Slave ship facts for kids

Slave ships were big cargo ships used to carry people who had been captured and forced into slavery. Most of these people were Africans taken to the Americas.

Life on these ships was incredibly difficult. Men, women, and children were packed into every tiny space. There was hardly any room to move or even breathe. Food was scarce, and the smell was terrible. Between 1526 and 1867, about 12.5 million enslaved people were sent from Africa to the Americas on these ships. However, only about 10.7 million actually survived the journey. This was one of the most tragic journeys in history, with many lives lost. The trip across the Atlantic Ocean usually took 60 to 90 days, but sometimes it lasted up to four months.

Life on Slave Ships

Ship captains had strict orders to deliver only healthy enslaved people who could be sold. If people became very hungry, sick, or caused trouble, they were often thrown overboard into the ocean to drown.

Sometimes, African people were kept on deck, chained together. There were times when they would jump overboard, pulling others chained to them, to escape their unknown future. Ship crews often had extra members on deck to stop this. Other times, crew members would throw enslaved people overboard as a warning to others. If a ship was running out of food or water, all the enslaved people might be killed to save the crew from starving.

The Zong Ship Incident

Slave ships could sometimes get insurance for their "cargo" of enslaved people. But insurance would not pay if the people starved or got sick. Insurance would pay if people drowned.

In 1781, the slave ship Zong was carrying 470 enslaved people. This was far too many for the ship. Many people started to get sick. When the ship reached the Doldrums, an area in the middle of the Atlantic with no wind, several crew members had also died from diseases. To save themselves, the remaining crew threw 132 sick and dying people into the ocean. Another 10 people jumped in with them.

When the ship owners tried to claim insurance money, the insurance company refused to pay. In 1872, a court in Jamaica first sided with the ship owners. But the insurance company appealed the decision. This case became very famous and was called the Zong massacre. No one from the crew or the owners was ever charged with murder.

Slave Ship Rebellions

About 15% to 20% of the slave ships that left Africa never reached the Americas. In thousands of cases, the captured people, some of whom were warriors, managed to take over the ships. Often, the crew was killed, and the Africans sailed the ships back to Africa. In other cases, the ships were lost at sea.

Here are some examples of slave ship revolts:

• The Little George ship revolt happened in June 1730. The ship Little George was carrying 96 enslaved people to Rhode Island. Several African men managed to get out of their chains and overpower the crew. They killed three crew members who were on deck. The rest of the crew were taken prisoner. The Africans sailed the ship back to the Sierra Leone River. There, they left the ship and the imprisoned crew.

• In 1732, a ship from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, captained by John Major, had just loaded hundreds of enslaved people. As it was leaving, about 50 Africans took over the ship. The crew was killed using guns, axes, swords, and other weapons taken from them.

• In 1747, an American ship with a captain named Beers was taken over by hundreds of captive Africans in West Africa. All but two of the crew were killed with their own weapons. There is no record of how many Africans died during this short battle.

Images for kids

• 

  A plan of the British slave ship Brookes. It shows how 454 enslaved people were packed on board after the Slave Trade Act of 1788. This ship reportedly carried as many as 609 enslaved people.

• 

  A painting showing the slave deck of the Marie Séraphique.

• 

  The former slave ship HMS Black Joke (left) firing on the Spanish ship El Almirante before capturing it in January 1829.

See also

In Spanish: Barco negrero para niños