Diseases and Mutinies

A grating separated the upper deck from the lower deck of slave ships. These grids not only allowed the air to circulate but also facilitated moving the captives to the main deck and back to the lower deck, where enslaved men, women, and children were packed in separate compartments.

A bulkhead at the back of the men’s compartment and additional holes in each side of the vessel provided extra ventilation. Enslaved men were usually shackled in pairs during the entire voyage. In contrast with their male counterparts, as noticed by Cugoano in his narrative, enslaved women along with enslaved children were often unchained during the Atlantic crossing.⁶² Together they occupied a compartment adjacent to the men’s section from which it was often separated by a space that allowed the crew to circulate and also to reach to the hold of the slave ship.

In British slave ships, children could often circulate between the two sections of the lower deck. Therefore, to prevent possible uprising attempts, the barricade was mounted with spikes and guns pointing down to the main upper deck. Another feature in several slave ships was a net stretching from the hull to prevent African captives from jumping overboard.⁶³ When enslaved men were brought to the main deck, they remained shackled, often in pairs, and attached to a long chain that restricted their movements. The barricade separated them from women and children. Heavily armed, most of the crew spent the day on the deck while overseeing the human cargo. The ship captain, as well as the surgeon and the first mate, occupied two other rooms above the women’s compartment, beneath the quarterdeck, which was located at the rear of the vessels.

Despite any written regulations stating otherwise, in the North Atlantic and the South Atlantic systems, food rations on board slave vessels were limited to no more than two meals a day that could include rice, yams, beans, corn, and palm oil. Captains depended on enslaved African women, who most of the time were in charge of preparing food on board slave ships.⁶⁴ If weather allowed, every morning, enslaved individuals were brought in groups to the main deck, where they could breathe fresh air, be fed, and wash. They were also forced to exercise, a procedure intended to keep the captives minimally healthy to arrive alive to be sold in the Americas.

But these measures were far insufficient to prevent disease and death. In his journal narrating his voyage from Ouidah to the Danish West Indies at the end of the seventeenth century, barber-surgeon Oettinger mentioned that enslaved men were transported in the hold of the slave ship chained by their legs two by two. The Danish vessel Friedrich Wilhelm left the Bight of Benin transporting 738 men, women, and children. Already in the beginning of the voyage, 10 captives died of dysentery, and several became sick. As established since the end of the fifteenth century, the ship stopped at São Tomé to fetch provisions, including water and food such as beef, veggies, maize, yams.⁶⁵ But as the passage continued, the journal shows that many other enslaved people died during the crossing. Thrown in the sea, their dead bodies were attacked and eaten by sharks that usually followed the slave ships across the Atlantic Ocean. The atrocious Atlantic crossing also favored the spread of disease that killed many captives and members of the crew. When the ship eventually arrived at Saint Thomas, by then a Danish island in the West Indies, only 659 enslaved men, women, and children were alive.⁶⁶

Bacterial and viral infections such as dysentery, smallpox, and yellow fever infested slave vessels.

Because they were kept unchained during the Atlantic crossing, enslaved women and children often played important roles in slave ship insurrections.⁷¹ On May 26, 1751, a revolt broke out on board the Liverpool snow Duke of Argyle just a few days after it sailed off the western coast of Africa to Antigua. In his journal, Captain John Newton recognized the imminent threat: “Their plot was excedingly [sic] well laid, and had they been let alone an hour longer, must have occasioned us a good deal of trouble and damage.â€�⁷² On December 11, 1752, during another voyage to the Windward Coast, Newton discovered another conspiracy. He surprised two enslaved Africans trying to free themselves from their irons. After searching their quarters, he found weapons such as knives, stones, and a cold chisel supplied to the African captives by the enslaved boys, who were kept unchained in the vessel.

Insurrections on board slave ships are still today memorialized in small and larger museums. Adjacent to the campus of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, is a three-story eighteenth-century brick mansion. The luxurious house was owned by John Brown, a stateman and slave merchant who made his fortune in a variety of ventures such as candle works, a chocolate mill, rum distilleries, and ironwork. These businesses complemented the profits made by the Brown family in the notorious Atlantic slave trade. Brown’s sons, known as the Brown brothers (Nicholas, John, Joseph, and Moses) contributed to the creation of the College of Rhode Island, renamed Brown University in 1804 to pay homage to Nicholas Brown Jr., son of the oldest of the four brothers, who made a significant gift to the institution. Today the Brown family mansion houses the John Brown House Museum.

Figure 4.1. Exhibition on Sally slave ship, John Brown House Museum, Providence, RI, United States. Photograph by Ana Lucia Araujo, 2018.

One of the museum rooms tells the story of the catastrophic voyage of the brigantine Sally, owned by Nicholas Brown and Company, the merchant firm of the Brown brothers (figure 4.1). In August 1764, Sally was outfitted. Slave vessels leaving from Rhode Island in those years were instructed to “purchase young, male captives; feed them well so they will survive the journey; complete the voyage as quickly as possible to minimize the number of deaths from disease; keep the peace between officers and men.â€�⁷⁴ Obviously the guidelines were not always followed. Captains made bad decisions, and all kinds of accidents happened. Water and food shortages as well as outbreaks of disease and insurrections were common during the Middle Passage, and when these problems occurred, another terrible layer was added to the already horrible conditions of these tragic voyages.

The Sally sailed to West Africa in September 1764, transporting bunches of onions, barrels of beef and pork, dozens of sugar loaves, and boxes of whale candles produced in the Providence Candleworks, owned by the Brown brothers. Yet, the most valuable items of the cargo were the hundreds of barrels containing 17,274 gallons of rum produced in New England. After ninety days sailing the Atlantic Ocean, in December 1764 the Sally arrived on the Windward Coast. The brig remained anchored near today’s Guinea-Bissau most of the time. During the stay on the coast, the ship captain purchased 196 enslaved Africans. But before leaving the coast, nearly 20 enslaved persons had died on board the ship, then 20 other captives were sold on the coast. In August 1765, the Sally finally sailed to the West Indies, transporting 155 enslaved Africans. After one week at the sea, an African woman, two boys, and a girl perished. At the end of that same week, the human cargo led a rebellion.

Following the Sally’s insurrection, the death toll increased. Several captives died by suicide by jumping overboard, and others died of disease. After seven weeks at the sea, the brigantine eventually arrived on the island of Antigua in the British West Indies. Sixty-eight African captives perished during the Middle Passage, in addition to twenty who perished upon arrival. Nearly sixty surviving captives, sick and weak, were sold in Antigua for very low prices.⁷⁵ As the ship sailed back to Rhode Island transporting four or five young enslaved persons to be employed as domestic servants, one additional captive died. Ultimately, more than half the African captives boarded on the Sally died—on the coasts of Africa, during the Middle Passage, upon arrival in Antigua, or sailing back to Rhode Island.⁷⁶ David Eltis and David Richardson underscore that acts of resistance must have occurred in nearly all slaving voyages, even though they are documented in less than 2 percent of the 36,110 voyages listed in the SlaveVoyages database. However, in their estimates, 10 percent of slave ships that departed from Africa to the Americas either experienced a slave rebellion or were attacked from the African coast.⁷⁷