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AP AF AM #15 - 2.4 African Resistance on Slave Ships and the Antislavery Movement | APUSH Slides | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: AP AF AM #15 - 2.4 African Resistance on Slave Ships and the Antislavery Movement
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hello and welcome to lecture number 15
this is topic 2.4 African resistance on
slav ships and the anti-slavery
movement the first learning objective is
to describe the methods by which
Africans resisted their commodification
and enslavement individually and
collectively during the Middle
Passage The Experience on slav ships as
we've discussed earlier was Grim there
were unsanitary and crowded conditions
and there was also a lot of Cruelty from
the slav ship captains and crew the
trauma of dein which means forc
displacement their commodification which
means being turned into objects and the
lifelong enslavement that was about to
follow were compelling reasons for the
resistance that occurred on slave ships
most resistance happened before the
slave ship had sailed off the coast of
Africa because the chance of returning
home seemed more likely they were still
near the African Coast not in the middle
of the Atlantic Ocean or thousands of
miles away on a different continent
however their chances of Escape while
still on the African Coast were still
unlikely because the people nearest the
coast were part of the kingdoms that had
enslaved them enslaved people would have
been easily recognizable and turned over
for a profit or resold to be put into a
different slav ship the individual and
Collective methods of resistance on
slave ships were quite incredible they
had to overcome linguistic differences
to form revolts slave ship captains who
bought and slave people from the baray
raccoons or holding cells of the coast
would often buy and slave people from
different ethnic and linguistic
backgrounds to prevent revolts on the
ship women and children who sometimes
had Freer movement across the ship often
played crucial roles and revolts by
providing tools or weapons to the men to
free their chains and attack the crew
one instance of such a Revolt is the
little George in 1730 in which the
enslaved successfully freed their chains
ceased control of the ship and navigated
back towards Africa when they reached
the coast of Sierra Leon the surviving
capti and crew abandoned the
ship another major instance of a
rebellion on board of a slave ship is
the new Britannia in
1773 while still off the African Coast
the enslaved people on board managed to
get a hold of a barrel of black powder
and lit it on fire in an act of mass
suicide the ACT killed most of the crew
and enslaved people on board showing
that they would rather die than
willingly go into a life of
enslavement individual acts of
resistance also included hunger strikes
the slave people were already receiving
very scaned portions of Food daily but
refusing to eat was a way for them to
regain some form of agency and control
over their lives the same goes for those
who tried to jump overboard in a future
slide will discuss some of the
consequences for Hunger Strikers and the
measures taken by slave ships to prevent
more people from jumping
overboard the resistance on board made
the slave trade more expensive and
dangerous to reduce the risk of
resistance slave ship captains had to
increase the number of crew members to
maintain control over the people on
board cutting into their profits to
offset this captains would then
transport even more people to maintain
High profits revolts could also cause
delays in the journey to North America
and use up more Provisions than planned
because of the resistance slave ship's
captains Justified harsher treatment for
those on hunger strikes they used a
metal tool called the speculum orus to
force feed them whenever a Revolt was
quelled those who participated would be
punished depending on the perceived
value of those who revolted punishments
varied those deemed highly valuable due
to their physical appearance and labor
potential might receive more lenient
punishment than others women and
children often faced harsher punishments
sometimes including death because of
their lack of perceived
value resistance or attempts to jump
overboard also led to changes in the
design of slave ships Nets were
constructed to prevent suicides and
barricades were built to separate
sleeping quarters in the deck enslaved
people were brought onto the deck at
least once a day for exercise a time
when insurrections were most likely to
prevent this a barricaded area was
created when enslaved people could
exercise while the crew continued their
duties on the other side the crew also
insurrections one of the most famous
cases of an Insurrection on the slav
ship is that of the Amistad this
successful Revolt occurred in 1839 off
the Cuban Coast it was led by a mendee
captive from Sierra Leon named sang Pi
also known as Joseph sink the enslaved
people killed the captain and forced the
remaining crew to sail towards the
United States they were intercepted by a
US Government they were intercepted by a
US Government ship responsible for
collecting import duties once
intercepted the captives were arrested
