The Great Stain

by Noel Rae

  Soon he came to a country where the language was different and the people “ate without washing their hands. They cooked their provisions also in iron pots, and had European cutlasses and crossbows, which were unknown to us; and fought with their fists among themselves. The women were not so modest as ours, for they ate, drank and slept with their men. But, above all, I was amazed to see no sacrifices or offerings among them. In some of those places the people ornamented themselves with scars, and likewise filed their teeth very sharp. They sometimes wanted to ornament me in the same manner, but I would not suffer them; hoping that I might sometime be among a people who did not thus disfigure themselves.”

  But such hopes of a return were not to be; instead, he was put into a canoe and taken on a long journey down an unnamed river, through a fertile countryside with large crops of vegetables and tobacco, and where cotton grew wild. Finally, they reached the river’s mouth. “The first object that saluted my eyes when I arrived on the coast was the sea, and a slave ship, which was then riding at anchor and waiting for its cargo.” He was taken on board where he “was immediately handled and tossed up to see if I was sound, by some of the crew; and I was now persuaded that I had got into a world of bad spirits, and that they were going to kill me. Their complexions too, differing so much from ours, their long hair, the language they spoke, which was very different from any I had ever heard, united to confirm me in this belief … When I looked round the ship too, and saw a large furnace or copper boiling, and a multitude of black people of every description chained together, every one of their countenances expressing dejection and sorrow, I no longer doubted of my fate; and, quite overpowered with horror and anguish, I fell motionless on the deck, and fainted.

  “When I recovered a little I found some black people about me, who I believed were some of those who brought me on board and had been receiving their pay; they talked to me in order to cheer me, but all in vain. I asked them if we were not to be eaten by those white men with horrible looks, red faces and long hair. They told me I was not, and one of the crew brought me a small portion of spirituous liquor in a wine glass; but being afraid of him I would not take it out of his hand. One of the blacks therefore took it from him and gave it to me, and I took a little down my palate, which, instead of reviving me, as they thought it would, threw me into the greatest consternation at the strange feeling it produced, having never tasted any such liquor before. Soon after this the blacks who brought me on board went off and left me abandoned to despair.

  “I was not long suffered to indulge my grief. I was soon put down under the decks, and there I received such a salutation in my nostrils as I had never experienced in my life; so that, with the loathsomeness of the stench, and with my crying together, I became so sick and low that I was not able to eat, nor had I the least desire to taste anything. I now wished for the last friend, death, to relieve me; but soon, to my grief, two of the white men offered me eatables; and on my refusing to eat one of them held me fast by the hands and laid me across, I think, the windlass, and tied my feet, while the other flogged me severely. I had never experienced anything of this kind before, and although, not being used to the water, I naturally feared that element the first time I saw it, yet nevertheless, could I have got over the nettings, I would have jumped over the side, but I could not; and besides, the crew used to watch us very closely, who were not chained down to the decks, lest we should leap into the water. I have seen some of these poor African prisoners most severely cut for attempting to do so, and hourly whipped for not eating. This indeed was often the case with myself.

  “In a little time after, amongst the poor chained men, I found some of my own nation, which in a small degree gave ease to my mind. I inquired of these what was to be done with us. They gave me to understand we were to be carried to these white people’s country to work for them. I was then a little revived, and thought if it were no worse than working my situation was not so desperate. But still I feared I should be put to death, the white people looked and acted, as I thought, in so savage a manner; for I had never seen among any people such instances of brutal cruelty; and this is not only shown towards us blacks but also to some of the whites themselves. One white man in particular I saw, when we were permitted to be on deck, flogged so unmercifully with a large rope near the foremast that he died in consequence of it; and they tossed him over the side as they would have done a brute. This made me fear these people even more; and I expected nothing less than to be treated in the same manner.

  “At last, when the ship in which we were had got in all her cargo, they made ready with many fearful noises, and we were all put under deck so that we could not see how they managed the vessel. But this disappointment was the least of my grief. The stench of the hold while we were on the coast was so intolerably loathsome that it was dangerous to remain there for any time, and some of us had been permitted to stay on the deck for the fresh air; but now that the whole ship’s cargo were confined together, it became absolutely pestilential. The closeness of the place and the heat of the climate, added to the number in the ship being so crowded that each had scarcely room to turn himself, almost suffocated us. This produced copious perspiration so that the air soon became unfit for respiration, from a variety of loathsome smells, and brought on a sickness among the slaves of which many died, thus falling victims to the improvident avarice, as I may call it, of their purchasers. This deplorable situation was again aggravated by the galling of the chains, now become insupportable; and the filth of the necessary tubs, into which the children often fell and were almost suffocated. The shrieks of the women and the groans of the dying rendered it a scene of horror almost inconceivable. Happily, perhaps, for myself, I was soon reduced so low here that it was thought necessary to keep me almost continually on deck; and from my extreme youth, I was not put in fetters.

