African Voices of the Atlantic Slave Trade by Anne Bailey

Author:Anne Bailey [Bailey, Anne C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-8070-5519-9
Publisher: Beacon Press
Published: 2005-08-14T16:00:00+00:00

LEG 5, LANDING IN CUBA: DESPERATE MEASURES AND DEVASTATING IMPACT

The terror of the Middle Passage continued upon landing in the Caribbean. Here, too, the system changed with the passage of time. The nineteenth-century period of abolition saw a reversion to some of the earlier horrors of the trade. This was due in large part to the smugglers’ attempts to avoid capture. The laws of suppression were such that the African Squadron could not arrest the captain and crew of a suspected slaver if there were no slaves on board. Smugglers, knowing this fact, sought to get around the letter of the law by dumping all evidence of slave activity, including their innocent human cargo. This kind of activity, though it has been largely documented through isolated incidents, points to the horrific developments that took place at the end of the slave trade. Such developments could only have had a devastating impact on the African peoples aboard these vessels. What system did remain generally deteriorated into one in which there was little respect on the part of traders and plantation owners for the human beings in their charge. As such, in this leg of the trade Africans suffered some of the most devastating blows of all.88

Until the abolition, slavers would land at the major ports of Cuba, the reported destination of the ship in the Atorkor incident. By the mid-nineteenth century, however, to avoid capture slavers endeavored to find other ways to unload their cargo. According to Aimes, “Cargoes were run at a preconcerted time and place. The bozales [recently enslaved Africans] were put into rowboats, small sailing vessels, even steamers and distributed along the coast at places far from the original landing where they were least expected.”89 The safe landing of slaves often required the collusion of selected government officials on the island who accepted bribes. Once landed, the ship would then be burned to destroy all evidence of its existence.90 One such case was reported in the Anti-Slavery Reporter (September 1, 1858): “The W. D. Miller, a vessel previously seen under American colours in Cuba, escaped from her Majesty’s ship Teazer, discharged slaves in Cuba and was burned there to avoid subsequent condemnation.”91 Wealthy estate owners such as the infamous Julian De Zuletta and other “Sugar Nobles,” as they were called, would eagerly await the ships’ arrival.93

Another issue was the question of sale and prices. In the years before the abolition, the “scramble” or the slave auction were the methods of choice for selling slaves. A ship would dock at the port of Havana and its slaves would disembark after having been washed and primed for sale. At an appointed time, plantation owners would “scramble” around in an effort to choose the best, most able-bodied slaves they could lay their hands on. This apparent mayhem often engendered an overwhelming sense of panic and fear on the part of the slaves about their fate and future.94 Otherwise, there was the standard slave auction, where landowners bid their best prices for the slave of their choosing.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.