Alexander falcon bridge biography of albert
Home / Scientists & Inventors / Alexander falcon bridge biography of albert
They are far more violently affected by seasickness than Europeans. The women also are placed in a separate apartment between decks, but without being ironed. On a day appointed, the Negroes were landed and placed together in a large yard belonging to the merchants to whom the ship was consigned.
. The men, on being brought aboard the ship, are immediately fastened together, two and two, by handcuffs on their wrists and by irons rivetted on their legs.
In addition, some ships, but not one in twenty, have what they denominate wind-sails. A lot of slaves afflicted with the flux, being about to be landed for sale, he directed the ship's surgeons to stop the anus of each of them with oakum. The book was based on four trips he took between 1780 and 1787, and it gave a clear and honest description of what he saw.
He described how Africans were captured, chained, and marched to the coast.
Clarkson had a high regard for Falconbridge who on more than one occasion acted as his personal armed bodyguard whilst he gathered evidence against the slave trade.
After meeting Clarkson, Falconbridge published in 1788 An Account of the Slave Trade on the Coast of Africa, an influential book in the abolitionist movement.
These means have generally had the desired effect. They are, besides, much exposed to the violent rains which frequently fall here, being covered only with mats that afford but a slight defense; and as there is usually water at the bottom of the canoes, from their leaking, they are scarcely every dry. It had nearly proved fatal to me also. This becomes a fresh source of boils and disturbances and tends to render the condition of the poor captive wretches still more uncomfortable.
During the different times I was in the country, I took no little pains to satisfy myself in this particular; but notwithstanding I made many inquires, I was not able to obtain the least intelligence of this being the case.... For the purpose of admitting this needful refreshment, most of the ships in the slave trade are provided, between the decks, with five or six air-ports on each side of the ship, of about six inches in length, and four in breadth; in addition to which, some few ships, but not one in twenty, have what they denominate wind-sails.
His evidence, however, added powerful weight to the abolitionist arguments.
In 1791, the Anti-Slavery Society sent Falconbridge, his wife Anna Maria, and his brother William to Sierra Leone, a British colony for freed slaves, to help govern and oversee settlement.
The hardships and inconveniences suffered by the Negroes during the passage are scarcely to be enumerated or conceived.
It is scarcely possible to describe the confusion of which this mode of selling is productive....
Various deceptions at used in the disposal of sick slaves and many of these must excite in every humane mind the liveliest sensations of horror. If plasters are applied they are very soon displaced by the friction of the ship, and when bandages are used the Negroes soon take them off and appropriate them to other purposes....
As very few of the Negroes can so far brook the loss of their liberty and the hardships they endure, they are ever on the watch to take advantage of the least negligence in their oppressors.
Some wet and blowing weather having occasioned the port-holes to be shut and the grating to be covered, fluxes and fevers among the Negroes ensued.
Exercise being deemed necessary for the preservation of their health, they are sometimes obligated to dance, when the weather will permit their coming on deck. Their irons being examined, a long chain, which is locked to a ring-bolt, fixed in the deck, is run through the rings of the shackles of the men, and then locked to another ring-bolt, fixed also in the deck.
Few, indeed, are able to withstand the fatal effects of it.