THE SLAVE MARKETS. The film vividly depicted the horrors of being sold in New Orleans; the humiliating nakedness of the slaves, the separation of mothers and children, and the treatment of humans as commodities.
There were very similar scenes here at Stabroek (see photo), the site of an old slave market. Once off the river, the slavers set about getting their' goods' well scrubbed-up. The captives had already lost their names, their clothes and all their possessions, and now they’d lose their hair. Then, to make these human lots look sleek and attractive, they were dressed in a compound of limejuice, oil, and gunpowder. They were finally ready for sale.
In 1800, a good African was worth £50-100, which at today’s prices, is about half the price of a family car. Pregnant women were worth more and so were pretty girls, and slaves that could read or sew. Once purchased, most were carted off to the plantations, but some stayed here, tending the Dutch in their homes. Either way, they’d be given a new name – like Smith or Hughes or Amsterdam – and handed over to an old slave for six weeks of instruction. During this time, they’d learn the language of slavery (which happened to be English), and recover from the voyage. ‘From living skeletons,’ wrote a Scottish officer in the 1770s, ‘they become plump and fat, with a beautiful clean skin, til it is disfigured by the inhuman flogging of some rascally proprietor.’
But life for Stabroek slaves was by no means a series of floggings. In this abhorrent trade, it’s often surprising, the small liberties that survived. Most slaves kept their African gods, and their magic and their secret potions. Some ran little businesses, and would return here – to the market – to sell whatever they’d made; honey, perhaps, or rum and salted shark. Others had smallholdings, and were allowed out until eight at night (provided they carried a lantern).
Some slaves even had their own slaves. There were also slave holidays, a slave ball (four times a year), and regular handouts of grog. What’s more, Africans were encouraged to have children – particularly after 1807, when the import of new slaves was banned. That year, one of the agricultural societies even offered a medal for the farming of human beings. It was given to the planter who’d raised the greatest number of baby slaves ... (For more, see 'Wild Coast: Travels on South America's Untamed Edge')