February 16, 2025 • 40 mins
Could Africa's rich history have been overshadowed by misconceptions? Join us as Dr. Harry Singleton from the University of South Carolina challenges the outdated myth of Africa as a "Dark Continent" and sheds light on its remarkable civilizations in regions like Libya, Mali, and present-day Ghana. Discover the truth behind the transatlantic slave trade and learn why West Africans were not the first choice for enslavement by European traders. This episode also tackles another historical misconception: the so-called "discovery" of America by Christopher Columbus, when indigenous peoples had already established their presence long before. Through examining these narratives, we aim to provide a deeper understanding of the complex forces that have shaped our world.
In "Native Drums," Dr. Singleton skillfully unravels the brutal realities of the Atlantic Slave Trade, emphasizing the harrowing conditions endured by enslaved Africans during their forced journey across the ocean. Explore the reasons why West Africans were targeted, from their immunity to certain diseases to the exploitation of their artisanal skills by European planters. Unearth the struggles faced by European colonists in enslaving Native Caribbeans and Native Americans, and understand the cultural and physical barriers that made these groups less suitable for enslavement. The episode paints a vivid picture of the past, aiming to redefine the narrative and expose the economic motivations that fueled such inhumane practices.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:12):
Hello everyone and welcome to this six segment
podcast sponsored by SavannahGrove Baptist Church and its
pastor, ralph Canty.
I am Dr Harry Singleton.
I teach in both the AfricanAmerican Studies and Religious
Studies departments at theUniversity of South Carolina,
and this podcast is a brainchildof Dr Canty, who thought that
(00:36):
black people always needed toknow their history, but even
more so during this day and timewhere there is an attack on
black history even the federalattempt to remove black history
as a federal observance that itbecomes imperative that black
people know their history.
And, of course, as a religiousleader and as a pastor, he
thought it was imperative thatpastors lead in this effort for
(01:00):
African Americans to learn theirhistory in their communities,
even beyond academe and academicsettings.
And so I will be with you forthe six segments that I hope you
find informative andenlightening as we move forward
with this podcast Native Drumsthat I'm proud of and I hope
(01:20):
that you will be proud of aswell.
I want to dispel some myths inthis first segment about African
humanity and how Europeansettlers have depicted African
humanity throughout thecenturies civilization that it
(01:41):
possessed no civilization andwas given the negative moniker,
the Dark Continent, byparticularly Dutch and
Portuguese explorers.
But what we're going to see isthat Africa was well developed,
and that's one of the reasonswhy West Africans are going to
be chosen for the slave tradeonce European settlers begin to
(02:02):
conceive the idea that creatingthe demand for cheap labor so
that they can make maximumprofits became operative in
European life.
And so you're going to see thatnot only was Africa not a dark
continent, but you're also goingto see that it was a continent
of skilled artisans,particularly in North Africa.
As we move through Libya, mali,present-day Egypt and, of
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course, down into Senegal andinto what is present-day Ghana,
you're going to see Africaflourish and, of course,
commercially.
That was one of the reasons whyAfrica became such a prime
destination for Europeansettlers looking to increase
Europe's financial wealth.
(02:48):
As we begin this segmenttonight, one of the things you
may not know is that we were notthe first people chosen for the
slave trade, that we wereactually the fifth person, and
so I titled this lecture theChosen People Five Times Removed
, namely because we were thefifth selection, which doesn't
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come out in many history books,that we were not selected
primarily, but we were actuallythe fifth choice, and so, as we
move through, we're going to seealso, too, why Africa was
chosen for the European slavetrade.
One of the things that's also amisnomer is that Christopher
(03:33):
Columbus discovered America orthe Americas.
He could not have discovered itbecause people of color were
already here.
Number one and number two, ofcourse, native Americans are in
present-day United States ofAmerica.
And so Christopher Columbusdiscovered an opportunity for
European expansion, but he didnot discover the Americas, as
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the Native Americans werealready here.
And so as the Europeandiscovery of the New World,
particularly in the West Indiesand America, emerged, world,
particularly in the West Indiesand America, emerged, it leads
to the confiscation of land fromthe natives, namely those West
Indians and Native Americans inAmerica, and confiscating their
lands, deciding to lay thefoundation for the European
(04:18):
slave trade and the Europeanpsychical trauma of both Native
Americans and African Americans.
More so than what Europeantraders also discovered is that
the Americas and what we callthe present-day Caribbean West
Indies, was ripe for growingcrops and for European colonial
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expansion, particularly in termsof growing crops and for
European colonial expansion,particularly in terms of growing
crops.
Very hard to grow them inEurope, where it was cloudy a
lot, rainy a lot and not thebest fertile soil with which to
and fertile atmosphere withwhich to grow crops, and so the
West Indies in America became aliteral breeding ground for
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European colonial expansion aswe move into the 17th century.
And the land was ripe for thedevelopment of precious crops
that were becoming more and moreprofitable on the international
market.
We see the emergence of cotton.
Of course, cotton is needed tomake clothes, cotton is used for
(05:27):
medicinal purposes as well, andso, because of the multivalent
uses of cotton, it was a primecrop.
Sugarcane also became a primecrop, namely for the production
of molasses of syrup.
And of course you needed verystrong laborers to till
sugarcane, namely becausesugarcane is hard to cultivate,
(05:52):
you have to chop it continuouslyand you also have to make sure
that you are extracting the pureessence from it as you broke it
down into its bare essence.
Rice along the South Carolinacoast in particular, where I
grew up and I remember growingup we had rice every night for
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dinner and growing up in HorryCounty, conway, south Carolina,
same thing in Georgetown,charleston, south Carolina as
well, of course.
Of course you need water togrow rice.
And of course, tobacco.
Tobacco became a favorite usefor smoking and for chewing
later, as tobacco was preferredby European traders, and so it
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created the demand for cheaplabor To have laborers come in
and grow these crops and bringthem to harvest so that they
could be used by Europeantraders to sell on the
international market and make aprofit.
And so, as we move to whichparticular group would become
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that cheap labor, the quest forthe ideal slave community, not
only in terms of physical laborbut in terms of acquiescence
with the slave trade as well,and, of course, trial one.
The first people that Europeancolonialists decided to try
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enslaving in that demand forcheap labor was your, probably
your obvious pick the nativecaribbeans in the caribbean
islands and the native americanshere in america.
That makes the most amount ofsense, logically, in the sense
that they were already here, andso the attempt to enslave both
of these groups in their nativelands.
(07:40):
Um period of over five decades,about 1600 to 1654, we see the
attempt to try to enslave and,of course, create cheap labor
among native caribs in thecaribbean islands and native
americans in what we callamerica today.
They did not pass the test,fortunately for them, namely
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because neither one was testedto working excessive hours.
Secondly, both of the groupswere not immune to European
diseases, particularly likechickenpox and like influenza.
Neither group could stand ageneral mistreatment.
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There was rebellion every stepof the way and even mutiny in
some instances.
And of course, in light of thisgoing on for over five decades,
many Native Caribs and NativeAmericans decided to commit
suicide rather than continue tolive life in bondage.
And we're going to see thatwith the West African slave
(08:47):
trade as well.
