Slave ships were large
cargo shipA cargo ship or freighter is any sort of ship or vessel that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year; they handle the bulk of international trade...
s specially converted for the purpose of transporting
slavesSlavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
, especially newly purchased
AfricaAfrica is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
n slaves to
AmericasThe Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
.
The most significant routes of the slave ships led from the north-western and western coasts of Africa to
South AmericaSouth America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
and the south-east coast of what is today the
USAThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, and the
CaribbeanThe Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
. As many as 20 million Africans were transported by ship. The transportation of slaves from Africa to America was known as the
Middle PassageThe Middle Passage was the stage of the triangular trade in which millions of people from Africa were shipped to the New World, as part of the Atlantic slave trade...
.
The
African slave tradeSystems of servitude and slavery were common in many parts of Africa, as they were in much of the ancient world. In some African societies, the enslaved people were also indentured servants and fully integrated; in others, they were treated much worse...
was outlawed in 1807, by a law passed jointly in the United States of America and the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. The applicable UK act was the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act and outlawed slavery throughout the
British EmpireThe British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
. The US law 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
United States NavyThe United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
or
Royal NavyThe Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
. In 1815, at the
Council of ViennaThe Congress of Vienna was a conference of ambassadors of European states chaired by Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, and held in Vienna from September, 1814 to June, 1815. The objective of the Congress was to settle the many issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars,...
,
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
,
PortugalPortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
,
FranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, and the
NetherlandsThe Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
also 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 labour to work plantations made slave-trading a profitable business. The peak time of
slave ships to the Atlantic passageThe Atlantic slave trade, also known as the trans-atlantic slave trade, refers to the trade in slaves that took place across the Atlantic ocean from the sixteenth through to the nineteenth centuries...
was between the 17th and 18th century when large plantations developed in the British colonies of North America.
In order to achieve
profitIn accounting, profit can be considered to be the difference between the purchase price and the costs of bringing to market whatever it is that is accounted as an enterprise in terms of the component costs of delivered goods and/or services and any operating or other expenses.-Definition:There are...
, the owners of the ships divided their
hullsA hull is the watertight body of a ship or boat. Above the hull is the superstructure and/or deckhouse, where present. The line where the hull meets the water surface is called the waterline.The structure of the hull varies depending on the vessel type...
into holds with little headroom, so they could transport as many slaves as possible. Unhygienic conditions,
dehydrationIn physiology and medicine, dehydration is defined as the excessive loss of body fluid. It is literally the removal of water from an object; however, in physiological terms, it entails a deficiency of fluid within an organism...
,
dysenteryDysentery is an inflammatory disorder of the intestine, especially of the colon, that results in severe diarrhea containing mucus and/or blood in the faeces with fever and abdominal pain. If left untreated, dysentery can be fatal.There are differences between dysentery and normal bloody diarrhoea...
and
scurvyScurvy 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, which also provides the adjective scorbutic...
led to a high
mortality rateMortality rate is a measure of the number of deaths in a population, scaled to the size of that population, per unit time...
, on average 15% and up to a third of captives. Only the most resilient survived the transport. Often the ships, also known as Guineamen, 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 PassageThe Middle Passage was the stage of the triangular trade in which millions of people from Africa were shipped to the New World, as part of the Atlantic slave trade...
. They were confined to cargo holds with each slave chained with little room to move.
List of slave ships
- Adelaide, French
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
slave ship, sank 1714 near CubaThe Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
.
- Antelope, Spanish slave ship captured near Florida in 1820 with 283 slaves aboard, 120 of whom were sent to Liberia in 1827.
- Aurore
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 MaineThe Duc du Maine was a cargo slave ship 101.71 feet long and 29.86 feet wide which brought the first African slaves to Louisiana on June 6, 1719 from Senegambia. The ship could carry 500 to 600 slaves. After three months at sea, the first landing occurred at Dauphin Island with 250 slaves...
, the first French slave ships that brought the first slaves to LouisianaLouisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
.
- La Amistad
La Amistad was a ship notable as the scene of a revolt by African captives being transported from Havana to Puerto Principe, Cuba. It was a 19th-century two-masted schooner built in Spain and owned by a Spaniard living in Cuba...
