Latest / The Atlantic Slave Trade: Empire Built on Human Suffering — Fexingo History / Slave Ships and the Middle Passage: A Cargo of Souls
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked a lot about the trade from the shores—the forts, the auctions, the rebellions. But I think it's time we actually step onto the ship itself. Because that voyage—the Middle Passage—was its own world, a floating nightmare that tens of millions of people lived through, and many didn't survive. Luna: The Middle Passage. I feel like I know the basics, but the details are so often glossed over. Lucas: Exactly. So let's start with the ship itself. A typical slave ship was a merchant vessel, often a brig or a schooner, retrofitted for the trade. They'd tear out the cabin partitions, build platforms in the hold, and cram as many people as possible—sometimes over five hundred on a ship that was maybe a hundred feet long. Lucas: The most famous image we have of this is the Brookes, a Liverpool ship that became the icon of the abolitionist movement. In 1788, they published a diagram of her—a plan view showing the hold packed with slaves arranged in tight rows. That image, with every body drawn in a grid, just made the horror visceral. It's still one of the most reproduced images in history. Luna: That diagram is burned into my memory from history class. But how accurate was it? Lucas: It was actually based on a real survey done by a committee of British MPs. They measured the Brookes' hold and figured out how many enslaved people could be packed in legally under the 1788 Dolben Act—which was supposed to limit the trade. The act allowed 1.67 slaves per ton, so on a 297-ton ship, that was about 470. But before the act, ships carried even more. The Brookes herself had carried over 600 on some voyages. Lucas: So you've got these bodies pressed together, lying on their sides, often packed so tight that they couldn't turn over. The platforms were only about two feet high, so they couldn't sit up. At night, the hatches were locked down, and the air below deck became thick with heat and the stench of sweat, blood, and vomit. It's estimated that the temperature could reach over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, with the only ventilation coming from small grates on the deck. Luna: How long did the voyage typically take? Lucas: From West Africa to the Caribbean, it depended on the winds and currents. The so-called 'middle passage' from the Bight of Benin to the West Indies might take about six to eight weeks. Some voyages stretched to three months. And every day of that was a fight for survival—against disease, against despair, against the crew. Lucas: Mortality rates were staggering. On average, about 12 to 15 percent of the enslaved people died during the crossing. But on some voyages, that number could be over 20 percent, and I've seen records of voyages where nearly half didn't make it. The causes were brutal: dysentery, smallpox, scurvy, and what the captains called 'fixed melancholy'—a kind of deep depression that led people to stop eating or to try to starve themselves. Luna: And the crew? They didn't exactly have a cushy job either, did they? Lucas: No, they didn't. Sailors on slave ships had a mortality rate that was even higher—sometimes 20 to 25 percent. They died from the same diseases, plus yellow fever and malaria, and they were exposed to the same heat and squalor. But they had the added danger of being outnumbered by people who had every reason to want to kill them. It's a grim irony that many poor European sailors died in the service of this trade, their bodies thrown overboard without a second thought. Lucas: And that's before we even get to the psychological horror. The enslaved men were kept in chains, often in a separate part of the ship, and were brought on deck in small groups for exercise—they called it 'dancing.' But the women and children were often kept on deck, which made them more vulnerable to the crew's violence and sexual abuse. The captains had a simple rule: keep them terrified, keep them broken, keep them compliant. Luna: Yet there were revolts, weren't there? I remember hearing about some shipboard uprisings. Lucas: Yes, and they were far more common than most people think. Because the enslaved were often from different regions and spoke different languages, the captains tried to separate them to prevent communication. But that didn't always work. There are records of at least 250 documented slave ship revolts over the course of the trade. Some were successful—the slaves managed to take over the ship and sail back to Africa, though they rarely had the navigational skills to make it far. But most were crushed brutally, with the leaders tortured and executed as an example to the rest. Lucas: One of the most famous accounts we have from inside the Middle Passage is from Olaudah Equiano, who