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Difficulty: MediumShipboard Rebellions and Middle Passage Resistance

Read the following excerpt from *An Account of the Slave Trade on the Coast of Africa* (1788) by Alexander Falconbridge, a former British slave ship surgeon:

'Upon the negroes refusing to take sustenance, I have seen coals of fire, glowing hot, put on a shovel, and placed so near their faces, as to scorch them... at other times, they have been compelled to eat by the *speculum oris*, an instrument for locking open the mouth...'

Which of the following historical conclusions is best supported by Falconbridge’s observation?

  1. Captives utilized hunger strikes as an active, conscious form of resistance, forcing ship crews to employ mechanical devices to preserve their human cargo.Answer
  2. B
    Enslaved Africans were passive victims of Middle Passage conditions whose refusal of food was an involuntary symptom of disease rather than a deliberate protest.
  3. C
    Captives avoided nonviolent methods like hunger strikes, meaning shipboard resistance was confined exclusively to violent mutinies and ship takeovers.
  4. D
    Resistance methods like refusing food were dictated by a single, centralized military code shared by all West African societies before embarkation.

Answer

Captives utilized hunger strikes as an active, conscious form of resistance, forcing ship crews to employ mechanical devices to preserve their human cargo.
The correct answer is correct because Alexander Falconbridge's account of captives refusing sustenance (hunger strikes) and the crew's violent, mechanical force-feeding methods demonstrates that captives actively used self-deprivation as a form of resistance. The crew's use of tools like the speculum oris highlights that they viewed the captives as financial investments whose survival was critical to the voyage's profitability, thus showing the clash between captive agency and the economics of the slave trade.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the primary source passage for evidence of captive actions and crew responses.
The passage describes captives refusing to eat ('refusing to take sustenance') and the crew using tools like the 'speculum oris' or fire to force them to eat.
This identifies the central behavior being described—refusing food—and the crew's coercive response.
2
Interpret the motivation behind the captives' refusal of food and the crew's force-feeding.
Refusing food was a deliberate, self-sacrificing protest (hunger strike) to reclaim control, while the crew's force-feeding was motivated by a desire to keep the captives alive as valuable assets.
This establishes that the refusal was an exercise of agency and resistance, rather than passive illness.
3
Select the historical conclusion that aligns with this interpretation and avoids common misconceptions.
The correct conclusion is that hunger strikes represent a conscious form of resistance that challenged the captors, who used force to protect their economic investments.
This matches the correct answer while rejecting distractors that deny agency, ignore covert resistance, or homogenize African societies.

Key Concept

Middle Passage Resistance and Captive Agency
Estimated Time:1m 30s
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Topics

Shipboard Rebellions and Middle Passage Resistance

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