Latest / The Atlantic Slave Trade: Empire Built on Human Suffering — Fexingo History / How the Captain of a Slave Ship Became a Witness
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked a lot about the revolts, the survivors, the economics of the slave trade. But there's one voice that's often overlooked: the slavers themselves. Not the owners, but the captains and crew who actually ran these voyages. Luna: You mean the ones who wrote about it? Lucas: Exactly. And few are more famous than John Newton. You probably know him as the author of 'Amazing Grace.' But before that, he was the captain of a slave ship called the Duke of Argyle. And his later testimony helped bring down the very trade he once profited from. Luna: Wait, the hymn guy was a slave trader? Lucas: Yeah, for years. He started young, was press-ganged into the Royal Navy, then ended up in West Africa working for a slave trader. He eventually captained his own ship. And he kept detailed logs — he was meticulous about the 'cargo.' But then something changed. He had a near-death experience in a storm in 1748, started reading the Bible, and slowly, over decades, he moved toward evangelical Christianity. Lucas: He didn't immediately denounce slavery. In fact, he retired from the sea in 1754 but stayed in the trade as a creditor and investor for a while. It was only after he became a minister and later, in the 1780s, that he went public with his regret. And that's when he became a key witness for the abolitionists. Luna: So what did he actually say? Lucas: In the 1780s, the abolition movement was gaining steam in Britain, fueled by people like Granville Sharp and Thomas Clarkson. They were gathering evidence for a parliamentary inquiry. Newton wrote a pamphlet called 'Thoughts upon the African Slave Trade' in 1788. He described the horrors in vivid detail — the shackles, the cramped holds, the suffocating heat, the sickness, the despair. And he confessed his own guilt. He called the trade a 'national sin.' Lucas: His testimony was powerful because he had been there. He wasn't an armchair moralist. He had personally packed those holds. And he admitted that he had participated in 'the knavish part of it,' as he put it. That carried weight with MPs who were skeptical of abolitionist rhetoric. Luna: Must have been a hard thing to admit. Lucas: It was. And he was careful — he didn't just confess, he described the whole process: how slaves were captured, how they were marched to the coast, how they were crammed onto ships. He said the vessel he commanded carried 218 slaves, and he knew others carried more. He described the suicide attempts, the rebellions, the diseases. And he said, 'If the slaves die, the loss is the owner's, but the guilt is the captain's.' Lucas: His testimony was part of a growing mountain of evidence that finally convinced Parliament to pass the 1807 Abolition Act. But he wasn't the only one. There were others — like the surgeon Alexander Falconbridge, who testified about the horrific mortality rates. And of course, the Zong massacre was still fresh in everyone's memory. That case, where the crew threw over a hundred slaves overboard to claim insurance, had shocked the nation. Luna: That was the one where they called it jettisoning cargo, right? Lucas: Exactly. The court ruled it was like throwing horses overboard. But Granville Sharp used it to argue that slaves were human beings, and that the murder of slaves should be a crime. That case, combined with Newton's confession, helped turn public opinion. Lucas: Now, Newton's legacy is complicated. Some modern critics point out that he waited until after the trade was already under attack, and that he profited from it for years. He also didn't speak out against slavery itself, only the trade. He still supported the institution in the British colonies. So he's a figure of contrasts. Luna: That's a fair point. But isn't his position also kind of human? It took him a long time to fully confront what he'd done. Lucas: Absolutely. He's not a saint. But his testimony is a rare firsthand account from the perpetrator's side. It's become a crucial piece of the abolition story. Lucas: And if today's episode has given you a new way to think about the slave trade, well, that's what we're here for. If you find these conversations useful, the best way to keep them going is to support the show on buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's how we stay ad-free and independent. Luna: Yeah, it's a small gesture that means a lot to us. Lucas: Alright, back to Newton. After the 1807 Act, he lived another twenty years, still preaching and writing. He became a mentor to young abolitionists, including William Wilberforce. And when he died in 1807, he left behind a body of work that included hymns, letters, and that powerful testimony. But he also left behind a model of how a person can grapple with their past. Lucas: His story is often told as a redemption arc, but it's messier than that. He didn't become an abolitionist until late in life, and even then, he was more concerned with the trade than with slavery itself. Yet his willingness to speak out, to say 'I did this, and it was wrong,' gave the movement a weapon they couldn't have manufactured. Luna: It's almost like he was a living exhibit of the trade's brutality. Lucas: Exactly. And that's why he's so important. He put a human face on the perpetrators, and that made the whole system harder to defend. Lucas: So when we talk about the abolition of the slave trade, we often focus on the heroes — the Equianos, the Sharps, the Wilberforces. But we should also remember the witnesses who came from the other side. People like John Newton, who stood up and said, 'I know, because I did it.' That's a powerful kind of testimony. Luna: Yeah, it makes you think about how people change, and what it takes to own up to your past. Lucas: And that's the kind of nuance that history loves. It's not all black and white, even in the darkest chapters. The story of the slave trade is a story of victims and resisters, but also of colluders and repenters. And understanding all of those roles helps us see the full picture. Luna: Thanks for unpacking that, Lucas. Lucas: Anytime. Until next time, keep questioning the stories we're told.