"Shock & Awe" -- The Filthy Floating Dungeons
A typical lower deck, immersed in a "putrid smell"
First, between 1400 and 1700, the ruling classes of Western Europe were able to conquer the world because of two distinct and soon powerfully combined technological developments. First, English craftsmen forged cast-iron cannons, which were rapidly disseminated to military forces all around Europe. Second, the deep-sea sailing "round ship" of Northern Europe slowly eclipsed the oared "long ship," of the Mediterranean. European leaders with maritime ambitions had their shipwrights cut ports into the hulls of these rugged seaworthy ships for huge heavy cannon. Naval warfare changed as they added sails and guns to replace oarsmen and warriors with smaller, more efficient crew; and thereby created a machine that harnessed unparalleled mobility, speed, and destructive power. Thus, when the full-rigged ship equipped with muzzle-loading cannons showed up on the coast of Africa, Asia, and America, it was by all accounts a marvel if not a terror. The noise of the cannon alone was terrifying. Indeed it was enough to induce non-Europeans to worship Jesus Christ. It was a "Shock & Awe!" vent. Gronniosaw (See bottom of main page entitled Black Slavery), in his memoir, referred to it as the "house with wings." Slaves, especially from the interior, thought that the Europeans were people without a country, and who lived on ships. It was astonishing to anyone who had never seen one.
European rulers would use this revolutionary technology, this new maritime machine, to sail, explore, and master the high seas in order to trade, to fight, to seize new lands, to plunder, and to build empires. In so doing they battled each other as fiercely as they battled people outside Europe. They rapidly became 'masters' and conquerors of the planet.
The ship was, thus, central to a profound, interrelated set of economic changes essential to the rise of capitalism: the expropriation of millions of people and their redevelopment in growing market-oriented sectors of the economy; the mining of gold and silver, the cultivating of tobacco and sugar; the concomitant rise of long-distance commerce; and finally a planned accumulation of wealth and capital beyond anything the world had ever witnessed. Slowly, unevenly, but with undoubted power, a world market and an international capitalist system emerged. Each phase of the process, from exploration to settlement to production to trade and the construction of a new economic order, required massive fleets of ships and their capacity to transport both expropriated laborers and the new commodities. Needless to say, the Guineans became a linchpin of the system. Why the Guinea man in particular? Of all the other non-Europeans in the world he was considered as the lowest in the social order, and dark in mind as complexion. More beast than human and as such could legally be enslaved. Not to mention that they could do the hard work better than anyone else.
In time, vessels were designed and constructed for the sole purpose of ferrying Africans across the Atlantic. The "shock and awe" would later turn into terror. The Africans were graphically portrayed (see the infamous Brooks slave image below) more like corpses than human beings, given little sense of space. Where the ship bulged at midship, slaves were slotted into the resulting space, filling the alleyways and gaps between the other slaves. From the nose of the ship to the rudder, the Africans were arranged in tightly-packed rows which seemed to owe more to the demands of geometry than of human accommodations. Where the masts obstructed the line of packing, a slave is pictured lying with one elbow casually resting on the mast. Although the Brooks allowed for 454 slaves, in 1783 the ship had transported 600.
European rulers would use this revolutionary technology, this new maritime machine, to sail, explore, and master the high seas in order to trade, to fight, to seize new lands, to plunder, and to build empires. In so doing they battled each other as fiercely as they battled people outside Europe. They rapidly became 'masters' and conquerors of the planet.
The ship was, thus, central to a profound, interrelated set of economic changes essential to the rise of capitalism: the expropriation of millions of people and their redevelopment in growing market-oriented sectors of the economy; the mining of gold and silver, the cultivating of tobacco and sugar; the concomitant rise of long-distance commerce; and finally a planned accumulation of wealth and capital beyond anything the world had ever witnessed. Slowly, unevenly, but with undoubted power, a world market and an international capitalist system emerged. Each phase of the process, from exploration to settlement to production to trade and the construction of a new economic order, required massive fleets of ships and their capacity to transport both expropriated laborers and the new commodities. Needless to say, the Guineans became a linchpin of the system. Why the Guinea man in particular? Of all the other non-Europeans in the world he was considered as the lowest in the social order, and dark in mind as complexion. More beast than human and as such could legally be enslaved. Not to mention that they could do the hard work better than anyone else.
In time, vessels were designed and constructed for the sole purpose of ferrying Africans across the Atlantic. The "shock and awe" would later turn into terror. The Africans were graphically portrayed (see the infamous Brooks slave image below) more like corpses than human beings, given little sense of space. Where the ship bulged at midship, slaves were slotted into the resulting space, filling the alleyways and gaps between the other slaves. From the nose of the ship to the rudder, the Africans were arranged in tightly-packed rows which seemed to owe more to the demands of geometry than of human accommodations. Where the masts obstructed the line of packing, a slave is pictured lying with one elbow casually resting on the mast. Although the Brooks allowed for 454 slaves, in 1783 the ship had transported 600.
