Slavery, Resistance & Rebellion
The Capture of Slaves in Africa
Slaves being moved to the coast of Africa destined for St. Domingue, 1786.
The slave chain, Little Popo, 1849.
An African dealer marches Slaves to the coast where they will be sold.
The Slave Ships
Slaves being moved to the coast of Africa destined for St. Domingue, 1786.
An African dealer marches Slaves to the coast where they will be sold.
The slave chain, Little Popo, 1849.
A page from the log book of the Black Prince, a slave ship sailing out of Bristol in 1763.
A page from the log book of the Black Prince, a slave ship sailing out of Bristol in 1763. This page notes that there are 488 slaves on board.
The entry for Tuesday 22nd (above left) describes an uprising by the slaves -
This 24 hours light winds and hazey weather at 1/2 past 3 am found the slaves was intending to rise got all under arms and soon got them quited tho a great numb~ of them had broken there irons came on board Capt. Johnstons people to our assistance at 6 am got some of them up and got them secured found out 20 of which was the ring leasders which was well flogged washed slaves -
From Bristol Central Reference Library. refinfo@bristol.gov.uk
The Selling of Slaves
Gate & Slave Market at Pernambuco, Brazil, 1821.
"Dealers inspecting a Negro at a slave auction in Virginia", 1861
European and African slave traders, 1856.
Slave Market on the Kambia River, Coast of Africa. A woodcut from an oil painting from 1840.
Spanish "gentlemen" selecting slaves in Cuba, 1837.
An imagined picture of a slave auction used as propaganda before the American Civil War.
A Bristol gun maker's business card.
From Bristol Central Reference Library.
refinfo@bristol.gov.uk
The Plantations
Slave Market on the Kambia River, Coast of Africa. A woodcut from an oil painting from 1840.
An imagined picture of a slave auction used as propaganda before the American Civil War.
European and African slave traders, 1856.
The Punishments
Punishment of the Four Stakes, 1849.
Plantation overseer punishes a slave in Brazil, 1834.
An Interior View of a Jamaica House of Correction, 1834.
The Abolitionists
John Newton. Slave ship captain and writer of several hundred hymns including Amazing Grace. He later became an abolitionist.
Olaudah Equiano. A slave who bought his freedom and later campaigned against slavery in England.
Granville Sharp. A pioneer of the anti-slavery movement.
The frontispiece and title pages
of the first London (1789)
and New York (1791)
editions of The Interesting Narrative
by Olaudah Equiano.
Thomas Clarkson. Bravely collected information from Bristol and Liverpool that would be used in the Abolition Bill of 1807.
William Wilberforce. The abolition movement's chief voice in Parliament.
Grateful slaves receive the "gift" of emancipation from Britannia. 1838.
The Revolts
Toussaint L'Ouverture, a Maroon* leader from Haiti, he defeated both British and French armies. Above right and possibly left by C. H. Dietrich.
Jamaican Maroon* Captain Leonard Parkinson, 1796. Engraver Abraham Raimbach. From B. Edwards, The Proceedings of the Governor and Assembly of Jamaica, in Regard to the Maroon Negroes - A copy of this book is available in Bristol Central Reference Library.
'Rt. Excellent Samuel Sharpe, National Hero' on the Bank of Jamaica $50 note. Sharpe was an educated town slave who became the leader of the 1831 Jamaica uprising.
A Jamaican slave revolt, 1759. From Histoire d'Angleterre by David Francois.
*The history of the Maroons primarily is the saga of Africans who refused to live in slavery, and it begins on the island of Jamaica with the fleeing of the Spanish in 1655. The name Maroon is the British corruption of the Spanish cimarrones, meaning wild or untamed. Living in inaccessible regions of Jamaica, the numbers of the Maroons grew as more and more runaway slaves, this time from the new British plantations, flocked to their cause, and with their continual raiding of the British plantations, they rapidly became a thorn in the side of the British colonists. Unique among all Africans that were brought to the New World as slaves, the Maroons earned for themselves an autonomy that no other African slaves could. (Wikipedia) In 1795-6 the Maroons of Jamaica revolted against the colonial government. The revolt failed. At the request of Jamaica about six hundred Maroons were then transported to Nova Scotia and given assistance in settling here. In 1800 virtually all of them emigrated to Sierra Leone. (www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm/virtual/africanns/ch3.asp?Language=English)
Fire of the Cape Francais in Saint Domingo
A slave rebel army hanging French officers in St. Domingue. From Marcus Rainsford, An Historical Account of the Black Empire of Hayti (London, 1805)
Fire in Saint-Domingo 1791, German copper engraving.
Warships in the bay, buildings burning and general chaos on shore, as the French military are chased from Saint Domingue, 1820.
Death of Capt. Ferrer, the Captain of the Amistad, July, 1839.**
"Even though the enemy was beaten, the victory didn't seem to belong to us yet, and the danger became even greater in front of the resistance of the slaves and our exhaustion." 1883, Albert Laporte
**In 1839, Africans being carried aboard La Amistad from Havana, Cuba, to Puerto Principe, Cuba, were led by fellow captive Joseph Cinqué in a revolt against their captors. Their transport from Africa to the Americas was illegal, and they were fraudulently described as having been born in Cuba. After the revolt, the Africans demanded to be returned home, but the ship's navigator deceived them about their course, and sailed them north along the North American coast to Long Island, New York. The schooner was subsequently taken into custody by the United States Navy; and the Africans, who were deemed salvage from the vessel, were taken to Connecticut to be sold as slaves. There ensued a widely publicized court case about the ship and the legal status of the African captives. This incident figured prominently in abolitionism in the United States. On March 9 1840, Associate Justice Joseph Story delivered the Court's decision. Article IX of Pinckney's Treaty was ruled off topic since the Africans in question were never legal property. They were not criminals, as the U.S. Attorney's Office argued, but, rather, "unlawfully kidnapped, and forcibly and wrongfully carried on board a certain vessel". The surviving 36 Africans travelled back to Africa early in 1842. (wikipedia)
"A slave revolt is terrible because one cannot fire on them, since each man is worth at least 1,000 francs", 1883, Albert Laporte.
A slave revolt.
A slave rebel from 'Narrative of a Five Years' Expedition, against the revolted Negroes of Surinam [between French Guiana and Guyana]. from the year 1772, to 1777, by John Gabriel Stedman.
What Followed Slavery?
Many of these pictures are taken from a large collection of pictures covering all aspects of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade at The Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas: A Visual Record (University of Virginia). Also the Memories of Slavery archive at Trier University is worth a visit.
Thanks to Bristol Central Reference Library and Adam Hochschild.
