Big Apple History . Early New York . Voyage in Chains


	Deck of slave ship

Unlike the Dutch merchants, who eagerly came to New Netherland in the 1600s seeking good fortune and a better life, African slaves were imported against their will. The West India Company brought the slaves over in ships under extremely harsh and cruel conditions.

On the coast of Africa, European slave traders bought captives and transported them by boat to slave ships waiting to take them to the New World.

On board the ships, slaves were handcuffed and their legs were shackled. They were chained together in groups of about fifty, crammed close together, forced to lie on their sides and often in their own waste. For meals, they were given a stew that contained horse-beans, boiled yams, and scraps of meat. Each group of ten ate from a single bucket.


"An Englishman Tastes the Sweat of an African"

Sometimes slaves tried to starve themselves to death to escape the horrors, or were too sick to eat. According to Alexander Falconbridge, a surgeon aboard slave ships, the punishment was severe if a slave refused to eat, for a dead or severely malnourished slave brought no profit. "Upon the Negroes refusing to take sustenance, I have seen coals of fire, glowing hot, put on a shovel and placed so near their lips as to scorch and burn them."

Top illustration: "Slave Deck of the 'Brookes,'" 1802, courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Bottom illustration: "An Englishman Tastes the Sweat of an African," by S. Daget, 1725, courtesy of the Bibliothèque Municipale, Nantes, France.