British blacksmith on an anti-slavery patrol boat removing leg irons from a freed slave off the coast of Mozambique, 1907
British blacksmith on an anti-slavery patrol boat removing leg irons from a freed slave off the coast of Mozambique, 1907
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Do we know where those slaves were being taken to?
Samuel Chidwick, 74, has donated photographs taken by his father Able Seaman Joseph Chidwick, born in 1881, on board HMS Sphinx off the East African coast in about 1907. The photographs, on display at the Royal Naval Museum, Portsmouth, Hants, show a sailor removing the manacle from a newly-freed slave as well as the ship’s marines escorting captured slavers.
Mr Chidwick, of Dover, Kent, said: “The pictures were taken by my father who was serving aboard HMS Sphinx while on armed patrol off the Zanzibar and Mozambique coast. “They caught quite a few slavers and those particular slaves that are in the pictures happened while he was on watch. “That night a dhow sailed by and the slaves were all chained together.
He raised the alarm and they got them on to the ship and got the chains knocked off them. “They then questioned them and sent a party of marines ashore to try to track the slave traders down. “They caught two of them and I believe they were of Arabic origin. “My father thought the slave trade was a despicable thing that was going on, the slaves were treated very badly so when they got the slavers they didn’t give them a very nice time.”
the slaves were treated very badly so when they got the slavers they didn’t give them a very nice time.
I may be reading into it, but I wonder if that's that generations way of saying they beat the shit out of the slavers before turning them over to the authorities, without admitting to anything specific.
It is.
Except they were also the authorities.
Police violence?
They declined to offer them tea. Monstrous behavior from a brit
Part of the Arab slave trade, I believe.
And who was casting the nets that kept on capturing people all the way into the 20th century?
One would imagine Arabs themselves wouldn't want to "get their hands dirty", would have the middleman ships full of slaves arrive at their ports and then have the auctions begin.
I haven't seen that in ages. I'm glad it still exists.
I had to Google it to see if Let Me Google That For You still existed. I wish someone would have googled it for me...
The problem with this is that it assumes google still finds relevant results
it also assumes that one person’s results on Google are the same as another’s. Sadly with the enshittification of the internet, we can’t take it for granted anymore.
Wut