Bound for Jamaica

Gareth Calway Contents 1 Kidnap

2

The start of the slave trade

6

2 Slave caravan

8

Who got rich from the slave trade?

12

3 Sale

14

Branding

20

4 Crossing the sea

22

Surviving the crossing

26

5 Plantation

30

The “life� of a slave

34

6 Escape or die

36

Jamaica and the slave trade

40

A timeline of slavery and the slave trade 44

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1 Kidnap Home was on a hill in Africa, far away from the sea.

The sky was blue. The forest was green. The earth under our feet was dry and warm. At dawn, the sun was a huge ball of red.

Fresh air filled our lungs. Magic filled my ears.

I was my mother’s seventh child. “It is eleven years since you walked the path of birth,” she said.

My father, beaming down on our upturned faces like the sun, patted my head proudly.

2

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One day, men came. They looked like us, but spoke another language. Their weapons spat fire.

My father tried to fight back. He threw his spear, but they killed him in an instant. His guts spilled onto the dust.

Then they killed my mother. My older brothers and sisters ran. I went back for my younger brother and sister, but our enemies captured us.

3

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Our grandfathers, grandmothers, uncles and aunts were all murdered. The men went into the huts and killed the sick. They killed anyone who fought back. They killed anyone who ran away and anyone who was not young and strong.

The rest of us were tied together.

They marched us down the river path. We marched for two days through the forest until finally we came out of the hills. There we were passed on to another tribe, who gave our captors weapons and rich cloth. The new tribe hit us with whips.

4

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“Not too hard,” their leader shouted. “They have a long journey. We can’t sell them if they’re wounded or weak.”

“They sell us, like cattle,” I said. Tears were in my eyes. Slavery! I was frightened. Selling people was not allowed in our tribe. It made our gods angry.

“March!” shouted our enemies.

5

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The start r of the slave trade rt Between the years of 1500 and 1800, over twelve million Africans were sold into slavery by other Africans.

Most slaves came from West Africa. This was a vast area. There were cities and towns as well as forest kingdoms. There was an empire (Mali), great armies and a university.

Slaves were marched hundreds of miles to the coast. Many died on the way. On the coast, traders from Europe waited to buy them.

The Mali Empire

6

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West Africans used to sell gold, ivory and spices to these white merchants in return for guns, horses and goods. Now, selling each other became the biggest business. Africans sold criminals, servants, prisoners captured in wars, free people – even children kidnapped from home when their parents were out!

Before the white merchants came, Africans had kept slaves and treated them like servants. But white merchants treated African slaves like animals. They saw them as their property. They owned people in the same way they might own a pair of shoes.

7

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2 Slave caravan We march through strange, rich lands. Roadsides piled with yams. Men with fire-weapons.

We march on. It grows hotter and hotter.

Rain falls and the air steams. We can’t breathe.

We grow sick. Some die.

One day we smell something new. Then we hear it. Then see it. An angry, roaring monster.

“At last, the sea!” yell our captors.

8

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They march us into the yard of a huge white fort. It looks like a giant skull.

Men come out of it, grinning. They have skullfaces and fire-weapons.

Ghost men! I have never seen white men before.

The ghost men give blue beads to our captors.

Our captors shake their heads. The men offer fireweapons, cloth, iron and copper. Our captors nod.

They take the payment and run for the hills.

9

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The ghost men push us across the yard into the doorway of their fort. It is like a giant mouth that swallows us. They push us down some steps into a dungeon. They divide men from women.

We see our sister for the last time. She holds tight on to our hands.

“Don’t leave me!” she whispers. But we have to let her go.

I will never forget her tiny fingers pressing mine.

10

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It is cold at first. Then the air gets hot and thick.

Fifty slaves pile in, a hundred, a hundred and fifty, two hundred. We can’t breathe. We try to push out, but they beat us back in.

They slam the doors.

Darkness.

They bring buckets of food and water. Our toilet buckets are full. They leave them.

“What a stink!” I hear them say. “Worse than apes!”

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