The full-rigged ship was the essential technology of the slave trade
In short: We often view the trans-Atlantic slave trade through the lens of human rights, but it was also a feat of maritime engineering. The full-rigged ship provided the specific technological infrastructure required to move millions of people across oceans, creating a lethal environment where sickness and death were constant companions.
Between 1698 and 1807, England fitted out approximately 11,000 ships specifically for the slave trade. These vessels transported an estimated three million Africans across the Atlantic. While the full-rigged ship was the primary technology enabling this scale of commerce, the trade relied on a complex maritime ecosystem. This included in-shore boats for supplies and Navy vessels tasked with protecting slave ships or, in later years, conducting anti-slavery patrols.
The evolution of ship construction over several centuries was driven by the demands of the trade, leading to the development of larger and faster slave ships. However, these technological advancements did not insulate the passengers or the crew from extreme physical peril. Mortality rates remained high for everyone on board, driven by a combination of disease, physical mistreatment, accidents, and suicide. Sickness was an inescapable constant in the maritime environment of the era.
While the Atlantic trade is a central focus of modern scholarship, slavery was a well-established global institution long before 1492. Arab traders set up slave stations along East Africa's shoreline during the 1400s to transport captives toward India and the Persian Gulf. In the Mediterranean, Cairo served as a major staging post, and the Greeks and Romans recruited slaves from across the region. Portugal became the first European power to enter the Atlantic trade in the 1440s, sponsored by Prince Henry the Navigator, establishing routes involving African chieftains in Mauretania and Upper Guinea.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Slavery, Ships and Sickness - Professor Stuart Anderson
- Also: Slavery, Ships and Sickness
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