Step 5: Imagine the Experiences of Atlantic Travel
The
Atlantic crossing between ports in Europe or West Africa and North America was
a distance of at least 3,700 miles. Most travelers took the voyage in large
wooden schooner ships, built in New England colonies like Massachusetts and
designed with a large holding area below decks.
Imagine
what it may have been like to travel in this type of ship. The voyage typically
lasted one to two months, though it could be extended by unfavorable weather,
wind patterns, or occasional attacks at sea. A person's experience on board
varied based on his or her status. Slaves and indentured servants were usually
forced to stay below decks for most of the voyage, but only slaves were chained
to the walls and floor of the hold as if they were packaged goods. Lying down
on unfinished lumber for a month or more caused enslaved people to develop
life-threatening problems like skin infections, sores, diarrhea, vomiting, and
loss of mobility. Even without the chains, many voluntary European migrants
died en route due to epidemics like cholera that spread
on board. For a fictional account of how shipboard illness could force an
English family into indentured servitude, see this
excerpt of the novel Bound
by Sally Gunning.
Another
way to picture the discomfort and pain of travel within slave ships is to
reveal the consequences that slave sellers preferred to hide. For example,
consider the ways this advertisement for a slave sale in Charleston, South
Carolina made the captives on board the ship “Dembia”
sound and look valuable. These appealing descriptions contrast sharply with ship
records showing that ten people died below decks before the “Dembia” landed in 1769. What would probably be a more
realistic portrayal of these captives?