Source Collection: First Person Accounts - Transatlantic Slave Trade
Document 1
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Author |
Ottabah Cugoano (c. 1757–c. 1791) |
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Date and location |
1787, London, England |
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Source type |
Primary source – autobiography |
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Description |
Ottabah Cugoano was also known as John Stuart. He was captured and enslaved as a child and taken to the Caribbean. From there, a merchant took him to London. He was later freed and joined abolitionist movements. In the excerpt below, Ottabah describes his experiences being kidnapped from his home and acts of resistance onboard the slavers’ ship. |
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Citation |
Cugoano, Ottobah. Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil and Wicked Traffic of the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species: Humbly Submitted to the Inhabitants of Great-Britain. London, 1787. (10–11) |
[W]hen we found ourselves at last taken away..., death was more preferable than life, and a plan was concerted amongst us, that we might burn and blow up the ship, and to perish all together in the flames; but we were betrayed by one of our own countrywomen,...It was the women and boys which were to burn the ship, with the approbation and groans of the rest; though that was prevented, the discovery was likewise a cruel bloody scene…
I was thus lost to my dear indulgent parents and relations, and they to me. All my help was cries and tears... Brought from a state of innocence and freedom, and, in a barbarous and cruel manner, conveyed to a state of horror and slavery: This abandoned situation may be easier conceived than described. From the time that I was [kidnapped] and conducted to a factory, and from thence in the brutish, base, but fashionable way of traffic, consigned to Grenada, the grievous thoughts which I then felt, still pant in my heart; though my fears and tears have long since subsided. And yet it is still grievous to think that thousands more have suffered in similar and greater distress, under the hands of barbarous robbers, and merciless taskmasters…
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Glossary Approbation: approval or praise; often from a person in authority |
Document 2
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Author |
John Newton (1725–1807) |
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Date and location |
1788, London, England |
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Source type |
Primary source – essay |
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Description |
John Newton was a captain of slave ships in the 1750s. Later in life, he became an English church minister and composer. In 1788, he became a supporter of the abolitionist movement. In this excerpt, Newton shows how slavers devalued human life and treated people as something you could calculate and manage. He writes about the horrific conditions in which enslaved people were transported and the suffering and death that resulted. |
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Citation |
Newton, John. The Posthumous Works of the Late Rev. John Newton, Rector of the United Parishes of St. Mary Woolnoth, and St. Mary Woolchurch, Haw, London. Published by the Direction of His Executors (Vol. II). W. W. Woodward, 1811. (247–9) |
With our ships, the great object is to be full... to purchase from [220] to [250] slaves. Their lodging-rooms below the deck... are sometimes more than five feet high, and sometimes less; and this height is divided towards the middle, for the slaves lie in two rows, one above the other, like books upon a shelf... And I have known a white man sent down... to lay them in these rows to the greatest advantage, so that as little space as possible might be lost...
[widespread] fevers and fluxes, which fill the ship with noisome and noxious [odors], often break out, and infect the [sailors] likewise, and thus the oppressors, and the oppressed, fall by the same stroke.
I believe, nearly one-half of the slaves on board, have, sometimes, died; and that the loss of a third part, in these circumstances, is not unusual... I find by my journal of that voyage (now before me), that we buried sixty-two on our passage to South Carolina, exclusive of those which died before we left the coast, of which I have no account.
I believe, upon an average between the more healthy, and the more sickly voyages, and including all contingencies, [one fourth may die]: that is, if the English ships purchase [60,000] slaves annually, upon the whole extent of the coast, the annual loss of lives cannot be much less than [15,000]
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Glossary Devalue: reduce or underestimate the value of a person or thing |
Document 3
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Author |
Olaudah Equiano (1745–1797) |
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Date and location |
1789, London, England |
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Source type |
Primary source – autobiography |
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Description |
Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa as he was known for most of his life, was born in current day Nigeria and was kidnapped and enslaved. In 1766, he was able to purchase his freedom and became an abolitionist. In this excerpt, he tells of his experience being shipped across the Atlantic Ocean on a slave ship. |
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Citation |
Equiano, Olaudah. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa, the African. London, 1794. (47–9) |
... [T]he blacks who brought me on board went off, and left me abandoned to despair. I now saw myself deprived of all chance of returning to my native country... and even wished for my former slavery...
... I was soon put down under the decks, ... with the [awfulness] of the stench... I became so sick and low that I was not able to eat... . I now wished for the last friend, Death, to relieve me... on my refusing to eat, one of them held me fast by the hands, and laid me across... and tied my feet, while the other [beat] me severely. I had never experienced anything of this kind before; and although not being used to the water... nevertheless, could I have got over the nettings, I would have jumped over the side; but I could not; ... I have seen some of these poor African prisoners most severely cut for attempting to [jump], and hourly whipped for not eating...
