As the sun dipped below the horizon, casting its long shadows across the unforgiving Atlantic, a haunting narrative unfolded, stretching from the 16th to the 19th century. These were the years when slave ships, vessels of despair and agony, undertook the notorious ‘Middle Passage’ as part of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Within the bowels of these floating prisons, one chapter remains especially gut-wrenching: the appalling ordeal faced by enslaved African women.
Imagine the year is 1700, and you are aboard the ‘Brookes,’ a ship infamous for its inhuman conditions, captained by men whose names have been etched in infamy. Figures like James DeWolf, an American slave trader, and John Hawkins, an early English slave trader, come to mind—men who profited from this dark enterprise. Can you fathom the depths of despair that consumed the souls aboard these ships? What must it have been like for women, torn from their families and their homelands, their lives reduced to mere commodities?
As we navigate these harrowing waters, we are confronted by the haunting account of Olaudah Equiano, a former slave who purchased his freedom and became a prominent abolitionist. : “The shrieks of the women, and the groans of the dying, rendered the whole scene a scene of horror almost inconceivable.” His words ring out across the centuries, a vivid testament to the “horror almost inconceivable” that was the reality for enslaved women aboard these ships. Join us as we delve into this deeply unsettling chapter of human history and shed light on the heinous treatment of women aboard slave ships. Welcome to the diary of Julius Caesar.
The Sorrowful Symphony of the Atlantic. Unveiling the Horrors and Scale of the Slave Trade.
In the annals of human history, few tales are as gut-wrenching and unsettling as the Atlantic Slave Trade, a complex and tragic web that spanned continents, cultures, and centuries. Embarking on this narrative journey takes us from the sun-soaked coasts of West Africa to the burgeoning colonies of the New World, across the treacherous expanse of the Atlantic Ocean—a vast body of water that became a graveyard for millions of African souls.
The genesis of this unimaginable human tragedy could be traced to the 16th century, when the Portuguese began to kidnap Africans and ship them to sugar plantations in the Americas. But the trade burgeoned in scale with the British, French, and Dutch joining the fray. Over 12 million Africans were estimated to have been transported during the period from the early 1500s to the late 1800s, but some estimates range even higher, accounting for those who never survived the infamous Middle Passage.
This period was punctuated by historical figures, each playing their respective roles in the human tragedy. Men like John Newton, a slave ship captain who later repented and penned the hymn “Amazing Grace,” embody the moral ambivalence and eventual awakening that characterized some participants. But not all shared such epiphanies; men like Edward Colston amassed fortunes from the trade, indifferent to the human suffering they left in their wake.
While the faces and names that propelled this dark industry were numerous, so were those who opposed it. Olaudah Equiano, a freed slave who purchased his own freedom, published an autobiography in 1789 that gave the world an inside look into the horrors of the slave trade. His first-hand accounts electrified the British public and fueled the abolitionist movement, becoming a catalyst for change.
00:00 The Middle Passage
1:45 Unveiling the Horrors and Scale of the Slave Trade
4:34 Infernal Arks
8:20 The Ship’s Crew and Their Uneasy Dominion
11:22 The Abyss Below Deck
14:44 The Vain Scribbles of Law on the Slave Ships’ Dark Canvas
18:14 The Grim Gastronomy of Slave Ships and the Starving Souls Within
22:12 Chains and Whips
26:02 The Virulent Voyage Through Disease and Decay
29:44 The Layered Darkness of Gender and Age Aboard Slave Ships.
33:13 The Resilient Cadence of Culture Amidst Chains.
37:06 Rebellion on the Swells
40:41 How the Dark Tales of Slave Ships Fueled the Abolitionist Flame
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Such cruelty was not limited to that time period in history alone, not by a long shot. It did and has existed for many thousands of years, and many races, creeds, colors/shades and variations of people, from Lilly White to to Blue Black, have suffered this satanic wrong. It still exists in this world, just not so openly codified. We should dwell on never allowing it to exist now are ever again. No one group or individual carries that weight of history all alone, we all share that cultural history.
Whoever's writing these scripts really deserves a raise.. they are all Just bloody brilliant.. this one really put the hook in me 😢
For shame! That julius cesar was a dick, man..
All white people are racist. Always have been always will be.
That's why all the African migration into Europe on a massive we are seeing, on a demographically changing scale, is best for Europe.
African culture is vastly superior to that of white Christian Europe.
The sooner Europe is majority African… the better.
