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Archive : Galleries

Slavery, Resistance & Rebellion

The Capture of Slaves in Africa

Slave Trades Africa

Slaves being moved to the coast of Africa destined for St. Domingue, 1786.

Little Popo

The slave chain, Little Popo, 1849.

Slave Dealers Africa

An African dealer marches Slaves to the coast where they will be sold.

The Slave Ships

Slaves Thrown Overboard

Slaves being moved to the coast of Africa destined for St. Domingue, 1786.

Clarkson Slave Ship Diagramme

An African dealer marches Slaves to the coast where they will be sold.

Slave Ship

The slave chain, Little Popo, 1849.

Black Prince Slave Ship Log Book

A page from the log book of the Black Prince, a slave ship sailing out of Bristol in 1763.

Black Prince Slave Ship Log Book

A page from the log book of the Black Prince, a slave ship sailing out of Bristol in 1763. This page notes that there are 488 slaves on board.

The entry for Tuesday 22nd (above left) describes an uprising by the slaves -

This 24 hours light winds and hazey weather at 1/2 past 3 am found the slaves was intending to rise got all under arms and soon got them quited tho a great numb~ of them had broken there irons came on board Capt. Johnstons people to our assistance at 6 am got some of them up and got them secured found out 20 of which was the ring leasders which was well flogged washed slaves -

From Bristol Central Reference Library. refinfo@bristol.gov.uk

The Selling of Slaves

Slaves Thrown Overboard

Gate & Slave Market at Pernambuco, Brazil, 1821.

Clarkson Slave Ship Diagramme

"Dealers inspecting a Negro at a slave auction in Virginia", 1861

Slave Ship

European and African slave traders, 1856.

Slaves Thrown Overboard

Slave Market on the Kambia River, Coast of Africa. A woodcut from an oil painting from 1840.

Slave Ship

Spanish "gentlemen" selecting slaves in Cuba, 1837.

Clarkson Slave Ship Diagramme

An imagined picture of a slave auction used as propaganda before the American Civil War.

Gunsmiths Card

A Bristol gun maker's business card.
From Bristol Central Reference Library.
refinfo@bristol.gov.uk

The Plantations

Slaves Cutting Sugar Cain

Slave Market on the Kambia River, Coast of Africa. A woodcut from an oil painting from 1840.

Sugar Plantation

An imagined picture of a slave auction used as propaganda before the American Civil War.

Milling Sugar Cain

European and African slave traders, 1856.

The Punishments

Slaves Cutting Sugar Cain

Punishment of the Four Stakes, 1849.

Sugar Plantation

Plantation overseer punishes a slave in Brazil, 1834.

Milling Sugar Cain

An Interior View of a Jamaica House of Correction, 1834.

The Abolitionists

John Newton

John Newton. Slave ship captain and writer of several hundred hymns including Amazing Grace. He later became an abolitionist.

Olaudah Equiano

Olaudah Equiano. A slave who bought his freedom and later campaigned against slavery in England.

Granville Sharp

Granville Sharp. A pioneer of the anti-slavery movement.

An Interesting Narative

The frontispiece and title pages
of the first London (1789) and New York (1791)
editions of The Interesting Narrative
by Olaudah Equiano.

Thomas Clarkson

Thomas Clarkson. Bravely collected information from Bristol and Liverpool that would be used in the Abolition Bill of 1807.

William Wilberforce

William Wilberforce. The abolition movement's chief voice in Parliament.

Britannia

Grateful slaves receive the "gift" of emancipation from Britannia. 1838.

The Revolts

Toussaint L'Ouverture
Toussaint L'Ouverture

Toussaint L'Ouverture, a Maroon* leader from Haiti, he defeated both British and French armies. Above right and possibly left by C. H. Dietrich.

Toussaint L'Ouverture
Leonard Parkinson

Jamaican Maroon* Captain Leonard Parkinson, 1796. Engraver Abraham Raimbach. From B. Edwards, The Proceedings of the Governor and Assembly of Jamaica, in Regard to the Maroon Negroes - A copy of this book is available in Bristol Central Reference Library.