And so in both instances NativeCaribs and Native Americans
these four particulardeficiencies lead to deficit in
population growth.
And so what you want to do whenyou're growing cheap labor is
that you want to grow the market.
You don't want to shrink themarket in terms of the number of
laborers, but because of thesuicides and less children being
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had, naturally it led to adeficit in population growth,
and so European colonizers hadto come off both native Caribs
and Native Americans to selectfor bondage.
Trial two they decided to goback to Europe and began the
painstaking process of importinglaborers, and they began in
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trial two with Irish and Englishindentured servants from about
1654 to 1690.
54 to 1690.
So for about three and a half,four decades we see Irish and
English indentured servantsbeing selected and tried to be
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broken in for the slave trade,and we see in trial three, irish
and English kidnapped childrenand in trial for Irish and
English political prisoners andreligious dissidents.
Irish and English politicalprisoners and religious
dissidents those who were notaltogether down with Protestant
Christianity as it had become tobe known, were actually jailed
for their so-called hereticalviews and as a result of that
they were Trial Four.
(10:17):
And so Trials Two, trials Threeand Trial Four, irish and
English indentured servants,irish and English kidnapped
children and Irish and Englishpolitical prisoners, religious
dissidents all failed becauseeach of them were unsuited for
labor and the tropical humidclimate that comes to
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characterize not only thesouthern part of what we now
know as the United States, nowhumid summers, but also in the
Caribbean islands as well.
And so, as a result of that,none of the three of these
categories the trial, the secondtrial, third trial and fourth
trial were successful in havingthem acclimate fully to life as
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slaves.
And so that brings us to trialfive and trial five.
Of course, since Irish andEnglish people were unsuited for
the tropical humid climate,they decided to try to find a
people who are, who was moreakin to the tropical and human
and humid climate, and of coursethat would be West Africa.
(11:23):
And of course West Africa has ageographical strategy to it as
well.
A geographical strategy to itas well.
Strategically, of course, whenyou leave West Africa it's a
straight shot in the Gulf ofGhanaia, as we call it, and then
into the Atlantic Ocean, overto the Americas and to the
Caribbean islands.
And so Trial 5 ends up beingWest Africans from 1650 to
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approximately 1850, for 200years.
Even as we move toward theFugitive Slave Act in 1850 and
the end of slavery as we knew itin 1865 with the passing of the
13th Amendment, even as late as1850, even though it was
outlawed in America in the early1700s that even as late as 1850
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, ships of slaves were stillcoming in in the middle of the
night trying to escapeprosecution.
And so trial five becomes ourancestors or West Africa.
And of course there are fivemajor reasons why we were chosen
.
Slavery and servitude existed inAfrica, number one.
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But it was not the chattelslavery that we were coming into
.
It was more of a servant workersystem.
And it was.
You were considered a servant,you were not considered a slave
and certainly your human rightsand dignity were not taken away
from you and your civil rightstaken away from you.
In fact, if you were theservant of a king in Africa, he
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would consider it an honor foryou to marry his daughter.
That would not be the case ofwhat we encountered with chattel
, racial slavery.
The second reason why WestAfricans were more suitable is
because of the humid climate inAfrica, particularly along
Africa's west coast, which ofcourse was compatible with the
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humidity in the southern UnitedStates and in the Caribbean
islands.
Back to the stereotype, because,as Lerone Bennett said, he who
controls images controls minds.
So it's not only the intent toenslave us but to control us
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mentally, so that they might bebetter able to control us
physically.
And so an industrious people wewere in Africa.
And of course we were inventorsand creators and we were
sustainers.
We sustained civilization, wesustaineders, we sustained
civilization, we sustainedfamilies, we sustained commerce,
we sustained trade.
And that was one of the reasonswhy West Africans were such an
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attractive people to bring intobondage, namely because of their
knowledge of trade and commerceand productivity, not because
of the opposite in the way thatwe have been portrayed by white
political and religious leaders,who called us jungle bunnies
and said when they found us inAfrica, they found us running
around with bones in our nosesand swinging on vines.
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That is not the case, it hasnever been the case and it is
the biggest theological andpolitical and social lie in
American history.
But the intent was to makeAfricans feel inferior and
create a complete sense ofdependence on whites and
slaveholders for the exigenciesof life, and we'll talk about
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that more in the next segment.
The fourth reason why WestAfricans were more suitable than
the previous four groups ofpeople, more immune to European
diseases, that West Africanstend not to be immune to
influenza, in particularchickenpox, like Europeans are
and, of course, like NativeAmericans and Native Caribs were
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, and so that actually worked toour disadvantage to not be
immune to European diseases moreso than Native Americans and
native caribs.
And of course, the fifth reasonWest Africa was closer to
Europe geographically.
European slave traders Dutch,portuguese, english, french,
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irish slave traders can justtake a northerly trip, trek down
to West Africa from WesternEurope and, of course, be able
to acquire slaves as they movefrom the South down into West
Africa, over to the Westernshores in America and the
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Caribbean islands.
And so these are the major fivereasons why African-Americans
ended up being more suitable forthe slave trade than the
previous four.
And so we were the fifthselection by European planters,
not the first.
And, as I said, the real reasonswhy?
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Is not because they were tryingto save us from a non-civilized
society, but because we didcome from a developed society,
and all over Africa wasdeveloped.
Even though European men couldnot understand the cultural
expressions and the danceexpressions of Africa the drum
in Africa, expressions of Africa, the drum in Africa they did
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see a well-developed society andbecause of that knowledge knew
that they could exploit it tobring their crops to harvest.
And, of course, the otherreason is because Africans were
skilled artisans.
We knew the art of the kill, weknew how to prime food, we knew
how to prep food, we knew howto do all of the exigencies of
life that were needed in orderto live robust, meaningful and
purposive lives.
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And that is the main reason whyAfricans were chosen for the
slave trade because they camefrom developed societies, not
undeveloped societies.
And so the rigors of slaverycreated the need for frequent
voyages to Africa, an investment, actually, that European
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colonizers did not want toinvest.
They really had their heart seton enslaving Native Americans
and Native Caribs, since theywere already there.
But when they saw that thatdidn't work, they knew that the
importation system had to begin,and of course this marks the
beginning of what we now knowtoday as the Atlantic slave
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trade.
And so as we look at that slavetrade, we take a look at that
slave trade and of course therealways and always have been
three passages, major passagesof the Atlantic slave trade
featuring West Africans as theprime target.
The first passage I mentionedjust a few minutes ago.
(18:01):
I mentioned it again.
The first passage is referredto as the outward passage.
This was the passage that beganin Western Europe on ships and
of course these European shipswere made by ship merchants.
In Europe Shipbuilding businessbecame a prime business because
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you had to import slaves fromWest Africa, and so that made
shipbuilding a prime business,one of the first major
businesses in European life oncethe slave trade began, as many
ships made the voyage on thesethree passages in the Atlantic
slave trade.
