An Account of the Slave Trade on the Coast of Africa was written in 1778 by Alexander Falconbridge. This document was written to the overall population to uncover the slave merchants’ inhumane conduct.
Full Answer
What did Alexander Falconbridge do on his voyages?
Alexander Falconbridge served as a surgeon, or doctor, on British slave ships on four voyages between 1780 and 1787. In 1788, he wrote An Account of the Slave Trade on the Coast of Africa, which became an influential book in the abolitionist movement.
What does Falconbridge’s account tell us about the impact of slavery?
While Falconbridge’s account does not indicate anything about the effect of slavery on America it does give a meticulous atmosphere for what it was like from the time slaves entered the slave ships to the arrival and trade.
What is the significance of Walter Johnson’s “slavery”?
This story gave insight into the treatment of slaves on the slave ships and the trade process that occurred upon arrival at the intended destination. Walter Johnson’s “Slavery” is supported by the details listed in Alexander Falconbridge account of the slave trade.
What book did Falconbridge write after meeting Clarkson?
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.
What did Alexander Falconbridge do to stop slavery?
Alexander Falconbridge was a ship's surgeon from Bristol and a friend of John Newton. He made four crossings to the Americas in a slave ship before quitting the trade on principle.
Was Alexander Falconbridge an abolitionist?
Alexander Falconbridge (c. 1760–1792) was a British surgeon who took part in four voyages in slave ships between 1782 and 1787. In time he became an abolitionist and in 1788 published An Account of the Slave Trade on the Coast of Africa.
How might Alexander Falconbridge background have influenced what he wrote about the Middle Passage?
Falconbridge was a doctor on the British slave ships during the 1780's. His background might have influenced what he wrote about the Middle Passage because he witnessed the terrible conditions the slaves were living in and the misery they endured.
What was the name of the ship that took slaves from Africa?
The schooner Clotilda smuggled African captives into the U.S. in 1860, more than 50 years after importing slaves was outlawed. A mural of the Clotilda adorns a concrete embankment in Africatown, a community near Mobile founded by Africans illegally transported to Alabama aboard the slave ship.
What did Olaudah Equiano do?
An enslaved man who bought his freedom and wrote compellingly about his experiences, Olaudah Equiano (c. 1745–1797) was an extraordinary man who became a prominent figure associated with the campaign to abolish the slave trade. Equiano was born in what is now Nigeria and sold into slavery aged 11.
When was Alexander Falconbridge born?
about 1760Alexander Falconbridge was born in Bristol in about 1760.
Which of these documents do you believe is the most reliable source of information about the Middle Passage?
The most reliable document to understand the Middle Passage is document c which was the account of a slave ship doctor named Alexander Falconbridge in 1788 of the Slave Trade of Coast of Africa.
What were conditions like on the Middle Passage?
Seasickness was common and the heat was oppressive. The lack of sanitation and suffocating conditions meant there was a constant threat of disease. Epidemics of fever, dysentery (the 'flux') and smallpox were frequent. Captives endured these conditions for about two months, sometimes longer.
How were slaves caught in Africa?
The capture and sale of enslaved Africans Most of the Africans who were enslaved were captured in battles or were kidnapped, though some were sold into slavery for debt or as punishment. The captives were marched to the coast, often enduring long journeys of weeks or even months, shackled to one another.
Where were slaves taken from in Africa?
Of those Africans who arrived in the United States, nearly half came from two regions: Senegambia, the area comprising the Senegal and Gambia Rivers and the land between them, or today's Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau and Mali; and west-central Africa, including what is now Angola, Congo, the Democratic Republic of ...
What year did slavery end?
1865The House Joint Resolution proposing the 13th amendment to the Constitution, January 31, 1865; Enrolled Acts and Resolutions of Congress, 1789-1999; General Records of the United States Government; Record Group 11; National Archives.
Who wrote the book Africans in America Part 1?
Africans in America/Part 1/Alexander Falconbridge . Alexander Falconbridge 's account of the slave trade. From the time of the arrival of the ships to their departure, which is usually near three months, scarce a day passes without some negroes being purchased, and carried on board; sometimes in small, and sometimes in larger numbers.
How many air ports were there on slave ships?
