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Slave ships were cargo ship
Ship

A ship is a large watercraft that floats on water. Ships are generally distinguished from boats based on size. Ships may be found on lakes, seas, and rivers and they allow for a variety of activities, such as the ferry or cargo ships, fishing, cruise ship, Coast guard, and warship....
s specially converted for the purpose of transporting slaves
Slavery

Slavery is a form of forced labor where a person is compelled to Labor for another . Slaves are held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase, or birth, and are deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to receive Remuneration in return for their labor....
, especially newly purchased Africa
Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km? including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area....
n slaves.

The most important routes of the slave ships led from the northern and middle coasts of Africa to South America
South America

South America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere....
 and the south coast of what is today the Caribbean
Caribbean

The Caribbean is a region consisting of the Caribbean Sea, its islands , and the surrounding coasts. The region is located southeast of the Gulf of Mexico and Northern America, east of Central America, and to the north of South America....
 and the United States of America.






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Slavetrade2
Slave ships were cargo ship
Ship

A ship is a large watercraft that floats on water. Ships are generally distinguished from boats based on size. Ships may be found on lakes, seas, and rivers and they allow for a variety of activities, such as the ferry or cargo ships, fishing, cruise ship, Coast guard, and warship....
s specially converted for the purpose of transporting slaves
Slavery

Slavery is a form of forced labor where a person is compelled to Labor for another . Slaves are held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase, or birth, and are deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to receive Remuneration in return for their labor....
, especially newly purchased Africa
Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km? including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area....
n slaves.

The most important routes of the slave ships led from the northern and middle coasts of Africa to South America
South America

South America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere....
 and the south coast of what is today the Caribbean
Caribbean

The Caribbean is a region consisting of the Caribbean Sea, its islands , and the surrounding coasts. The region is located southeast of the Gulf of Mexico and Northern America, east of Central America, and to the north of South America....
 and the United States of America. The captains and sailors of the boats were allowed to do whatever they wanted with the slaves. This included rape, murder, and torture because the slaves were considered their property. As many as 20 million Africans were transported by ship. The transportation of slaves from Africa to America was known as the Middle Passage
Middle Passage

The Middle Passage refers to the forcible passage of African people from Africa to the New World, as part of the Atlantic slave trade. Ships departed Europe for African markets with commercial goods, which were in turn traded for kidnapped Africans who were transported across the Atlantic as slaves; the enslaved Africans were then sold or t...
. The African slave trade
African slave trade

The slave trade in Africa existed for thousands of years. The first main route passed through the Sahara, tying in to the Arab slave trade. After the European Age of Exploration, African slaves became part of the Atlantic slave trade, from which comes the modern, Western conception of slavery as an institution of African-descended slaves and...
 was outlawed in 1807, by a law passed jointly in the United States of America and the United Kingdom
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
, the applicable UK Act was the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act and outlawed slavery throughout the British Empire
British Empire

The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, and other Dependent territory ruled or administered by the United Kingdom , that had originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries....
. The US took effect on January 1, 1808. After that date all US and English slave ships leaving Africa were legally pirate vessels subject to capture by the American and British navies. It was at the Council of Vienna before Spain
Spain

Spain or the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in Southern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though Espa?a , Estado espa?ol and Naci?n espa?ola are used interchangeably....
, Portugal
Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country on the Iberian Peninsula. Located in southwestern Europe, Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east....
, France
France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
 and The Netherlands agreed to abolish their slave trade. During this time, the slave ships became smaller and more cramped in exchange for improved performance in their new role as smuggling craft and blockade runners.

Atlantic slave trade

Only a few decades after the discovery of America by Europeans, demand for cheap labor to work plantations made slave-trading a profitable business. The peak time of slave ships to the Atlantic passage
Atlantic slave trade

The Atlantic slave trade, also known as the transatlantic slave trade, was the trade of primarily African people supplied to the colonies of the New World that occurred in and around the Atlantic Ocean....
 was between the 17th and 18th century when large plantations developed in the English colonies of North America.

