Growth of the Trade

In 1673, two hundred Koromanti slaves from an estate in St. Ann rebelled, killed 12 overseers and escaped into the Cockpit hills. A large rebellion took place in St. Catherine in 1678, and another in 1685, when 150 slaves fled from four estates. With the decrease in slave numbers, the English were now taking Africans directly from Africa. The first group was from Madagascar, and then the slave traders turned their attention to West Africa in force.

The transatlantic slave trade followed a triangular route. Traders left European ports towards the West African coast. They bought people in exchange for goods. The people they bought were farmers, goldsmiths, priests, soldiers, merchants, musicians, etc. They were mothers, fathers, husbands, wives, sons and daughters. They were Kongolese, Akan, Yoruba, Igbo, etc. About two-thirds of the people sold to Europeans were men, which had an adverse effect on the development of those African societies. The voyage from Africa, across the Atlantic to the Americas took 6 to 8 weeks. In the Americas and in this case Jamaica, the Africans that survived were sold to planters as slaves.

The number of African slaves in Jamaica rose from 552 in 1662 to 9,504 in 1673. By 1734, that number had increased to 86,546. In 1775, there were 192,787. Britain began large-scale slaving through private trading companies in the 1640s. The London-based Royal African Company was the largest and from 1672 had a monopoly on the British trade.

Slave ships spent months travelling along the West African coast - their crews buying captives from local African and European dealers. Some of the Africans, who were made slaves, were captured in battles. Others were kidnapped or sold into slavery for debt or as punishment. Slavery in the Americas was different from slavery in Africa. The African dealers would not know the extent of cruelty those sold would encounter in the Americas.

The captives were marched from the interior, which took days or weeks. They were kept in slave castles on the coast until there were enough to fill a ship, which could take weeks. They were then taken on board, stripped naked and examined from head to toe by the captain or surgeon. Men were packed together below deck and secured by leg irons, while women and children were kept separately, sometimes on deck, which exposed the women to violence and rape.

Conditions were appalling and the air below deck, foul and putrid. It was very hot and seasickness was common. Smallpox, fever and dysentery were frequent. The captives were taken on the deck in good weather and forced to exercise. Some took the opportunity to stage a rebellion, or jumped overboard to commit suicide. Records suggest that one in five Africans died during the Middle Passage.

As to the number of Africans transported across the Atlantic, some historians accept a figure of 20 million, while others believe it was between 50 and 100 million. Up to 1.5 million died on British built slave ships, between Africa and the Caribbean.