Evidence on slavery
The evidence provided by some of the people that Clarkson met
James Ramsay, an Anglican minister
(Kent)
I first saw at first hand what was going on when I
was a navy doctor. In the West Indies a slave ship
from Africa approached our fleet and asked for help.
An epidemic of dysentery had killed many slaves
and crew. I was the only navy doctor who
volunteered to go on board and help. I was extremely
shocked. Soon after, I resigned from the navy and
entered the church. I lived on St Christopher in the
West Indies for 14 years. As a clergyman I
preached to the slaves, taught them the bible in their
homes and made enemies of the sugar plantation
owners. I saw for myself what conditions were like
on the plantations. I often saw weary slaves still
carrying cane to the mill by moonlight. New
mothers had to bring their babies to the fields,
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leaving them exposed to the sun and rain whilst
they worked.
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Extracts from Equiano’s book:
‘ The Interesting life of Olaudah Equiano’
(London)
Capture
One day, when all our people were gone out to their
works as usual, and only I and my dear sister were
left to mind the house, two men and a woman got
over our walls, and in a moment seized us both. My
sister and I were separated and I ended up in the
hands of a slave dealer who supplied the Atlantic
slave ships. Six months later I found myself on
board a slave ship.
The Middle Passage
The closeness of the place, and the heat of the
climate, added to the number in the ship, which was
so crowded that each had scarcely room to turn
himself, almost suffocated us. The air soon became
unfit for breathing, from a variety of loathsome
smells, and brought on a sickness among the
slaves, of which many died. This wretched situation
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was made worse by the chains. The shrieks of
women, and the groaning of the dying, created a
scene of horror almost unbelievable. Three desperate
slaves tried to kill themselves by jumping
overboard. Two drowned, the other was captured and
beaten unmercifully. When I refused to eat, I too
was beaten.
Arrival in the West Indies
When we arrived in Barbados (in the West Indies)
many merchants and planters came on board and
examined us. We were then taken to the merchant’s
yard, where we were all pent up together like sheep
in a fold. On a signal the buyers rushed forward
and chose those slaves they liked best.
Life on the plantations
I have seen a slave beaten till some of his bones were
broken, for only letting a pot boil over. I have seen
slaves put into scales and weighed, and then sold
from three pence to nine pence a pound.
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Quobna Ottobah Cugoano: Extracts from:
(Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil of Slavery,
1787)
(London)
I was kidnapped by one of my own countrymen at
the age of thirteen and taken to the coast by an
African slave dealer. At the castle I saw him take a
gun, a piece of cloth, and some lead for me, and
then he told me that he must now leave me there,
and went off. I was soon conducted to a prison, for
three days, where I heard the groans and cries of
many, and saw some of my fellow-captives. But
when a vessel arrived to conduct us away to the
ship, it was a most horrible scene; there was nothing
to be heard but rattling of chains, whips, and the
cries of our fellow-men. We were taken in the ship
that came for us, to another that was ready to sail
from Cape Coast. I was enslaved for two years in the
West Indies until I was brought to England in
1772 by my master.
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John Clarkson (Clarkson’s brother)
(London)
African slave dealers capture men, women and
children and march them to the coast where they are
traded for goods. The prisoners are forced to march
long distances, sometimes hundreds of miles, with
their hands tied behind their backs. The prisoners
are connected by chains or and wooden neck yokes.
Their journey to the coast can take months and
sometimes nearly half can die on the journey.
Slave dealers often move their prisoners during the
dry season and sometimes there is only stagnant
water to drink.
However, British slave ship captains do not always
buy slaves from African traders. One man told me
about British expeditions in heavily armed canoes
that travel up the Niger River kidnapping slaves.
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James Arnold
(interview with doctor) (Bristol)
Slave ships often carry doctors, the slave traders do
not want profits to drop because of too many
deaths. Doctors also advise the captains which
captives on the African coast were the most healthy
to buy. On my last voyage there was a slave
uprising that was eventually stopped.
Extracts from James Arnold’s diary
(written whilst on board a slave ship)
I saw slaves flogged and tortured. Our captain
kidnapped and enslaved African traders who came
on board to sell ivory.
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Alexander Falconbridge
(doctor interviewed in Bristol)
The slaves lie on bare planks. The surgeon, upon
going between decks, in the morning, to examine
the situation, frequently finds several dead. These
dead slaves are thrown to the sharks.
It often happens that those who are placed at a
distance from the latrine buckets, in trying to get
to them, tumble over their companions, as a result
of being shackled. This situation is added to by the
tubs being too small and only emptied once every
day.
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John Newton , Liverpool
(worked on board slave ships for thirty years, now
a preacher)
I believe that most of the slaves are brought from
afar. Some travel more than a thousand miles,
before they reach the coast. There are three lodgingrooms below deck (for the men, the boys and the
women). The slaves lie close to each other, like books
upon a shelf. The poor creatures are cramped for
room and chained, two together, by their hands and
feet. This makes it difficult for them to turn or
move, to attempt to rise or lie down, without hurting
themselves, or each other.
Sometimes the weather keeps them below deck for a
week and they have to breathe hot and corrupted air.
Diseases often break out and I believe nearly half of
the slaves on board have sometimes died. On one
trip the ship, in which I was mate, left the coast with
218 slaves on board; and though we were not much
affected by disease, 62 died on the journey.
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