They killed the slaves and threw them into the sea What do you know about the "Song" massacre against Africans?

On this day, November 29, 1781, the waters of the Atlantic witnessed one of the most heinous crimes of the slave trade passing through its waters. More than 140 Africans were killed by English slaves who were transporting them to America, in what became known as the "Song massacre".

The story goes back to the 18th century AD, when the Atlantic was an active route for the slave trade between three centers: Sub-Saharan Africa, Europe and America. On this day in 1781, the crew of the "Song" owned by a British company decided to cast more than 140 enslaved Africans into the roaring ocean waves.

While this massacre, on the anniversary of its occurrence, recalls what the people of Africa suffered from the scourge of enslaving the white man, and how they were dehumanized and commodified in a blood-stained trade that affected European banks and companies.

Song massacre

The ship "Song" set out from the port of Accra (currently the capital of Ghana) on August 18, 1781, carrying 442 African slaves on board, which was more than twice the safe shipment of the ship at the time, which was equivalent to 193 people. After being supplied with drinking water from the island of Sao Tome, she made her way to her final destination in Black River Harbor, Jamaica, which was supposed to arrive on September 6 of the same year.

The ship did not arrive on November 18, approached the port of the Caribbean island of Tobago and did not stop for water. According to historians, the ship made mistakes in sailing, which delayed its arrival at the Black River port, and this is likely due to problems in the leadership, as its chief captain, Luke Collinwood, fell ill, and a number of people followed him at the helm.

The ship made another mistake when it came close to Jamaica and mistook it for Haiti, so it sailed away, and the crew did not realize this mistake until it was more than 480 kilometers from the island. At the time, Captain James Kilsall said that the water on the ship was only enough for four days, while it still had between 10 and 13 days to reach its final destination.

On the 29th of the same month, the crew of the ship met to agree on what could be done, and the decision was taken unanimously to cast a number of slaves into the water. And 142 Africans were killed in one day by throwing them into the ocean, including 54 women and children, in a massacre that took the name "the ship".

On December 1, Song arrived in Jamaica, with only 208 slaves left in her cargo. James Kelsale argued that they were killed to save the cargo from thirst, but the ship's water supply on arrival was 1,900 liters.

Historians assert that the crew’s intention was to benefit from the insurance compensation, which at the time stipulated that the company owning the ship would be compensated for the slain cargo of slaves only in the event that they were sacrificed to save the cargo. The Song's owner company received £36 in damages for each slave killed at sea.

The Triangle of Slavery and Blood

The Song massacre contributed to an increase in the size of the anti-slavery movement in Britain. Since then, protest letters have reached Parliament. In 1787, the first organization calling for the end of the slave trade was established, the Anti-Slavery Society. The ship and its memory also found a special place in the literature written on the case.

Under pressure from civil society, the British Parliament agreed to forbid compensating slave traders for killing slaves during the voyages. Then, in 1807, a law was finally ratified prohibiting the slave trade in the territories of the British Empire, and stopping a century of British activity in the slave triangle across the Mediterranean.

This trade triangle transported slaves between the coasts of western sub-Saharan Africa and America, and then returned goods and revenues to the countries of Western Europe: Britain, France, Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands. The beginning of the 18th century AD is the starting point for this trade line, after which it would continue for more than 100 years, enslaving more than 12 million Africans.

Portugal was the first to ban the slave trade in 1761, followed by France after the 1789 revolution, then Britain in 1807. Napoleon re-legalized the French slave trade in 1803, and it was not banned after that until the year of the Second Republic in 1848.