0:02 hello and welcome to lecture number 15
0:04 this is topic 2.4 African resistance on
0:07 slav ships and the anti-slavery
0:09 movement the first learning objective is
0:11 to describe the methods by which
0:13 Africans resisted their commodification
0:15 and enslavement individually and
0:18 collectively during the Middle
0:20 Passage The Experience on slav ships as
0:23 we've discussed earlier was Grim there
0:25 were unsanitary and crowded conditions
0:26 and there was also a lot of Cruelty from
0:28 the slav ship captains and crew the
0:31 trauma of dein which means forc
0:33 displacement their commodification which
0:35 means being turned into objects and the
0:37 lifelong enslavement that was about to
0:39 follow were compelling reasons for the
0:41 resistance that occurred on slave ships
0:42 most resistance happened before the
0:44 slave ship had sailed off the coast of
0:46 Africa because the chance of returning
0:48 home seemed more likely they were still
0:50 near the African Coast not in the middle
0:51 of the Atlantic Ocean or thousands of
0:53 miles away on a different continent
0:55 however their chances of Escape while
0:57 still on the African Coast were still
0:58 unlikely because the people nearest the
1:00 coast were part of the kingdoms that had
1:02 enslaved them enslaved people would have
1:04 been easily recognizable and turned over
1:06 for a profit or resold to be put into a
1:09 different slav ship the individual and
1:10 Collective methods of resistance on
1:13 slave ships were quite incredible they
1:14 had to overcome linguistic differences
1:17 to form revolts slave ship captains who
1:18 bought and slave people from the baray
1:20 raccoons or holding cells of the coast
1:21 would often buy and slave people from
1:23 different ethnic and linguistic
1:24 backgrounds to prevent revolts on the
1:27 ship women and children who sometimes
1:29 had Freer movement across the ship often
1:30 played crucial roles and revolts by
1:32 providing tools or weapons to the men to
1:35 free their chains and attack the crew
1:37 one instance of such a Revolt is the
1:39 little George in 1730 in which the
1:41 enslaved successfully freed their chains
1:43 ceased control of the ship and navigated
1:45 back towards Africa when they reached
1:47 the coast of Sierra Leon the surviving
1:50 capti and crew abandoned the
1:52 ship another major instance of a
1:54 rebellion on board of a slave ship is
1:55 the new Britannia in
1:58 1773 while still off the African Coast
2:00 the enslaved people on board managed to
2:02 get a hold of a barrel of black powder
2:05 and lit it on fire in an act of mass
2:08 suicide the ACT killed most of the crew
2:10 and enslaved people on board showing
2:11 that they would rather die than
2:14 willingly go into a life of
2:16 enslavement individual acts of
2:18 resistance also included hunger strikes
2:20 the slave people were already receiving
2:22 very scaned portions of Food daily but
2:23 refusing to eat was a way for them to
2:25 regain some form of agency and control
2:27 over their lives the same goes for those
2:30 who tried to jump overboard in a future
2:31 slide will discuss some of the
2:32 consequences for Hunger Strikers and the
2:34 measures taken by slave ships to prevent
2:37 more people from jumping
2:39 overboard the resistance on board made
2:41 the slave trade more expensive and
2:43 dangerous to reduce the risk of
2:44 resistance slave ship captains had to
2:46 increase the number of crew members to
2:47 maintain control over the people on
2:50 board cutting into their profits to
2:52 offset this captains would then
2:54 transport even more people to maintain
2:56 High profits revolts could also cause
2:58 delays in the journey to North America
3:00 and use up more Provisions than planned
3:02 because of the resistance slave ship's
3:04 captains Justified harsher treatment for
3:06 those on hunger strikes they used a
3:08 metal tool called the speculum orus to
3:10 force feed them whenever a Revolt was
3:12 quelled those who participated would be
3:13 punished depending on the perceived
3:15 value of those who revolted punishments
3:17 varied those deemed highly valuable due
3:19 to their physical appearance and labor
3:21 potential might receive more lenient
3:23 punishment than others women and
3:25 children often faced harsher punishments
3:26 sometimes including death because of
3:28 their lack of perceived
3:31 value resistance or attempts to jump
3:32 overboard also led to changes in the
3:34 design of slave ships Nets were
3:36 constructed to prevent suicides and
3:37 barricades were built to separate
3:39 sleeping quarters in the deck enslaved
3:41 people were brought onto the deck at
3:43 least once a day for exercise a time
3:45 when insurrections were most likely to
3:47 prevent this a barricaded area was
3:48 created when enslaved people could
3:50 exercise while the crew continued their
3:52 duties on the other side the crew also
3:58 insurrections one of the most famous
4:00 cases of an Insurrection on the slav
4:02 ship is that of the Amistad this
4:05 successful Revolt occurred in 1839 off
4:07 the Cuban Coast it was led by a mendee
4:09 captive from Sierra Leon named sang Pi
4:12 also known as Joseph sink the enslaved
4:14 people killed the captain and forced the
4:15 remaining crew to sail towards the
4:18 United States they were intercepted by a
4:20 US Government they were intercepted by a
4:21 US Government ship responsible for
4:23 collecting import duties once
4:25 intercepted the captives were arrested
4:27 and went to trial to gain their freedom
4:29 the trial lasted 2 years and ultimately
4:30 the the Supreme Court granted their
