Prior to his departure to the neighboring locale of Grand Bassa, on 12 January 1751, he discharged several seamen to 'put a boy on, No. (1)Īs sickness continued to advance, Newton chose to draw upon available coastal resources in hopes of restoring the health of some of those enslaved. Following his arrival in a region referred to as 'Rio Junque,' West Africa, the unhealthy environment aboard ship appeared to hinder Newton's future trading voyages and forced him to declare, 'Having so many sick, am afraid shall not be able to keep our boats going,' presumably to conclude any of his immediate slaving endeavors. However, as he traveled the waters venturing into different coastal areas, he confronted several instances of declining health among purchased bondpeople and several crew members. Much to his satisfaction, the number of captives he boarded on his ship increased. After docking close to a month later, he entered into business negotiations with local merchants for the procurement of various goods-both human and non-human. On 11 August 1750, British ship captain John Newton departed Liverpool aboard the vessel, Duke of Argyle, setting sail for the Windward Coast of Africa. If (('gtm=off') const isAppRedirect = ('appRedirect') Ĭonst isAndroid = /Android/i.test(erAgent) Ĭonst isIphone = /iPhone|iPad|iPod/i.test(erAgent) Mustakeem relates how this process, and related power struggles, played out not just for adult men, but also for women, children, teens, infants, nursing mothers, the elderly, diseased, ailing, and dying. As she shows, crewmen manufactured captives through enforced dependency, relentless cycles of physical, psychological terror, and pain that led to the making-and unmaking-of enslaved Africans held and transported onboard slave ships. Mining ship logs, records, and personal documents, Mustakeem teases out the social histories produced between those on traveling ships: slaves, captains, sailors, and surgeons. Sowande' Mustakeem's groundbreaking study goes inside the Atlantic slave trade to explore the social conditions and human costs embedded in the world of maritime slavery. Expanding the gaze even more widely, the book centers on how the oceanic transport of human cargoes-known as the infamous Middle Passage-comprised a violently regulated process foundational to the institution of bondage. This book reveals for the first time how it took critical shape at sea. Most times left solely within the confine of plantation narratives, slavery was far from a land-based phenomenon.

Sowande mustakeem slavery at sea