Slave ship

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For other uses, see Slave ship (disambiguation).

Slave ships were cargo boats specially converted for the purpose of transporting slaves, especially newly captured African slaves. The most important routes of the slave ships led from the northern and middle coasts of Africa to South America and the south coast of what is today the Caribbean and the United States of America. The captains and sailors of the boats were allowed to do whatever they wanted with the slaves. This included rape, murder, and torture because the slaves were considered their property. Over 30,000 voyages were made from America to Africa to capture slaves.^{[citation needed]} The transportation of slaves from Africa to America was known as the Middle Passage. The African slave trade was outlawed in 1807, by a law passed jointly in the United States of America and the United Kingdom. After 1807 all slave ships leaving Africa were legally pirate vessels subject to capture by the American and British navies. During this time, the slave ships became smaller and more cramped in exchange for improved performance in their new role as smuggling craft and blockade runners.

1 Atlantic slave trade
2 List of slave ships
3 See also
4 Notes
5 External links

[edit] Atlantic slave trade

In only a few decades after the discovery of America by Europeans, the native population was so decimated that it was a profitable business to send slave ships into the Atlantic to perform labor intensive agricultural work.^{[citation needed]} The peak time of slave ships to the Atlantic passage was between the 17th and 18th century when large plantations developed in the English colonies of North America.

In order to achieve high profits from the transports, the owners of the ships divided the hull into between decks, so they could transport as many slaves as possible. This led to highly unhygienic conditions, and consequently an enormously high mortality rate. Only the most resilient survived the transport. Often the ships transported hundreds of slaves, who were chained tightly to plank beds. For example, the slave ship "Henrietta Marie" carried up to 400 slaves on a single passage, who were confined to two decks, and each slave spent the week long passage chained to the bow of the ship.^{[citation needed]}

Brookes slave ship plan

[edit] List of slave ships

Adelaide, French slave ship, sank 1714 near Cuba.
Braunfisch, a Brandenburgian slave ship lost in 1688 in a revolt.
The Brookes, sailing in the 1780s.
Cora captured by the USS Constellation1860.
Fredensborg, Danish slave ship, sank in 1768 off Tromøy in Norway, after a journey in the triangular trade. Leif Svalesen has written a book about the journey.
Henrietta Marie. Sank 1701 off Key West, Florida.
Kron-Printzen, Danish slave ship, sank in 1706 with 820 slaves on board.
Lord Ligonier.
Salamander, Brandenburgian slave ship.
Tecora, Portuguese slave ship that transported the slaves who would later revolt aboard La Amistad.
Triton captured by the USS Constellation 1861.
Trouvadore, wrecked in Turks and Caicos 1841. 193 slaves survived. Project commenced in 2004 to locate the ship.^[1]
The Wanderer
Wildfire, a barque, arrested off the Florida coast by the US Navy in 1860; carrying 450 slaves.^[2]
Zong, a British slave ship famous of the massacre which occurred aboard in 1781.

Note: While La Amistad is often called a slave ship, it was in fact a general purpose cargo ship, which occasionally carried slaves. See the article about the ship, and the resulting court case, for more information.