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And so the first passage is theoutward passage from Western
Europe south to West Africa andof course the ship containment
they had in the holds of shipsat that time trading barter for
slaves, which usually includedsome trinkets, gold, maybe some
liquor, some gin, some cognac,as they would engage in trading
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barter for slaves in WestAfrican countries, and so they
would come into Africa and, ofcourse, bring that barter out
and use it to entice Africantraders to sell Africans into
slavery to Western European men.
(19:26):
And, of course, they would packthem in the holes of ship, with
its ships, with that sametrading barter was that they
came down from Europe, theywould pack them in the holes of
ships, where that same tradingbarter was that they came down
from Europe with and packed themin the holes of ships.
This is referred to, of course,as the Middle Passage that they
would pack slaves in, of course, the holes of ships and move
them on a westerly course.
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First of all, they would putthem in slave castles that were
previously used for fightingwars in Africa actually, and
they had since been abandoned,since the chances of war were
ever so remote for 100, 200years, and so they were
abandoned and they were used tohouse slaves that had been
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brought until the small boatscame and got them and led them
out of the slave castles intoboats.
And of course it's you knowmost of these doors.
They have an open door thatopens up to the Gulf and of
course it's called the door ofthe passage of no return that,
once separated as African menand women and children and
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brought together, they were puton ships, that boats rather,
that took them out to theAtlantic Ocean, where they were
then placed on ships and sent onthe westerly trek to the
Americas and the West Indies.
This is referred to as themiddle passage, and so I'm sure
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you've heard many historiansrefer to the middle passages and
passage and speeches and inwritten texts, namely because
this was the passage thatcontained African slaves, or
what would become slaves as theywere taken to the West Indies.
And they were taken to the WestIndies to be broken in as
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slaves and then they would bedispersed to the Caribbean
islands, to what we now know asthe United States of America,
and even down in South America.
Even more so, as quiet as thesecret is kept, there are more
people of African descent fromthe slave trade in Brazil than
any place in the WesternHemisphere.
There are 300 million people inBrazil, and Brazil was, along
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with Venezuela and other SouthAmerican countries, peru and
Chile, prime areas for thedisbursement of slaves after
they were taken to the WestIndies and broken in, usually
subjected to hard labor, usuallyforce-fed particularly if they
were trying to commit suicidethrough starvation, of course
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were beaten mercilessly if theydid not conform to the process
in which they were being imposed.
And so this middle passage isalways talked about by
historians because it is themost grueling of the three
passages.
If you could select one, allthree of them are grueling, but
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this one by far is the mostgrueling because it contains
what became known as human cargo.
And so this second passage isreferred to as the middle
passage.
And so, after distributing theslaves to different areas, after
they'd been broken in in theWest Indies, the last passage
was the return passage, wherethey would return from the East
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coast of what is now known todayas America and to the Caribbean
islands, and they would returnback to Western Europe and, of
course, in the holds of shipsthen would be the harvest from
the crops that the previousslaves had brought to fruition.
And so this rounds out thethree passages the outward
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passage, the middle passage andthe return passage.
And this went on for almost 200years, from about 1650 to 1850,
even though it was outlawed in,as I said, in the early 18th
century.
And so you have the outwardpassage, the middle passage and
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the return passage.
As you see, this system developnow in Western Europe relative
to the slave trade and Economicgain.
The voyage of the middle passageitself is also one of the more
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grueling aspects, even before weget to the West Indies.
The voyage itself speaks ofharrowing tales of what
transpired on slave ships, notonly in terms of the treatment
of Africans, but also mutiniesas well, or at least attempted
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mutinies, and we'll talk aboutone of those in a later segment,
the Amistad Mutiny, one of themost successful mutinies, in
fact it was the most successfulmutiny of slaves uprising
against their ship superiors, asthey were called, and so we
will look at that in the futuresegment.
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But the voyage itself slaveswere taken from slave castles on
the west coast of Africa andthey were placed into canoes.
These canoes, of course, weresmall canoes that held about
nine, 10 people each, and thatwas one of the first stages of
transporting the slaves.
They didn't want to put them inlarge groups initially.
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They wanted to put them insmall groups to be able to
diminish their ability to beable to try to escape.
In other words, the smallnumber that they're packed into
in each canoe meant that therewas less of a chance of an
uprising on the canoes, and ifthere weren't uprising it would
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be better able to be put down.
And so they're placed in thesecanoes, right outside the door
of no return of the slavecastles themselves.
The canoes met at ships furtherout where the slaves were then
shackled in twos.
And of course they wereshackled in twos to prevent them
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from having the ability to runor to jump without being
shackled to someone else, whichmade it more difficult if they
wanted to jump off the ship, andof course it just made them
easier to be able to contain it.
It limits your mobilityphysically when you are shackled
to someone else, and so theywere shackled in twos.
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Children sometimes were, werenot.
Women were shackled in twos andthe men were shackled in twos.
Very seldom, if at all, weremen and a man and a woman
shackled together.
Usually men were shackled withmen and women were shackled with
women.
They were branded for IDpurposes and of course this is
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their first brand.
They're going to get a secondbrand once they get to auction
and they end up going beingpurchased and going to a
plantation.
They're going to get anotherbrand.
We'll talk about that.
And so they ended up with twobrands.
They were branded for IDpurposes, namely because you
wanted to give the shipbuilderand the ship company credit for
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transporting that slave, and soall of the slaves coming into
the West Indies eventually wouldhave a brand on them to denote
the ship company that built thecanoe that took them out to the
slave ship and, of course, thecompany where the slave ship
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itself was built as well.
And so they were branded for IDpurposes and so that the slave,
the ship company, could getcredit for the transport.
And of course, number three,they were stripped naked and
placed in the holes of ships.
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Now, this also, this also makessense.
Number one the dehumanizingprocess had already begun and of
course, when you strip someonenaked, you dehumanize them
publicly in a way that no othergesture probably does.
And of course, the other reasonwhy is because they did not
want slaves to to find weaponsand put weapons on that person
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that they could hide and close.
So that was the other reasonwhy and they were placed in the
holes of ships.
Usually there were two levels ofplacement barges in the holes
of ships.
There would be one long chainthat went all the way across
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from one side to the other, thatchain air all of them together,
and then they each had separatechains on them as well, as they
were laid down in the middlepassage, laid down in the holes
of ships, because they were notable to come up and use the
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bathroom as often as they neededto.
They often urinated anddefecated on each other, which
is also one of the horrors ofbeing transported in the sling
in the holds of ships.
Now, the other reason why theywere stripped naked too is
because most of the voyages tookplace during the summer months,
and so it was over 100 degreessometimes in the holds of ships,
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and by stripping them naked itmade them feel cooler even in
the midst of that heat, with noventilation down there.
The question then becomes wouldthat not create problems
relative to sanitary problemsand with the death of the slaves
you just purchased, which meansyou wouldn't get your money?
And yes, that did create aproblem.
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And so, on the voyage, as theymade their way to the West
Indies, men were allowed on deckonly twice a day, and they were
allowed on deck twice a day toeat and to be washed, and so
they wanted to minimize thesanitary problems that could
emerge from being in the holesof ships, and usually they would
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just take buckets of water thatthey would get from the ocean
and pour it on the slaves, andthey would also use this
granular soap that feels morelike detergent than the bar soap
that we recognize today and usethat as the basis for keeping
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the slaves as sanitary as theypossibly could.
