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You can buy those things from dealers, make sure they are reputable. There were slave ships entering the US up till at least 1858. Artifacts from that date can be still be found. Since the point of origin for many slave ships were not the US You may have to learn about the iron trade and blacksmithing of that period if that thing interest you . I have seen a pair along with a "cat of nine tails" a friend of mine has.
Also, I always wondered if there are still any sunken slave ships out there. What a find that would be...
There's the Henrietta Marie, which as I understand it, sunk after leaving the slaves at their destination. The crew went down with the ship, and a lot of shackles have been depicted by wreck-divers. That's the only one I know of.
Also, I always wondered if there are still any sunken slave ships out there. What a find that would be...
I think there are. I know I read something some years ago about black teenagers being taken on dives to such wrecks as part of a history program.
Also, as regards the OP's question, if you read Edward Ball's book, Slaves In The Family, about tracking down the descendants of his ancestors slaves, he mentions an incident where a slave-ship sea captain was fined heavily for throwing his dead cargo overboard too close to shore. There were apparently laws stating that you had to be a certain distance out to sea when you threw dead people overboard. In this partcular case, dead Africans were washing up on the beach in Charleston's port, affecting the quality of life of the good citizens who dwelt therein, and he had to pay a fine and clean up his "mess".
It was somewhat horrifying to read of this matter-of-fact, legal treatment of "cargo", people who died because of the cruelty of the slave trade. I recall that the author says, "I shoveled their graves in the sand in my dreams."
Who would want to dump sick slaves unless they were terminal?
Blacks were dumped at the sight of British man of war.
Fear of disease was a major issue. This applied to earlier transport of convicts as well (especially with gaol fever indemic in British prisons) and immigration. The sick were isolated and sometimes dumped before they died. Disease then was the fault of 'bad airs' and other non-medical causes but they knew diseases spread some way. There was frequently no treatment. Ships, no matter who the cargo, were routinely overcrowded because of the expectation that a certain percentage wouldn't make it. The overcrowding added to the disease.
If a group of cargo was sick and another group of cargo was not, it would not be unthinkable for a ships captain to dump them if it might keep the rest alive. When ships hauled bodies across the sea for sale it was an economic consideration, not a humanitarian one.
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