The Slave Ship Brookes and the Diagram That Ended an Empire

The Atlantic Slave Trade: Empire Built on Human Suffering — Fexingo History · Aug 9, 2026 · 7m · transcript

In 1788, an engraved diagram of the slave ship Brookes shocked Britain and changed the course of the abolition movement. This episode unpacks the story behind that image — from the ship's actual voyages and the cramped 'platforming' layout of its hold, to the artists and abolitionists who turned a brutal blueprint into political dynamite. We follow the diagram from its first publication through its use by Thomas Clarkson, William Wilberforce, and the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade, and see how it made the abstract horror of the Middle Passage viscerally…