The other reason why they werebrought on deck is because they
were made to dance or exerciseso that they could maintain
circulation.
With a voyage as long as sixweeks to three months, you could
have circulation problems ifyou stayed in the holds of ships
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and stayed tied up all day.
So what happened is that theywere often made to dance and to
exercise to maintain circulation.
Of course, one of the sadstories that came out of this
aspect of the voyage is thatthat was why some people would
proffer that African-Americanstend to have more rhythm than
other people, including Europeanpeople, because they were made
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to dance so much on voyages, butthat has no validity or no
truth whatsoever.
People, including Europeanpeople, because they were made
to dance so much on voyages, butthat has no validity or no
truth whatsoever.
The rhythm that Africans had.
They had long before they wereenslaved.
It didn't take a voyage intobondage for African Americans to
develop rhythm, as well as thefact that dance was a huge
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aspect of African culture andthat the drum and dance was a
huge aspect of African cultureand that the drum and dance was
a way of expressing themselvesnot only existentially or
historically, but expressingthemselves in terms of their
encounter with the divine andtheir sociocultural values and
system as well.
And so this notion thatAfricans develop rhythm dancing
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on slave voyages is absolutelyuntrue.
Women and children were shackled, but not placed in holds like
men.
Of course.
Now, this has to do more withpatriarchy than it does anything
else.
White men, from day one,because they are men and because
they are patriarchal in theiroutlook on life, feared women
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less than men, and in many waysone could make the argument that
white men fear black men moretoday than any other group of
people, any other gender ofpeople.
And so men were put in theholes of ships, but women and
children were shackled but notplaced in holes most times.
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There were those rare voyageswhere women and children were
placed in holes of ships, butmost times they were not.
There was, as you might suspect, a high death toll.
Now this becomes very importantfrom an economic standpoint.
After the purchase of theseslaves and, of course, white
planters wanting to quote maketheir money off of their slaves
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Disease became rampant.
Even though West Africans weremore immune to European diseases
, disease became rampant.
There were no toilet or washareas and, of course, the
temperatures were 100 degrees,particularly during the summers.
And so that was the reason whythere was a high death toll,
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irrespective of the immunity toEuropean diseases.
And that's why you have theemergent philosophy, divergent
philosophy, of ship merchants.
You had two different styles ofship packers.
You had tight packers.
(33:19):
Those were the slave merchantswho packed a lot of slaves, as
many slaves as they could, intoholes of ships, going along the
line that we're going to lose alot of many way, and when we get
to the West Indies we'll havemore of them than if we had not
packed them tightly in the holesof ships.
(33:41):
And then you had other shipmerchants who had a different
philosophy.
Theirs was the opposite.
They were referred to as loosepackers.
That, with this logic, that ifyou gave them more air to
breathe and there were less ofthem to wash and keep fed, then
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you would accomplish the sameresult in terms of the number of
slaves who made it to the WestIndies, and you would have done
so placing less slaves in theholds of ships who made it to
the West Indies.
And you would have done soplacing less slaves in the holds
of ships when you left WestAfrica.
And so you had the tightpackers on the one hand and the
loose packers on the other.
So if we break this downmathematically, tight packers
(34:26):
saying you know, I want to get50 slaves to the West Indies,
and so what I'm going to do isthat I'm going to pack 100 in
the holes of ships, seeing thatin my mind there's going to be a
50 percent death rate and I'mgoing to end up with 50 when we
(34:46):
get to the West Indies.
50 will survive, 50 will end updying.
To the West Indies, 50 willsurvive, 50 will end up dying.
Well, the loose packer wouldsay well, I too want to get 50
to the West Indies, but ratherthan packing 100 in the ship, I
want to pack 80 or 75 in theship, or maybe even 70.
And that would decrease thedeath rate because there would
(35:07):
be more room to breathe and tooperate and there would be less
of an opportunity for them toeither try to commit suicide
because by jumping off the ship,because we could watch them
more readily, since it's less ofthem, and that they would be
less immune to a disease thatcould kill them in those
conditions, if there weregreater circulation through less
(35:29):
people.
And so both of them ended upaccomplishing their goals in the
sense that the tight packerended up with 50 when they got
to the West Indies and the loosepacker ended up with 50 when
they got to the West Indies.
And of course that's ahypothetical mathematical
example, but that's the way thatthe math work.
(35:51):
When it came to tight packersand loose Packers, the average
time to the Americas or the WestIndies six weeks to three
months.
That's a broad range and ofcourse that range is broad
because of weather concerns,time, time of year concerns.
(36:13):
If there was a storm that theyeither had to let go by, or a
storm that they had to get pastquickly before it came and had
to run into another storm, thenas a result of that it took
longer than six weeks to getthere, but most voyages took
about six weeks of timeGenerally.
(36:36):
There are some extenuatingcircumstances when it took three
months, but of course the shipswere always packed for three to
four months of food andsupplies because you didn't know
what was going to happen,particularly during the winter
months when the temperature waslower and of course that could
(37:00):
create more illnesses as well.
The estimated number of Africansthat made the voyage in that
250 year period, fromapproximately 1650 to 1850, nine
to 11 million people in 200years.
(37:20):
That's a lot of transporting.
That's 200 years oftransporting several voyages a
year per ship company and perslave trader.
Several voyages a year per shipcompany and per slave trader.
And so the estimated number ofAfricans that made the voyage
nine to 11 million.
And of course the estimatednumber that died en route,
(37:49):
either through disease orsuicide, as they found a way to
maybe get a utensil and stabthemselves or to find a way to
break loose from the shackles ofthe person that they were bound
to and jump overboard Again.
Another misnomer that comes outof this is that sharks came
behind the ships once they movedout of the Ghanaian coast and
(38:10):
into the Atlantic, knowing thatAfricans were going to jump
overboard to kill themselves andsharks would eat them.
That has absolutely no validityto it whatsoever.
But an estimated two milliondied en route through disease or
sickness, and so that gives usabout a seven to nine million
(38:32):
African success rate and I usethe term success, of course,
sarcastically that made thevoyage to the West Indies and
subsequently to the Americas.
And of course most historians,including the great WB Du Bois,
would say that these are bothconservative estimates, that
(38:54):
they're actually lower estimatesthan what actually probably
transpired in terms of number,and so we'll stay with that
conservative estimate of nine to11 million making a voyage, two
million dying en route.
Both of them are modestestimates, and so, now that the
(39:18):
voyages have been completed andslaves have made it to the West
Indies, the question thenbecomes now what happens next?
And of course we began to lookat the distributing of slaves to
various parts of the Americasand to the Caribbean islands,
and we'll look particularly atthe movement of slaves from the
(39:41):
West Indies to the United Statesof America, or what became the
United States of America, ofAmerica as we look at a lecture
I title a strange and hostileland, and we'll look take a look
at the auction block and themovement from the auction block
to plantation life, and we willdeal with that in segment 2.
(40:05):
This completes segment 1 ofthis podcast.
I hope that it was informativeand enlightening.
