Largest cluster of sunken vessels from the 18th and 19th centuries have been identified, bearing ‘silent witness’ to the colonial past

Largest cluster of sunken vessels from the 18th and 19th centuries have been identified, bearing ‘silent witness’ to the colonial past

They were the ships that carried enslaved Africans on hellish transatlantic voyages through the 18th and 19th centuries, with up to 400 in a single vessel. Now the wrecks of 14 ships have been identified in the northern Bahamas, marking what has been described by a British marine archaeologist as a previously unknown “highway to horror”.

The fate of the African men, women and children trafficked in their holds is unknown, but if a vessel was sinking, they were often bolted below deck to allow the crew to escape.

Sean Kingsley told the Observer that this extraordinary cluster of wrecks reveals that enslavers had used the Providence Channel heading south to New Providence, Cuba and around to New Orleans in the Gulf of Mexico.

These ships, which date from between 1704 and 1887, were mostly American-flagged, and profited from Cuba’s sugar and coffee plantations, where enslaved Africans faced a life of cruelty.

  • Deceptichum
    4•7 months ago

    Hows the US navy meant to know who was a slave ship to intervene and who wasnt, let alone where and when to intercept them in the 1860s?

    Even today with xrays at ports, satellite tracking, and instant global communication - illegal goods are still smuggled globally.

    • Flying Squid
      1•7 months ago

      For one thing, they could just go to ports where slaves were traded and see which ships came and left? It would take two or three people to just sit there in shifts and watch.

      • Deceptichum
        3•7 months ago

        And these ports openly engaging in illegal trade would just let the US station soldiers there to track everything?

        Why doesn’t the US Navy station someone in every port in China where fentanyl is shipped from and have them make rounds every 30 minutes with a notepad to log every ship they see docked, they must want the drug to keep being sold in America!

        Cmon its not that simple or realistic, and all it takes is one or two corrupt people to lie about what they saw and the whole thing is useless.

        • Flying Squid
          2•7 months ago

          Station soldiers?

          Give someone a chair. Let them sit in a chair. Give them a notebook. Let them write in a notebook.

          and all it takes is one or two corrupt people to lie about what they saw and the whole thing is useless.

          You could say this about literally any crime. That doesn’t mean they aren’t worth fighting.

          • Deceptichum
            1•7 months ago

            And the port authorities and traders will see someone literate sitting on a chair on the dock, all day, everyday, writing in their book and watching the ships, and this will arouse zero suspicions from the criminal slave traders and who ever else “runs” the docks?

            It does mean you fight them effectively, theres a reason this isn’t even done today with our far superior methods and that is because its wildly impractical.

            • Flying Squid
              2•7 months ago

              It does mean you fight them effectively,

              So far, you’ve been claiming that it was impossible for the U.S. to do anything about American ships taking part in the international slave trade.

              Which is weird, because the British were doing quite well at it- https://historyreclaimed.co.uk/the-royal-navys-campaign-against-the-slave-trade/

              If you don’t want to read all of that, this will explain to you why the U.S. did nothing about it-

              The Americans made the Atlantic slave trade illegal in 1807 at shortly after the British, but because of the sectional interests of the American South this law was never upheld and it remained something of a joke right down to the American Civil War, slave trading was put on the statute book as akin to piracy with a penalty of death for those who were captured conducting it, but only one man was ever hung as a slave trader in the United States, and that was in the middle of the American Civil War. The Americans were not capable of suppressing the trade because of the sectional pressures within the pre-civil war United States; the French were not willing to give up the trade for very obvious reasons, which include their possession of Martinique and Guadalupe which had large agricultural economies.

              • Deceptichum
                1•7 months ago

                The Royal Navy’s patrol was never going to stop that trade, there were never going to be enough ships. The whole Royal Navy would have found it difficult to stop this trade.

                As that article points out there were countless issues in trying to stop the trade, such as the legal challenges and burden of proof across multiple countries jurisdictions, the lack of willingness from other European powers, and the fact that the worlds largest navy couldnt stop it even if they dedicated every resource towards doing so.

                The US could have done more, sure, but no matter how much they did, you would still have had the trade happening and these ships would still have sunk, and you would still being saying “it’s because they didn’t do anything” instead of accepting the reality that there was no easy solution to stopping the slave trade.

                • Flying Squid
                  2•7 months ago

                  And if I had said anything about stopping the trade, that would be relevant. I did not. This is what I said:

                  Note that it was made illegal for Americans to take part in the international slave trade in 1800. That’s how little of a shit Americans apparently gave about it.

                  This is also what I said:

                  I’m not talking about today. I’m pointing out that in 1860, an American ship was taking part in a slave trade that was made illegal for American ships to take part in 60 years earlier, apparently without the U.S. Navy intervening.

                  You replied to me after that.

                  This is what my link said:

                  The Americans made the Atlantic slave trade illegal in 1807 at shortly after the British, but because of the sectional interests of the American South this law was never upheld and it remained something of a joke right down to the American Civil War, slave trading was put on the statute book as akin to piracy with a penalty of death for those who were captured conducting it, but only one man was ever hung as a slave trader in the United States, and that was in the middle of the American Civil War. The Americans were not capable of suppressing the trade because of the sectional pressures within the pre-civil war United States; the French were not willing to give up the trade for very obvious reasons, which include their possession of Martinique and Guadalupe which had large agricultural economies.

                  Which agrees with me.

                  You’re never going to stop rape either. That doesn’t mean you don’t do your best to try.

                  • Deceptichum
                    0•7 months ago

                    It also doesnt mean you blame the police for not stationing a guy on a chair in every household for not doing enough to stop it.