, cargo ship which sometimes carried slaves (see note below).
- Braunfisch, a Brandenburg
Brandenburg is one of the sixteen federal-states 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. The capital is Potsdam...
ian slave ship lost in 1688 in a revolt.
- Brookes
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...
, sailing in the 1780s.
- Clotilde
The schooner Clotilde was the last known U.S. slave ship to bring slaves from Africa to the United States, arriving at Mobile Bay in autumn 1859 , with 110-160 slaves. The ship was a two-masted schooner, 86 ft long by 23 ft , and it was burned and scuttled at Mobile Bay, soon after...
, burned and sunk at Mobile, in autumn 1859.
- Cora, captured by the USS Constellation
USS Constellation constructed in 1854 is a sloop-of-war and the second United States Navy ship to carry this famous name. According to the US Naval Registry the original frigate was disassembled on 25 June 1853 in Gosport Navy Yard in Norfolk, Virginia, and the sloop-of-war was constructed in the...
in 1860.
- The Creole case
The Creole case was the result of a slave rebellion in 1841 on board the Creole, a ship involved in the United States coastwise slave trade.-The revolt:...
was the result of a slave rebellion in 1841 on board the Creole, a ship involved in the United States coastwise slave trade.
- Desire, first American slave ship.
- Elisabeth, sailing from Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
for West AfricaWest Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...
.
- Duc du Maine
The Duc du Maine was a cargo slave ship 101.71 feet long and 29.86 feet wide which brought the first African slaves to Louisiana on June 6, 1719 from Senegambia. The ship could carry 500 to 600 slaves. After three months at sea, the first landing occurred at Dauphin Island with 250 slaves...
, along with the AuroreThe 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 LouisianaLouisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
.
- Fredensborg
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. After an unsuccessful stint in the triangular trade, her operational area was limited...
, DanishDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
slave ship, sank in 1768 off TromøyTromøy is the largest island in Southern Norway, a former municipality in Aust-Agder county, and is currently an important part of the present-day municipality of Arendal.-Location:...
in NorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, after a journey in the triangular tradeTriangular trade, or triangle trade, is a historical term indicating among three ports or regions. Triangular trade usually evolves when a region has export commodities that are not required in the region from which its major imports come...
. Leif Svalesen has written a book about the journey.
- Guerrero
Guerrero was a Spanish slave ship which wrecked in 1827 on a reef near the Florida Keys with 561 Africans aboard. Forty-one of the Africans drowned in the wreck. Guerrero had been engaged in a battle with a British anti-slavery patrol ship, HMS Nimble, stationed on the northern approaches to Cuba....
, Spanish slave ship wrecked in the Florida Keys in 1827 carrying 561 Africans.
- Hannibal
The Hannibal was an English slaver of the Atlantic slave trade. The wooden sailing ship was 450 tons and mounted thirty-six guns, which it was frequently forced to use; seven hundred people could be forced into its hold at one time. Many slavers rigged shelves in the middle called a "slave deck,"...
. An English slaver of the Atlantic slave trade.
- Henrietta Marie. Sank 1700 near Marquesas Keys
The Marquesas Keys form an uninhabited island group about 30 miles west of Key West, 4 miles in diameter, and inhabited by mangrove. They are an unincorporated area of Monroe County, Florida and belong to the Lower Keys Census County Division. They are protected as part of the Key West National...
, Florida, excavated in 1980s.
- Hope
The Hope was an American brig class merchant ship involved in the Maritime Fur Trade along the northwest coast of North America and discovery in the Pacific Ocean...
, American brig which brought slaves to Rhode IslandThe state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...
- Jesus of Lübeck 700-ton ship used on the second voyage of John Hawkins
Admiral Sir John Hawkins was an English shipbuilder, naval administrator and commander, merchant, navigator, and slave trader. As treasurer and controller of the Royal Navy, he rebuilt older ships and helped design the faster ships that withstood the Spanish Armada in 1588...
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
Queen Anne's Revenge was the name of English pirate Blackbeard's flagship, used by him for less than a year, but an effective tool in his prize taking....
