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Difficulty: HardShipboard Rebellions and Middle Passage Resistance

Read the following excerpt from the journal of Captain Thomas Phillips, commander of the English slave ship *Hannibal*, describing a voyage during the Middle Passage in 1694:

"The Negroes are so wilful and loth to leave their own country, that they have often leap'd out of the canoes and kept under water till they were drowned, to avoid being taken up and saved by our boats... We had about twelve negroes did wilfully drown themselves, and others starv'd themselves to death; for 'tis their belief that when they die they return to their own country again and enjoy their friends."

Which of the following historical conclusions is best supported by Captain Phillips's observations?

  1. A
    Middle Passage suicides were primarily the result of psychological surrender, reflecting a lack of agency or active resistance among the captives.
  2. B
    The belief in a spiritual return home indicates that West and Central African societies possessed a single, uniform cosmological system without cultural variation.
  3. Enslaved captives utilized self-starvation and suicide as conscious, culturally grounded acts of resistance to deny their captors economic utility and reclaim their own destinies.Answer
  4. D
    Shipboard defiance was limited to armed mutinies, while covert actions like hunger strikes were ineffective and not recognized as resistance.

Answer

Enslaved captives utilized self-starvation and suicide as conscious, culturally grounded acts of resistance to deny their captors economic utility and reclaim their own destinies.
The correct option is supported because the captives' actions—such as jumping overboard and self-starvation—were purposeful, culturally informed choices. By choosing death or starvation, captives directly countered the commercial and labor goals of the slave trade and asserted control over their ultimate fates, reflecting cosmological beliefs in a spiritual return home.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the primary source document for evidence of captive behavior during the Middle Passage.
The text describes captives leaping into the water to drown themselves and refusing food (starving themselves to death) because they believed their spirits would return to their homeland.
This establishes the historical actions and the motivations of the captives as documented by the captain.
2
Evaluate the motivations behind these actions in the context of resistance to chattel slavery.
Rather than passive surrender, these actions represent an active refusal of enslavement. The belief in a spiritual return home shows that their resistance was culturally and cosmologically grounded.
This helps connect the physical acts of self-starvation and suicide to deliberate, strategic choices to deny captors their labor.
3
Match the analyzed historical context with the option that best captures the captive agency and cultural significance.
The statement about captives using self-starvation and suicide as conscious, culturally grounded acts of resistance to deny captors utility and reclaim their destinies is the most accurate conclusion.
This provides the correct explanation of the Middle Passage resistance shown in the source.

Key Concept

Middle Passage Resistance and Agency
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Topics

Shipboard Rebellions and Middle Passage Resistance

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