See also Europeans: Texts and Sources

THE JOURNEY TO THE COAST

• Arhin Kwame West African Traders in Ghana in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries    Longman  1979
  • Dupuis' description of parties on the Elmina/Kumasi path . . . A large party of Ashantees armed in the fashion of their country with musquets and knives and conveying some bulky loads of ivory and a valuable kind of grease used by the natives for annointing.  The party included women and girls whose employment consisted of attending upon their husbands or masters.  Another party of three men, two of whom were slaves carrying a few elephants teeth to the coast.  Again. . . 12-14  slaves loaded with ivory.   6 Ashantees and two others in company with many women and slaves among whom was a girl of fourteen.  Slave women and girls would not have been distinguishable from wives and daughters unless they bore tribal marks which identified them as nnokofo.  

Herskovitz, Mellville J The Myth of the Negro Past Beacon pb 1958

Mungo Park has given us our only first hand account of  the adventures of a slave coffle 1795 -1797.  500 miles 44 days, 11 -12 miles/day

• Park, Mungo  Travels in the Interior of Africa 1799 (notes)
  • 302    Shea butter.  Tree never cut down.  Fruit, kernel first dried in the sun.  Kernel boiled in water to produce butter.  Kernel is enveloped in a sweet pulp, under a thin green rind.  Butter keeps a whole year without salt.  Whiter, firmer and of a richer flavour than cow milk
    
    436    Plundering or stealing.  It arises from a sort of hereditary feud which the inhabitants of one nation or district bear towards another.  No immediate cause of hostility is assigned or notice of attack given, but the inhabitants of each watch every opportunity to plunder and distress the objects of their animosity by predatory excursions.  These are very common, particularly about the beginning of the dry season, when the labour of the harvest is over and  provisions are plentiful.  Wars of this disruption are generally conducted with great secrecy.  A few resolute individuals, headed by some person of enterprise and courage march quietly through the woods, surprise in the night some unprotected village and carry off the inhabitants and their effects, before their neighbours can come to their assistance.
    
    439     Some of the domestic slaves as appear to be of a mild disposition, and particularly with young women, are retained as his own slaves.
    
    475    Slaves very inquisitive - asked Park if his countrymen were cannibals.  They were very desirous to know what became of the slaves after they had crossed the salt water.  Park told them that they were employed in cultivating the land but they would not believe him.  One put his hand upon the ground and asked 'have you really got such a ground as this to sit your feet upon?' Deeply rooted belief that whites purchase Negroes for purpose of devouring them.  Contemplate a journey to the coast with great terror.  So they must be kept constantly in irons and closely watched.  Right leg of one and left of another put in fetters. By supporting the fetters with a string, they can walk, but very slowly.  Every four slaves are likewise fastened together by their necks with a strong rope of twisted thongs.   In the night an additional pair of fetters is put on their hands and sometimes a light chain passed around their necks.  
    
    Such of them as evince marks of discontent are secured thus.  A thick billet of wood is cut about 3 ft. long, a smooth notch made on one side, the ankle of the slave is bolted to the smooth part by means of a strong iron staple, one prong of which passes on either side of the leg.  All these fetters and bolts are made of native iron.
    
    Otherwise treatment of slaves was not harsh or cruel.  Let out in their fetters every morning, sit in shade of tamarind tree, encouraged to play games of hazard, sing songs to keep up their spirits.  Some were brave, some very dejected.  Sit all day in a sort of sullen melancholy with eyes fixed upon the ground.  Evening:  examine irons, put on hand fetters; sent into two huts, guarded by owner's domestic slaves.
    
    477    One got hold of a small knife, opened rings of his fetters, cut the rope, escaped, refusing to wait to help his companions.
    
    478    Before departure: prepare day provision, visit relations, collect debts, consult whether day was auspicious.  Muslim women dressed in white.  Departure: irons taken from slaves; bundles assigned to each.  27 slaves for sale grew to 35 during the trip.  Free men were 14 in number each with 1 or 2 wives and several domestic slaves.  Free men included six singing men to use musical talents to banish fatigue or to entertain strangers.  On departure, most of the inhabitants of the town followed them for half a mile, some crying, some shaking hands with relatives.  
    
    484    As many of the slaves had remained for years in irons, sudden exertion of walking quickly with heavy loads upon their heads, occasioned spasmodic contractions of their legs.  Cut ropes, allow them to walk more slowly.
    
