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Voyages: The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database
Voyages: The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database
"Voyages: The Transatlantic Slave Trade Database is the product of a massive undertaking from a network of scholars, technology experts, and government organizations from around the world who have invested thousands of hours into building a database of nearly 36,000 slaving voyages. Users can search the database using a variety of variables including a ship’s name, year of arrival, number of captives transported, outcome of voyage, embarkation and disembarkation locations, and the ship’s flag. In addition to the database, Voyages contains a wealth of maps, essays, images, animations, charts, and lesson plans that illustrate the scope and horror of what W. E. B. Du Bois called “(t)he most magnificent drama in the last thousand years of human history.”"
1. Overview
from Introductory Maps http://www.slavevoyages.org/assessment/intro-maps 1. Overview
Overview of the slave trade out of Africa, 1500-1900
Overview of the slave trade out of Africa, 1500-1900
See other maps at http://www.slavevoyages.org/assessment/intro-maps
2. Capture and "Seasoning"
2. Capture and "Seasoning"
Arab slave traders Two Arab slave traders on their way to the coast with some Africans being enslaved. Image taken by French artist R. Geoffroy in 1814. Image: Bridgeman Art Library.
Understanding Slavery
Atlantic Crossing
Atlantic Crossing
The selling and the 'seasoning'
The selling and the 'seasoning'
"The next great hurdle for the captives involved another stage of separation. Almost from the moment the ships docked on the other side of the Atlantic, a majority of the Africans were organised into groups and taken off to be sold, although on some Caribbean islands, laws were passed that people could not be sold within 24 hours of landing.
Public auctions were the most common method of dispersal. However, there were also direct consignments, by which a plantation owner would previously have made arrangements with a merchant to bring enslaved people direct to their plantation, a given number of slaves per year.
Following disembarkation, auction blocks and holding pens were the centres of activity. Captives deemed unfit for sale were classed as 'refuse' and were either sold cheaply in groups or left to perish where they lay on the docks. Those to be sold were washed, shaved and rubbed with palm oil to disguise injuries sustained during the voyage.
Following their sale, through a process known as 'seasoning', the Africans were forced, often under torture, to accept identities suited to lifelong servitude. Having already been branded once in Africa, they would be branded a second time by their legal owners, who would also give them a Christian name. African practices and customs of all kinds were discouraged. Some captives already weakened by the horrors of the voyage committed suicide. Others died under the pressure of the 'seasoning'."
If you can't read the book "The Slave Ship", watch the two videos below of the author talking about it.
If you can't read the book "The Slave Ship", watch the two videos below of the author talking about it.
The Slave Ship: A Human History
The Slave Ship: A Human History
http://www.cornell.edu/video/the-slave-ship-a-human-history
Marcus Rediker uses his experience as a maritime historian and his mastery of the contemporary documents to re-create all three legs of the triangle, often in the very words of the participants -- captains, seamen and slaves.
This page includes an interactive transcript.
"The Floating Dungeon: A History of the Slave Ship"
Published on Mar 12, 2008"The Floating Dungeon: A History of the Slave Ship"
Watch video of Marcus Rediker, professor of history at the University of Pittsburgh, speaking on "The Floating Dungeon: A History of the Slave Ship" at the Vanderbilt Law School March 10.
Compare "The Brookes" with the "Vigilante"
Compare "The Brookes" with the "Vigilante"
"The Brookes" - visualising the transatlantic slave trade
https://www.history.ac.uk/1807commemorated/exhibitions/museums/brookes.html"The Brookes" - visualising the transatlantic slave trade
"This diagram of the 'Brookes' slave ship, which transported enslaved Africans to the Caribbean, is probably the most widely copied and powerful image used by those who campaigned to end the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Traders knew that many of the Africans would die on the voyage and would therefore pack as many people as possible on to their ships - in total there were 609 enslaved men, women and children on board this ship. The conditions would have been appalling. Each person occupied a tiny space in the hold. In this case they had to lie in spaces just 10 inches high and were often chained or shackled together in pairs, making movement even more difficult. The cramped conditions meant that there were high incidences of diseases such as smallpox, measles, scurvy and dysentery. Because of the long distances involved food and water was rationed and always in short supply or ran out completely.
By April 1787, the diagram was widely known across the UK, appearing in newspapers, pamphlets, books and even posters in coffee houses and pubs. An image had rarely been used as a propaganda tool in this way before and it proved to be very effective in raising awareness about the evils of the slave trade."
Plan of the Slaver ""Vigilante""
http://www.slavevoyages.org/resources/images/category/Vessels/1 Plan of the Slaver ""Vigilante""
Listen to the podcast on https://slate.com/human-interest/2015/06/history-of-american-slavery-olaudah-equiano-and-life-aboard-a-slave-ship.html "In episode 2 of The History of American Slavery, a Slate Academy, hosts Rebecca Onion and Jamelle Bouie explore the shape of slavery during the late 18th century. They talk about the heyday of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the birth of the British abolitionist movement. They begin their discussion by remembering the remarkable life of Olaudah Equiano, 1745?–1797."
3. What do you see?
3. What do you see?
Open this page to watch "this interactive, designed and built by Slate’s Andrew Kahn, gives you a sense of the scale of the trans-Atlantic slave trade across time, as well as the flow of transport and eventual destinations. The dots—which represent individual slave ships—also correspond to the size of each voyage. The larger the dot, the more enslaved people on board. And if you pause the map and click on a dot, you’ll learn about the ship’s flag—was it British? Portuguese? French?—its origin point, its destination, and its history in the slave trade. The interactive animates more than 20,000 voyages cataloged in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database."
Slave trade by MCC Ship the Unity
Published on Mar 17, 2014Slave trade by MCC Ship the Unity
A history of human trafficking, pursuit of profit and breathtaking archival documents. http://www.atlanticslavetrade.org The Zeeland Archives has made an online reconstruction of a slave voyage based on the archives of the Middelburgse Commercie Compagnie (MCC). The MCC was a private Dutch trade company that specialized in the triangular or transatlantic slave trade in the 18th century. This entailed the trading of goods against captured Africans at the coast of West-Africa. The Africans faced a future as slaves on a plantation in the Caribbean. The ships returned with a cargo of coffee, sugar, tobacco or cacao. Through the blog www.transatlanticslavetrade.org the daily events are reported by the key figures of the 18th century.
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