Slavery and Violence

Out of Africa: The Roots of Slave Violence

Between the 1520s and 1860s, slave traders— English, Portuguese, French, Dutch, Swedish, and American—placed 11 million African men, women, and children on ships bound for the New World. Only 9 million survived the perilous journey. Despite this high death rate, the triangular trade was enormously profitable. During the first stage, slave ship captains brought a variety of European-made goods to Africa to trade for slaves. In the second stage, the dreaded Middle Passage, captured Africans were transported to Central, North, and South America, where they were sold. Slave ship captains then returned to Europe with cotton, tobacco, sugar, rum, and molasses and a variety of other products.

Violence was the key to the African slave extraction process. European slave traders did not, with the exception of the Portuguese, actually capture slaves. Instead, they relied upon Africans to collect bodies for the Middle Passage. African kings and war lords launched attacks on neighboring tribes to capture human chattel. Africans who violated customs and laws were also sometimes sold to the European and American traders. In addition, there were professional kidnappers. African slave traders hunted lone men, women, and children who strayed from the protection of their families and tribes, putting them in chains. African kings, war lords, and kidnappers marched their captives, sometimes hundreds of miles, to European slave-processing factories and forts on the coast, where they were sold or traded for European goods. European and American slave traders were, in essence, paying Africans to enslave their countrymen and -women and ravage their homeland. War, murder, and kidnapping were the catalysts for slave-trading profits.

The second stage of the journey, the Middle Passage, required different forms of violence and terror. Ship captains and their crews, like guards in a prison, were outnumbered by their desperate and dangerous cargo. The journey from Africa to the slave ports in the Americas took between 3 weeks and several months, depending upon the point of embarkation and the final destination. Slave ships, which were essentially floating carcéral cities, required carefully planned total control, including, at every stage, the use of violence. From the forts, slaves were securely bound and transported to the ships in boats or canoes. Once onboard, they were locked in irons and placed below deck. Hot, unsanitary, and inhumane conditions took their toll, with mortality rates between 10% and 20%—sometimes much higher on an individual voyage. Many ship captains kept their desperate cargo in chains for the entire journey. Others— with an eye on profits—brought them on deck for fresh air and exercise, particularly dancing. Slaves who would not dance or refused to eat or drink were disciplined. Whippings, iron collars, thumbscrews, and other forms of punishment were used to maintain order and prevent revolt. Many slave ships were structurally designed for planned violence: Small cannons and guns were strategically placed to fire down at rioting slaves.

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