The Atlantic Slave Trade: Empire Built on Human Suffering — Fexingo History

This episode of The Atlantic Slave Trade: Empire Built on Human Suffering turns to the 1816 Barbadian slave revolt known as Bussa's Rebellion. Lucas and Luna explore the specific conditions on Barbados that made it ripe for uprising—the island's brutal plantation system, a rapidly growing enslaved majority, and the influence of contemporary abolitionist debates in Britain. They focus on the figure...

Long before Wilberforce, a forgotten bill limited the number of enslaved people per ship. In 1787, MP Sir William Dolben pushed through the Slave Carrying Bill after witnessing the horrors of the Middle Passage firsthand. This episode dives into the shocking conditions that led to the law: the case of the Zong massacre, the mass-suicide of enslaved people at 25 Ibo Landing, and the testimony of a...

In 1723, the slave ship Elizabeth left the Gold Coast for Barbados with 143 captives. Three days out, the Africans broke their shackles, seized weapons, and nearly took the vessel. The crew's bloody counterattack killed dozens. This episode reconstructs the little-known mutiny from ship logs, court records, and oral traditions of the Asante and Fante peoples whose sons and daughters led the uprisi...

This episode of The Atlantic Slave Trade: Empire Built on Human Suffering takes listeners deep into the Gambia River region, a major but often overlooked source of enslaved Africans during the 17th and 18th centuries. Hosts Lucas and Luna explore the role of the Mandinka kingdoms, the Portuguese lançados and tangomãos who operated as middlemen, and the infamous slave trading post of James Island,...

In 1713, the Treaty of Utrecht ended the War of Spanish Succession and granted Britain a thirty-year monopoly—the asiento—to supply enslaved Africans to Spain's American colonies. This episode unpacks the asiento's mechanics, its key players like the South Sea Company, and its staggering human cost: over 144,000 captive Africans trafficked under its terms. We explore how the asiento fueled Britain...

Lucas and Luna dive into the Slave Coast of West Africa, focusing on the Kingdom of Dahomey and its unique role in the Atlantic slave trade. They explore Dahomey's rise under King Agaja, the use of female warriors (the Agojie, often called Amazons), and the annual slave raids on rival states like the Oyo Empire and the Mahi. The episode also covers the European forts at Ouidah (Fort São João Bapti...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the 1739 Stono Rebellion, the largest slave uprising in colonial British America. They trace the revolt's origins to the Kongo region of Central Africa, where many of the rebels had been warriors before their enslavement. The conversation covers the Catholic background of the Stono rebels (some were baptized under the name 'Jemmy'), the role of the Spanish f...

In 1807, Britain outlawed the slave trade—but enforcement was another story. This episode follows the parliamentary battle led by William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson, the Royal Navy's West Africa Squadron's early struggles, and the campaign's surprising turn as Britain used abolition to justify colonial expansion. We explore the loopholes: how ships still slipped through, the corruption in Fre...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna dive into the story of the Henrietta Marie, a slave ship that sank off the Florida Keys in 1704 after delivering its human cargo to Jamaica. Discovered in 1972 by treasure hunters, the wreck became one of the most important underwater archaeological sites for understanding the slave trade. Lucas walks us through the ship's history: built in London, it made multiple...

In this episode of The Atlantic Slave Trade: Empire Built on Human Suffering, Lucas and Luna explore the often-overlooked region of the Bight of Biafra, which supplied millions of enslaved Africans—mostly Igbo, Ibibio, and Efik—to the Americas. They discuss the role of the Aro Confederacy, a powerful trading network that used oracles and alliances to capture and sell people from the interior. The...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the role of African political structures in the Atlantic slave trade, focusing on the Kingdom of Kongo and its complex relationship with Portuguese slavers. They discuss how King Afonso I of Kongo wrote desperate letters to King Manuel I of Portugal in the 1520s, pleading for help controlling Portuguese traders who were destabilizing his realm. The conversat...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the untold story of Jamaica's Maroons — escaped Africans who forged independent communities in the island's rugged interior and waged a decades-long guerrilla war against British colonial rule. They focus on the First Maroon War (1728–1739/40), the leadership of Queen Nanny of the Windward Maroons, and the controversial peace treaties that granted the Maroon...

