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Beyond the Middle Passage: Slave Migration from the Caribbean to North America, 1619–1807
Gregory E. O'Malley
| ON April 18, 1752, 160 Africans first glimpsed the New World, sailing into Bridgetown, Barbados, aboard the Liverpool ship Africa, captained by Thomas Hinde. Uncertain of their fate, the captives perhaps took comfort in sighting land after the traumatic Middle Passage, or possibly they simply feared what new hardships might await them. A boat from shore arrived with the first fresh food and water the captives had tasted in weeks. It was surely a welcome change for most, but some suffered too much from intestinal ailments to take comfort in the improved diet. Most likely, all were eager to escape the confines of a ship and to feel solid ground beneath their feet. For many these simple desires had to wait.1 |
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Shortly after the Africa dropped anchor, several men came aboard, including Captain Richard Watts of the Molly, also anchored in the bay. Watts walked among the Africans, poking, prodding, and fondling them. Those who were visibly ill he simply ignored. When inspecting the stronger and healthier, Watts spoke to Hinde, and crew members cajoled the selected slaves to one side of the deck. It was a stressful moment as friends, family members, or countrymen who had bonded during the voyage found themselves shuffled to different groups. The meaning of the sorting was unclear, yet the captives feared its implications. All told, Watts selected one hundred slaves: forty-eight men, twenty women, twenty-four boys, and eight girls. His crew shuttled these weary travelers to another vessel where their journey continued. Within a few hours, the Molly raised its anchor and sails and glided out of the harbor.2 |
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Land often remained in sight during the following days, and treatment was somewhat better on the Molly with the food fresher and conditions less crowded. Some, however, received no comfort in the improvements. One man was seized by a malady that impaired his vision (or had Watts failed to notice the infirmity in his rush to buy slaves?). Two other men fell "sick & lame in their thighs." A fourth man and a young woman suffered from "the Yaws," a bacterial skin infection common aboard slavers.3 Still, unlike the Middle Passage, no one died on this subsequent voyage, and two weeks after leaving Bridgetown the Molly entered another harbor. |
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The ship had reached Charleston and dropped anchor at Sullivan's Island, a few miles from the city. South Carolina law required Watts to "Lye ten days under Sullivan's Island to air his Negroes before he will be admitted to Town." During this quarantine John Guerard—a Charleston merchant who co-owned the Molly—traveled to the ship to survey the slaves at least once. He approved them as "a good sort," though he regretted the presence of "too many small ones."4 A doctor also visited to care for the sick slaves. |
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On May 13 the Africans cleared quarantine and disembarked in Charleston, three weeks after first reaching the Americas in Barbados. Most sold quickly. Within a week only the five ill slaves remained plus a boy "left on Board w'th Capt. Watts who has a fancy to him." Guerard proposed to his partners giving the boy to Watts "as a Reward for his care and troubles of the whole parcel." During the following weeks, two of the sick African men died. The other two ill men recovered enough for sale two weeks later, but the sick young woman remained recovering "under the Doctors hands" for more than a year.5 Her journey to plantation slavery finally ended when Guerard sold her the following June. |
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