Summary

Explores the number and reasons for revolts on the slave ships that transported captured Africans via the Middle Passage from Atlantic Africa to the Americas between 1500 and 1867. Drawing on the extensive data in the slavevoyages.org registry, it is possible to develop definitive patterns of types and places of revolts, the different groups involved, the origins of these groups, the areas in which the victims were captured, and how they were taken to the ships and loaded for the voyage. By looking at the known insurrections included in the data set and the patterns of where and on what carriers they occurred, it is possible to draw conclusions about the total numbers of both the documented insurrections and the estimated ones, their outcomes, and the number of lives lost as a result, both of the enslaved and of the ships’ crews. The economic impact of the insurrections on the people involved, the victims, the traders, and the economies of Africa and the Caribbean, can be evaluated. The patterns and conclusions then show how these different factors affected the lengths to which the victims of the slave trade would go and the risks they would take to resist the oppression and attempt to regain their freedom.