In order to achieve profit, the owners of the ships divided their hulls
Hull (watercraft)

A hull is the watertight body of a ship or boat. It is a central concept in floating vessels as it provides the buoyancy that keeps the vessel from sinking....
 into holds with little headroom, so they could transport as many slaves as possible. Unhygienic conditions, dehydration
Dehydration

Dehydration is the removal of water from an object. In Physiology terms, it entails a relative deficiency of water molecules in relation to other dissolved solutes....
, dysentery
Dysentery

Dysentery is a disorder of the digestive system that results in severe diarrhea containing mucus and/or blood in the feces. If untreated, Dysentery can be fatal....
 and scurvy
Scurvy

Scurvy is a disease resulting from a deficiency of vitamin C, which is required for the synthesis of collagen in humans. The chemical name for vitamin C, ascorbic acid, is derived from the Latin name of scurvy, scorbutus....
 led to a high mortality rate
Mortality rate

Mortality rate is a measure of the number of deaths in some population, scaled to the size of that population, per unit time. Mortality rate is typically expressed in units of deaths per 1000 individuals per year; thus, a mortality rate of 9.5 in a population of 100,000 would mean 950 deaths per year in that entire population....
, up to a third of captives. Only the most resilient survived the transport. Often the ships transported hundreds of slaves, who were chained tightly to plank beds. For example, the slave ship "Henrietta Marie" carried about 200 slaves on the long Middle Passage
Middle Passage

The Middle Passage refers to the forcible passage of African people from Africa to the New World, as part of the Atlantic slave trade. Ships departed Europe for African markets with commercial goods, which were in turn traded for kidnapped Africans who were transported across the Atlantic as slaves; the enslaved Africans were then sold or t...
. They were confined to cargo holds with each slave chained with little room to move.

Slaveshipposter

List of slave ships

  • Adelaide, French
    France

    France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
     slave ship, sank 1714 near Cuba
    Cuba

    The Republic of Cuba is a country in the Caribbean. It consists of the island of Cuba , the island of Isla de la Juventud, and several adjacent small islands....
    .
  • Aurore
    Aurore (slave ship)

    The Aurore was a cargo slave ship which brought the first African slaves to Louisiana on June 6, 1719 from Senegambia. ...
    , along with the Duc du Maine
    Duc du Maine (slave ship)

    The Duc du Maine was a cargo slave ship which brought the first African slaves to Louisiana on June 6, 1719 from Senegambia. The ship could carry 500 to 600 slaves....
    , the first French slave ships that brought the first slaves to Louisiana
    Louisiana

    The State of Louisiana is a U.S. state located in the U.S. Southern States of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans....
    .
  • La Amistad
    La Amistad

    La Amistad was a 19th-century two-Mast schooner built in the United States but owned by a Spaniard living in Cuba. The ship was notable as the scene of a revolt by African captives being transported from Havana....
    , cargo ship which sometimes carried slaves (see note below).
  • Braunfisch, a Brandenburg
    Brandenburg

    Brandenburg is one of the sixteen states of Germany of Germany. It lies in the east of the country and is one of the new federal states that were re-created in 1990 upon the reunification of the former West Germany and East Germany....
    ian slave ship lost in 1688 in a revolt.
  • Brookes
    Brookes (ship)

    The Brookes print was an image widely used by campaigners for the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade. First designed in Plymouth, UK, in 1788 by the Plymouth Chapter of the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade and depicting the conditions on board the slave ship Brooke....
    , sailing in the 1780s.
  • Clotilde
    Clotilde (slave ship)

    The schooner Clotilde was the last known U.S. slave ship to bring slaves from Africa to America, arriving at Mobile Bay in autumn 1859 , with 110-160 slaves, having arranged to buy slaves in Kingdom of Whydah, Dahomey on May 15, 1859....
    , burned and sunk at Mobile, in autumn 1859.
  • Cora, captured by the USS Constellation
    USS Constellation (1854)

    USS Constellation constructed in 1854 is a sloop-of-war, or corvette, and the second United States Navy ship to carry this famous name....
    1860.
  • Duc du Maine
    Duc du Maine (slave ship)

