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Roots: A History Revealed - The Slave Auction | History

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Slave ships were large cargo ships specially designed for the purpose of transporting slaves. Slave ships spent several months travelling to different parts of the coast, buying their cargo. The captives were often in poor health from the physical and mental abuse they had suffered. They were taken on board, stripped naked and examined from head to toe by the captain or surgeon.

Conditions on board ship during the Middle Passage were appalling. The men were packed together below deck and were secured by leg irons. The space was so cramped they were forced to crouch or lie down. Women and children were kept in separate quarters, sometimes on deck, allowing them limited freedom of movement, but this also exposed them to violence and sexual abuse from the crew.

The air in the hold was foul. Seasickness was common and the heat was oppressive. The lack of sanitation and suffocating conditions meant there was a constant threat of disease. In good weather the captives were brought on deck in mid-morning and forced to exercise. They were fed twice a day and those refusing to eat were force-fed. Those who died were thrown overboard. The combination of disease, inadequate food, rebellion and punishment took a heavy toll on captives and crew alike. Surviving records suggest that until the 1750s one in five Africans on board ship died.

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This castle in Cape Coast, Ghana was one of around 40 “slave castles” that served as prisons and boarding points for slaves on the way to the Americas (the Caribbean, South America, and the U.S.). Thousands of enslaved Africans from regions near and far, sometimes hundreds of miles away, were taken to these castles to be sold to slave ships. As many as 1,500 slaves were held in the castle dungeons at any one time.

One of the most well known parts of Cape Coast Castle is the “Door of No Return,” which led slaves out of the castle and onto the ships setting off on the Middle Passage. Their boat journeys could last several months, and an estimated 15 percent of slaves died aboard. Somewhere around 12 millions slaves were sent from Africa, millions of whom died in the process.

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A fugitive slave, was any individual who escaped from slavery. In general, they fled to Canada or to free states in the North, though Florida (for a time under Spanish control) was also a place of refuge.
The danger and difficulty in escaping from slavery are hard to imagine. Most slaves were illiterate and had no money and few, if any, possessions. The color of their skin made them easy targets during the daylight for those who would hunt them down—often with the help of bloodhounds—and return them to their owners.

Many runaways had long distances to travel on foot before they were able to reach safety in a free state or in Canada. Not surprisingly, then, the vast majority of slaves who escaped were captured. Most of those who were returned to their owners were severely punished in an effort to deter others from attempting to leave.

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For some young women, puberty marked the beginning of a lifetime of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse from masters and mistresses, overseers, male slaves, and members of the planter family. For others, work in the planter's home included close interaction with their owners, which often led to intimate relationships with white men or friendships with white women. House servants spent time tending to the needs of their plantation mistresses—dressing them, combing their hair, sewing their clothing or blankets, nursing their infants, and preparing their meals. They were on call twenty-four hours a day and spent a great deal of time on their feet.

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What kind of abuse and punishments did slaves have to endure?

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What kind of abuse and punishments did slaves have to endure?

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Slaves were punished for a number of reasons: working too slowly, breaking a law  leaving the plantation without permission, or to reinforce the owner's dominance. Whites punished slaves publicly to set an example. A man named Harding describes an incident in which a woman assisted several men in a minor rebellion: "The women he lifted up by the thumbs, whipp'd and slashed her with knives before the other slaves till she died."

Slave overseers were authorized to whip and punish slaves. One overseer told a visitor, "Some Negroes are determined never to let a white man whip them and will resist you, when you attempt it; of course you must kill them in that case." A former slave describes witnessing females being whipped: "They usually screamed and prayed, though a few never made a sound." If the woman was pregnant, workers might dig a hole for her to rest her belly while being whipped. After slaves were whipped, overseers might order their wounds be opened and rubbed with red pepper.

The branding of slaves for identification was common during the colonial era; however, by the nineteenth century it was used primarily as punishment. Mutilation (such as removing teeth or amputating ears) was a relatively common punishment. Any punishment was permitted for runaway slaves, and many had wounds from shotgun blasts or dog bites used by their captors.

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The Atlantic slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. The slave trade regularly used the triangular trade route and its Middle Passage for 3 centuries.
The majority of those who were enslaved and transported in the slave trade were people from Central and West Africa, who had been sold by other West Africans to Western European slave traders (with a small number being captured directly by the slave traders in raids), who brought them to the Americas.
About 12 million to 12.8 million Africans were shipped across the Atlantic over a span of 400 years. Near the beginning of the 19th century, various governments acted to ban the trade, although illegal smuggling still occurred.

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The treatment of slaves in the United States varied by time and place, but was generally brutal, especially on plantations. Whipping was routine; slaves were sometimes required to whip other slaves, even family members. Families were often split up by the sale of one or more members. There were certainly some kind slave owners, but not on large plantations. Only a small number of slaves received decent treatment, and even that could vanish on such occasion as an owner's death.