As we move to segment two,we'll look at now a strange and
hostile land as slaves move fromthe ships to plantation life.
I'm Dr Harry Singleton.
Thank you very much forlistening.
Good night.
Hello everyone and welcome to this six segment
podcast sponsored by SavannahGrove Baptist Church and its
pastor, ralph Canty.
I am Dr Harry Singleton.
I teach in both the AfricanAmerican Studies and Religious
Studies departments at theUniversity of South Carolina,
and this podcast is a brainchildof Dr Canty, who thought that
(00:36):
black people always needed toknow their history, but even
more so during this day and timewhere there is an attack on
black history even the federalattempt to remove black history
as a federal observance that itbecomes imperative that black
people know their history.
And, of course, as a religiousleader and as a pastor, he
thought it was imperative thatpastors lead in this effort for
(01:00):
African Americans to learn theirhistory in their communities,
even beyond academe and academicsettings.
And so I will be with you forthe six segments that I hope you
find informative andenlightening as we move forward
with this podcast Native Drumsthat I'm proud of and I hope
(01:20):
that you will be proud of aswell.
I want to dispel some myths inthis first segment about African
humanity and how Europeansettlers have depicted African
humanity throughout thecenturies civilization that it
(01:41):
possessed no civilization andwas given the negative moniker,
the Dark Continent, byparticularly Dutch and
Portuguese explorers.
But what we're going to see isthat Africa was well developed,
and that's one of the reasonswhy West Africans are going to
be chosen for the slave tradeonce European settlers begin to
(02:02):
conceive the idea that creatingthe demand for cheap labor so
that they can make maximumprofits became operative in
European life.
And so you're going to see thatnot only was Africa not a dark
continent, but you're also goingto see that it was a continent
of skilled artisans,particularly in North Africa.
As we move through Libya, mali,present-day Egypt and, of
(02:27):
course, down into Senegal andinto what is present-day Ghana,
you're going to see Africaflourish and, of course,
commercially.
That was one of the reasons whyAfrica became such a prime
destination for Europeansettlers looking to increase
Europe's financial wealth.
(02:48):
As we begin this segmenttonight, one of the things you
may not know is that we were notthe first people chosen for the
slave trade, that we wereactually the fifth person, and
so I titled this lecture theChosen People Five Times Removed
, namely because we were thefifth selection, which doesn't
(03:12):
come out in many history books,that we were not selected
primarily, but we were actuallythe fifth choice, and so, as we
move through, we're going to seealso, too, why Africa was
chosen for the European slavetrade.
One of the things that's also amisnomer is that Christopher
(03:33):
Columbus discovered America orthe Americas.
He could not have discovered itbecause people of color were
already here.
Number one and number two, ofcourse, native Americans are in
present-day United States ofAmerica.
And so Christopher Columbusdiscovered an opportunity for
European expansion, but he didnot discover the Americas, as
(03:54):
the Native Americans werealready here.
And so as the Europeandiscovery of the New World,
particularly in the West Indiesand America, emerged, world,
particularly in the West Indiesand America, emerged, it leads
to the confiscation of land fromthe natives, namely those West
Indians and Native Americans inAmerica, and confiscating their
lands, deciding to lay thefoundation for the European
(04:18):
slave trade and the Europeanpsychical trauma of both Native
Americans and African Americans.
More so than what Europeantraders also discovered is that
the Americas and what we callthe present-day Caribbean West
Indies, was ripe for growingcrops and for European colonial
(04:44):
expansion, particularly in termsof growing crops and for
European colonial expansion,particularly in terms of growing
crops.
Very hard to grow them inEurope, where it was cloudy a
lot, rainy a lot and not thebest fertile soil with which to
and fertile atmosphere withwhich to grow crops, and so the
West Indies in America became aliteral breeding ground for
(05:06):
European colonial expansion aswe move into the 17th century.
And the land was ripe for thedevelopment of precious crops
that were becoming more and moreprofitable on the international
market.
We see the emergence of cotton.
Of course, cotton is needed tomake clothes, cotton is used for
(05:27):
medicinal purposes as well, andso, because of the multivalent
uses of cotton, it was a primecrop.
Sugarcane also became a primecrop, namely for the production
of molasses of syrup.
And of course you needed verystrong laborers to till
sugarcane, namely becausesugarcane is hard to cultivate,
(05:52):
you have to chop it continuouslyand you also have to make sure
that you are extracting the pureessence from it as you broke it
down into its bare essence.
Rice along the South Carolinacoast in particular, where I
grew up and I remember growingup we had rice every night for
(06:15):
dinner and growing up in HorryCounty, conway, south Carolina,
same thing in Georgetown,charleston, south Carolina as
well, of course.
Of course you need water togrow rice.
And of course, tobacco.
Tobacco became a favorite usefor smoking and for chewing
later, as tobacco was preferredby European traders, and so it
(06:39):
created the demand for cheaplabor To have laborers come in
and grow these crops and bringthem to harvest so that they
could be used by Europeantraders to sell on the
international market and make aprofit.
And so, as we move to whichparticular group would become
(06:59):
that cheap labor, the quest forthe ideal slave community, not
only in terms of physical laborbut in terms of acquiescence
with the slave trade as well,and, of course, trial one.
The first people that Europeancolonialists decided to try
(07:20):
enslaving in that demand forcheap labor was your, probably
your obvious pick the nativecaribbeans in the caribbean
islands and the native americanshere in america.
That makes the most amount ofsense, logically, in the sense
that they were already here, andso the attempt to enslave both
of these groups in their nativelands.
(07:40):
Um period of over five decades,about 1600 to 1654, we see the
attempt to try to enslave and,of course, create cheap labor
among native caribs in thecaribbean islands and native
americans in what we callamerica today.
They did not pass the test,fortunately for them, namely
(08:04):
because neither one was testedto working excessive hours.
Secondly, both of the groupswere not immune to European
diseases, particularly likechickenpox and like influenza.
Neither group could stand ageneral mistreatment.
(08:25):
There was rebellion every stepof the way and even mutiny in
some instances.
And of course, in light of thisgoing on for over five decades,
many Native Caribs and NativeAmericans decided to commit
suicide rather than continue tolive life in bondage.
And we're going to see thatwith the West African slave
(08:47):
trade as well.
And so in both instances NativeCaribs and Native Americans
these four particulardeficiencies lead to deficit in
population growth.
And so what you want to do whenyou're growing cheap labor is
that you want to grow the market.
You don't want to shrink themarket in terms of the number of
laborers, but because of thesuicides and less children being
(09:10):
had, naturally it led to adeficit in population growth,
and so European colonizers hadto come off both native Caribs
and Native Americans to selectfor bondage.
Trial two they decided to goback to Europe and began the
painstaking process of importinglaborers, and they began in
(09:35):
trial two with Irish and Englishindentured servants from about
1654 to 1690.
54 to 1690.
So for about three and a half,four decades we see Irish and
English indentured servantsbeing selected and tried to be
(09:57):
broken in for the slave trade,and we see in trial three, irish
and English kidnapped childrenand in trial for Irish and
English political prisoners andreligious dissidents.
