They were held in dungeons like this one, at Cape Coast Castle:
This dungeon was built specifically for the containment of humans. It was one of several rooms built in the bowels of the castle, with spy holes through which guards could observe the captives. The gutters in the floor served to carry away human waste. A room this size (with the camera against the back wall) held over 100 men, some of them for up to two months.
If any of the slaves rebelled or were difficult to handle, they would be locked in one of the cells:
In the cells they'd be denied food and water until they wasted away.
When a ship was ready to take them across the Atlantic, the captives would be filed down a tunnel. At Cape Coast the tunnel runs beneath these canons:
At the end of the tunnel, they'd go through a doorway, be loaded onto canoes and paddled out to the waiting ship. This is the narrow doorway at Elmina Castle, called the "gate of no return":
Once aboard the ships, they'd be packed tightly in the hold, in conditions more horrendous than those of the castle dungeons. The trip across the Atlantic took two months. Survivors were sold off upon arrival.
At Cape Coast Castle, the doorway through which the slaves passed is similarly called the "door of no return". However, on the other side of the door, another placard has been mounted which reads "the door of return". A few years ago, the remains of some slaves who were shipped out from Cape Coast were returned to Ghana and brought back through the doorway to be put to rest in their homeland, some 150 years after they left.
-Davis
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Wow, what an amazing and horrifying place. It gave me goosebumps to read about it.
ReplyDeleteLisa
Did you read "The Book of Negroes" when M&D were passing it around? It's a great book and it really added to our experience of visiting the castles.
ReplyDeleteI bought that book for Mom at Christmas, but somehow got bumped to the end of the borrowing list.
ReplyDeleteHey good buddy,
ReplyDeleteWell first off I owe you both a big congratulations on the engagement. I just spent the last half hour catching up on the blog, sounds amazing. You had me laughing in a lot of places. Testicles are apparently pretty good if cooked properly. Man oh man can I relate to your travel bug though. Lauren and I spent a month over Christmas in New Zealand, one of the nicest places I've ever been, and we're heading off again in a month. We're going to live in Barcelona for 3 months, I've got a semester there with my program. Lauren's going to expand on her Spanish taking classes while I'm studying and then we're planning to hop over to Egypt for a couple of weeks before coming back at Christmas. I just don't know when or where the next place we're going to play squash. I broke my ankle this winter and now have a bionic ankle so you better watch out! Anyway sounds like you guys are having an amazing time and we really should try and get together at some point some where. Like I said, the rest of this year we'll be in Europe and Northern Africa, but 2010 we'll be back in Calgary for my last year, and I'm hoping to spend time up North during next summer for my thesis. Who knows, are you going to be in Van area for the Olympics? Maybe we can come out an visit? Let me know, we'll try and work something out. Take care, have fun, and pass on my best to Maria (she probably doesn't remember me, she was to enamored with you when she was to UVIc). Eat Testicles!
-Caelin
P.S. I'll keep reading the Blog, and nice work on the photos!!