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 five inches in length and four in breadth. In addition, some ships, but not one in twenty, have what they denominate wind-sails.
Why do people rumble over their companions?
It often happens that those who are placed at a distance from the buckets, in endeavoring to get to them, rumble over their companions, in consequence of their being shackled. These accidents, although unavoidable, are productive of continual quarrels in which some of them are always bruised.
What happens if defects are discovered in a ship?
If any of the foregoing defects are discovered in them they are rejected. But if approved of, they are generally taken on board the ship the same evening. The purchaser has liberty to return on the following morning, but not afterwards, such as upon re-examination are found exceptionable.
What was Falconbridge's pamphlet about slavery?
The pamphlet, An Account of the Slave Trade on the Coast of Africa was published in 1790.
What did Alexander Falconbridge do?
He was too poor to establish himself as a doctor so in 1780 he became a surgeon on board a slave ship. As his biographer, Christopher Fyfe, has pointed out, this was "a potentially lucrative employment since surgeons received, as well as their salary, 1s. a head per slave landed, and the chance of eventually becoming a ship's captain". Over the next seven years he worked on four different ships that sailed along the west coast of Africa and to the Caribbean. At first he was a supporter of the slave trade: "Previous to my being in this employ I entertained a belief, as many others have done, that the kings and principal men bred Negroes for sale as we do cattle."
What was the name of the pamphlet that Falconbridge wrote in 1787?
In 1787 he published his pamphlet, A Summary View of the Slave Trade and of the Probable Consequences of Its Abolition. Falconbridge also gave evidence to a privy council committee, and underwent four days of questions by a House of Commons committee.
How much did Falconbridge make?
Falconbridge was appointed as a commercial agent with a £300 salary . He took a large number of gifts paid for by the Sierra Leone Company. Soon after arriving he used these gifts to persuade the local chiefs to let the settlers reoccupy their overgrown land.
How many air ports were there on slave ships?
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 five inches in length and four in breadth. In addition, some ships, but not one in twenty, have what they denominate wind-sails.
Why do people rumble over their companions?
It often happens that those who are placed at a distance from the buckets, in endeavoring to get to them, rumble over their companions, in consequence of their being shackled. These accidents, although unavoidable, are productive of continual quarrels in which some of them are always bruised.
Who was Falconbridge's wife?
Falconbridge's wife, Anna Maria, was concerned about the job facing her husband. "It was surely a premature, hair-brained, and ill digested scheme, to think of sending such a number of people all at once, to a rude, barbarous and unhealthy country, before they were certain of possessing an acre of land.".
Overview
The slave trade
The British surgeon Alexander Falconbridge served as a ship's surgeon on four slave trade voyages between 1782 and 1787 (on the ships Tartar (1782), Emilia (1783-84), Alexander (1785-86) and, again, Emilia (1786-87) before rejecting the slave trade and becoming an abolitionist.
Falconbridge gained his experience on slave ships before he met the anti-slavery campaigner Thomas Clarkson following which he became a member of the Anti-Slavery Society. Clarkson wa…
Early life
Falconbridge was born around 1760 in England or Scotland, possibly Prestonpans or Bristol.
Final voyage and death
In 1791, Falconbridge was selected by the Anti-Slavery Society to sail to Sierra Leone with his wife Anna Maria; and his brother William, with the intent of reorganising the failed settlement of freed slaves in Granville Town, Sierra Leone.
Unfortunately, his wife Anna Maria did not share his idealistic views about the …
Legacy
The colony was eventually named Freetown, and it seems likely that Falconbridge Point in Freetown is named after Alexander Falconbridge. Both Alexander and his brother William, who died in Freetown the previous year, are most likely buried in the Freetown area, though the exact location is not recorded.
See also
• John Clarkson (abolitionist)
Notes
1. ^ Costanzo, Angelo; Equiano, Olaudah (2001). Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano. Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Press. p. 281. ISBN 1-55111-262-0.
2. ^ Alston, David (2021), Slaves and Highlanders: Silenced Histories of Scotland and the Caribbean, Edinburgh University Press, p. 19, ISBN 9781474427319
External links
• Alexander Falconbridge (1788) An account of the slave trade on the coast of Africa on the Internet Archive