Figure 1.-- Most of the captives transported to the Ndw World were men. Women were a small miority and their experiences were horrifying. There is one African female that had status in the Biard painting. She appears to be the companion of the Capitan, presumably one of the slaves that he was allocatd as part of his compensation. She does not look like she wasrecently capyuted, but rather probably enslaved on an earlier voyage. We do not know what happned to yhese women and the inevitable children once the captain ceased commanding slvers. Notice that the captain is the only crew member allowed to have a female companion. There eere no European women on slavers. Perhaps there was an exception, but we do not know of any. Of course, the crew on most vessels had access to the captive African weomen who had no way of resisting their unwanted advances.

Most of the captives transported to the New World were men. Women were a small miority and their experiences were horrifying. There is one African female that had status in the Biard painting. She appears to be the companion of the Capitan, presumably one of the slaves that he was allocatd as part of his compensation. She does not look like she wasrecently capyuted, but rather probably enslaved on an earlier voyage. We do not know what happned to yhese women and the inevitable children once the captain ceased commanding slvers. Notice that the captain is the only crew member allowed to have a female companion. There eere no European women on slavers. Perhaps there was an exception, but we do not know of any. Of course, the crew on most vessels had access to the captive African women who had no way of resisting their unwanted advances. For both the male anmd female captives in was one more way of exerting control and introducing the captives to theur new lives and status. The captives denied all human dignity. The voyage akso began the process of destoying their collective knowledge and engrined cultural of the captured Africans. In ghe Baracoons, the captives were stripped of any of clothes and afirnments that replresented ny physical connections to their African lives. Their heads were shaved. Depriving the captives of these personal and cultural artifacts were the beginning of a process of systematic dehumanization. Once loaded aboard the slaver, the whole process process of dehumanization continued. The women were especially brutal as they were subjected to unrelenting rapes and other forms sexual abuse throughout the the journey. The journey for men and women were different. The men were kept chained and below decks except for periodic exercise in small groups. (This was necessary to limit mortalities.) The much smaller number of women were commonly left unchained and had mnore freedom to move about the ship. Many of the captive woman arrived in the New World slave narkets enpregnated by theier abusers. The nulatto children of plantation slave owners often were cared for by their fathers. This was not the case of the Middle passage pregnancies.

Created: 3:40 AM 5/28/2022
Last updated:3:40 AM 5/28/2022