  “One day, when we had a smooth sea and moderate wind, two of my wearied countrymen, who were chained together, (I was near them at the time,) preferring death to such a life of misery, somehow made through the nettings and jumped into the sea. Immediately, another quite dejected fellow, who on account of his illness was suffered to be out of irons also followed their example; and I believe many more would very soon have done the same if they had not been prevented by the ship’s crew, who were instantly alarmed. Those of us who were the most active were in a moment put down under the deck, and there was such a noise and confusion amongst the people of the ship as I never heard before, to stop her and get the boat out to go after the slaves. However, two of the wretches were drowned; but they got the other, and afterward flogged him unmercifully for thus attempting to prefer death to slavery.”

  First published by English abolitionists in 1788, this picture of the slave ship Brookes soon became iconic. An accompanying text explained that by allowing a space of six feet by one foot four inches for a man, and a little less for a woman, the ship could hold 454 slaves; however, on earlier voyages the Brookes had carried over six hundred. Slave ships were easy to recognize at sea by the netting draped over the sides to prevent suicides, by their overpowering stench, and by the sharks that followed, waiting to devour the dead bodies thrown overboard almost every day.

  CHAPTER 4

  THE MIDDLE PASSAGE

  WE RETURN NOW TO CAPTAIN PHILLIPS OF THE HANNIBAL WHO EARLIER described how he had fought the French and successfully traded for slaves with the king of Whydah. “Having bought my complement of 700 slaves, viz. 480 men and 220 women, and finished all my business at Whydah, I took my leave of the old king and his cappashiers and parted with many affectionate expressions on both sides.” After a few formalities, “I set sail the 27th of July [1694] in the morning, accompanied by the East-India Merchant, who had bought 650 slaves, for the island of St. Thomas [Sao Thomé], with the wind at the west-south-west.”

  Before continuing his log, Phillips described how he handled his cargo: “When our slaves are aboard we shackle the men two and two while we lie in port and in sight of their own co
untry, for ‘tis then they attempt to make their escape, and mutiny; to prevent which we always keep sentinels upon the hatch-ways, and have a chest of small arms ready loaden and primed constantly lying at hand upon the quarter-deck, together with some granada shells; and two of our quarter-deck guns pointing on the deck thence, and two more out of the steerage, the door of which is always kept shut and well barred. They are fed twice a day, at 10 in the morning and 4 in the evening, which is the time they are aptest to mutiny, being all upon deck; therefore all that time what of our men are not employed in distributing their victuals to them and settling them, stand to their arms; and some with lighted matches at the great guns that yaun upon them, loaden with partridge [small shot] till they have done and gone down to their kennels between decks.

  “Their chief diet is called dabbadabb, being Indian corn ground as small as oatmeal in iron mills which we carry for that purpose; and after mixed with water and boiled well in a large copper furnace till ‘tis as thick as a pudding; about a peckful of which in vessels called crews is allowed to ten men, with a little salt, malagetta and palm oil to relish. They are divided into messes of ten each for the easier and better order in serving them. Three days a week they have horse-beans boiled for their dinner and supper, great quantities of which the African Company do send aboard us for that purpose; these beans the Negroes extremely love and desire, beating their breasts eating them and crying Pram! Pram! which is Very good! They are indeed the best diet for them, having a binding quality and consequently good to prevent the flux [dysentery], which is the inveterate distemper that most affects them and ruins our voyages by their mortality. The men are all fed upon the main deck and forecastle, that we may have them all under command of our guns from the quarter-deck, in case of any disturbance; the women eat upon the quarter-deck with us, and the boys and girls upon the poop. After they are once divided into messes and appointed their places, they will readily run there in good order of themselves.

  “When they have eaten their victuals clean up, (which we force them to for to thrive better,) they are ordered down between decks and everyone as he passes has a pint of water to drink after his meat, which is served them by the cooper out of a large tub, filled beforehand ready for them. When they have occasion to ease nature they are permitted by the sentinels to come up and go to conveniencies which are provided for that purpose on each side the ship, each of which will contain a dozen of them at once, and have broad ladders to ascend them with the greater ease.

  “When we come to sea we let them all out of irons, they never attempting then to rebel, considering that should they kill or master us they could not tell how to manage the ship, or must trust us, who would carry them where we pleased. Therefore the only danger is while we are in sight of their own country, which they are loth to part with; but once out of sight, out of mind. I never heard that they mutinied in any ships of consequence that had a good number of men and the least care; but in small tools [ships] where they had but few men, and those negligent or drunk, then they surprised and butchered them, cut the cables and let the vessel drive ashore, and everyone shift for himself. However, we have some 30 or 40 Gold Coast Negroes, which we buy and are procured us there by our factors to make guardians and overseers of the Whydah Negroes, and sleep among them to keep them from quarreling, and in order as well to give us notice, if they can discover any caballing or plotting among them, which trust they will discharge with great diligence. They also take care to make the Negroes scrape the decks where they lodge every morning very clean to eschew any distempers that may engender from filth and nastiness. When we constitute a guardian we give him a cat of nine tails as a badge of his office, which he is not a little proud of and will exercise with great authority. We often at sea in the evenings would let the slaves come up into the sun to air themselves, and make them jump and dance for an hour or two to our bag-pipes, harp and fiddle, by which exercise to preserve them in health.”

