AN
ACCOUNT
OF THE
SLAVE TRADE
ON THE
Coast of Africa.
BY
ALEXANDER FALCONBRIDGE,
Late Surgeon in the African Trade
LONDON:
Printed by J. Phillips, George Yard, Lombard-street.
MDCCLXXXVIII.
[Pg iii]
PREFACE.
The following sheets are intended to lay before the public the presentstate of a branch of the British commerce, which, ever since itsexistence, has been held in detestation by all good men, but at thistime more particularly engages the attention of the nation, and isbecome the object of general reprobation.
Leaving to abler pens to expatiate more at large on the injustice andinhumanity of the Slave Trade, I shall content myself withgiving some account of the hardships which the unhappy objects of itundergo, and the cruelties they suffer, from the period of their beingreduced to a state of slavery, to their being disposed of in the WestIndia islands; where, I fear, their grievances find little alleviation.At the same time, I shall treat of a subject, which appears not to havebeen attended to in the manner its importance requires; that is, thesufferings and loss of the seamen employed in this trade; which, fromthe intemperature of the climate, the inconveniencies they labour underduring the voyage, and the severity of most of the commanders, occasionthe destruction of great numbers annually.
And this I shall endeavour to do by the recital of a number of factswhich have fallen under my own immediate observation, or the knowledgeof which I have obtained from persons on whose veracity I can depend.
And happy shall I esteem myself, if an experience obtained by a seriesof inquiries and observations, made during several voyages to thecoast[Pg iv] of Africa, shall enable me to render any service to a cause,which is become the cause of every person of humanity.
Before I proceed to the methods of obtaining the slaves, and theirsubsequent treatment, the treatment of the sailors, and a conciseaccount of the places on the coast of Africa where slaves are obtained,(which I purpose to annex,) it may not be unnecessary to give a shortsketch of the usual proceedings of the ships employed in the slavetrade.
[Pg 5]
AN
ACCOUNT
OF THE
SLAVE TRADE, &c.
Proceedings during the Voyage.
On the arrival of the ships at Bonny, and New Calabar, it is customaryfor them to unbend the sails, strike the yards and topmasts, and beginto build what they denominate a house. This is effected in thefollowing manner. The sailors first lash the booms and yards from mastto mast, in order to form a ridge-pole. About ten feet above thedeck, several spars, equal in length to the ridge pole, are next lashedto the standing rigging, and form a wall-plate. Across the ridge-poleand wall-plate, several other spars or rafters are afterwards laidand lashed, at the distance of about six inches from each other. Onthese, other rafters or spars are laid length-wise, equal in extentto the ridge-pole, so as to form a kind of[