    Prayers:  preserve us from robbers and all bad people, provisions should never fail us, our bodies should not become fatigued.  Two slaves, a woman and a girl, were so much fatigued that they could not keep up: they were severely whipped and dragged along, when they both started vomitting, by which it was discovered that they had eaten clay.  Allowed to lie down. Guards remained with them.  Arrived in next village at midnight.  Decided to send them back.
    
    Procession: in front 5 or 6 singing men, other free people, slaves fastened in the usual way by a rope round their necks, four to a rope and a man with a spear between each four; then domestic slaves, then free women, wives, etc.  At entrance to a village singers extolled known hospitality to strangers.  On arrival singers introduced the party. Chief gave them a small present.  All accommodated for the night by some one or other in the village.
    
    Passed burnt villages. Plenty of fish in rivers.
    
    In the forest kindled fires for the night, made supper (kouskous with boiling water) Slaves put in irons.  Disturbed thru the night by howling of wild beasts; troubled by small brown ants.  One female slave very sulky next morning and refused gruel offered to her.  Later in the day she began to lag behind and complain of pains in her legs.  Load taken from her and given to another slave. She was sent to the front.
    
    Resting by a small river, hive of bees discovered in a hollow tree - swarm of bees attacked them - all ran - the woman found to be missing.  Set grass on fire to chase bees away.  Found the woman much stung - she had tried to lie in the water.  Stings removed, washed with water, rubbed with leaves.  Woman refused to proceed. Begged. Threatened. Whipped. Walked for several hours.  Tried to run away. Weak. Fell down in the grass.  Whipped. Too weak. Made a littler of bamboo canes carried on their heads by two slaves.  Slaves snapped their fingers - signs of desperation.   All put in irons.  In the morning all greatly recovered.  Injured woman all swollen could not walk or stand.  General  cry, 'Cut her throat, cut her throat.' Not killed but just abandoned to be devoured by wild beasts.  
    
    Saw a large herd of elephants - suffered them to pass unmolested.
    
    507    Very few people here can swim
    
    526    We met a coffle of 26 people with 7 loaded asses returning from the Gambia.  Most of the men were armed with muskets and had broad belts of scarlet cloth over their shoulders and European hats upon their heads.
    
    526    One of the slaves unable to proceed any further.  His master, a singing man, proposed to exchange him for a young girl, belonging to one of the towns people. The poor girl was ignorant of her fate until the bundles were all tied up in the morning, the coffle ready to depart when coming with some other young women to see the coffle set out, her master took her by the hand and delivered her to the singing man.  Never was a face of serenity more suddenly changed into one of the deepest distress: the terror she manifested on having the load put upon her head and the rope fastened round her neck and the sorrow with which she bad adieu to her companions, were truly affecting.
    
    533    Mr Ainsley's schooner was lying at anchor before the place.   This was the most surprising object which Kaifa had yet seen.  He could not easily comprehend the use of the masts, sails, rigging nor did he conceive that it was possible, by any sort of contrivance, to make so large a body move forwards by the common force of wind.  The manner of fastening together the different planks which composed the vessel and filling up the seams so as to exclude water were completely new to him.  Deep meditation for the rest of the day.

   

• Reynolds, Edward, Human Cargoes: Enslavement and the Middle Passage, in Tibbles, Anthony (ed.), Transatlantic Slavery: Against Human Dignity, HMSO, 1994
  • 32        The slaves arrived in dejected and exhausted condition at the coast, where they were sold through African brokers . . . the slaves were carefully examined from head to toe, without regard to sex, to see that they did not have any blemishes or defects . . . most . . . showed extreme levels of distress. . . Some feared that they were being taken away to be eaten. . . Thus some slaves resisted  being put on board the slave ships and even tried to drown themselves as they were being taken to the ships.
    
• Walvin, James, Black Ivory: A History of British slavery Fontana 1992 (notes)
  • 27 Quote from Equiano: when the grown people in the neighbourhood were gone far into the fields to labour, the children assembled together in some the neighbours premises to play; and commonly some of us used to get up a tree to look out for an assailant, or kidnapper, that might come upon us; for they sometimes took these opportunities of our parents' absence, to attack and carry off as many as they could seize. Also when our people go out to till their land they only go in a body but generally take their arms with for fear of a surprise.
    
    It took Equiano six or seven months to reach the coast after he had been captured.  Equiano and his sister were bound gagged and bundled away into the nearest woodland.  Overwhelmed by grief and tiredness, brother and sister were propelled through the woods, day after day, eventually separated, passing through communities with alien customs and languages.  In places he was put to work, tried to escape, was resold a number of times.

Equiano's Travels (Olaudah Equiano, Paul Edwards editor) London 1986