  For slavers, the most dangerous time was while still on the coast; hence the shackles and handcuffs as the slaves came on board. Children were often allowed to run free, and women were generally unshackled since they were thought to be more docile, which was not always the case.

  Resuming his log, Phillips wrote:

  “Monday the 6th [of August]. This morning we crossed the line, being by our observations in 10 minutes south latitude; at which time our Negroes being all upon deck at their dinners, a young tiger I had aboard, which was given to me by Mr. Ronan at Cape Corce castle, and which I kept in a wooden cage upon the quarter deck, broke out of it, seized upon a Negro woman’s leg, and in instant, before any of us could come to her rescue, tore the calf quite off, which as soon as one of our quarter-masters perceived, he ran to him, and giving him a little blow with the flat of a cutlass, the tiger couched down like a spaniel dog and the man took him up in his arms, dragged him along, and without any resistance or harm pent him up in his coop again.

  “’Twas strange to me to observe this ravenous wild creature, that he would be as familiar with our white men as a spaniel, letting them play with him, stroak him, take him by the tongue or paw, and would wantonly lick their hands, pat them with his foot like a cat, without offering the least injury; but when he saw a black, tho’ at a distance, he would grow raving mad, bounce and leap in his cage as if he would break it to pieces, and his eyes would look like perfect fire, so that I was forced to get a larger and stronger coop made for him; and always hang an old sail before it to blind him while the slaves were at victuals, else there was no appeasing of him.

  “We spent in our passage from St. Thomas to Barbadoes two months eleven days, from the 25th of August to the 4th of November following, in which time there happened such sickness and mortality among my poor men and Negroes that of the first we buried 14 and of the last 320, which was a great detriment to our voyage, the Royal African Company losing ten pounds by every slave that died, and the owners of the ship ten pounds ten shillings, being the freight agreed on to be paid them by the charter party for every Negro delivered alive ashore to the African Company’s agents at Barbadoes; whereby the loss in all amounted to near 6560 pounds sterling. The distemper which my men as well as the blacks mostly died of was the white flux, which was so violent and inveterate that no medicine would in the least check it; so that when any of our men were seized with it we esteemed him a dead man, as he generally proved. I cannot imagine what should cause it in them so suddenly, they being free from it till about a week after we left the island of St. Thomas. And next to the malignity of the climate I can attribute it to nothing else but the unpurged black sugar and raw unwholesome rum they bought there, of which they drank in punch to great excess, and which it was not in my power to hinder, having chastised several of them and flung overboard what rum and sugar I could find; and was forced to clap one Lord, our trumpeter, in irons for his being the promoter of their unseasonable carousing bouts, and going in one of his drunken fits with his knife to kill the boatswain in his bed, and committing other enormities.” Small-pox also “went through the ship, yet we lost not a dozen by it … But what the small-pox spared, the flux swept off.”

  As he contemplated his losses, Phillips was overcome with sorrow and pity, not for the dead sailors and slaves, but for himself. “After all our pains and care to give them their messes in due order and season, keeping their lodgings as clean and sweet as possible, and enduring so much misery and stench so long among a parcel of creatures nastier than swine; and after all our expectations, to be defeated by their mortality. No gold-finders can endure so much noisome slavery as they do who carry Negroes; for those have some respite and satisfaction, but we endure twice the misery, and yet by their mortality our voyages are ruined, and we pine and fret ourselves to death, to think that we should undergo so much misery, and take so much pains to so little purpose.” The net result: “I delivered alive at Barbadoes to the company’s factor 372, which being sold came out at about nineteen pounds per head one with another.” The retu
rn voyage, loaded with sugar, cotton and ginger, was uneventful except for the misfortune that “befell one of my cabin boys, who playing with the tiger in his cage, with his hand, a long time without any offence; at length he scratched his hand against the point of a nail, so that it bled a little. As soon as the tiger saw the blood, he seized upon his hand and in an instant tore it to pieces, almost as far as the wrist ere we could disengage him, the ends of the nerves and torn sinews hanging about like strings, most dismal to behold.”

  Although it does not of course excuse the hardships inflicted on slaves, crossing the Atlantic in the age of sail was also a grim business for poor whites. Here, briefly, is the story of Philip Drake, a destitute orphan brought up in a workhouse in the English Midlands. When he was twelve, the board of overseers—“three stout, red-faced men in powdered wigs who sat at a green-covered table with snuff-boxes before them”—decided to rid the parish of the expense of maintaining him; and since he was known to have an uncle in America, they booked him passage on the cheapest ship available, fitted him out with a set of cheap new clothes, and gave him one shilling for expenses, along with a letter addressed to “Maurice Halter, Boston, United States.” Soon after, with all his possessions tied up in an old handkerchief, “with some forty other English paupers from various parishes, I found myself dumped among four hundred Irish emigrants in the steerage of the ship Polly of Waterford.” This was in 1802.