PDP8 - Slavery and the Slave Trade of Brazil

Author Bio:

Thomas Nelson, the author of this excerpt, provides firsthand experience about his journeys aboard the H.M.S. Crescent, a British ship used to search suspected slave transporting ships. His position on the ship was the surgeon and inspected the treatment and health of the illegal slave ships. Since this is a firsthand account there is bias present, however it helped describe the horrible treatment of slaves while they were transported across the ocean. I believe with these firsthand accounts he is more than qualified to discuss this topic.

Date/Context:

This article takes place in the 1840s during the ending of slavery in Brazil. Thomas Nelson was a surgeon who's job was to inspect possible illegal slave transport ships traveling to Brazil to sell slaves.

Summary:

Thomas Nelson was a surgeon aboard the H.M.S. Crescent who's job was to inspect the treatment of slaves being transported to Brazil illegally. He wrote about his one trip onto a illegal slave transporting ship and found horrific conditions. There were about five hundred people crammed in the ship. They had no room to eat or use the bathroom and had to stay confined in those quarters for weeks. When he entered the ship he said it smelled as if people were rotting, this is because they were. People were so close together that many would suffocate or die of various diseases and be left there. He stresses that this is an ongoing problem and is cruel and inhumane.

Key Quotation:

"The stench on board was nearly overwhelming. The odor of the negroes themselves, rendered still stronger by their filthy and crowded condition, the sickening smell of the suppurating stage of smallpox..."