Slave Ship Creole

In a unique approach author David Galenson examines the transition of servants to slaves during the 17th and 18th century of British America. He successfully covers the importance of slavery and the reason for its high demand. Galenson takes into consideration the demographic conditions and its differences throughout the West Indies,

Randy Sparks highlights a rare aspect of the history of slavery: the relentless effort of the enslaved to use their privilege to free themselves. Although it is not clear when the European and Africans first encountered each other in Old Calabar, it is evident that the constant trading between both parties built a concrete means of communication. As many individuals who have

Some Africans did not go without putting up a fight. For instance, Captain Tomba led many villagers “in burning huts and killing neighbors who cooperated with slave traders” (14). He was later captured and sent to the slave ship where he would be sold in the New World. The slaves also resisted by refusing to eat. Most of them decided they would rather have death than to live the lifestyle on the slave ships. The captains punished those who refused to eat by giving them lashes to the bare skin until they decided to eat. Olaudah Equiano could be considered one of the more fortunate Africans involved in the slave trade. Rediker uses Equiano to show how Africans were kidnapped and brought to the slave ship. Equiano was home alone with his sister when he was snatched by a neighboring enemy tribe. Tribes were kidnapping each other to sell to the slave traders for goods and even weapons. Equiano was separated from his sister and sold off to merchants before actually boarding the slave ship. He mentioned several times how he would rather die than be on the slave ship. He noticed right away that “the slave ship was equipped with nettings to prevent precisely such desperate rebellion” (109). Equiano went to the Americas and was left alone when none of the merchants purchased him. He was sold to a captain and boarded his ship back to England. On this slave ship, he was treated much better. He got to stay on the deck and eat better food than he had

Slave resistance began for many enslaved Africans before they reach the Americas. Karenga explained the many arrangements in which Africans resisted to enslavement, while in Africa, during the middle passage, and in the Americas. Employing the Karenga text one can evaluate the different resistances that transpired in Antigua as Cultural, Resistance, Day-to-Day Resistance, Abolitionism, Armed Resistance, Revolts, Ship Mutinies, and Afro-Native Alliance. One can conclude that enslaved Africans had an unrelenting resistance to enslavement (Karenga).

The African Voices of the Atlantic Slave Trade by Anna C. Bailey takes a rather interesting approach into the history of the Atlantic slave trade. Bailey took a personal journey, and was determined to break the silence. Of course with that being said it would prove to be a difficult quest since so many of these people are shamed about slavery, and the discussion of slavery is a taboo topic in its own ways. It was time to break the silence. Through out the book she explores diverse groups, of distinct people who all share the prevalent history of slavery. Her central theme in unveiling the past is through oral stories. Bailey makes it known in the first chapter that most texts written about the slave trade primarily focus on the Europeans perspective, which is what sets her book apart. Bailey herself residing in Jamaica takes an intimate standpoint to slavery, herself being of African slave descent, and knowing very limited details about her extensive family history. “What is clear from my family history is that more is known about the relatively recent past than is known about the period when my family members were undoubtedly slaves) . Through the obstacles and difficulties Bailey was able to succeed, and gave those affected a voice. Her approach will be examined, and the strengths and weaknesses in her approach will be brought to light.

The Amistad was a Spanish ship built in Baltimore for the purpose of transporting slaves. For three years, it sailed the high seas delivering its cargo to various locations. But in August of 1838, a scandalous injustice was uncovered after the ship was seized by an American vessel, the USS Washington, a coast guard ship under the command of Lt. Thomas R. Gedney. Lt. Gedney and his crew towed the Amistad into a New England harbor in Connecticut where soon many controversies amounted and drama would unfold.

Linebaugh and Rediker write that a third vector of revolution went east toward abolitionist movement in England. The authors convincingly supported their claim by examining the work of Granville Sharp, Thomas Clarkson and the life of Olaudah Equiano. Sharp, who opposed impressments in American Revolution, published the horrors on the board of the slave ship Zong. Equiano told him that a captain of the ship threw 132 slaves overboard to preserve supplies and later tried to collect insurance money for the dead. Sharp also worked on founding a free state of Sierra Leone in 1786, and served on the Committee for Effecting the Abolition of Slave Trade. Clarkson collected evidence about slave trade through informants (sailors and former slaves) in ports of Liverpool, Bristol and London. But the connection of sailors to the abolitionist movement, the authors write, was best articulated through the life of Olaudah Equiano. Enslaved in West Africa, he was a witness of horrifying events constantly happening

Ringold, Robert Smith, John Henry, and three other mixed race people had a slightly more difficult journey due to the size of their party. Their former slave owner sent out a notice immediately to retrieve his slaves. $1300 was offered for their capture. Their group still managed to reach the anti-slavery office even with the large reward for their capture.