    The Duc du Maine was a cargo slave ship which brought the first African slaves to Louisiana on June 6, 1719 from Senegambia. The ship could carry 500 to 600 slaves....
    , along with the Aurore
    Aurore (slave ship)

    The Aurore was a cargo slave ship which brought the first African slaves to Louisiana on June 6, 1719 from Senegambia. ...
    , the first French slave ships that brought the first slaves to Louisiana
    Louisiana

    The State of Louisiana is a U.S. state located in the U.S. Southern States of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans....
    .
  • Fredensborg
    Fredensborg (slave ship)

    Fredensborg was a frigate built in Copenhagen in 1752 or 1753. She was named Cron Prindz Christian after the prince who was to become king Christian VII of Denmark and Norway, and was fitted out as a slave ship....
    , Danish
    Denmark

    Denmark is a Scandinavian country in northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries....
     slave ship, sank in 1768 off Tromøy
    Tromøy

    Trom?y is the largest island outside the town of Arendal in Norway. It is known for having once hosted many Viking kings. A 400 meter bridge gave direct access with the mainland in 1961....
     in Norway
    Norway

    Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a constitutional monarchy in Northern Europe that occupies the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula....
    , after a journey in the triangular trade
    Triangular trade

    Triangular trade, or Triangle trade, is a historical term indicating trade among three ports or regions. The trade evolved where a region had an export commodity that was required in the region from which its major imports came....
    . Leif Svalesen has written a book about the journey.
  • Henrietta Marie. Sank 1701 off Key West
    Key West

    Key West is an island in the Straits of Florida on the North American continent at the southernmost tip of the Florida Keys.Key West is politically within the limits of the city of Key West, Florida, Monroe County, Florida, Florida, United States....
    , Florida.
  • Hope
    Hope (ship)

    The Hope was an United States brig class merchant ship involved in the marine fur trade along the northwest coast of North America and discovery in the Pacific Ocean....
  • Jesus of Lubeck 700-tonne ship used on the second voyage of John Hawkins
    John Hawkins

    File:John Hawkins.JPGAdmiral Sir John Hawkins was an England shipbuilder, naval administrator and commander, merchant, navigator, and slave trader....
     to transport 400 captured Africans in 1564. Queen Elizabeth I was his partner and rented him the vessel.
  • Kron-Printzen, Danish slave ship, sank in 1706 with 820 slaves on board.
  • Le Concord. Slave ship turned pirate ship aka Queen Anne's Revenge
    Queen Anne's Revenge

    Queen Anne's Revenge was the name of the piracy Blackbeard's infamous flagship, used by him for less than a year but an effective tool in his prize taking....
    , Sank 1717.
  • Lord Ligonier. See Roots: The Saga of an American Family
    Roots: The Saga of an American Family

    Roots: The Saga of an American Family is a novel written by Alex Haley and first published in 1976. It was adapted into a hugely popular, 12-hour television miniseries, also called Roots , in 1977, and a 14-hour sequel, Roots: The Next Generations, in 1979....
     by Alex Haley
    Alex Haley

    Alexander Murray Palmer Haley was an United States writer. He is best known as the author of Roots: The Saga of an American Family and The Autobiography of Malcolm X ....
    .
  • Madre de Deus
    Madre de Deus

    Madre de Deus was a Portugal ship, renowned for her fabulous cargo, which stoked the Kingdom of England appetite for trade with the Far East, then a Portuguese monopoly....
     (Mother of God) 1567 John Hawkins
    John Hawkins

    File:John Hawkins.JPGAdmiral Sir John Hawkins was an England shipbuilder, naval administrator and commander, merchant, navigator, and slave trader....
     captured this ship and transported 400 Africans.
  • Margaret Scott confiscated and sunk as part of the Stone fleet
    Stone Fleet

    The Stone Fleet consisted of a fleet of aging ships purchased in New Bedford and other New England ports, loaded with stone, and sailed south during the American Civil War by the Union Navy for the specific purpose of sinking and thus blocking the entrance into Charleston Harbor, South Carolina in hopes of preventing blockade runners from su...
     in 1862
  • Pons (ship) American built barque captured by the USS Yorktown
    USS Yorktown

