The above account of shackling, messing, dancing,[1] and singing the slaves, is allowed by all the witnesses, as far as they speak to the same points, except by Mr. Falconbridge, in whose ships the slaves had a pint and a 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 tarpaulings have inadvertently been thrown over the gratings, attempting to heave them up, crying out in their own language, "We are dying!" On removing the tarpaulings 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 to 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 dipped 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 he took off his shirt. More than twenty of them had then fainted, or were fainting.
- ↑ The necessity of exercise for health is the reason given for compelling the slaves to dance in the above manner.
