Transcript

Sarah was a young woman from Old Calabar who boarded the Liverpool slave ship Hudibras in 1785, immediately drawing everyone’s attention with her beauty and presence. Sailors noticed that she carried herself with spirit, and her lively movements shone even under the strain of captivity. When African musicians were allowed on deck twice a day, Sarah stood out as the most talented dancer, earning her admiration from the crew, especially William Butterworth, as he praised her joyful energy even while enslaved. Captain Jenkin Evans also favored her, giving her privileges that other enslaved people did not receive. She was given the biblical name "Sarah", likely imagining her as obedient in the way of the biblical matriarch. However, her actions would later contradict that expectation. During an insurrection aboard the ship, officers suspected that Sarah and her mother knew about the revolt and may have silently supported it, even though they did not participate directly. Her status aboard the ship and freedom of movement may have enabled her to help plan or supply the male rebels. Sarah survived the Middle Passage, and whatever punishment followed, and when she was sold in Grenada in 1787, she carried with her the cultural traditions and the spirit of resistance that had defined her time aboard the ship.

In 1727, the Loyal George sailed across the Atlantic to Barbados with more than two hundred captives on board. On the ship, a captive man had been sick, causing his body to become extremely skinny. From this, he continuously refused to eat as he made the decision to die. The captain of the ship, Timothy Tucker, tied the man up and lashed him with a horsewhip, leading to bloody wounds covering his entire body. As he showed no signs of resistance, Captain Tucker threatened him, saying that he would kill him, but the man simply said so be it. After taking a break and finishing his own meal, Captain Tucker took a loaded pistol and pointed it at the man’s forehead, insisting that he would kill him if he did not eat, but the man continued to say so be it. From that, Captain Tucker pulled the trigger, causing blood to pour out and the man to clench his head, but he did not fall. The captain took another loaded gun and fired at the man’s ear, but again, he did not fall. Enraged, the captain ordered his cabin boy to shoot him through the heart, which finally caused him to fall.

Captain Tomba stood out among the captives in the barracoon because of his strength, proud demeanor, and refusal to show submission to prospective slavers. When the head of the shipping point, John Leadstine, ordered him to stand and stretch so purchasers could inspect him, Tomba defiantly refused and was brutally whipped with a Manatea strap, enduring the punishment with little outward reaction except a few tears that managed to escape. Leadstine later explained to curious visitors that Tomba had once been a headman of villages who resisted the slave trade until he was violently captured. Eventually sold to Captain Richard Harding and taken aboard the Robert of Bristol, Tomba immediately began planning an escape with a few strong men and the help of a woman who had more freedom of movement on the ship. One night, they found most of the white crew asleep and attacked, killing two sailors before waking the rest of the ship. Though Tomba fought fiercely, he was overpowered, chained, and whipped. As a result of the revolt, Harding selected three marginally included captives for a gruesome execution meant to terrify the other enslaved people. Captain Tomba was said to have been delivered to Kingston, Jamaica, but ultimately his fate beyond this is unknown.

In late 1783 or early 1784, an unnamed man boarded the slave ship Brooks with his entire family, his wife, daughter, and mother, after being falsely accused of witchcraft by the village chief. Although he spoke English and had been a trader, he refused to speak to the captain and only interacted with members of the crew. From the moment he was imprisoned on the ship, he sank into deep despair and would not eat, a reaction that sailors often saw among newly enslaved people. His suffering continued to intensify, and one morning, sailors found that he had attempted to slit his own throat. The ship’s doctor, Thomas Trotter stitched up his wound and considered force-feeding him. The next night, the man tore out the sutures and cut the other side of his neck, openly declaring that he would never accept life under white men. After the crew continued searching the ship for the instrument he used, Trotter realized that the man had ripped through his own throat with his fingernails. His hands were then restrained, but he continued to refuse sustenance and eventually died from starvation, choosing death over enslavement.