1. The African-American Ordeal: Capture to Destination
A continuation

2. A Slave’s Story – Olaudah Equiano
Autobiography capture/voyage: The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa, the African

3. A Slave’s Story – Olaudah Equiano
Describes horrific conditions
Noted African suicides
Nets up along boat edge to limit attempts
Felt more suicides would have occurred if nets were absent

4. A Slave’s Story – Olaudah Equiano
Smells
Human waste
Unwashed bodies
Feedings

5. A Captain’s Story – John Newton
Indentured servant on a slave ship
Becomes a Slaver Captain

6. A Captain’s Story – John Newton
Is “born again” as an Evangelical Christian following a rough, stormy trip
Poor health causes retirement – becomes an Anglican (Episcopalian) priest

7. A Captain’s Story – John Newton
Realizes horrors of slavery and seeks repentance.
Ends up writing the hymn, Amazing Grace

8. Provisions for the Middle Passage
Slaves fed twice per day
Poor and insufficient diet
But was based on African foods
Vegetable pulps, stews, and fruits
Denied meat or fish
Ten people eat from one bucket (had one spoon per ten people, but often lost in chaos)
Disease spread due to unwashed hands
Result: malnutrition, weakness, depression, death

9. Sanitation, Disease, and Death
Astronomically high before 1750
Due to length of travel time across Atlantic
Poor sanitation
Germ theory unknown at this time

11. Sanitation, Disease, and Death
Astronomically high before 1750
Due to length of travel time across Atlantic
Poor sanitation
Germ theory unknown at this time
Malaria, yellow fever, smallpox, dysentery were common problems
Do you know what dysentary is???????????

12. Sanitation, Disease, and Death
After 1750
Faster ships/faster trips
Hygiene and diet better understood
Early forms of smallpox vaccinations

13. Resistance and Revolt at Sea
Uprisings were common
Most rebellions before sailing when Africa was still in sight
Some preferred death to bondage
Justification for harsh treatment by slavers

14. Cruelty Middle passage horrors exaggerated Cultural context
Historian Eric Williams says that stories were influenced by those who hoped to end slavery
Cultural context
Misunderstanding of each other’s culture (not that they tried to understand each other!!!!!!!!)

15. Cruelty Exceptional cruelties
Slaves had half the space allowed indentured servants and convicts

16. Cruelty Exceptional cruelties
Slaves had half the space allowed indentured servants and convicts
Slavery was only suitable for non-Christians
Brutal treatment by crew members BECAUSE AFRICANS WERE NOT SEEN AS EQUAL TO WESTERN EUROPEANS, THESE CRUELTIES WERE SOCIALLY ACCEPTED AT THIS TIME

17. African Women on Slave Ships
African women worth half the price of African men in the Caribbean markets
Fewer of them on the boat and they were not as valuable
Separated from male slaves made women easier targets

18. VI. Landing and Sale in the West Indies
Pre-sale
Bathed and exercised
Bodies oiled to conceal blemishes and bruises
Hemp plugs used to block the bloody discharge of dysentary
GOAL: Get the most $$ from the sale of the product = slaves

19. VI. Landing and Sale in the West Indies

20. VII. Seasoning (following Sale in West Indies)
To modify behavior and attitude
In preparation for resale to North American planters

21. VII. Seasoning (cont.) Creoles Old Africans
Slaves born in the Americas
Worth three times price of unseasoned Africans
Instructed New Africans
Old Africans
Had lived in the Americas for some time
Also instructed New Africans
New Africans (a.k.a.: “Salt-Water Negroes” or “Guinea-Birds”)
Goal: Make them more like Creoles

22. When is a slave seasoned?
? ? ? ?

23. VIII. The End of the Journey
Survival (Slaves have survived)
One-third died in first three years in West Indies
Men died at a greater rate than women
Have adapted to new foods of the West Indies/Americas

24. VIII. The End of the Journey
Have learned a new language
Creole dialect well enough to obey commands
They are no longer suicidal
Africans retained culture despite the hardships and cruel treatment
Created bonds with shipmates that replaced blood kinship (like an extended family)

25. IX. The Ending of the Atlantic Slave Trade
Cruelties help end Atlantic slave trade
English abolitionists

26. IX. The Ending of the Atlantic Slave Trade
Cruelties help end Atlantic slave trade
English abolitionists
Moral crusade and economy less dependent on slave trade
Great Britain bans Atlantic slave trade in 1807
Patrols African coast to enforce
United States Congress outlaws slave trade in 1808

27. IX. The Ending of the Atlantic Slave Trade
An ironic twist!
Guinea and western central African kingdoms opposed the banning of the slave trade
Their economies were dependent on the trade!

28. X. Conclusion
Nine to eleven million Africans brought to the Americas during three centuries of trade
Millions more died
Most arrived between 1701 and 1810
Only 600,000 reached the British colonies of North America