    United States naval vesselsAt least five ships of the United States Navy have borne the name Yorktown, to commemorate of the decisive Battle of Yorktown in the American Revolutionary War....
     1 December 1845 with 850-900 slaves
  • Salamander, Brandenburgian slave ship.
  • Tecora
    Tecora

    The Tecora was a Portugal slave ship of the early 1800s. The brig was built especially for the slave trade after the transport across the Atlantic of human beings as slaves had already been outlawed in the first decade of the 19th century....
    , Portuguese
    Portugal

    Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country on the Iberian Peninsula. Located in southwestern Europe, Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east....
     slave ship that transported the slaves who would later revolt aboard La Amistad
    La Amistad

    La Amistad was a 19th-century two-Mast schooner built in the United States but owned by a Spaniard living in Cuba. The ship was notable as the scene of a revolt by African captives being transported from Havana....
    .
  • Triton captured by the USS Constellation
    USS Constellation (1854)

    USS Constellation constructed in 1854 is a sloop-of-war, or corvette, and the second United States Navy ship to carry this famous name....
     1861.
  • Trouvadore
    Trouvadore

    The Trouvadore was a Spain slave ship which was shipwrecked near East Caicos in the course of a run transporting Africans to be sold to the Plantation in Cuba....
    , wrecked in Turks and Caicos 1841. 193 slaves survived. Project commenced in 2004 to locate the ship.
  • Wanderer
    The Wanderer (slave ship)

    The Wanderer had been the last known ship to bring slaves from Africa to the United States , until information was revealed about the Clotilde , which months later, had transferred slaves to a riverboat and was secretly burned and sunk off the coast of Mobile, Alabama, in autumn 1859 ....
    , formerly last slave ship to the U.S. (Nov. 1858) until Clotilde
    Clotilde (slave ship)

    The schooner Clotilde was the last known U.S. slave ship to bring slaves from Africa to America, arriving at Mobile Bay in autumn 1859 , with 110-160 slaves, having arranged to buy slaves in Kingdom of Whydah, Dahomey on May 15, 1859....
     reported.
  • Wildfire, a barque
    Barque

    A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel....
    , arrested off the Florida
    Florida

    Florida is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States of the United States, bordering Alabama to the northwest and Georgia to the northeast....
     coast by the US Navy in 1860; carrying 450 slaves.
  • Whydah Gally
    Whydah Gally

    The Whydah Gally was the flagship of the pirate Samuel Bellamy. The ship sank in a storm off Cape Cod on April 26, 1717, taking Bellamy and the majority of his crew with it....
    , slave ship turned into pirate ship-sank 1717.
  • Zong
    Zong Massacre

    The Zong Massacre was the name given to the mass-killing of African slaves that took place in 1781 on the Zong, a British slave ship owned by James Gregson and colleagues in a Liverpool slave trade firm....
    , a British
    Kingdom of Great Britain

    The Kingdom of Great Britain, also known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain, was a country in North-West Europe, in existence from 1707 to 1801....
     slave ship famous of the massacre which occurred aboard in 1781.
Navionegreiro
Note: While La Amistad
La Amistad

La Amistad was a 19th-century two-Mast schooner built in the United States but owned by a Spaniard living in Cuba. The ship was notable as the scene of a revolt by African captives being transported from Havana....
 is often called a slave ship, it was in fact a general purpose cargo ship, which occasionally carried slaves. See the article about the ship, and the resulting court case, for more information.

See also

  • Slave trade
  • Slave Coast
    Slave Coast

    The Slave Coast is the name of the coastal areas of present Togo, Benin and western Nigeria, a fertile region of coastal Western Africa along the Bight of Benin....
    , Gorée
    Gorée

    ?le de Gor?e Its population as of 31 January 2005 official estimates is 1,056 inhabitants, giving a density of 5,802 inh. per km? , which is only half the average density of the city of Dakar....
     ("Slave island")


Slave Ship

External links

  • High resolution photos of a model of the French slave ship L' Aurore of 1784
  • (PDF)
  • (PDF in German)