HIST115 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Quadroon, Maximilien Robespierre, Boilery
20 Nov 2016
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Lecture 7 slave life in the americas lomoarcpsd. Hamish especially notes how slavery was unsuccessful when it killed slaves, that this was never the intent of slavers. Historical literature blames this on the tight packing of slaves, historical image of slave ship brooks demonstrates. However, counting historians have not seen any specific link between the rate of death on a voyage and how densely packed the voyage was. This may more likely be because every one of the voyages was well over packed. If it had been a very serious issue, slaver would likely have attempted to avoid this. Hamish puts the mortality down to the temperatures below decks, the weak condition of the slaves when they were boarded, and the pervasiveness of seasickness and dysentery. Slavers were aware of the issues, they often employed different techniques of attempting to get fresh air bellow decks to the slaves. Illustration shows ventilation funnels on the danish slave vessel.