Irish and English politicalprisoners and religious
dissidents those who were notaltogether down with Protestant
Christianity as it had become tobe known, were actually jailed
for their so-called hereticalviews and as a result of that
they were Trial Four.
(10:17):
And so Trials Two, trials Threeand Trial Four, irish and
English indentured servants,irish and English kidnapped
children and Irish and Englishpolitical prisoners, religious
dissidents all failed becauseeach of them were unsuited for
labor and the tropical humidclimate that comes to
(10:38):
characterize not only thesouthern part of what we now
know as the United States, nowhumid summers, but also in the
Caribbean islands as well.
And so, as a result of that,none of the three of these
categories the trial, the secondtrial, third trial and fourth
trial were successful in havingthem acclimate fully to life as
(11:01):
slaves.
And so that brings us to trialfive and trial five.
Of course, since Irish andEnglish people were unsuited for
the tropical humid climate,they decided to try to find a
people who are, who was moreakin to the tropical and human
and humid climate, and of coursethat would be West Africa.
(11:23):
And of course West Africa has ageographical strategy to it as
well.
A geographical strategy to itas well.
Strategically, of course, whenyou leave West Africa it's a
straight shot in the Gulf ofGhanaia, as we call it, and then
into the Atlantic Ocean, overto the Americas and to the
Caribbean islands.
And so Trial 5 ends up beingWest Africans from 1650 to
(11:48):
approximately 1850, for 200years.
Even as we move toward theFugitive Slave Act in 1850 and
the end of slavery as we knew itin 1865 with the passing of the
13th Amendment, even as late as1850, even though it was
outlawed in America in the early1700s that even as late as 1850
(12:11):
, ships of slaves were stillcoming in in the middle of the
night trying to escapeprosecution.
And so trial five becomes ourancestors or West Africa.
And of course there are fivemajor reasons why we were chosen
.
Slavery and servitude existed inAfrica, number one.
(12:32):
But it was not the chattelslavery that we were coming into
.
It was more of a servant workersystem.
And it was.
You were considered a servant,you were not considered a slave
and certainly your human rightsand dignity were not taken away
from you and your civil rightstaken away from you.
In fact, if you were theservant of a king in Africa, he
(12:54):
would consider it an honor foryou to marry his daughter.
That would not be the case ofwhat we encountered with chattel
, racial slavery.
The second reason why WestAfricans were more suitable is
because of the humid climate inAfrica, particularly along
Africa's west coast, which ofcourse was compatible with the
(13:14):
humidity in the southern UnitedStates and in the Caribbean
islands.
Back to the stereotype, because,as Lerone Bennett said, he who
controls images controls minds.
So it's not only the intent toenslave us but to control us
(13:35):
mentally, so that they might bebetter able to control us
physically.
And so an industrious people wewere in Africa.
And of course we were inventorsand creators and we were
sustainers.
We sustained civilization, wesustaineders, we sustained
civilization, we sustainedfamilies, we sustained commerce,
we sustained trade.
And that was one of the reasonswhy West Africans were such an
(13:59):
attractive people to bring intobondage, namely because of their
knowledge of trade and commerceand productivity, not because
of the opposite in the way thatwe have been portrayed by white
political and religious leaders,who called us jungle bunnies
and said when they found us inAfrica, they found us running
around with bones in our nosesand swinging on vines.
(14:20):
That is not the case, it hasnever been the case and it is
the biggest theological andpolitical and social lie in
American history.
But the intent was to makeAfricans feel inferior and
create a complete sense ofdependence on whites and
slaveholders for the exigenciesof life, and we'll talk about
(14:40):
that more in the next segment.
The fourth reason why WestAfricans were more suitable than
the previous four groups ofpeople, more immune to European
diseases, that West Africanstend not to be immune to
influenza, in particularchickenpox, like Europeans are
and, of course, like NativeAmericans and Native Caribs were
(15:03):
, and so that actually worked toour disadvantage to not be
immune to European diseases moreso than Native Americans and
native caribs.
And of course, the fifth reasonWest Africa was closer to
Europe geographically.
European slave traders Dutch,portuguese, english, french,
(15:26):
irish slave traders can justtake a northerly trip, trek down
to West Africa from WesternEurope and, of course, be able
to acquire slaves as they movefrom the South down into West
Africa, over to the Westernshores in America and the
(15:46):
Caribbean islands.
And so these are the major fivereasons why African-Americans
ended up being more suitable forthe slave trade than the
previous four.
And so we were the fifthselection by European planters,
not the first.
And, as I said, the real reasonswhy?
(16:07):
Is not because they were tryingto save us from a non-civilized
society, but because we didcome from a developed society,
and all over Africa wasdeveloped.
Even though European men couldnot understand the cultural
expressions and the danceexpressions of Africa the drum
in Africa, expressions of Africa, the drum in Africa they did
(16:33):
see a well-developed society andbecause of that knowledge knew
that they could exploit it tobring their crops to harvest.
And, of course, the otherreason is because Africans were
skilled artisans.
We knew the art of the kill, weknew how to prime food, we knew
how to prep food, we knew howto do all of the exigencies of
life that were needed in orderto live robust, meaningful and
purposive lives.
(16:53):
And that is the main reason whyAfricans were chosen for the
slave trade because they camefrom developed societies, not
undeveloped societies.
And so the rigors of slaverycreated the need for frequent
voyages to Africa, an investment, actually, that European
(17:15):
colonizers did not want toinvest.
They really had their heart seton enslaving Native Americans
and Native Caribs, since theywere already there.
But when they saw that thatdidn't work, they knew that the
importation system had to begin,and of course this marks the
beginning of what we now knowtoday as the Atlantic slave
(17:40):
trade.
And so as we look at that slavetrade, we take a look at that
slave trade and of course therealways and always have been
three passages, major passagesof the Atlantic slave trade
featuring West Africans as theprime target.
The first passage I mentionedjust a few minutes ago.
(18:01):
I mentioned it again.
The first passage is referredto as the outward passage.
This was the passage that beganin Western Europe on ships and
of course these European shipswere made by ship merchants.
In Europe Shipbuilding businessbecame a prime business because
(18:22):
you had to import slaves fromWest Africa, and so that made
shipbuilding a prime business,one of the first major
businesses in European life oncethe slave trade began, as many
ships made the voyage on thesethree passages in the Atlantic
slave trade.
(18:42):
And so the first passage is theoutward passage from Western
Europe south to West Africa andof course the ship containment
they had in the holds of shipsat that time trading barter for
slaves, which usually includedsome trinkets, gold, maybe some
liquor, some gin, some cognac,as they would engage in trading
(19:06):
barter for slaves in WestAfrican countries, and so they
would come into Africa and, ofcourse, bring that barter out
and use it to entice Africantraders to sell Africans into
slavery to Western European men.
(19:26):
And, of course, they would packthem in the holes of ship, with
its ships, with that sametrading barter was that they
came down from Europe, theywould pack them in the holes of
ships, where that same tradingbarter was that they came down
from Europe with and packed themin the holes of ships.
This is referred to, of course,as the Middle Passage that they
would pack slaves in, of course, the holes of ships and move
them on a westerly course.
