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.
It notes that the number of the trafficked humans ranged from 15 people on the Atalanta, heading from Charleston for New Orleans in 1806, to 400 on an American schooner, the Peter Mowell, which sank in 1860.
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.
I like your posts in general, but this is disingenious. The Louisiana purchase was in 1803, the American Civil War did not conclude until 1865.
So, ‘That’s how little of a shit the South apparently gave about it’
I’m not sure what the relevance of the Louisiana Purchase or the South is here. The Louisiana purchase had nothing to do with the Slave Trade Act of 1800 and because the Civil War only began the year the ship sank, and because the article does not call it a Confederate ship, I think it’s very clear that they mean a schooner that sank in 1860 that was flying U.S. flags and was a registered U.S. merchant vessel. Meaning it was in violation of U.S. law.
And, as the article says, U.S. ships continued to do this until 1887, long after American emancipation.
I’m sorry, the fact is that the U.S. government didn’t give a shit about Americans engaging in the international slave trade as long as they didn’t sell those slaves within America’s borders.
I am saying two things, 1) the U.S. as we know it now did not have control of the Southern borders at the time, and 2) the article states that these ships were bound for New Orleans.
‘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.’
New Orleans was part of the United States until January 26, 1861 when Louisiana seceded. The ship sank in 1860.
And, again, it was still happening in 1887. Which was 22 years after emancipation.
The U.S. was incredibly fragile after the war (arguably still is). Realpolitik won the day.
I heard there was gold in your belly
After which war? The Revolutionary war in the 1700s? The War of 1812? The Civil War that Louisiana wasn’t a part of yet?
It’s different today. I wouldn’t directly compare the two. Human trafficking still happens sadly but not as ‘en masse’ or without some scrutiny and interference from authorities.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Sad 😩😩😣😣