... I found some of my own nation... I inquired of them what was to be done with us? They give me to understand we were to be carried to these white people’s country to work for them. I then was a little revived [renewed], and thought, if it were no worse than working, my situation was not so desperate: but still I feared I should be put to death... for I had never seen among any people such instances of brutal cruelty...
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Glossary Stench: a bad smell |
Document 4
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Author |
Sibell (unknown–unknown) |
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Date and location |
1799, Barbados |
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Source type |
Primary source – oral history |
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Description |
Sibell was an elderly enslaved woman in Barbados. There is very little known about her life other than what is included in the excerpt below. John Ford collected her narrative and transcribed her story of being captured. There is very little known about the life of John Ford as well. The text is in a dialect of English called Creole which was used by some enslaved people at that time. |
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Citation |
Bodleian MS. Eng. Misc. b.4, fols. 50, 1. Printed in full in Handler, J.S. “Life Histories of Enslaved Africans in Barbados.” Slavery and Abolition 19 (1998). |
I [had been very] fond of my sister—and she went out of [the] house one day and left me alone, and my [brother]-in-Law [came] in, and [took] me up and [said] he [was] going to carry me to see his [other] wife. He [took] and [carried] me all night and day [away] from my Country—and he [carried] me to a long House full of new [black people] talking and [singing]—But [very few of them were from] my Country and my [brother]-in-Law [sold] me to [the] Back-erah people. [I never saw] White people before... [or]... great ships [upon] de water before... [or the] ... waves before which [frightened me so much I thought I] would die... My [brother] in Law took up [the] Gun and [the] Powder which he [sold] me for and wanted to get ’way from me, but me [held] he and [cried]—and [then]... he [ran] away from me—[The] sailors [kept] me... [a] long time and [brought] down two [every] day ’till [the] long house [was] full—
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Glossary Back-erah: a Creole term used by enslaved people to refer to white European slavers |
Document 5
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Author |
Mahommah Gardo Baquaqua (c. 1824–unknown) |
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Date and location |
1854, Detroit, USA |
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Source type |
Primary source – autobiography |
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Description |
Mahommah Gardo Baquaqua was a slave who was taken from Africa to Brazil. He later went to New York and escaped to freedom. As a free man, he was an abolitionist. In the excerpt below, Baquaqua describes his journey across the Atlantic Ocean on a slave ship. |
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Citation |
Baquaqua, Mahommah G. Biography of Mahommah G. Baquaqua, a Native of Zoogoo, in the Interior of Africa. Detroit, 1854. (43–4). |
Oh! the loathsomeness and filth of that horrible [ship] will never be effaced from my memory…
The only food we had during the voyage was corn soaked and boiled. I cannot tell how long we were thus confined, but it seemed a very long while. We suffered very much for want of water, but was denied all we needed. A pint a day was all that was allowed... a great many slaves died upon the passage. There was one poor fellow became so very desperate for want of water, that he attempted to snatch a knife from the white man who brought in the water, when he was taken up on deck and I never knew what became of him. I supposed he was thrown overboard…
We arrived at Pernambuco, South America, early in the morning... All that day we neither ate or drank anything, and we were... to remain perfectly silent, and not make any out-cry, otherwise our lives were in danger. But when... the anchor dropped, and we were permitted to go on deck to be viewed and handled by our future masters. We landed a few miles from the city, at a farmer’s house, which was... [a] slave market. The farmer had a great many slaves... I saw him use the lash pretty freely on a boy... I imagined that would be my [fate before] long, and oh! too soon, alas! were my fears realized.
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Glossary Loathsome: extremely unpleasant; disgusting |
Document 6
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Author |
Phillys Wheatley |
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Date and location |
1773, London, United Kingdom |
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Source type |
Primary – poem |
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Description |
“On Being Brought from Africa to America” was first published in Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral in London in 1773. |
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Citation |
Wheatley, Phillys “On Being Brought from Africa to America.” The Poetry Foundation. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45465/on-being-brought-from-africa-to-america |
Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land,
Taught my benighted soul to understand
That there’s a God, that there’s a Saviour too:
Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.
Some view our sable race with scornful eye,
“Their colour is a diabolic die.”
Remember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain,
May be refin’d, and join th’ angelic train.
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Glossary Pagan: a term used to describe people who practice religions outside of Christianity, Judaism, or Islam; often used negatively |