Samuel Sharp

'Rt. Excellent Samuel Sharpe, National Hero' on the Bank of Jamaica $50 note. Sharpe was an educated town slave who became the leader of the 1831 Jamaica uprising.

Slave Revolt Jamaica

A Jamaican slave revolt, 1759. From Histoire d'Angleterre by David Francois.

*The history of the Maroons primarily is the saga of Africans who refused to live in slavery, and it begins on the island of Jamaica with the fleeing of the Spanish in 1655. The name Maroon is the British corruption of the Spanish cimarrones, meaning wild or untamed. Living in inaccessible regions of Jamaica, the numbers of the Maroons grew as more and more runaway slaves, this time from the new British plantations, flocked to their cause, and with their continual raiding of the British plantations, they rapidly became a thorn in the side of the British colonists. Unique among all Africans that were brought to the New World as slaves, the Maroons earned for themselves an autonomy that no other African slaves could. (Wikipedia) In 1795-6 the Maroons of Jamaica revolted against the colonial government. The revolt failed. At the request of Jamaica about six hundred Maroons were then transported to Nova Scotia and given assistance in settling here. In 1800 virtually all of them emigrated to Sierra Leone. (www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm/virtual/africanns/ch3.asp?Language=English)

Cape Francais On Fire

Fire of the Cape Francais in Saint Domingo

Maroons Hang French Officers

A slave rebel army hanging French officers in St. Domingue. From Marcus Rainsford, An Historical Account of the Black Empire of Hayti (London, 1805)

Saint-Domingo Slave Revolt

Fire in Saint-Domingo 1791, German copper engraving.

Saint Domingue

Warships in the bay, buildings burning and general chaos on shore, as the French military are chased from Saint Domingue, 1820.

Amistad

Death of Capt. Ferrer, the Captain of the Amistad, July, 1839.**

Slave Ship Revolt

"Even though the enemy was beaten, the victory didn't seem to belong to us yet, and the danger became even greater in front of the resistance of the slaves and our exhaustion." 1883, Albert Laporte

**In 1839, Africans being carried aboard La Amistad from Havana, Cuba, to Puerto Principe, Cuba, were led by fellow captive Joseph Cinqué in a revolt against their captors. Their transport from Africa to the Americas was illegal, and they were fraudulently described as having been born in Cuba. After the revolt, the Africans demanded to be returned home, but the ship's navigator deceived them about their course, and sailed them north along the North American coast to Long Island, New York. The schooner was subsequently taken into custody by the United States Navy; and the Africans, who were deemed salvage from the vessel, were taken to Connecticut to be sold as slaves. There ensued a widely publicized court case about the ship and the legal status of the African captives. This incident figured prominently in abolitionism in the United States. On March 9 1840, Associate Justice Joseph Story delivered the Court's decision. Article IX of Pinckney's Treaty was ruled off topic since the Africans in question were never legal property. They were not criminals, as the U.S. Attorney's Office argued, but, rather, "unlawfully kidnapped, and forcibly and wrongfully carried on board a certain vessel". The surviving 36 Africans travelled back to Africa early in 1842. (wikipedia)

Slave Ship Revolt

"A slave revolt is terrible because one cannot fire on them, since each man is worth at least 1,000 francs", 1883, Albert Laporte.

Slave Revolt

A slave revolt.

Slave Reble Surinam

A slave rebel from 'Narrative of a Five Years' Expedition, against the revolted Negroes of Surinam [between French Guiana and Guyana]. from the year 1772, to 1777, by John Gabriel Stedman.

What Followed Slavery?

Indentured Labour

Many of these pictures are taken from a large collection of pictures covering all aspects of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade at The Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas: A Visual Record (University of Virginia). Also the Memories of Slavery archive at Trier University is worth a visit.

Thanks to Bristol Central Reference Library and Adam Hochschild.

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