The "Brooks" of Liverpool would become the abolitionists' most powerful propaganda against the slave trade.
Crossing the Atlantic
Slaves being inspected before boarding
A rebel slave at bay, refusing to go below deck.. We don't know Igbo, but we are sure what ever he is saying is equivalent to: "Cum le mi lick yu rass!"
Slave women on top deck being abused by white sailors
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Securely chained, new arrivals are packed below decks for the Atlantic crossing
Africans leaping off slave ship
Slaves being forced to "dance" on deck
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Typical slave hold
Most of them were mainly young male slaves
Captain Kimber reportedlly flogged to death a fifteen-year-old girl who refused to dance naked
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In helping to create the labor power that animated a growing world economy in the 18th century and after, the low-life sailors became "white men" as they helped load a multiethnic collection of Africans, who would in the American ports become a "Negro Race."
The ship itself was simply one link in a chain of black enslavement; sort of a "portable prison" or “floating dungeon," because
incarceration (as in in barracoons, fortresses) was crucial to the slave trade. The ship would also contain a war within, as the crew (now prison guards) oversaw slaves (prisoners), the one training its gun on the other; who plotted escape and insurrection. The sailors' job was to bring the enslaved on board, to stow them below decks, to feed them, compel them to exercise (“dance”), keep them alive/maintain their health, discipline and punish them. – In short, slowly transform them into valuable commodities for the international slave market.
The curse of the slave ship was dysentery, the scourge of their human cargo transported to the Americas. The air in the deck became unfit for respiration from a variety of loathsome smells and brought on a sickness amongst slaves, of which many died. It is true that the crews tried to prevent and limit the deterioration in the slaves' physical environment -- it was in their economic interest to do so. But what could even the most considerate of men do in an Atlantic storm or heavy weather, when the immediate demands of the ship disrupted the routines of exercising, cleaning and feeding the slaves, to say nothing of removing and disposing of the dead or tending the sick?
In this light, slaves had to be fed in their cramped and generally filthy quarters. A small bucket of food was handed over to groups of ten slaves. Many had to feed themselves with their hands -- an obvious source of contamination. Many slaves, from illness or depression, simply gave up the struggle and refused to eat despite the threats and violence used to make them take their food. Slavers sometimes resorted to force-feeding to keep slaves alive.
For the Africans the passage from the coast of Guinea to the West Indian Islands (the first stop for some) proved of unusual length. It was a violent, cruel and inhumane journey. The trauma of enslavement -- the initial moment of capture -- was but the first of an apparently endless succession of blows, some deadly but all of them painful, humiliating and unforgetable. It must have seen barely credible to most slaves that their horrors already endured were to be followed by an even more painful and distressing experience: the voyage across the Atlantic in a slave ship.
Many deaths on slave journeys across the Atlantic also derived from violence, brawls, and above all rebellions.
The ship itself was simply one link in a chain of black enslavement; sort of a "portable prison" or “floating dungeon," because
incarceration (as in in barracoons, fortresses) was crucial to the slave trade. The ship would also contain a war within, as the crew (now prison guards) oversaw slaves (prisoners), the one training its gun on the other; who plotted escape and insurrection. The sailors' job was to bring the enslaved on board, to stow them below decks, to feed them, compel them to exercise (“dance”), keep them alive/maintain their health, discipline and punish them. – In short, slowly transform them into valuable commodities for the international slave market.
The curse of the slave ship was dysentery, the scourge of their human cargo transported to the Americas. The air in the deck became unfit for respiration from a variety of loathsome smells and brought on a sickness amongst slaves, of which many died. It is true that the crews tried to prevent and limit the deterioration in the slaves' physical environment -- it was in their economic interest to do so. But what could even the most considerate of men do in an Atlantic storm or heavy weather, when the immediate demands of the ship disrupted the routines of exercising, cleaning and feeding the slaves, to say nothing of removing and disposing of the dead or tending the sick?
In this light, slaves had to be fed in their cramped and generally filthy quarters. A small bucket of food was handed over to groups of ten slaves. Many had to feed themselves with their hands -- an obvious source of contamination. Many slaves, from illness or depression, simply gave up the struggle and refused to eat despite the threats and violence used to make them take their food. Slavers sometimes resorted to force-feeding to keep slaves alive.
For the Africans the passage from the coast of Guinea to the West Indian Islands (the first stop for some) proved of unusual length. It was a violent, cruel and inhumane journey. The trauma of enslavement -- the initial moment of capture -- was but the first of an apparently endless succession of blows, some deadly but all of them painful, humiliating and unforgetable. It must have seen barely credible to most slaves that their horrors already endured were to be followed by an even more painful and distressing experience: the voyage across the Atlantic in a slave ship.
Many deaths on slave journeys across the Atlantic also derived from violence, brawls, and above all rebellions.
Death of Captain Ferrer, the Captain of the Amistad, July 1839
