Equiano Project

 The Equiano group’s project was extremely enlightening. I knew slave ships were bad, but not that bad. A 45% mortality rate is absolutely horrendous. I literally cannot imagine living in captivity so close to other people. It really makes you appreciate everything you have/ all the space you have to move around. It also seems counter-intuitive. When so many of the people you need to sell die, aren’t you losing money? It would make more sense to create habitable environments. In light of this, it seems like those who forced slaves to be in the ships were simply evil. It is also saddening, but not surprising to learn of the commonality of suicide. When faced when actual torture, it is not suprising that many people chose death. Even when healthy, the outlook of servitude was probably horrifying. What I found most interesting were the revolts. I had not thought about the idea that slaves could revolt, and it is encouraging that the enslaved people did not give up. Apparently around 10% of all slave ships experienced some sort of revolt, and this number is way way higher than I anticipated. It is also encouraging to see that US abolitionists had enough of a moral code to defend the revolters. The revolt on the Creole was also interesting because they were able to navigate the ship to the Bahamas. All in all, it is astonishing how a human could treat another human like an animal. I hope the stories of the slave ships continue to circulate and be shared in educational settings. 


Comments

  1. KrisFebruary 22, 2022 at 2:03 PM

    Although a 45% mortality rate is definitely shocking, I honestly wouldn't have been surprised if there was a mortality rate closer to 100% due to the conditions. I mean, even if there were less mouths to feed, I doubt that the traders would give the slaves any more than they thought necessary. In that sense, the fact that the worst slave ship had a 55% survival rate reflects the resilience of the captured slaves.

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