Tuesday 15 March 2011

Alexander Falconbridge

Alexander Falconbridge was a surgeon on board a slave ship. As his biographer, Christopher Fyfe, has pointed out, this was "a potentially lucrative employment since surgeons received, as well as their salary, 1s. a head per slave landed, and the chance of eventually becoming a ship's captain". Over the next seven years he worked on four different ships that sailed along the west coast of Africa and to the Caribbean. At first he was a supporter of the slave trade: "Previous to my being in this employ I entertained a belief, as many others have done, that the kings and principal men bred Negroes for sale as we do cattle."

Falconbridge later recalled: "When the negroes whom the black traders have to dispose of are shown to the European purchasers, they first examine them relative to age. They then minutely inspect their persons, and inquire into their state of health; if they are afflicted with any infirmity, or are deformed, or have bad eyes or teeth; if they are lame, or weak in the joints, or distorted in the back, or of a slender make, or are narrow in the chest; in short, if they have been afflicted in any manner so as to render them incapable of such labour they are rejected. The traders frequently beat those negroes which are objected to by the captains. Instances have happened that the traders, when any of their negroes have been objected to have instantly beheaded them in the sight of the captain."

Falconbridge became increasing critical of the slave trade. In 1787 he left it in disgust and went back to working as a pupil with a Bristol doctor. Soon afterwards he met Thomas Clarkson, who along with Granville Sharp, had established the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. Clarkson was given the responsibility of collecting information to support the abolition of the slave trade. Falconbridge was willing to testify publicly about the way slaves were treated. He accompanied Clarkson to Liverpool where he acted as his bodyguard. Clarkson later called him "an athletic and resolute-looking man".

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USASfalconbridge.htm

9 comments:

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Anonymous said...

didn't they have something to do with the Middle Passage? i think i've heard the first name before.

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Anonymous said...

All i know is that the MP was horrible, hundreds of enslaved africans were crammed together for months on a ship,.
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Anonymous said...

didn't they have something to do with the Middle Passage? i think i've heard the first name before.

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Anonymous said...

didn't they have something to do with the Middle Passage? i think i've heard the first name before
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SarahM said...

Alexander Falconbridge was an intelligent man because he was brought up in the belief that the slave trade was good - but his life experiences taught him otherwise and he had the courage to change his mind and to make the world aware of the cruelty of the slave trade.
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