Slavery Poverty Holocaust
The Slave Trade, a ‘holocaust of greed': An Exploration of Artistic Responses reflecting the middle Passage and the conditions of the Slave Trade Ships.
“For it's very logic, purpose, manner and continuing impact, the Trans Atlantic slave trade, also often referred to as an African holocaust, would perhaps remain as one of the most shameful wrongs in human history”(2007:1).Slavery shows the sacrifice that Africans made for the alteration of the wider world. The Slave Trade with its use of slaves bound with chains, slave ships and torn apart segregated families, left Africans destroyed economically, depleted in population, left in continued poverty and struggling for dignity. Through slavery a racial hierarchy was built, Africans were loathed as a race, and still today remain attached to the previous trauma that their culture has had to endure, their identity has be racially discriminated against, leaving behind a memory that will never be forgotten.
The Atlantic Slave Trade began in the 15th Century and grew steadily until the 19th Century, when the needs of sugar production came to dominate the lives of African slaves. Between 1450 and 1850 10 million Africans were seized, gagged and bound and forcibly and against their own will transported across the Atlantic Ocean from the freedom of Africa to the enslavement of the Americas, often totalling 4000 miles. Eighty five per cent were taken to the Caribbean and Brazil, and 29 percent of the total numbers that were forced to the Americas went to British colonies, with another 10 million
perishing in the process of capture. 12 million Africans were transported by Islamic traders across the Sahara Desert, Red Sea and the Pacific Ocean to Eastern markets.
Over 54,000 voyages were made in the course of three hundred years between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries and continental loss of slave exports was averaging nearly 160,000 persons each year for a century. As Qlaudah Equiano an African slave who was captured in the kingdom of Benin in Africa and travelled aboard a slave ship stated:
“ I now wished for the last friend, death, to relieve me. The shrieks of the women
and the groans of the dying, rendered the whole scene of horror almost
inconceivable”
This was a result of racial greed, which exploited and abused human beings purely for the satisfaction of wealth and power and with the Atlantic demand for slaves growing, even more Africans were made available.
Many African's willingness to participate in slavery was in a desperate bid in that they would be able to secure some money to support their families and to watch them grow; however, slavery just led the African people to a decline in their population. The only irony that came out of the slave trade for African culture was that while all Africans were being discriminated against; being insensitively named ‘the blacks', it did unite
them all together as they all shared the same identity. Slavery and racism together brought responses to Africans. It allowed them to form connections regarding themselves as brothers and sisters and constructing an identity out of the degradation and repression that they shared.
There were two groups of slaves, many were extracted out of communities but left behind in Africa to remain as slaves and wives for years to come. Others, were destined
for immediate sale and export, they were victims who were targeted and ejected from communities. These individuals were vulnerable to disease, were very weak and were forced to travel in physically traumatised states. The slaves lived in very poor areas of accommodation, they would have to squat on the floor with very little room to stand sitting in their own excretion. In many ships slaves only had space of about five feet high and four feet wide. The awful conditions made many slaves crippled for life due to being chained up in such restricted positions. When a physician working on the slave ship Brookes was asked by a House of Commons committee in 1790 if the slaves had room to move around, he stated:
No. The slaves that are out of irons are locked spoonways and locked to one another”
Not only did the slaves have no room to move, but the excessive heat was intolerable and the floor of where they slept was covered in blood and mucus .
The slavers carried as many slaves as they could fit in on their boats to maximise their profits, many slaves who were too ill and consequently could not be sold would be thrown over board alive for the sharks to eat so that they would not have to pay import
charges. The slaves bodies both physically and sexually belonged to the slavers, they were stripped of any identity and history and remained only the property of their masters. As Ottobah Cugoano a slave of the native of Africa stated:
“Death was more preferable than life; and a plan was concentrated among us, that we might burn and blow up the ship, and to perish all together in the flames”
It has been estimated that only half of the number of slaves made it to the Americas, many committed suicide by refusing to eat, jumping over board, or dying from diseases on the ship. The diets that they had on their journey deteriorated greatly, they were not allowed food that would efficiently sustain them, more than often their usual quantity of fruit, vegetables and meat was taken away from them and replaced with rotten food infested with vermin.