(19:46):
First of all, they would putthem in slave castles that were
previously used for fightingwars in Africa actually, and
they had since been abandoned,since the chances of war were
ever so remote for 100, 200years, and so they were
abandoned and they were used tohouse slaves that had been
(20:07):
brought until the small boatscame and got them and led them
out of the slave castles intoboats.
And of course it's you knowmost of these doors.
They have an open door thatopens up to the Gulf and of
course it's called the door ofthe passage of no return that,
once separated as African menand women and children and
(20:32):
brought together, they were puton ships, that boats rather,
that took them out to theAtlantic Ocean, where they were
then placed on ships and sent onthe westerly trek to the
Americas and the West Indies.
This is referred to as themiddle passage, and so I'm sure
(20:55):
you've heard many historiansrefer to the middle passages and
passage and speeches and inwritten texts, namely because
this was the passage thatcontained African slaves, or
what would become slaves as theywere taken to the West Indies.
And they were taken to the WestIndies to be broken in as
(21:16):
slaves and then they would bedispersed to the Caribbean
islands, to what we now know asthe United States of America,
and even down in South America.
Even more so, as quiet as thesecret is kept, there are more
people of African descent fromthe slave trade in Brazil than
any place in the WesternHemisphere.
There are 300 million people inBrazil, and Brazil was, along
(21:39):
with Venezuela and other SouthAmerican countries, peru and
Chile, prime areas for thedisbursement of slaves after
they were taken to the WestIndies and broken in, usually
subjected to hard labor, usuallyforce-fed particularly if they
were trying to commit suicidethrough starvation, of course
(22:02):
were beaten mercilessly if theydid not conform to the process
in which they were being imposed.
And so this middle passage isalways talked about by
historians because it is themost grueling of the three
passages.
If you could select one, allthree of them are grueling, but
(22:23):
this one by far is the mostgrueling because it contains
what became known as human cargo.
And so this second passage isreferred to as the middle
passage.
And so, after distributing theslaves to different areas, after
they'd been broken in in theWest Indies, the last passage
was the return passage, wherethey would return from the East
(22:45):
coast of what is now known todayas America and to the Caribbean
islands, and they would returnback to Western Europe and, of
course, in the holds of shipsthen would be the harvest from
the crops that the previousslaves had brought to fruition.
And so this rounds out thethree passages the outward
(23:08):
passage, the middle passage andthe return passage.
And this went on for almost 200years, from about 1650 to 1850,
even though it was outlawed in,as I said, in the early 18th
century.
And so you have the outwardpassage, the middle passage and
(23:29):
the return passage.
As you see, this system developnow in Western Europe relative
to the slave trade and Economicgain.
The voyage of the middle passageitself is also one of the more
(23:49):
grueling aspects, even before weget to the West Indies.
The voyage itself speaks ofharrowing tales of what
transpired on slave ships, notonly in terms of the treatment
of Africans, but also mutiniesas well, or at least attempted
(24:11):
mutinies, and we'll talk aboutone of those in a later segment,
the Amistad Mutiny, one of themost successful mutinies, in
fact it was the most successfulmutiny of slaves uprising
against their ship superiors, asthey were called, and so we
will look at that in the futuresegment.
(24:32):
But the voyage itself slaveswere taken from slave castles on
the west coast of Africa andthey were placed into canoes.
These canoes, of course, weresmall canoes that held about
nine, 10 people each, and thatwas one of the first stages of
transporting the slaves.
They didn't want to put them inlarge groups initially.
(24:55):
They wanted to put them insmall groups to be able to
diminish their ability to beable to try to escape.
In other words, the smallnumber that they're packed into
in each canoe meant that therewas less of a chance of an
uprising on the canoes, and ifthere weren't uprising it would
(25:16):
be better able to be put down.
And so they're placed in thesecanoes, right outside the door
of no return of the slavecastles themselves.
The canoes met at ships furtherout where the slaves were then
shackled in twos.
And of course they wereshackled in twos to prevent them
(25:38):
from having the ability to runor to jump without being
shackled to someone else, whichmade it more difficult if they
wanted to jump off the ship, andof course it just made them
easier to be able to contain it.
It limits your mobilityphysically when you are shackled
to someone else, and so theywere shackled in twos.
(25:59):
Children sometimes were, werenot.
Women were shackled in twos andthe men were shackled in twos.
Very seldom, if at all, weremen and a man and a woman
shackled together.
Usually men were shackled withmen and women were shackled with
women.
They were branded for IDpurposes and of course this is
(26:25):
their first brand.
They're going to get a secondbrand once they get to auction
and they end up going beingpurchased and going to a
plantation.
They're going to get anotherbrand.
We'll talk about that.
And so they ended up with twobrands.
They were branded for IDpurposes, namely because you
wanted to give the shipbuilderand the ship company credit for
(26:48):
transporting that slave, and soall of the slaves coming into
the West Indies eventually wouldhave a brand on them to denote
the ship company that built thecanoe that took them out to the
slave ship and, of course, thecompany where the slave ship
(27:09):
itself was built as well.
And so they were branded for IDpurposes and so that the slave,
the ship company, could getcredit for the transport.
And of course, number three,they were stripped naked and
placed in the holes of ships.
(27:30):
Now, this also, this also makessense.
Number one the dehumanizingprocess had already begun and of
course, when you strip someonenaked, you dehumanize them
publicly in a way that no othergesture probably does.
And of course, the other reasonwhy is because they did not
want slaves to to find weaponsand put weapons on that person
(27:52):
that they could hide and close.
So that was the other reasonwhy and they were placed in the
holes of ships.
Usually there were two levels ofplacement barges in the holes
of ships.
There would be one long chainthat went all the way across
(28:13):
from one side to the other, thatchain air all of them together,
and then they each had separatechains on them as well, as they
were laid down in the middlepassage, laid down in the holes
of ships, because they were notable to come up and use the
(28:34):
bathroom as often as they neededto.
They often urinated anddefecated on each other, which
is also one of the horrors ofbeing transported in the sling
in the holds of ships.
Now, the other reason why theywere stripped naked too is
because most of the voyages tookplace during the summer months,
and so it was over 100 degreessometimes in the holds of ships,
(28:59):
and by stripping them naked itmade them feel cooler even in
the midst of that heat, with noventilation down there.
The question then becomes wouldthat not create problems
relative to sanitary problemsand with the death of the slaves
you just purchased, which meansyou wouldn't get your money?
And yes, that did create aproblem.
(29:21):
And so, on the voyage, as theymade their way to the West
Indies, men were allowed on deckonly twice a day, and they were
allowed on deck twice a day toeat and to be washed, and so
they wanted to minimize thesanitary problems that could
emerge from being in the holesof ships, and usually they would
(29:43):
just take buckets of water thatthey would get from the ocean
and pour it on the slaves, andthey would also use this
granular soap that feels morelike detergent than the bar soap
that we recognize today and usethat as the basis for keeping
(30:04):
the slaves as sanitary as theypossibly could.
The other reason why they werebrought on deck is because they
were made to dance or exerciseso that they could maintain
circulation.
