2015
Question1
a) List FOUR ways in which Africans might become slaves within Africa. (4 marks)
Repay debt
Punishment for a crime
Tribal wars
In
... [Show More] cases of famine, a family could place their children as domestic slaves in the care of a
man who would prevent them from starving.
b) Explain THREE ways in which the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans had a negative
effect on West African societies. (9 marks)
c) Examine THREE of the conditions on board a slaver which might have made Equiano want
to trade places with “the meanest slave in [his] own country”. (12 marks)
3 conditions on slaver →
Overcrowding:
Traders expected 1/5 of Africans to die on the Middle Passage – packed an extra 1/5 over the
capacity of the ship → overcrowded (no more than 24 inches room)→ hot and suffocating;
adding to this was poor ventilation below deck where they were kept for the majority of the
6-8 weeks journey. They were chained to one another and this increased their discomfort →
this limited their mobility; conditions were cramped.
Poor sanitation → spread of diseases.
Overcrowding and being chained together encouraged the spread of diseases among the
Africans. Diseases spread easily in these conditions. There was poor toilet facilities → did
not have bathroom breaks; they had to relieve themselves right where they were; they could
remain in these filthy condition for days before they were doused with buckets of water.
Sanitation would have been poor. The odour was horrendous. These damp and filthy
conditions led to the spread of diseases, e.g. rashes, eye blindness, dysentery, yaws, fevers,
small pox, dropsy. Limbs swelled and rotted in these poor conditions. Sometimes a dead
African may be left in the hold for days before the body was removed for disposal. The
conditions below deck were horrible indeed → they spent most of their time below deck;
they came up on deck for fresh air and exercise if the captain permitted it. Mortality was 15-
20% [Show Less]