When they were occasionally allowed their daily rations of meat and vegetables, they were served in a bucket between ten or so slaves which inevitably led to quarrels and infection. Their water supplement consisted of drinking from streams or inadequate water supplies. The slaves lacked dietary needs and nutritional supplements leading to scurvy and many who died on the crossing must have suffered severe malnutrition or even complete starvation. The only comfort the slaves had was their company with one another. As Vincent Carretta states of the slave Qlaudah Equiano:
“ The only comfort we had was in being in one another's arms all that night, and bathing each other with our tears”
Moreover, the rates for mortality among the slave traders was very high, about 50 percent of Europeans died while they waited off shore while collecting slaves and cargo for their ships from diseases such a Malaria and Yellow Fever. Slave numbers of around a million died before they had even left Africa from disease, abuse, depression and exhaustion. Many died after a few months of arriving in America due to being unable to accumulate to the different diseases and environments of the Americas. The captains and slavers were not at pains to ill treat the slaves for commercial efforts, however, if a
slave riot occurred and slaves started to rebel, many got disfigured by having hands, legs and arms cut off.
Two hundred years marks the anniversary this year of the abolishment of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. It has taken a very long time for huge successive powers to admit their faults. Slavery for many remained a silent memory, and a little of whom were involved were reluctant to admit to their responsibility towards this crime against
humanity. Many believe that former powers have not repented enough for the wrongs in history and the trauma and damage that they have inflicted on African Culture. Moreover, the act of the abolishment of the slave trade was not an act of benevolence of the colonial powers but the resistance of those that were enslaved and abused. The remorse and regret that was admitted will never undo the damaged caused to African society, let alone stop forms of modern day slavery from happening today, such as trafficking, migrating, prostitution, child abuse, sweatshops and families and communities in endless amounts of poverty and racial discrimination.
The slave trade was the trade of African people supplied to the colonies of the new world. Within this, slaves were captured to be taken on a journey of death. The Slaves initial seize was full of violence and torment. The victims would begin their journey feeling scared, shaken, exhausted and physically insulted.
Strong men were what the buyers usually preferred, however large numbers of women and children were captured as well. Women were less rebellious than men and their due to their sexuality as sex objects for harassment and their use for reproduction they were highly sought after.
After 1807 the act for the abolishment of the Slave Trade was passed. Many captains tried to continue with slavery, however if the Navy caught any slavers not abiding with the law they would be fined 100 pounds per slave on board. Many captains to reduce the amount that they would need to pay in fines threw many slaves overboard alive. In 1823 a committee of people joined the Anti slavery society. They believed that the only way to stop slavery from continuing to occur would be by making it illegal. In 1833 parliament passed the Abolishment of Slavery Act, allowing slaves the freedom that they deserved.
Are there many representations of the Middle Passage and the conditions of the Slave Trade Ships? and if so, is it possible to bear witness to what has happened through these representations?
‘Our struggle is also a struggle of memory against forgetting'
I stated this title with great interest in representations and artistic responses, feeling that due to 1807 and the funfair that the topic of the slave trade has produced, through its vastly discussed historical literature by people giving their analysis, interpretation and expertise within this special field of historical study that there would be a lot of artistic responses along side such a huge quantity of literature. However, in exploring the amount of artistic responses reflecting the middle passage and the
conditions of the slave trade ships, what has become is a framing of what in many cases seems to be a framing of the negative; representations of the middle passage and the conditions of the slave ships are in fact largely unexplored and very rare. As Jane Webster states:
‘ Few attempts have been made to study the material culture of slave ships together with documentary and pictorial sources in order to develop a more rounded picture of the unique experience that was a Middle Passage crossing'
There are however different types of representations of the event of the slave trade which have been produced such as artworks, artefacts, literature, paintings, diagrams and caricatures, nevertheless in the topic of the middle passage and slave ships a lack is very evident. This leads me to question why there are parameters around the absence of representation and if it is a good thing? Are artistic responses an adequate memory tool which are legitimate in order to bear witness to what has happened, or should we just not look at such appalling images, and if we do, what can be achieved by this, does the absolute horror of the event of the slave trade complicate it's visual acknowledgment?