With a voyage as long as sixweeks to three months, you could
have circulation problems ifyou stayed in the holds of ships
(30:24):
and stayed tied up all day.
So what happened is that theywere often made to dance and to
exercise to maintain circulation.
Of course, one of the sadstories that came out of this
aspect of the voyage is thatthat was why some people would
proffer that African-Americanstend to have more rhythm than
other people, including Europeanpeople, because they were made
(30:45):
to dance so much on voyages, butthat has no validity or no
truth whatsoever.
People, including Europeanpeople, because they were made
to dance so much on voyages, butthat has no validity or no
truth whatsoever.
The rhythm that Africans had.
They had long before they wereenslaved.
It didn't take a voyage intobondage for African Americans to
develop rhythm, as well as thefact that dance was a huge
(31:07):
aspect of African culture andthat the drum and dance was a
huge aspect of African cultureand that the drum and dance was
a way of expressing themselvesnot only existentially or
historically, but expressingthemselves in terms of their
encounter with the divine andtheir sociocultural values and
system as well.
And so this notion thatAfricans develop rhythm dancing
(31:32):
on slave voyages is absolutelyuntrue.
Women and children were shackled, but not placed in holds like
men.
Of course.
Now, this has to do more withpatriarchy than it does anything
else.
White men, from day one,because they are men and because
they are patriarchal in theiroutlook on life, feared women
(31:53):
less than men, and in many waysone could make the argument that
white men fear black men moretoday than any other group of
people, any other gender ofpeople.
And so men were put in theholes of ships, but women and
children were shackled but notplaced in holes most times.
(32:14):
There were those rare voyageswhere women and children were
placed in holes of ships, butmost times they were not.
There was, as you might suspect, a high death toll.
Now this becomes very importantfrom an economic standpoint.
After the purchase of theseslaves and, of course, white
planters wanting to quote maketheir money off of their slaves
(32:37):
Disease became rampant.
Even though West Africans weremore immune to European diseases
, disease became rampant.
There were no toilet or washareas and, of course, the
temperatures were 100 degrees,particularly during the summers.
And so that was the reason whythere was a high death toll,
(32:59):
irrespective of the immunity toEuropean diseases.
And that's why you have theemergent philosophy, divergent
philosophy, of ship merchants.
You had two different styles ofship packers.
You had tight packers.
(33:19):
Those were the slave merchantswho packed a lot of slaves, as
many slaves as they could, intoholes of ships, going along the
line that we're going to lose alot of many way, and when we get
to the West Indies we'll havemore of them than if we had not
packed them tightly in the holesof ships.
(33:41):
And then you had other shipmerchants who had a different
philosophy.
Theirs was the opposite.
They were referred to as loosepackers.
That, with this logic, that ifyou gave them more air to
breathe and there were less ofthem to wash and keep fed, then
(34:04):
you would accomplish the sameresult in terms of the number of
slaves who made it to the WestIndies, and you would have done
so placing less slaves in theholds of ships who made it to
the West Indies.
And you would have done soplacing less slaves in the holds
of ships when you left WestAfrica.
And so you had the tightpackers on the one hand and the
loose packers on the other.
So if we break this downmathematically, tight packers
(34:26):
saying you know, I want to get50 slaves to the West Indies,
and so what I'm going to do isthat I'm going to pack 100 in
the holes of ships, seeing thatin my mind there's going to be a
50 percent death rate and I'mgoing to end up with 50 when we
(34:46):
get to the West Indies.
50 will survive, 50 will end updying.
To the West Indies, 50 willsurvive, 50 will end up dying.
Well, the loose packer wouldsay well, I too want to get 50
to the West Indies, but ratherthan packing 100 in the ship, I
want to pack 80 or 75 in theship, or maybe even 70.
And that would decrease thedeath rate because there would
(35:07):
be more room to breathe and tooperate and there would be less
of an opportunity for them toeither try to commit suicide
because by jumping off the ship,because we could watch them
more readily, since it's less ofthem, and that they would be
less immune to a disease thatcould kill them in those
conditions, if there weregreater circulation through less
(35:29):
people.
And so both of them ended upaccomplishing their goals in the
sense that the tight packerended up with 50 when they got
to the West Indies and the loosepacker ended up with 50 when
they got to the West Indies.
And of course that's ahypothetical mathematical
example, but that's the way thatthe math work.
(35:51):
When it came to tight packersand loose Packers, the average
time to the Americas or the WestIndies six weeks to three
months.
That's a broad range and ofcourse that range is broad
because of weather concerns,time, time of year concerns.
(36:13):
If there was a storm that theyeither had to let go by, or a
storm that they had to get pastquickly before it came and had
to run into another storm, thenas a result of that it took
longer than six weeks to getthere, but most voyages took
about six weeks of timeGenerally.
(36:36):
There are some extenuatingcircumstances when it took three
months, but of course the shipswere always packed for three to
four months of food andsupplies because you didn't know
what was going to happen,particularly during the winter
months when the temperature waslower and of course that could
(37:00):
create more illnesses as well.
The estimated number of Africansthat made the voyage in that
250 year period, fromapproximately 1650 to 1850, nine
to 11 million people in 200years.
(37:20):
That's a lot of transporting.
That's 200 years oftransporting several voyages a
year per ship company and perslave trader.
Several voyages a year per shipcompany and per slave trader.
And so the estimated number ofAfricans that made the voyage
nine to 11 million.
And of course the estimatednumber that died en route,
(37:49):
either through disease orsuicide, as they found a way to
maybe get a utensil and stabthemselves or to find a way to
break loose from the shackles ofthe person that they were bound
to and jump overboard Again.
Another misnomer that comes outof this is that sharks came
behind the ships once they movedout of the Ghanaian coast and
(38:10):
into the Atlantic, knowing thatAfricans were going to jump
overboard to kill themselves andsharks would eat them.
That has absolutely no validityto it whatsoever.
But an estimated two milliondied en route through disease or
sickness, and so that gives usabout a seven to nine million
(38:32):
African success rate and I usethe term success, of course,
sarcastically that made thevoyage to the West Indies and
subsequently to the Americas.
And of course most historians,including the great WB Du Bois,
would say that these are bothconservative estimates, that
(38:54):
they're actually lower estimatesthan what actually probably
transpired in terms of number,and so we'll stay with that
conservative estimate of nine to11 million making a voyage, two
million dying en route.
Both of them are modestestimates, and so, now that the
(39:18):
voyages have been completed andslaves have made it to the West
Indies, the question thenbecomes now what happens next?
And of course we began to lookat the distributing of slaves to
various parts of the Americasand to the Caribbean islands,
and we'll look particularly atthe movement of slaves from the
(39:41):
West Indies to the United Statesof America, or what became the
United States of America, ofAmerica as we look at a lecture
I title a strange and hostileland, and we'll look take a look
at the auction block and themovement from the auction block
to plantation life, and we willdeal with that in segment 2.
(40:05):
This completes segment 1 ofthis podcast.
I hope that it was informativeand enlightening.
As we move to segment two,we'll look at now a strange and
hostile land as slaves move fromthe ships to plantation life.
I'm Dr Harry Singleton.
Thank you very much forlistening.
Good night.
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