Document Text
The Voyage of the Slave Ship James
Voyage Start Date: July 1674
Voyage Start Port: London
Slave Embarkation Port: New Calabar
Total Slaves Embarked: 104
Slave Disembarkation Date: February 1675
Slave Disembarkation Port: Cuba
Total Slaves Disembarked: 72
Men: 39%
Women: 36%
Boys: 18%
Girls: 7%
Percentage Male: 57%
Percentage Children: 25%
Voyage 9938, Golden Lyon, 1678. The Trans–Atlantic Slave Trade Database.
Background
The middle passage of the Triangle Trade between Europe, Africa, and the Americas carried recently captured men, women, and children from the west coast of Africa to the colonies of the New World. Records indicate that over two million people were forcibly transported across the Atlantic between 1500 and 1700, and only 1.7 million survived the journey. Approximately 266,000 were brought to the Spanish colonies during this time.
The horrors of the Middle Passage are well documented: cramped conditions, lack of food and water, widespread disease, and abuse at the hands of captors all led to a high mortality rate. But traditional historical narratives of the journey tend to leave out the specific horrors faced by female captives. Women and girls were raped by captors and crews. Pregnant women received no special treatment to ensure the health of themselves or their unborn babies, and most women who went into labor while aboard a slave ship lost their lives. Mothers of young children had to struggle twice as hard to ensure not only their own survival but also that of their children, only to be separated at the slave markets when they were sold to different buyers.
About the Document
The statistics here represent the Middle Passage voyage of the English slave ship James. This voyage represents the larger trend of English ships bringing enslaved people to the Spanish colonies, which was growing into an important partnership at the end of the 1600s.
The seventy-two enslaved people who survived the journey across the Atlantic were probably forced to work on sugar plantations in the Spanish colony of Cuba.
For more records of slaving voyages, visit Voyages: The Atlantic Slave Trade Database.
Vocabulary
- disembark: Leave a ship.
- embark: Go aboard a ship.
- London: Capital of England.
- Middle Passage: The part of the Triangle Trade that brought enslaved people from Africa to the New World.
- New Calabar: Port in present-day Nigeria.
- Triangle Trade: The name for the trade between Europe, Africa, and the Americas in the 1700s–1900s. Ships brought British goods to Africa, where they were traded for enslaved people to take to the Americas, where the enslaved people were traded for money and agricultural products to bring back to Europe.
Discussion Questions
- What additional dangers did enslaved women face during the Middle Passage?
- Thirty-four of the enslaved people aboard the James—one-third of the total—did not survive the journey. What does this reveal about the conditions aboard the ship?
- Twenty-five percent of the enslaved people aboard the James were children aged 10 years or younger. What would it be like to endure the Middle Passage at such a young age?
Suggested Activities
- Include this document as part of any lesson on the Middle Passage or the Triangle Trade.
- Ask students to create an infographic of the data on the enslaved people carried by the James to the New World.
- To do more data analysis of the experience of enslaved people who endured the Middle Passage, combine this document with the trade book of the slave ship Rhode Island (Resource 25 in the New-York Historical Society’s New World—New Netherland—New York curriculum).
- Once students are comfortable interpreting and understanding the data in this ship record, invite them to continue their research on the Middle Passage by finding more voyage records on Voyages: The Atlantic Slave Trade Database.
- Mayken van Angola and Marie-Josèphe Angélique both endured the treacherous journey across the Atlantic as captives. Couple this resource with either of their life stories to enrich student understanding of the lives of colonial enslaved women.
- Children in the New World faced many challenges and dangers. Combine this document with any of the following resources for a lesson about childhood in the early colonial period: Life Story: Dennis and Hannah Holland, Life Story: Malitzen (La Malinche), Life Story: Kateri Tekakwitha, The Mourning Poetry of Anne Bradstreet, Life on the Encomienda, Life Story: Lisbeth Anthonijsen, Children at Work, and Education in New France.
Themes
WORK, LABOR, AND ECONOMY
New-York Historical Society Curriculum Library Connections
- For more resources relating to the practice of slavery in the Caribbean, see Nueva York: 1613-1945.
- For resources on slavery in New York, see Slavery in New York.
