High on the Hog_ A Culinary Journey From Africa to America - Jessica B. Harris [16]
While they might have ignored the needs of their crew, captains found that correct provisioning and feeding of the captives was crucial: If they were not nourished according to their preferences, the enslaved would quite simply not eat. Even when the food did meet the cultural dietary guidelines, many of the disoriented, newly enslaved Africans chose to exercise the only power that they had; they drank only saltwater or simply refused to eat, preferring to waste away and die rather than to face an uncertain future in an unknown destination. Alexander Falconbridge wrote:
Upon the Negroes refusing to take sustenance, I have seen coals of fire, glowing hot, put on a shovel, and placed so near their lips, as to scorch and burn them. And this has been accompanied with threats, of forcing them to swallow the coals, if they any longer persisted in refusing to eat. These means have generally had the desired effect. I have also been credibly informed that a certain captain in the slave trade poured melted lead on such of the Negroes as obstinately refused their food.
Refusal of food occurred in numbers great enough to necessitate the invention by slavers of the speculum oris, a diabolical three-pronged screw device designed to force open the mouths of the stubborn so that they could be force-fed with a funnel. It was used when the cat-o’-nine-tails was not sufficient to prod the recalcitrant. In their refusal of food the Africans had unwittingly discovered a first culinary step in resistance to enslavement: The power of no. This first step in the resistance would be used again and again throughout the period of enslavement.
Hunger strikes were common occurrences on board the Guineamen. The Loyal George witnessed a hunger strike and mass suicide in 1727; in 1730, a larger hunger strike broke out aboard the City of London. In 1765, on the Black Joke, a small child was pitched overboard in front of his mother because she had refused to eat. And in 1787, the enslaved refused food on the Deux Soeurs from Nantes as well. Whether despondent or rebellious, the slaves surely realized that their only remaining power was the control of their own bodies, and refusal of food imposed their personhood on the brutal system. The battle of wills between the newly enslaved and their captors was the daily routine for the transatlantic voyage.
Then, after weeks or often months at sea, land was spotted, and preparations began for landing on American shores and for the sale. Once in port, rations improved, and the enslaved were given food to bulk them up and give them the appearance of health. They were bathed, shaved, and covered with palm oil to disguise any skin ailments. They were also given cloth to cover themselves. Most were unable to walk after the long journey and the cramped conditions, and their general condition was pitiable. The records are filled with tales of disoriented slaves haltingly leaving the boats with excrement dripping down their legs, blinking at the light of day. Dazed and frightened, they again became despondent and melancholy, and captains often had to find other blacks onshore more acclimatized to enslavement and take them onboard the vessels to allay the fears of the newly arrived.
Their introduction to the new world in which they’d landed was a sale by public auction or a private sale by the more barbarous “scramble.” Falconbridge explained:
The mode of selling them by scramble is most common. Here, all the negroes scrambled for bear an equal price; which is agreed upon between the captain and the purchasers before the sale begins. On a day appointed, the negroes are landed and placed altogether in a large yard belonging to one of the merchants to whom the ship is consigned. As soon as the hour agreed on arrives, the doors of the yard are suddenly thrown open and in rushes a considerable number of purchasers, with