. Slave ship turned pirate ship aka Queen Anne's RevengeQueen Anne's Revenge was the name of English pirate Blackbeard's 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 is a novel written by Alex Haley and first published in 1976. It tells the story of Kunta Kinte, an 18th-century African, captured as an adolescent and sold into slavery in the United States, and follows his life and the lives of his descendants in the U.S....
by Alex HaleyAlexander Murray Palmer Haley was an African-American writer. He is best known as the author of Roots: The Saga of an American Family and the coauthor of The Autobiography of Malcolm X.-Early life:...
.
- Don Francisco. Slave ship captured in 1837. Sold as a colonial trader renamed James Matthews
James Matthews may refer to:*Brander Matthews, American writer*Jim Matthews , US politician*James Ewen Matthews , Canadian Member of Parliament for Brandon*James Tilly Matthews, British merchant*James M...
. Excavated by Western Australian MuseumThe Western Australian Museum is the state museum for Western Australia.The Western Australian Museum has seven main sites: two in Perth within the Perth Cultural Centre, two in Fremantle , and one each in Albany, Geraldton, and Kalgoorlie-Boulder...
in 1974
- Madre de Deus
Madre de Deus was a Portuguese ship, renowned for her fabulous cargo, which stoked the English appetite for trade with the Far East, then a Portuguese monopoly....
(Mother of God), 1567. John HawkinsAdmiral Sir John Hawkins was an English shipbuilder, naval administrator and commander, merchant, navigator, and slave trader. As treasurer and controller of the Royal Navy, he rebuilt older ships and helped design the faster ships that withstood the Spanish Armada in 1588...
captured this ship and transported 400 Africans.
- Manuela
Sunny South, an extreme clipper, was the only full-sized sailing ship built by George Steers, and resembled his famous sailing yacht America, with long sharp entrance lines and a slightly concave bow. Initially, she sailed in the California and Brazil trades...
, built as clipper ship Sunny South, captured by HMS Brisk in Mozambique ChannelThe Mozambique Channel is a portion of the Indian Ocean located between the island nation of Madagascar and southeast Africa, primarily the country of Mozambique. It was a World War II clashpoint during the Battle of Madagascar...
with over 800 slaves aboard.
- Margaret Scott confiscated and sunk as part of the 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 use as Blockships...
in 1862
- Meermin
The Mutiny on the slave ship Meermin took place in February 1766. The Meermin, a 480-ton three-masted and square-rigged ship, built in 1759 in Amsterdam was one of many slave ships owned by the Dutch East India Company ....
a Dutch East India company ship active beween South Africa and Madagascar, whose final voyage (in 1766) resulted in mutiny by the slaves, with deaths of around half the crew and nearly 30 of the slaves and the loss of the ship.
- Nightingale
USS Nightingale was originally the tea clipper and slave ship Nightingale, launched in 1851. She was captured in Africa in 1861 by , taken as a prize and purchased by the United States Navy....
, clipper ship captured by near Cabinda, AngolaCabinda or Tchiowa, as it is called by the Cabindans, is a city that is located in the Cabinda Province, an exclave of Angola. Angolan sovereignty over Cabinda is disputed by the Republic of Cabinda...
in 1861 with 961 slaves aboard.
- Pons, American built barque captured by the USS Yorktown
The first USS Yorktown was a 16-gun sloop-of-war of the United States Navy. Used mostly for patrolling in the Pacific and anti-slave trade duties in African waters, the vessel was wrecked off Maio Island in 1850.-Ship History:...
1 December 1845 with 850-900 slaves.
- Salamander, Brandenburgian slave ship.
- Sally
-Military:*Sally , an attack by the defenders of a town or fortress under siege against a besieging force*Sally, the Allied reporting name during World War II for the Imperial Japanese Armys Mitsubishi Ki-21 bomber-Names:...
, of Newport, Rhode IslandNewport is a city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island, United States, about south of Providence. Known as a New England summer resort and for the famous Newport Mansions, it is the home of Salve Regina University and Naval Station Newport which houses the United States Naval War...
- reviewed in the Report of the Brown University Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice.