Richard Ligon was from England and moved to Barbados in 1647. There, he lived amongst slaves, servants, and planters for approximately ten years. He witnessed many forms of slavery and paid close attention to how the different slave groups were being treated, in comparison to one another. In his article, he compares the living conditions of the slaves to the servants. Ligon also discusses what their motives and methods of resistance to their master’s authority are. In his work, it is also evident that cultural adaptations were made between the European and African inhabitants of Barbados. He demonstrates this by going into detail about how the slaves expressed their African culture through their music, religion, and recreation.

Superficially, The History of Mary Prince documents slavery in the West Indies, adding richly to historical memory of the time period through its firsthand account. At the time of its publication, the genre of the slave narrative was just appearing. The History of Mary Prince, along with other formative texts, shape an important bank of evidence and allow current historians to remember and study slavery in the West Indies with a shred of credibility. Without these texts, the unimaginable pain endured by those brought into the Atlantic slave

On September 1739, a group of South Carolina slaves, most of them recently arrived from kongo where some had appeared to be soldiers, where they had taken a store containing which had a number of weapons at the town of stono. They would use “beating drums to attract followers, the armed band marched southward toward Florida, burning houses and barns, killing whites they encountered, and shouting liberty.”(144). This rebellion took the lives of more than two dozen whites and as many as 200 slaves. Many slaves managed to reach Florida, where in 1740 they were armed by the Spanish to help repel an attack on St. Augustine by a force from

When you think of the abolishment of slavery, what is the first place you think of? Was it the United States? Maybe even Africa? Although these two regions are well discussed in the history of slavery there are for more areas that were involved. For the purpose of this paper, the two regions that have been chosen are the United States and Haiti. The United States was colonized by a mix of different races. The most predominant were English settlers and Haiti was predominantly French settlers. These two regions bought, sold and traded slaves by the use of the Transatlantic Slave trade. However, both the United States and Haiti played a significant role in the abolishment of slavery.

The dramatic story of the Amistad, which was featured in a major motion picture that opened in December, is found among the court records at the National Archives - Northeast Region at Waltham, MA, and in the Supreme Court records at the National Archives in Washington, DC. In 1839, 53 African natives were kidnapped .from an area now known as Sierra Leone and illegally sold into the Spanish slave trade. They were transported to Havana, Cuba and sold at auction as native Cuban slaves to two "Spanish gentlemen." The Spaniards were transporting the Africans and other cargo to another part of Cuba on board the Spanish schooner Amistad when the Africans staged a revolt, seizing control of the schooner, killing the captain and the cook, and driving off the rest of the crew. The two "Spanish gentlemen" were ordered to sail back to Africa. By day, the Spaniards sailed eastward and by night they surreptitiously sailed westward, hoping to land back in Cuba or the southern United States. The ship was seized and towed to New London, Connecticut, where the imprisoned Africans began a lengthy legal battle to win back their

When the British conquered Jamaica from the Spaniards, the Spaniards left behind a large number of African slaves. These slaves created three settlements; Juan de Serras allied with the Spanish guerrillas, Juan de Bolas, and the third joined to join other runaway slaves and lived with the Arawak people. These three groups established independent communities by the interior mountainous regions of the island. To survive the runaway slaves and Maroons farmed and occasionally raid the plantations. Eventually they took control of a large areas of the interior of the island. In the eighteenth century British troops and local militia fought back against the Maroons to regain the lands they lost causing the First Maroon War. The Maroons were better

Public displays of Bahamian pride have adorned Bay Street and the profound Nassau Art Gallery (NAG) since the later part of 2012. An attractive cadre of portraits, arts and craft has captured various dimensions of the Bahamian life in efforts to increase national awareness of Bahamian ethnic identity, history, and culture and to attempt answering the “loaded…” question of “who is a Bahamian?”(Wells1). Arguably, nationalism in the Bahamas has been poorly understood as evidenced by researched articles published by Sabrina Lightbourn, Patricia Glinton-Miercoles and Nicolette Bethel. Therefore, we now probe the underpinning concepts of what makes