children, whom they wanted to be with.
After an insurrection, Mr. Elllson says, he has seen them flogged, and the cook's tormentors and tongs heated to burn their flesh. Mr. Newton also adds, that it is usual for captains, after insurrections and plots happen, to flog the slaves. Some captains, on board whose ships he has been, added the thumb-screw, and one in particular told him repeatedly that he had put slaves to death after an insurrection by various modes of torture.
The second sort of incident on the passage is mentioned by Mr. Falconbridge in the instance of an English vessel blowing up off Galenas, and most of the men-slaves, entangled in their irons, perishing.
The third sort is described by Mr. Hercules Ross as follows. One instance, says he, marked with peculiar circumstances of horror, occurs: — About twenty years ago, a ship from Africa, with about four hundred slaves on board, struck upon some shoals, called the Morant Keys, distant eleven leagues, S. S. E. off the East end of Jamaica. The officers and seamen of the ship landed in their boats, carrying with them arms and provisions. The slaves were left on board in their irons and shackles. This happened in the night time. The Morant Keys consist of three small sandy islands, and he understood that the ship had struck upon the shoals, at about half a league to windward of them. When morning came, it was discovered that the negroes had got out of their irons, and were busy making rafts, upon which they placed the women and children, whilst the men, and others capable of swimming, attended upon the rafts, whilst they drifted before the wind towards the island where the seamen had landed. From an apprehension that the negroes would consume the water and provisions which the seamen had landed, they came to the resolution of destroying them, by means of their fire-arms and other weapons. As the poor wretches approached the shore, they actually destroyed between three and four hundred of them. Out of the whole cargo only thirty-three or thirty-four were saved, and brought to Kingston, where Mr, Ross saw them sold at public vendue. The ship to the best of his recollection, was consigned to a Mr. Hugh Wallace, of the parish of St. Elizabeth's.
Mr. Ross says, in extenuation of this massacre, that the crew were probably drunk, or they would not have acted so, but he does not know it to have been the case.
When the ships arrive at their destined ports, the slaves are exposed to sale. They are sold either by scramble or by vendue, (i. e.) publick auction, or by lots. The sale by scramble is thus described by Mr. Falconbridge. "In the Emilia, (says he) at Jamaica, the ship was darkened with sails, and covered round. The men slaves were placed on the main deck, and the women on the quarter deck. The purchasers on shore were informed a gun would be fired when they were ready to open the sale. A great number of people came on board with tallies or cards in their hands, with their own names upon them, and rushed through, the barricado door with the ferocity of brutes. Some had three or four handkerchiefs tied together, to encircle as many as they thought fit for their purpose. In the yard at Grenada, he adds, (where another of his ships, the Alexander, sold by scramble) the women were so terrified, that several of them got out of the yard, and ran about St. George's town as if they were mad. In his second voyage, while lying at Kingston, he saw a sale by scramble on board the Tryal, Captain Macdonald. Forty or fifty of the slaves leaped into the sea, all of which, however, he believes, were taken up again." This is a very general mode of sale. Mr. Baillie says, it was the common mode in America where he has been. Mr. Fitzmaurice has been at twenty sales by scramble in Jamaica. Mr. Clappeson never saw any other mode of sale during his residence there, and it is mentioned as having been practised under the inspection of Morley and of Trotter.
The slaves sold by publick auction or vendue are generally the refuse, or sickly slaves. These are in such a state of health, that they sell, says Baillie, greatly under price. Falconbridge has known them sold for five dollars each, Town for a Guinea, and Mr. Hercules Ross as low as a single dollar.
The state of such is described to be very deplorable by General Tottenham and Mr. Hercules Ross. The former says, that he once observed at Barbadoes a number of slaves that had been landed from a ship. They were brought into the yard adjoining the place of sale. Those that were not very ill were put into little huts, and those that were worse were left in the yard to die, for nobody gave them any thing to eat or drink; and some of them lived three days in that situation. The latter has frequently seen the very refuse (as they are termed) of the slaves of Guinea ships landed and carried to the vendue-masters in a very wretched state; sometimes in the agonies of death; and he has known instances of their expiring in the piazza of the vendue-master.
Mr. Newton says, that in none of the sales he saw was there any care ever taken to prevent such slaves as were relations from being separated. They were separated as sheep and lambs by the butcher. This separation of relations and friends is confirmed by Davison, Trotter, Clappeson, and Town. Fitzmaurice also mentions the same, with an exception only to infants; but Mr. Falconbridge says, that one of his captains (Frazer) recommended it to the planters never to separate relations and friends. He says he once heard of a person refusing to purchase a man's wife, and was next day informed the man had hanged himself.
With respect to the mortality of slaves in the passage, Mr. Falconbridge says, that in three voyages he purchased 1100, and lost 191; Trotter, in one voyage, about 600, and lost about 70; Millar, in one voyage, 490, and lost 180; Ellison, in three voyages, where he recollects the mortality, bought 895, and lost 356. In one of these voyages, says the latter, the slaves had the small-pox. In this cafe he has seen the platform one continued scab: eight or ten of them were hauled up dead in a morning and the flesh and skin has peeled off their wrists when taken hold of.
Mr. Morley says, that in four voyages he purchased about 1325, and lost about 313. Mr. Town, in two voyages, 630, and lost 115. Mr. Claxton, in one voyage, 250, and lost 132. In this voyage, he says, they were so streightened for provisions, that if they had been ten more days at sea, they must either have eaten the slaves that died, or have made the living slaves walk the plank, a term in use among Guinea captains for making the slaves throw themselves overboard. He says also, that he fell in with the Hero, Captain Withers, which had lost 360 slaves, or more than half her cargo, by the small-pox. The surgeon of the Hero told him, that when the slaves were removed from one place to another, they left marks of their skin and blood upon the deck, and it was the most horrid sight he had ever seen.
