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The Horrors of the Atlantic Slave Trade: Analyzing Robert Walsh's 1829 Account

In his harrowing 1829 account aboard the slave ship Feloz, Robert Walsh provides a chilling perspective on the inhumane conditions faced by enslaved individuals during the Atlantic slave trade. Describing their severe lack of space, appalling stench, and degrading treatment, Walsh illustrates the suffering of slaves, branding them as “poor creatures.” He also critiques the brutal nature of slave traders. By analyzing his arguments and the evidence he presents, we gain insight into the cruel realities of slavery and the moral failures of those who perpetuated this horrific institution.

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The Horrors of the Atlantic Slave Trade: Analyzing Robert Walsh's 1829 Account

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  1. Analyzing a Primary Source Aboard a Slave Ship, 1829

  2. The Atlantic Slave Trade

  3. Atlantic Slave Trade

  4. A. Motives: Author and Audience Who is Robert Walsh? Why was this document produced?

  5. B. Argument Method - Gathering Evidence: Slave Ships • How does Walsh describe conditions onboard the Feloz?

  6. Evidence: Conditions Onboard the Feloz • “slave ships were wretched” • “denied adequate room” • “stench was appalling - the atmosphere inhumane” • “slaves were all inclosed under grated hatchways” • “stowed so close together that there was no possibility of their lying down or at all changing their position by night or day.”

  7. B. Argument Gathering Evidence: Slaves • How does Walsh describe the slaves?

  8. Evidence: Slaves as “Poor Creatures” • “branded likesheep …under their breasts or on their arms…burnt with the red-hot iron.” • “dark and melancholy visages” • “…greatly emaciated” • “they shrieked and struggled and fought with one another for [water]…as if they grew rabid at the sight of it.” • “they came swarmingup like bees from the aperture [opening]of a hive”

  9. Evidence: Slave Children as “Poor Creatures” • “found some children…in the places most remote from light and air” • “they were lying nearly in a torpid [inactive] state” • “…some, particularly children, seemed dying.” • “seemed indifferent as to life ordeath…many of them could not stand”

  10. B. ArgumentEvidence: Slave Traders • How does Walsh describe the slave traders?

  11. The Slave Traders • “ferocious looking fellow with a scourge of many twisted thongs in his hand” • “even handed justice had visited the effects of this unholy traffic on the crew who were engaged in it”

  12. Evidence: ImagesD. Larger Story (tone)

  13. RECAP: How to Analyze a Primary SourceHow did Walsh support his argument about slavery? • A. Motives: Why was it produced? • B. Argument: Analyze the Evidence: Slave Ships, Slave Traders, Slaves, and Images • C. Assumptions: What values or points of view are reinforced by these sources? Tone? • D. Larger Story

  14. Evidence: Slave Ships • How does Walsh compare conditions aboard the Feloz with those of other intercepted ships?

  15. Evidence: Feloz and other ships • “…that this was one of the best they had seen…” • “The height sometimes between decks was only eighteen inches, so that the unfortunate beings could not turn round or even on their sides…” • “they are usually chained to the decks by the neck and legs.” • “foaming at the mouth and in the last agonies-many were dead.” • “leaping overboard and getting rid, in this way, of an intolerable life”

  16. Next Tuesday: Description of Carolina • What methods does the author employ to depict Carolina as a propitious [favorable] land? • What economic and political incentives does the author invoke to impel settlement? • Who is the author’s intended audience?

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