The Slave Ship - book

I have been reading The Slave Ship by Marcus Rediker. A fine book, as the title suggests, it is primarily about the ships that were employed for this dismal trade. Although there are, of course, references to the slaves and their treatment, this book offers details about the construction of the ships, design, tonnage, amenities (or lack of them), provisions, profits, and most importantly, the officers and sailors who served on them. Rediker describes them as machines that operated for one purpose only, acquiring and transporting human beings as slaves. He traces these various types of vessels from their construction in places like Liverpool and Bristol, to the coast of Africa where they purchased whatever slaves they could find, to their Atlantic crossings to deliver this human cargo to the “New World,” and then back to Liverpool with their loads of sugar, lumber, and other commodities. The horrors of this miserable enterprise are carefully described, from the terrible conditions the slaves had to endure to the common practice of throwing their dead bodies (and sometimes even live bodies) to the sharks. The death toll was always considerable. Male slaves were typically shackled together with at least one other, often two prisoners together who did not even speak the same language (this was done deliberately to help prevent insurrections), they were given barely room for their bodies for hours at a time, could relieve themselves only with great difficulty, were subject to numerous diseases, and allowed only minimal exposure to fresh air and exercise. Needless to say there were frequent attempted rebellions, suicides, and hunger strikes. Occasionally a ship’s captain and/or part of the crew were killed, but of course in general the rebellions were harshly punished. So many slaves attempted suicide by throwing themselves overboard the ships were fitted with nets to prevent them from succeeding. Paradoxically, slaves were not treated so horribly because of hate or prejudice, but, rather, for purely economic considerations. The captains had to carry as many slaves as possible, and they also had to at least try to keep them alive and in reasonably good health, else they were not marketable. But under the circumstances keeping them healthy was not an easy task and the mortality was always high. Slaves were basically a valuable commodity and treated as such. Most slavers tried for younger people, between 14 and 25 or thereabouts. They usually took two men for every woman. And the also took a percentage of children, usually 10 and above. Women tended to be selected for their looks and suffered many indignities (women with sagging breasts, for example, were generally not taken).

What I found even more interesting than the treatment of the slaves, was the plight of the sailors that were engaged in the slave trade. Aside from the officers, the sailors represented pretty much the dregs of society. Those that were hired on these floating prisons were themselves often former prisoners, or men who agreed to serve to avoid prison sentences, or others who were tricked in one way or another to serve, often by not being told what the ships was actually going to do. These seamen were expendable and a great many died on these voyages. As they were treated brutally at times by their officers they often took out their feelings on the slaves. The conditions under which they were forced to live at sea were hardly better than the slaves and it was often the case they felt they were not fed as well as the slaves. Punishments for any infractions of the rules were harsh indeed, and the cat of nine tails was commonly used on sailors as well as slaves. The captains at sea were the law, absolutely, and they could do as they wished. Naturally, some captains were far worse than others. One, for example, was known to have whipped a 15 year old slave girl to death because she refused to dance nude for him. He was acquitted because it was believed those who testified against him held grudges against him. Still another captain repeatedly flogged an infant because it refused to eat. When it finally died he forced the mother (through flogging) to throw its body overboard. It was not uncommon for sailors to be whipped just as severely. Not only that, sailors were sometimes abandoned by their captains and left in port when they were sick and/or destitute. This was because when the ship was loaded with slaves it required more sailors than when it was on a return voyage loaded with less volatile cargo. Ship owners were known to suggest to their captains they might jettison some of their excess sailors to save expenses, which they did. This practice became so commonplace that in a few places special hospitals had to be created to deal with this surplus humanity. All in all, this book gives one a realistic view of this absolutely horrible time in human history. You cannot help but be struck by the horror of it all. Even so, as Rediker chose to focus primarily on the ship itself and its operations, and less so on the human dramas that were being played out, you do not come away with the same shock and horror that you find in books like King Leopold’s Ghost, The Devil Came on Horseback, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, and others of that genre.

I must say that my reading in the past two or three years, mostly for a book I was working on, Savages and Savagery (which is in publication), makes me wonder how it is that the human species has managed to survive at all. The conditions under which our ancestors, even the best of them, lived, were harsh indeed, especially for those who were not born into some form of nobility. Consider even trying to cross the United States in a covered wagon, or exploring in Equatorial Africa, or Siberia, or trying to eke out a living on the prairies of Kansas with 40 acres and a mule, or voyaging across the Atlantic with Columbus, or whatever. I don’t know about you, but I’m sure I wouldn’t have lasted more than two or three days, at best. If you put it in the proper perspective I guess even Bush/Cheney haven’t been all that bad (yet). When I read our history, which is little more than a chronicle of man’s unbelievable inhumanity to his fellows, I am forced to the conclusion there is a fatal flaw in the human species. I cannot pinpoint it precisely but it has to do with the psychology of power and interpersonal relationships. Other species rarely fight to the death over anything, and they certainly do not torture. They manage to get along. We, on the other hand, seem to lack similar mechanisms, and, more importantly, we also seem to lack empathy beyond a very narrow range of family and kin. Is this just a sadistic prank being played on us by our so-called “intelligent designers?”

I am not a conspiracy buff but I am truly beginning to believe the animals are engaged in a conspiracy to strike back at humans. I have mentioned this before. Now, in Sweden, the Elk (what we know as Moose) are getting drunk and attacking children and schools (I am not making this up). Grizzly bears, black bears, monkeys, baboons, sharks, elephants, rats, and now moose. What next, house mice?

LKBIQ:
It's a lot like nature. You only have as many animals as the ecosystem can support and you only have as many friends as you can tolerate the bitching of.
Randy K. Milholland