The Experience of Enslaved African People (SQA National 5 History): Revision Note

Summary

The first enslaved African people sold to Europeans were people who had already been enslaved in Africa. These were prisoners of war from coastal regions of West Africa. However, as European demand and power in Africa increased and European traders offered weapons and goods in exchange, some rulers began to participate more actively in capturing and selling people.

In some African societies, enslavement became a punishment for committing minor crimes. Kidnapping also became common as slave raiders and middlemen looked to profit from the trade. Wars and regional conflicts increased as rulers looked to protect their own people from enslavement.

African people who were captured or sold inland were transported to coastal areas in groups known as coffles. Chained together in twos or threes, they were forced to march long distances to coastal areas. Many captives died on this journey from exhaustion, a lack of food and water, diseases and execution if they tried to resist or refused to comply with the traders. 

Captive people were held at the coast in forts known as slave factories or slave castles. These forts were often controlled or financed by European trading companies and governments. Hundreds of captives would be held in these forts for weeks or months at a time until they were sold to slave ship captains.

The development of slave factories

• Slave factories were forts or castle-like buildings built on the African coast by Europeans

  • They were often converted into slave factories from supply stores or warehouses

• Each slave factory:

  • Typically held around 1000 captured African people

  • Was built to ensure a steady supply of captured African people for slave ships 

• At the height of the triangular trade, there were over 60 slave factories along a 300-mile coastline stretching from modern-day Benin to Cote d’Ivoire

• Slave factories were run by a slave factor

  • They employed many staff, including surgeons, warehouse keepers, bookkeepers and often a garrison of soldiers

Conditions in the slave factories

• When captive people arrived at a slave factory, they were examined by a surgeon

  • If they were deemed to be healthy, they would be purchased and then branded on the chest with a hot iron

• The captive people were then held in dungeons in horrific conditions, sometimes for several months

• Males and females were separated 

• The dungeons were often overcrowded

  • Sometimes as many as 1000 enslaved people were held in spaces only made for 200

• There was no sanitation

  • This meant the floors of the dungeon were covered in excrement (human waste)

• The overcrowding meant diseases like malaria and yellow fever spread rapidly 

• There was a lack of ventilation in the dungeons

• Food shortages were common

• Floggings, beatings and whippings were common if the captive people resisted

• Captive people who attempted more serious forms of resistance were locked in a punishment cell, where they would be left to die

• Female captives experienced sexual abuse from the Europeans running the slave factories

• As well as the physical abuse, the captive people had to cope with the psychological trauma of not knowing why they were being held, or what would happen to them next

• When a ship arrived to purchase captives, they would be taken out of the slave factory through the ‘door of no return’

The economics of the middle passage

• Slave-trading voyages aimed to make as much profit as possible

• Captains took two approaches to making more money from the middle passage

  • A tightly packed ship would fit as many enslaved people as possible below the decks

  • A loosely packed ship would allow the enslaved people more space to lie down in the hope that fewer people would die

• To reduce risks for investors and merchants, insurance policies would often be taken out on enslaved African people

  • Ship captains could claim on these policies if people died during the voyage as a result of bad weather, resistance or ‘perils of the sea’

  • Insurance policies did not cover deaths from disease or sickness

• Slave merchants or investors rarely went on voyages themselves

  • To maximise profits, they had to trust the ship’s captain

• Sometimes the ship’s captain would be offered ‘privilege slaves’

  • It was hoped that this would help ensure that the captain kept the enslaved people as healthy as possible on the journey

• When ships were near their destination, the enslaved people would be ‘prepared’ for auction 

  • Enslaved males would be shaved to make them appear younger

  • Enslaved people would be washed and oiled by the crew in an attempt to make them look healthier

  • Wounds would be covered in hot tar

The conditions during the middle passage

• An estimated 2 million enslaved people died during the voyage between 1525 and the mid 1800s

• Enslaved males would be chained together in shackles and held in the ship’s hold

  • Forced to lie on wooden planks, with little space to move, the enslaved people would develop painful sores as the shackles and wood rubbed against their skin

• Diseases like smallpox and dysentery spread rapidly

  • Enslaved people who were showing signs of illness were thrown overboard in an attempt to stop diseases from spreading

• Enslaved people were fed twice a day by the crew

  • A speculum oris was used to force-feed enslaved people who refused to eat

• Buckets provided the only sanitation below decks

  • These were often overflowing and difficult to get to

  • As a result, the enslaved people were forced to lie in their own vomit and waste

• There was no ventilation

• The enslaved people would be taken above decks at least once a day

  • Here, they would be made to dance for exercise and also as a form of humiliation

• Enslaved females and children were usually held in a separate area of the boat and were not always chained in shackles

  • They were also forced to prepare food and help clean the boat

• Enslaved females were often sexually assaulted by the ship's crew

• Torture devices like thumbscrews and a cat o’nine tails were used to inflict terror on the captive people

• There were also high death rates amongst the crew

  • Crew members died from diseases and in rebellions and uprisings among the captive people

Resistance during the middle passage

• Enslaved African people found many ways to resist during the middle passage, including:

  • Refusing to follow instructions

  • Refusing to eat

  • Jumping overboard

  • Full-scale rebellion attempts to take control of the ship

• Female enslaved Africans were often unshackled

  • They played a crucial role in organising rebellions, stealing weapons or tools

  • These were used to break the shackles of the male captives

• It is estimated that on at least 10% of voyages, there were attempted full-scale rebellions

• The ship's crew were armed with guns, barricades and canons, which meant successful rebellions were rare

• The ringleaders of rebellions would be dealt with brutally in an attempt to set an example

  • Executions and beheadings took place, with other captives forced to watch

• Suicide was another form of resistance

  • Captives would attempt to jump overboard

  • Some ships rigged nets around the deck to try to prevent this

• Captives could also resist by refusing to eat or drink