Q: How successful were revolts executed by African captives on slave ships?
Q: Where and when did they usually occur?
– Black History Questions and Answers Admin Team
A: These revolts did not happen very often and when they did, they were rarely successful.
It is often said that 1 out of every 10 ships that picked up captives on the coast of Africa experienced a rebellion. In other words, 10% of slave ships were compromised by Africans. This may be true for the ships, but how about the individual trips that those ships made?
In less than 2% of the thousands of known voyages were documented instances of rebellions.
Author Eric Robert Taylor, who studied rebellions on slave ships, found that 75% of them happened while the Africans could still see the coast.
Only 21% happened on the high seas.
This shows that Africans considered their chances of survival were better off when land was within reach. The best window they had would have been while the ship was still on the coast of Africa “loading” new “cargo.” And whenever they could, they used that window to their advantage.
– Omri Coke, Black Researchers United Admin Team
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