4:33 freedom 35 survivors were able to return
4:35 to Africa the trial generated public
4:37 sympathy for abolition and former
4:39 President John Quincy Adams argued
4:40 before the court on behalf of the
4:42 enslaved people the Amistad case was as
4:44 significant as it highlighted the
4:46 ongoing illegal trade of enslaved
4:47 Africans even after the international
4:49 slave trade was
4:52 banned the second learning objective is
4:53 to describe the features of slaveship
4:55 diagrams created during the era of the slave
4:58 slave
5:00 trade an example of a slaveship diagram
5:02 is on the screen these diagrams depict
5:05 the systematic arrangement of captives
5:06 often slav ships were older vessels that
5:09 were repurposed to transport human cargo
5:11 they would be retrofitted with various
5:12 levels of sleeping quarters in the cargo
5:14 hold and barricades would be erected
5:15 with Nets placed on the sides of the
5:17 ship to prevent people from jumping
5:19 overboard the average number of Journeys
5:21 for a slave ship back and forth across
5:23 the Atlantic was no more than 12 by the
5:25 1750s purpose built ships were being
5:27 constructed in cities like Liverpool
5:28 designed to maximize The Profit by
5:31 transporting as many people as possible
5:33 though these were usually more expensive
5:35 the Brooks was a famous example
5:37 initially built to carry 454 slaves but
5:39 often packed with over
5:42 600 due to the reduced space in the
5:43 cargo holds captives had anywhere
5:46 between 20 and 30 in of Headroom the
5:48 total cargo hold was about 5T tall
5:50 separated into two levels making the
5:52 conditions extremely cramped the
5:54 diagrams often showed fewer and slave
5:56 people than actually traveled on many of
5:58 the Voyages in 1787 the British passed a
6:00 law that limited the the ratio of humans
6:04 to ship tonnage to 1.67 meaning a 100
6:06 ton ship could not transport more than
6:09 167 humans for ships over 200 tons the
6:12 ratio had to be 1 to1 despite these
6:13 regulations the actual numbers of
6:15 enslaved people often exceeded that
6:21 law the diagrams depicted the cramped
6:23 and unsanitary conditions which
6:24 increased the incidence of disease
6:26 disability and death captives set to
6:28 sleep on bare wooden planks inside the
6:30 cargo hold and the constant rocking of
6:32 the ship caused sores and chafing the
6:34 bathroom facilities were open buckets
6:36 making diseases like dissenter easily
6:38 transmissible in one documented case a
6:41 ship from Liverpool in 1781 had a 40%
6:43 mortality rate due to the disease
6:46 outbreaks slave ship diagrams rarely
6:47 included features used to minimize
6:50 resistance such as guns Nets or iron
6:51 instruments like the speculum orus for
6:54 Force feeding these conditions had to be
6:56 endured for an average of 60 days and
7:01 the last learning objective is to
7:03 explain how African resistance on slav
7:05 ships and slav ship diagrams inspired
7:07 abolitionists and black artists during
7:15 after slave ship diagrams were used by
7:17 abolitionists to end the slave trade and
7:19 later slavery itself they successfully
7:21 lobed for laws limiting the number of
7:23 captives per ship the British law in
7:26 1787 was a direct result of anti-slavery
7:28 advocacy using slaveship diagrams to
7:29 highlight the inhumane condition
7:32 captives endured by 1807 and 1808
7:33 Britain and the United States
7:35 respectively ended the international
7:37 slave trade this was influenced by the
7:39 activism of abolitionist who use
7:40 diagrams of the Brooks to illustrate the
7:42 cruelty of the
7:45 trade black and white anti-slavery
7:46 activist circulated these diagrams with
7:48 the most famous being the Brooks
7:50 constructed in Liverpool the diagrams
7:52 show the cruelty of the cramped
7:53 conditions and raised awareness of the
7:55 decommunization conditions endured
7:57 during the Middle Passage the image of
7:58 the Brooks became iconic and
8:00 anti-slavery campaign appearing in
8:02 pamphlets posters and books to Garden
8:03 public supportive
8:05 abolition and despite how tightly
8:07 cramped the diagrams make it look inside
8:10 of the Brooks the allowable limit of
8:11 human cargo that the ship could
8:14 transport was actually higher than the
8:20 show since abolition black artists have
8:22 repurposed the iconography of the slav
8:24 ship to process historical trauma and
8:26 honor their ancestors memory they have
8:27 transformed the image from one of
8:29 suffering to one of resilience and
8:31 strength as their ancestors endured the
8:32 conditions and continued their lineage
8:35 in the Americas contemporary artists
8:37 like Cara Walker and Rari Bearden having
8:39 Incorporated slaveship imagery into the
8:41 works to highlight the enduring Legacy
8:43 of the transatlantic slave
8:46 trade to recap enslaved people resisted
8:48 the inhumane and unsanitary treatment
8:51 during the Middle Passage slave ships
8:52 were outfitted with Nets and barricades
8:55 to deal with resistance slaveship
8:57 diagram circulated during the 18th and
8:59 19th centuries depicted the systematic
9:01 range ment of captives conditions on
9:03 ships increased the incidence of disease
9:06 disability and death resistance and
9:07 conditions on slave ships inspired
9:09 anti-slavery activism and black artists
9:11 have repurposed the iconography of the
9:14 slav ship to process historical
9:16 trauma thank you for watching if you
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9:26 slfm I wish you the best of luck with
9:27 your studies and I hope to see you back
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