The Slave Ship: A Human History

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of graphic violence, sexual violence, death, and suicide.

The Slave Ship begins by recounting the harrowing experience of a woman abducted from her village and transported toward a slave ship, or owba coocoo, to cross the Atlantic. Hidden in a canoe with others, she endures a grueling journey spanning months, during which she is repeatedly sold. Nearing the ship, she attempts a desperate escape but is swiftly recaptured. Returned to the canoe and eventually forced aboard the ship, she is shocked by its overwhelming size, foreign atmosphere, and horrifying smells. The scene aboard is chaotic, filled with the cries of captives and the harsh orders of sailors. She observes other enslaved individuals, some who speak her language, Igbo, and others from neighboring regions. As the captives are inspected and sorted, the brutal reality of their fate—marked by abuse, suffering, and death—becomes clearer. Forced below deck, she is struck by the stench of illness and death, witnessing the horrors of her situation firsthand. She hears the “anguished intonation” of others subjected to the dehumanization and trauma of the transatlantic slave trade.

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