Many understand representations as not being a form of historical data and that our knowledge and understanding of the slave trade would be better without them:
As Huey Copeland states:
“Visual representations of slavery and often more important the absence of these
images influence our understanding and memory of slavery”
Copeland discusses how the absences of artistic representations of the slave trade are crucial in controlling our understanding and memory of slavery. This point of view shocked me, of course and as many argue such as Marcus wood, it is almost impossible and very difficult to understand and show exactly what happened to people who endured slavery: As Marcus Wood states:
‘The attempts of western painters, sculptors, engravers and lithographers to record the slavery experience is very difficult and a history ‘fraught with irony, paradox, voyeurism and erasure'
Even through testimonies of what happened, through propaganda from abolitionists, slavery survivors, gallery pictures, monuments built to commemorate the emancipation movements and the remembrance today, it is still very difficult to portray such an inhumane act on humanity. Many of these different artistic responses display images of the slave trade, such as: slaves bound with chains, family's separated, slave ships or slaves working on plantations, I believe the evidence of these images are important, however, actually gaining an idea about exactly what happened in the slave trade through certain representations as aforementioned is not impossible but far from straightforward.
An experience such as the slave trade was unrepeatable and irreproducible for each individual slave; moreover, slavery caused this huge mass of suffering that might make any person involved never be able to understand it, communicate it, or even want to remember it. I do agree with Wood that it is very difficult to try and understand and show what happened to the people who endured slavery. However, I disagree with Copeland's view that the absence of such images influences our understanding and memory of slavery. Visual representations in my opinion, although they are very difficult to portray precisely what happened, events which are so traumatic, history and visual responses resists simple understanding, and as Saul Friedlander states:
‘An opaqueness remains at the very core of the historical understanding and interpretation of what happened'
Nevertheless, the lack of representations does not make us understand the slave trade in any better way, on the contrary, they are crucial in our understanding of memory, because they call attention to realities that most would rather not know about or even look at, and that such images occasionally need to be looked at and remembered in order to never be forgotten. Marcus Wood disagrees with this point, in his opinion suffering being remembered by implements or representations are not a gate way to the events which produced them, they do not substitute for the experience of anyone involved in the processes of their use. In my opinion I think it is very important that we think about the individuals who witnessed raids on their communities, those who died on their way to the African coast, for those who were forced and hurled onto ship cargos, for those who were cast overboard for the circles of sharks and for those who made it to an unknown environment on the other side of the world, everyone of those people mattered. It is this that we must allow ourselves to never forget, through the individuals who struggled and fought for their lives against humanity and for the survivors and through historians and artists who have tried to memorialise the slave trade in cultural memory. Although many of the images produced by artists are horrific images of atrocity, they are a necessity in the understanding of truth, as evidence of the unimaginable and unthinkable as a way of transforming events into memory. Jania Struk in her book photographing the Holocaust discusses how the horrific nature of pictorial images can sometimes prevent rational thought or critical thought being applied to them, and that it can be far easier to recoil from images rather than to confront them.
I think this comment is very true, but I do think that in my opinion visual representations of the middle passage are important and that we should view them, but whether people react to certain images by turning away and becoming repulsed, or by being fascinated observers of distressing events, it does not make a difference as they are still bearing witness to the past from the opportunity of visual representations. The images do not have to stimulate them, the shock factor that the images have had on them in making them retreat, provides enough evidence in itself that they are taking in the past in their own way, or if a fascinated observer feels the need to keep looking into more images of atrocity this is again in order to allow themselves to bear witness to what has happened.