Mr. Wilson states, that in his ship, and three others, belonging to the same concern, they purchased among them 2064 slaves, and lost 586. He adds, that he fell in with the Hero, Captain Withers, at St. Thomas's, which had lost 159 slaves by the small-pox. Capt. Hall, in two voyages, purchased 550, and lost 110. He adds, that he has known some ships in the slave trade bury a quarter, some a third, and others half of their cargo. It is very uncommon to find ships without some loss [5] in their slaves.
Besides those which die on the passage, it must be noticed here that several die soon after they are sold. Sixteen, says Mr. Falconbridge, were sold by auction out of the Alexander, all of whom died before the ship left the West Indies. Out of fourteen, says Mr. Claxton, sold from his ship in an infectious state, only four lived; and though in the four voyages mentioned by Mr. Wilson no less than 586 perished on the passage out of 2064, yet 220 additionally died of the small-pox in a very little time after their delivery in the river Plate, making the total loss for those ships not less than 836, out of 2,064.
The causes of the disorders which carry off the slaves in such numbers, are ascribed by Mr. Falconbridge to a diseased mind, sudden transitions from heat to cold, a putrid atmosphere, wallowing in their own excrements, and being shackled together. A diseased mind, he says, is undoubtedly one of the causes; for many of the slaves on board refused medicines, giving as a reason that they wanted to die, and could never be cured. Some few on the other hand, who did not appear to think so much of their situation, recovered. That shackling together is also another cause, was evident from the circumstance of the men dying in twice the proportion the women did; and so long as the trade continues, he adds, they must be shackled together, for no man will attempt to carry them out of irons.
Surgeon Wilson, examined on the same topick, speaks nearly in the same manner. He says, that of the death of two-thirds of those who died in his ship, the primary cause was melancholy. This was evident not only from the symptoms of the disorder, and the circumstance that no one who had it was ever cured, whereas those who had it not, and yet were ill, recovered, but from the language of the slaves themselves, who declared that they wished to die, as also from Captain Smith's own declaration, who said, their deaths were to be ascribed to their thinking so much of their situation. Though several died of the flux, he attributes their death primarily to the cause before assigned; for, says he, their original disorder was a fixed melancholy, and the symptoms lowness of spirits and despondency. Hence they refused food. This only increased the symptoms. The stomach afterwards got weak. Hence the belly ached, fluxes ensued, and they were carried off.
Mr. Town, the only other person, who speaks of the causes of the disorders of the slaves, says, "they often fall sick, sometimes owing to their crowded state, but mostly to grief for being carried away from their country and friends." This he knows from inquiring frequently (which he was enabled to do by understanding their language) into the circumstances of their grievous complaints [6].
As the trade may be said to end on the delivery of the slaves in the West Indies, it may not be improper to state the opinion of some of the Evidences concerning it.
Mr. Wilson states, that his reason for quitting his late employment was, that he did not like to continue in a trade, that did not perfectly coincide with his ideas, and was not to his satisfaction, being obliged to make use of means for the preservation of the cargo, contrary to his feelings, and sense of humanity.
Mr. Falconbridge declares, that in his first and second voyage he reflected but little on the justice or injustice of the trade. In his last voyage he reflected more, and the more he did so, the more he was convinced it was an unnatural, iniquitous, and villainous trade, and he could not reconcile it to his conscience. This was the reason for his leaving it. He adds, that he believes at the time he left it, he could have gone again with Capt. Frazer, if he had chosen it, and he was afterwards repeatedly solicited to go to the Gold coast by Captain Thompson.
Captain Wilson declares from the whole of his experience, as an impartial man, he has long since formed an opinion, (which each succeeding day's experience has justified and confirmed) that it is a trade evidently founded on injustice and treachery, manifestly carried on by oppression and cruelty, and not unfrequently terminating in murder.
Captain Hall makes a declaration also, that when he left the trade he could have obtained the command of a ship in it, which command at that time would have been a very lucrative one, but that he quitted it from a conviction that it was perfectly illegal, and founded in blood.
- ↑ The necessity of exercise for health is the reason given for compelling the slaves to dance in the above manner.
- ↑ By the late Act of Parliament the space Z, which is half of the half-deck, M Z is appropriated to the seaman.
- ↑ The situation of the slaves must be dreadful even on the present regulated plan; for their bodies not only touch each other, but many of them have not even room to sit upright; for when every deduction has been made, the height above the platform D F H, Fig. I. and below it C E G, is in the Brooks but two feet seven inches. The average height in nine other vessels measured by Captain Parrey was only five feet two inches; and in the Venus and Kitty the slaves had not two feet above or below the platforms. The slaves immediately under the beams must be in a still more dreadful situation as is seen by the plan; for in Fig. I. under the upper deck P P, and lower deck A A these beams are represented by shaded squares, as also they are introduced in Fig. II. and III.
- ↑ To shew the severity of this punishment, Mr. Dove says, that while two slaves were under the torture of the thumb-screws, the sweat ran down their faces, and they trembled as under a violent ague fit, and Mr. Ellison has known instances of their dying, a mortification having taken place in their thumbs in consequence of these screws.
- ↑ Total purchased 7904, lost 2053, exclusive of the Hero, being above one-fourth of the number purchased. The reader will observe, that Mr. Claxton fell in with the Hero on one voyage, and Mr. Wilson on another.
- ↑ It is evident from hence, that no Regulation of the Trade can heal the evils in this branch of the subject. It can never cure melancholy or a diseased mind. It can never prevent an injured people from rising if out of irons, nor can it take away corrupted air, unless it reduce the number to be carried so low, as not to make it worth the while of the slave-merchants to transport them.