The Amistad Rebellion by Marcus Rediker

nine. 83
    Grabeau estimated that on the
Teçora
, the distance from the deck below them to the underside of the deck above was about four feet.Those who were stowed on or below the platforms would therefore have had about twenty-two inches head space—not enough to sit up straight, as Thompson had noted. Even those with maximum headroom could not stand up, but were forced, as Grabeau and Kimbo explained, always “to keep a crouching posture.” So tight was the typical stowage, remarked Forbes, that “when one moves, the mass must.” The sea of bodies below deck rippled like the ocean waves outside. 84
    These bodies forced into small spaces were often left contorted and disfigured. This was evident in Freetown where some Liberated Africans—many of whom had probably spent less time on the lower deck of a slaver than the
Amistad
Africans because they had usually been captured
before
the Middle Passage—came off the slave ships in frozen deformity. F. Harrison Rankin saw “liberated slaves” on the streets of Freetown “in every conceivable state of distortion.” Many would “never resume the upright posture.” Some fit the bill described by an African constable: “He no good. He go for die.” 85
    The men and women aboard the
Teçora
came from a broad array of culture groups in southern Sierra Leone. Probably the largest group were the Mende, as on the
Amistad
. And since people of Gbandi, Kono, Temne, Bullom, Gola, Loma, Kissi, and Kondo backgrounds were later aboard the
Amistad
and all had crossed the Atlantic on the same vessel, they must have been aboard the
Teçora
as well. Burna also mentioned the Mandingo, who were probably present along with several other groups, perhaps including some Vai who had fallen afoul of the law and been sold to Pedro Blanco. The
Teçora
thus contained a multiplicity of nations and ethnicities, some of whom, it must be emphasized, had been at war with each other. Had mercenary warboy Gnakwoi fought the Gola man Beri? Former enemies might find themselves sold to the same merchant and placed aboard the same ship. Each blamed the other for the horrific situation in which he now found himself, and vicious fights broke out regularly. “Warlike habits” filled the ship, and would eventually find their way onto the
Amistad
. 86
    The Transatlantic Slave Trade Database provides a statistical portrait based on 531 voyages of Portuguese or Brazilian slave ships between1835 and 1840. They shipped 223,790 Africans and delivered 201,063 to the New World, with an average mortality rate of 13.8 percent (data for 496 voyages). The vessels averaged 169.2 tons and carried 451 slaves, 70.5 percent of whom were male and 49.8 percent children. These ships carried 2.67 slaves per ton on a Middle Passage that lasted 46.9 days. The database also contains evidence on fifty-four voyages that originated in Sierra Leone or the Windward Coast between 1835 and 1840. These vessels were considerably smaller at 89.4 tons, and more crowded: they carried an average of 323 slaves, 3.61 slaves per ton, shipping 17,442 and delivering alive 15,403. They made faster voyages—the Middle Passage was 42.6 days—and they relatedly suffered lower mortality: 9.6 percent. They had fewer males (68.2 percent) and more children (55.1 percent). In comparative terms, the
Teçora
appears to be a fairly typical ship of its time, similar to other Portuguese or Brazilian vessels in size, number of slaves carried, and the slave/ton ratio or degree of crowding. Its less common characteristics were its longer voyage and its higher incidence of mortality. 87
    The Middle Passage of the Africans was vexed and deadly from the beginning. After Kru canoemen had loaded the five to six hundred slaves, a British anti-slave-trade warship was spotted, which necessitated a frantic unloading and the hiding of the captives in a large, hot, airless cave, where several died. That vessel of unknown name, empty but equipped as a slaver, was captured by