- Tecora
The Tecora was a Portuguese slave ship of the early 19th century. 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...
, PortuguesePortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
slave ship that transported the slaves who would later revolt aboard La AmistadLa Amistad was a ship notable as the scene of a revolt by African captives being transported from Havana to Puerto Principe, Cuba. It was a 19th-century two-masted schooner built in Spain and owned by a Spaniard living in Cuba...
.
- Triton captured by the USS Constellation
USS Constellation constructed in 1854 is a sloop-of-war and the second United States Navy ship to carry this famous name. According to the US Naval Registry the original frigate was disassembled on 25 June 1853 in Gosport Navy Yard in Norfolk, Virginia, and the sloop-of-war was constructed in the...
1861.
- Trouvadore
The Trouvadore was a Spanish slave ship which was shipwrecked near East Caicos in the course of a run transporting Africans to be sold to the sugar plantations in Cuba.- Voyage of the Trouvadore :...
, wrecked in Turks and Caicos 1841. 193 slaves survived. Project commenced in 2004 to locate the ship.
- Wanderer
The Wanderer is the last documented ship to bring a cargo of slaves from Africa to the United States . Stories of subsequent mass landings of slaves have been told, but are in dispute...
, formerly last slave ship to the U.S. (November 1858) until ClotildeThe schooner Clotilde was the last known U.S. slave ship to bring slaves from Africa to the United States, arriving at Mobile Bay in autumn 1859 , with 110-160 slaves. The ship was a two-masted schooner, 86 ft long by 23 ft , and it was burned and scuttled at Mobile Bay, soon after...
reported in 1859 or 1860.
- Wildfire, a barque
A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts.- History of the term :The word barque appears to have come from the Greek word baris, a term for an Egyptian boat. This entered Latin as barca, which gave rise to the Italian barca, Spanish barco, and the French barge and...
, arrested off the FloridaFlorida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
coast by the US Navy in 1860; carrying 450 slaves.
- Whydah Gally
The Whydah Gally was the flagship of the pirate "Black Sam" Bellamy. The ship sank in a storm off Cape Cod on April 26, 1717, taking Bellamy and the majority of his crew with it.-History:...
, slave ship turned into pirate ship-sank 1717.
- Zong
The Zong Massacre was a mass-killing of African slaves that took place on November 29th, 1781, on the Zong, a British slave ship owned by James Gregson and colleagues in a Liverpool slave-trading firm....
, a BritishThe former Kingdom of Great Britain, sometimes described as the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain', That the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, shall upon the 1st May next ensuing the date hereof, and forever after, be United into One Kingdom by the Name of GREAT BRITAIN. was a sovereign...
slave ship infamous for the 1781 massacre of 132 sick and dying slaves who were thrown overboard to in an attempt to guarantee that the ship's owners could collect on their cargo insurance.
Note: While
La AmistadLa Amistad was a ship notable as the scene of a revolt by African captives being transported from Havana to Puerto Principe, Cuba. It was a 19th-century two-masted schooner built in Spain and owned by a Spaniard living in Cuba...
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
- William Fly
Captain William Fly was an English pirate who raided New England shipping until he was captured by some of the crew of a seized ship. He was hanged in Boston, Massachusetts. Reportedly, Fly approached the hanging with complete disdain and even reproached the hangman for doing a poor job, remaking...
- 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. In pre-colonial time it was one of the most densely populated parts of the African continent...
, GoréeÎle de Gorée Île de Gorée Île de Gorée (i.e. "Gorée Island"; is one of the 19 communes d'arrondissement (i.e. "commune of arrondissement") of the city of Dakar, Senegal. It is a island located at sea from the main harbor of Dakar ....
("Slave island")
- Slave trade
- Hell ship
A hell ship is a ship with extremely unpleasant living conditions or with a reputation for cruelty among the crew. It now generally refers to the ships used by the Imperial Japanese Navy to transport Allied prisoners of war out of the Philippines, Hong Kong and Singapore during World War II. The...
Further reading
- James Walvin: The Zong. A Massacre, the Law and the End of Slavery. Yale University Press, New Haven/London 2011. ISBN 978-0-300-12555-9
External links