Katie Duffy 1/24/21 ENG12H

When discussing the tragedies of the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade, the many shipwrecks that occurred when spanning the trip from the coasts of Africa to North and South America, tragically killing many of the slaves on board. Britain, which was the European country second to Portugal that transported the most slaves to the Americas was also active in suppressing Spanish and Portuguese ships in the Caribbean between 1808 and 1888 (the year following the year Britain outlawed the slave trade and the year when the last country, Brazil, outlawed the practice). 

The Slaver "Fredensborg"

Danish slaver the Fredensborg was one of the most prominent slave vessels to sink.

To this day, excavation from slave wrecks reveals a lot of the tragedies and practices that occurred on board these vessels. Exploration on the Fredensborg, a Danish slave ship, which was wrecked during one of its voyages, uncovered the religiosity of some of the captives: where amulets made of bones from chevrotain and peacocks from Western Africa were found next to one another. 

South Africa discovery reveals slave ship artefacts - BBC News

The São José de Africa sank off the coast of Capetown carrying about 500 Mozambique slaves to Brazil in 1794.

One of the most famous slave vessel wrecks was the São José de Paquete de Africa, a Portuguese ship. This vessel, which sank off the coast of South Africa uncovered many unique finds. Hundreds of iron ballasts were found, which were to weigh slaves and the ship down and a wooden pulley block were found. This ship, which was initially discovered in the 1980s by treasure hunters and supposed to be a Dutch ship, was discovered to be the infamous lost Portuguese vessel by the archeologist, Jaco Boshoff in 2011. This relatively recent discovery has solidified that there is much more history that is needed to be uncovered. 

Works Cited: 

“São José Paquete de Africa: Ship of Enslavement Discovered.” Journal of Pan African Studies, vol. 8, no. 3, Aug. 2015, pp. 161–164. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=109027797&site=eds-live.

Webster, Jane. “Historical Archaeology and the Slave Ship.” International Journal of Historical Archaeology, vol. 12, no. 1, Mar. 2008, pp. 1–5. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1007/s10761-007-0038-2.

Images:

https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/media/images/83348000/png/_83348632_slave_shipwreck_624_v3.png

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https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheconversation.com%2Fthe-story-of-east-africas-role-in-the-transatlantic-slave-trade-43194&psig=AOvVaw1W4E62kDQbmjziQX4jj2bd&ust=1611555323673000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCIDhxbT1s-4CFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD

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