Alexander FalconbridgeAlexander Falconbridge served as a doctor (known as the surgeon on ships) on British slave ships during the 1780s. He later wrote a book, An Account of the Slave Trade on the Coast of Africa, about his experiences. The book became popular among abolitionists and he later worked with the Anti-Slavery Society. These are excerpts from his book.
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His Account: |
The men Africans, on being brought aboard the ship, are immediately fastened together, two and two, by hand-cuffs on their wrists, and by irons riveted on their legs. They are then sent down between the decks. . . . They are frequently stowed so close, they can only lie on their sides. . . .
In each of the apartments are placed three or four large buckets [for human waste]. . . It often happens, that those who are placed at a distance from the buckets . . . tumble over their companions because they are shackled. . . . In this distressed situation . . . they give up and relieve themselves as they lie. . . . Their food is served up to them in tubs, about the size of a small water bucket. They are placed around these tubs in companies of ten . . . If Africans refused to take sustenance, I have seen coals of fire, glowing hot, put on a shovel, and placed so near their lips, as to scorch and burn them. . . . The hardships and inconveniences suffered by the Africans during the passage, are hard to describe. . . . The exclusion of the fresh air is among the least tolerable. . . . The floor of their rooms was so covered with blood and mucus because of the flux, that it resembled a slaughter-house. It is not in the power of the human imagination to picture to itself a situation more dreadful or disgusting. The surgeons employed in the Guinea trade, are generally driven to engage in so disagreeable a job by their financial situations. Source: Alexander Falconbridge, An Account of the Slave Trade on the Coast of Africa, 1788. |
Vocabulary: |
Vocabulary
riveted: metal bolted together stowed: put in a particular place shackled: chained take sustenance: eat flux: intestinal infection that caused intense diarrhea Guinea trade: slave trade |