Representations of slavery provide a context for events as well as displaying them and the written word in my opinion is far less impacting on memory than artistic responses. Artistic responses record the atrocities, although the images provide only a small picture of the consequences of generations of, death, torture and harassment, they provide a vision of an act that cannot be forgotten about, and if images of public events are not considered they will just be forgotten about. As Walter Benjamin states:
‘Every image of the past that is not recognized by the present as one of its own
concerns threatens to disappear irretrievably'.
It is very difficult to determine what stimulates our memory more visual memory or written words. Images freeze scenes in our minds; however it is very difficult to work out how images help us to remember, particularly in circumstances we did not experience personally. Visual memory is needed in order to make that link between the past and the present. However, we have to question how do pictorial images act as evidence for things and events of the past and how does it prove or disapprove remembered events? Much of our ability to remember depends on images, and that through visual representations messages are displayed.
As Babie Zelizer states:
The images of social memory borrow from a broad tradition of pictorial depiction
that used painting, photography and ideographic systems of communication to
make its messages public' pg5
In my opinion images work the most successfully with our collective memory in remembering the Slave Trade, as Barbier states
‘Images help stabilize and anchor collective memory's transient and fluctuating
nature in art…images often become an events primary markers'
Moreover, the Images to some extent always depend on words for interpretation.
As William Saroyan states:
‘One picture is worth a thousand words but only if you look at the picture and say
or think the thousand words'
Many people believe that creating a memory through artistic representations is inaccurate, in that representations can be staged, tampered with and that they did not actually occur. Photographs too many are the only form of visual representation that is classified as a successful tool in gathering practical evidence, As Barbie states:
‘Photography… a vessel of accuracy, authenticity, verisimilitude and truth'
However, photographic images of the Slave Trade are limited due to the technology not being available at the time. There are a few surviving photographic images of slavery, however they are only images of slaves after the slave trade was abolished and in any event these are very limited as many slaves due to lack of money could not afford to get their photographs taken.
Pictorial evidence in my opinion is very important in order to bear witness, there is no good or easy way of looking of images of atrocity, but it is crucial for us to contribute to collectively remembering so that surviving testimonies of the slave trade can be passed on through generations to come. As Julia Kristeva's states:
‘Art of the image excels in the crude exposure of monstrosity. 'Our aim today is,
‘no longer to bear witness to inadequately known events but rather to keep them
before our eyes.'
The abolitionists used visual representations as propaganda tools to provide the world with images of what was happening to individual lives out of an act of inhumane cruelty. This therefore proves how affective visual representations are in knowledge and understanding. Images today are used on packets of cigarettes as a shock factor to enable people to understand the horrific facts behind why smoking kills you, moreover, advertising companies used to use words to create this shocking impact, which again, reinforces how images play a bigger role in shocking people and stimulating their memory. The Abolitionist images were very affective as shown by 1807 and they also allowed people to not need to be involved in the slave trade in order to become witnesses.
The only problem behind such images was that they produced stereotypical representations to convince a disbelieving public that what they were portraying was real, and the reason why they were splashed across the newspapers and throughout the media at the time. This provided images with reoccurring themes restricting the memory to only these themes, and thus this is why there are a few very famous images of the middle passage and the conditions of the slave trade ships such as Brookes. However other artistic responses reflecting the area of the middle passage and the conditions of the slave trade ships are substantially limited.
Many argue however, that representations do not give us an understanding of historical events, rather, they act as fragments to illustrate a story but they do not tell them. Janina Struj provides questions in her book asking if we have a right to show people in the last moments of there lives, and must the torment of millions be repaid upon museums around the world for millions to watch and should we place a halt on such reckless images out of respect for those who died?
In my opinion we should definitely consider artistic responses in the establishment of historical knowledge. I believe the possibilities in facing the slave trade in artistic representations is very difficult, but I do believe that pictorial evidence is needed along side literature to help us in part to bear witness to what has happened by providing a context for events as well as displaying them. Moreover although atrocity images are very important for projecting the realities that many would rather not know or look at, thus why they were used by abolitionists, we should also look at individual pictures of families involved in order to aid our understanding, as placing this next to a photo of atrocity reaffirms its poignancy and thus stimulates our memory.
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