and went to trial to gain their freedom
the trial lasted 2 years and ultimately
the the Supreme Court granted their
freedom 35 survivors were able to return
to Africa the trial generated public
sympathy for abolition and former
President John Quincy Adams argued
before the court on behalf of the
enslaved people the Amistad case was as
significant as it highlighted the
ongoing illegal trade of enslaved
Africans even after the international
slave trade was
banned the second learning objective is
to describe the features of slaveship
diagrams created during the era of the slave
slave
trade an example of a slaveship diagram
is on the screen these diagrams depict
the systematic arrangement of captives
often slav ships were older vessels that
were repurposed to transport human cargo
they would be retrofitted with various
levels of sleeping quarters in the cargo
hold and barricades would be erected
with Nets placed on the sides of the
ship to prevent people from jumping
overboard the average number of Journeys
for a slave ship back and forth across
the Atlantic was no more than 12 by the
1750s purpose built ships were being
constructed in cities like Liverpool
designed to maximize The Profit by
transporting as many people as possible
though these were usually more expensive
the Brooks was a famous example
initially built to carry 454 slaves but
often packed with over
600 due to the reduced space in the
cargo holds captives had anywhere
between 20 and 30 in of Headroom the
total cargo hold was about 5T tall
separated into two levels making the
conditions extremely cramped the
diagrams often showed fewer and slave
people than actually traveled on many of
the Voyages in 1787 the British passed a
law that limited the the ratio of humans
to ship tonnage to 1.67 meaning a 100
ton ship could not transport more than
167 humans for ships over 200 tons the
ratio had to be 1 to1 despite these
regulations the actual numbers of
enslaved people often exceeded that
law the diagrams depicted the cramped
and unsanitary conditions which
increased the incidence of disease
disability and death captives set to
sleep on bare wooden planks inside the
cargo hold and the constant rocking of
the ship caused sores and chafing the
bathroom facilities were open buckets
making diseases like dissenter easily
transmissible in one documented case a
ship from Liverpool in 1781 had a 40%
mortality rate due to the disease
outbreaks slave ship diagrams rarely
included features used to minimize
resistance such as guns Nets or iron
instruments like the speculum orus for
Force feeding these conditions had to be
endured for an average of 60 days and
the last learning objective is to
explain how African resistance on slav
ships and slav ship diagrams inspired
abolitionists and black artists during
after slave ship diagrams were used by
abolitionists to end the slave trade and
later slavery itself they successfully
lobed for laws limiting the number of
captives per ship the British law in
1787 was a direct result of anti-slavery
advocacy using slaveship diagrams to
highlight the inhumane condition
captives endured by 1807 and 1808
Britain and the United States
respectively ended the international
slave trade this was influenced by the
activism of abolitionist who use
diagrams of the Brooks to illustrate the
cruelty of the
trade black and white anti-slavery
activist circulated these diagrams with
the most famous being the Brooks
constructed in Liverpool the diagrams
show the cruelty of the cramped
conditions and raised awareness of the
decommunization conditions endured
during the Middle Passage the image of
the Brooks became iconic and
anti-slavery campaign appearing in
pamphlets posters and books to Garden
public supportive
abolition and despite how tightly
cramped the diagrams make it look inside
of the Brooks the allowable limit of
human cargo that the ship could
transport was actually higher than the
show since abolition black artists have
repurposed the iconography of the slav
ship to process historical trauma and
honor their ancestors memory they have
transformed the image from one of
suffering to one of resilience and
strength as their ancestors endured the
conditions and continued their lineage
in the Americas contemporary artists
like Cara Walker and Rari Bearden having
Incorporated slaveship imagery into the
works to highlight the enduring Legacy
of the transatlantic slave
trade to recap enslaved people resisted
the inhumane and unsanitary treatment
during the Middle Passage slave ships
were outfitted with Nets and barricades
to deal with resistance slaveship
diagram circulated during the 18th and
19th centuries depicted the systematic
range ment of captives conditions on
ships increased the incidence of disease
disability and death resistance and
conditions on slave ships inspired
anti-slavery activism and black artists
have repurposed the iconography of the
slav ship to process historical
trauma thank you for watching if you
would like to watch the next lecture
click the thumbnail on the screen and if
you would like more resources to help
you study you can visit APUSH lights.com
slfm I wish you the best of luck with
your studies and I hope to see you back
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