Torn from their homelands they were captured by rival tribes and sold into slavery by people that look just like them I have no sympathy for them or how they were treated I'm not going to tell you how to treat property you own
History is a sad window into the future, for even now 2023 there are Millions of people suffering, starving and being used as human slaves. North Korea and China springs to mind. And yet, the so called Super Powers sit by ideally.😢
why is nothing ever mentioned about the tribal leaders rounding up people to sell to the slave traders?
Just speechless 😢😢
So we now know all about what the "White European Slave trade " was like but when are we going to have a video on the "African Slave Trade" i.e the much older slave trade carried out by the African tribes themselves…and also the "Arab Slave Trade" which is also FAR older than the European trade and is still carried on into this 21st Century.
Is the "nauseating lobscouse" you are referring to as being fed to the slaves on the ships the same 'lobscouse' that was routinely made and eaten by the working class in Liverpool – and was so popular it was from where their nickname 'Scousers' comes?
Sold by Africans
What a slanted piece of crap. Up to now, I respected this site. This piece ignored the enslavement culture that flourished in Africa and let the poor people be put on those ships. He never addresses this. All he said was the Europeans raided the coast and took slaves.
This causes one who has not researched the topic to think the bad whites were the cause of the damn slave trade. All they did was buy merchandise and ship it. As sick as that is to us, it pales whe you dig into the culture in Africa that permitted it.
This is far from the truth. Sure, those raids happened. However, the vast majority of black slaves were captured by African countries and sold to anyone who would buy them. This just happened to include European and US merchants.
He never mentioned that the majority of blacks were either kept by the selling country or sold to the Muslims and Africans in the north, or Mideast.
If you are going to do a documentary that is slanted, at least be honest and put it in the title. Yes, sex does sell. But you tend to mislead in your titles of your "documentaries". If you can call them that.
Now I have doubts about all your work after sitting through this slanted thing.
If their is no shame in the disregard for mankind the same way the holocaust is taught and remembered why not slavery of the African? The inhumane treatment of the African was just as cruel if not worse why is their torture any different ?
😊I appreciate the telling of this history, we also need to talk about the white slave trade in America also. Just as many Irish were forcibly put into slavery as the black community. And in most cases they were treated worse than the black slave.
GOD WILL RECOMPENSE FOR THE INHUMANITY OF THOSE THAT PROSPERED AND THEIR GENERATIONAL OFFSPRING IF THERE IS NO REPENTANCE FOR THEIR FOREFATHERS INHUMANITY . FORE VENGEANCE IS MINE THUS SAY THE LORD .THOS THAT CONTINUE THIS WILL REAP WHAT WAS SOWN!☝🏽🥸
Make your next video titled "Exposing the Diabolical Atrocities of the people that caught, sold and transported their own tribesman for slaveowners all over the world.". White people ended slavery in the West…but the rest of the world finds itself currently with more slaves than ever before. Go ahead and keep hating the people that freed you from your chains and loving those whom currently own you.
And I pray that GODS VENGEANCE BE QUICKENED THAT I MAY WITNESS HIS AWESOME GLORY.Amen
The US Democrat party proudly exclaims it modelled itself after the Greek democracy…a system that had 5 slaves for every voting citizen. It is why the US Democratic party was the de facto party of the Confederate slave-owning party of the American South. This slave-mind continues today…the only 'party switch' belonging to a small number of previous Democrats finding salvation in the words of civil rights heroes like MLK Jr and then switching parties to become Republicans.
This must have been dreadful for these kidnapped people's who was stolen from there home so very sad I feel heartbroken for them that they suffer so much.
Crazy past that should never happen again
how come the european slave trade is the only tragedy that triggers "well what about"? they are all bad why do so many people have a dog in the fight lmao
Why did Africa not resist?
But Exposing what exactly?? it's (history) i mean it's not like anybody was hiding it Also the Kings and Queens of Africa at that time the ones who sold them just saying But i don't care about peoples feelings ok just tell the history how it is ……. Also imagine getting sensitive buthurt emotional crybabie about history a different time and era 😂 Also this video not being completely honest at all
The wyte man is the only group to take slavery to diabolical levels.
Slavery is known to have existed, but, not to the degree of the wyte mans chattel slavery.
Black people in america are still seen as 3/5 of a person.
My mother was a white Southern bigot ( my dad was Filipino/Ashkenazi, who she insisted calling "Spanish"). Anyhow, her family had owned slaves, which she claimed were "well treated". My response was "really? Were you there?". That shut her up!
PERVERTS THEN AND PERVERTS NOW. THEY WILL NEVER EVOLVE INTO HUMAN
Pretty good documentary, but you failed to mention that the MAJORITY of the salves acquired weren't kidnapped…they were sold by their own slave owning people.