was taken as a young boy from what is now Nigeria. He described the horror of the ship, the smell, the fear, and the sight of dead slaves being thrown overboard. His narrative, published in 1789, became a bestseller and a powerful weapon for the abolitionist movement. It's one of the few firsthand accounts we have from someone who survived the crossing. Luna: It's hard to imagine how anyone could have justified this to themselves. Lucas: The economics of it were the justification. The slave trade was incredibly profitable. A ship that survived the voyage could bring in profits of up to 30 percent on the investment. The human cargo was just that—cargo, measured in terms of 'pieces of India.' The captains and investors in Liverpool, Nantes, Bristol, and Newport calculated the cost of feeding and insuring these people against the price they'd fetch in the Americas. Lucas: And the trade wasn't just a European enterprise. African kingdoms like Dahomey and Ashanti played a major role, selling captives taken in wars or raids. And every step of that supply chain—from the interior to the coast, from the barracoon to the ship—was marked by violence and betrayal. But the demand was driven by the plantations in the Americas, and the ships were the engine that connected it all. Luna: So what happened when a ship finally arrived in the Americas? Was there any relief, or just more horror? Lucas: The arrival was not relief. The survivors were brought on deck, cleaned up, and then sold—often right on the wharf. They were inspected like livestock, with buyers examining their teeth, their muscles, their skin. The whole process was designed to strip away every trace of humanity. And then they were taken to the plantations, where the true ordeal of enslavement began. But at least on the ship, they were all in it together. On the plantation, they were isolated, forced to learn new languages, and separated from their people. Lucas: One thing that often gets overlooked is the resilience of the enslaved people. Even in the hell of the Middle Passage, they found ways to resist—refusing food, jumping overboard, and, as we've mentioned, rising up. They held onto their languages, their religions, their memories, and they passed those on to their children. That resilience is part of the story too, and it's what allowed them to build new cultures in the Americas. Luna: That's so important to remember. It's not just a story of victimhood—it's a story of survival. Lucas: Absolutely. And you know, as we've been talking about the economics of the trade, I'm reminded that this show—like so many things—is only possible because of the support of listeners. We don't have any advertisers, no corporate sponsors. It's just a few of us making this, and a relative handful of folks who chip in monthly through buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. That's literally what keeps the lights on and lets us do these deep dives. Luna: Yeah, it's pretty incredible that a small group of dedicated listeners can keep an entire history project ad-free. It's like the opposite of a slave ship economy—consent and community instead of coercion. Lucas: That's a much better model, for sure. But back to the ships—there's one more layer to this that I want to get into, and it has to do with the afterlife of these vessels. After the slave trade was abolished, many of the same ships were used for other purposes, but their history lingered. Some were refitted as merchant ships, but others were scuttled or sold for scrap. And the memory of what they carried didn't just disappear. Lucas: In fact, we have a number of shipwrecks from the slave trade that have been discovered archaeologically. One of the most famous is the Henrietta Marie, which sank off the coast of Florida in 1700. It was found in 1972, and the excavation revealed evidence of the trade—shackles, beads, and other trade goods. There's an ongoing effort to preserve these sites as memorials, because they're tangible reminders of the scale of this tragedy. Luna: Those shackles—they're so small. I've seen pictures, and it makes it all the more real. Lucas: Exactly. And that's why it's so important to not just talk about statistics, but to imagine what it felt like to be chained in that hold, to feel the ship rock, to hear the cries of the sick and the dying. It's a history that's easy to push away, but we have to face it. Lucas: So I think the Middle Passage is one of those subjects that, no matter how much you've read, there's always more to learn. And I'm glad we got to spend this time on it, because it's a cornerstone of the whole Atlantic slave trade system. Luna: And it's a part of history that demands our reflection, not just our knowledge. Thanks for walking through it with me. Lucas: Anytime. And for anyone who wants to keep exploring with us, we'll be back next time with another story from the past.