In this episode of The Atlantic Slave Trade: Empire Built on Human Suffering, Lucas and Luna explore the overlooked connection between the War of 1812 and the illegal slave trade. They discuss how the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the war between the United States and Britain, included an article demanding the return of enslaved people taken by British forces. The episode dives into the complex pol...

In Episode 63 of The Atlantic Slave Trade: Empire Built on Human Suffering, Lucas and Luna explore the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 — a federal law that forced Northern citizens to participate in the capture of escaped slaves, even in states where slavery was illegal. They discuss the case of Anthony Burns, a fugitive from Virginia arrested in Boston, whose trial and violent return south galvanized...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna dive into the little-known story of the British Royal Navy's anti-slave trade patrols off the coast of West Africa and Brazil in the 1820s and 1830s. They explore the 1826 Anglo-Brazilian treaty that outlawed the slave trade, the creation of the Mixed Commission courts in Rio de Janeiro and Freetown, and the cat-and-mouse game between British cruisers and Brazilian...

In 1841, the brig Creole was transporting 135 enslaved people from Virginia to New Orleans when the captives rose up, seized the ship, and sailed it to freedom in the Bahamas. This episode tells the story of Madison Washington, the literate enslaved cook who led the revolt, and the legal firestorm that followed. The rebellion forced the US and Britain to the brink of diplomatic crisis over the rig...

This episode turns from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean world, exploring the East African slave trade that ran through Zanzibar and the Swahili Coast. Lucas and Luna discuss how Omani sultans built an empire on cloves and slaves, the brutal dhow passages across the monsoon seas, and the career of Tippu Tip, a Zanzibari trader who pushed slave caravans deep into the Congo. They look at the 1873 Fr...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the 1843-44 La Escalera conspiracy in Cuba, a brutal episode of repression that crushed a suspected slave uprising. They discuss the economic boom of sugar production, the role of the British Slave Trade Suppression Treaty of 1817, the British Mixed Commission in Havana, and the rising fears of a Haitian-style revolt. The conversation centers on the figure o...

Tacky's War, also known as the 1760 Easter Rebellion, was the largest and most coordinated slave uprising in the British Caribbean before the Haitian Revolution. This episode dives into the revolt led by Tacky, an Akan-speaking Coromantee from the Gold Coast, who mobilized over a thousand enslaved people across the parishes of St. Mary, St. Thomas, and Portland in Jamaica. We explore the revolt's...

The transatlantic slave trade didn't just connect Africa to the Caribbean and North America. By the 18th century, the Portuguese colony of Brazil had become the single largest destination for enslaved Africans, taking in nearly five million souls over four centuries. This episode focuses on the brutal yet foundational link between Angola and Rio de Janeiro—the 'South Atlantic system.' We follow th...

In this episode of The Atlantic Slave Trade, Lucas and Luna explore the Haitian Revolution—the only successful slave revolt in history. They focus on the pivotal 1791 uprising in Saint-Domingue, led by the Vodou priest Boukman Dutty, and the subsequent emergence of Toussaint Louverture as a military and political genius. The conversation covers the Bois Caïman ceremony, the burning of plantations,...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna delve into the 1831 Baptist War, also known as the Christmas Rebellion, which was the largest slave uprising in Jamaican history. They explore the leadership of Samuel Sharpe, a literate enslaved Baptist deacon who organized a peaceful strike that turned into a full-scale revolt. The discussion covers the strategic use of the Christmas holiday, the brutal suppressio...

Lucas and Luna dive into the most notorious leg of the transatlantic slave trade: the Middle Passage. They trace the journey from African coast to Caribbean plantation, describing the horrific conditions below deck—the 'loose pack' and 'tight pack' methods, the stench, the disease, and the constant threat of rebellion. They focus on the slave ship Brookes, whose 1788 diagram became an icon of abol...

In 1839, fifty-three Africans led by Sengbe Pieh (known as Joseph Cinqué) seized the schooner La Amistad off the coast of Cuba, sparking a legal and political battle that reached the U.S. Supreme Court. This episode explores the Mende captives' origins, their secret society rituals (Poro and Sande), the role of abolitionists like Lewis Tappan and John Quincy Adams, and the eventual return of survi...

In 1823, a carefully planned slave rebellion in the British colony of Demerara (now Guyana) was betrayed from within. This episode explores the uprising led by Jack Gladstone and his father Quamina, the role of missionary John Smith who was accused of inciting the revolt, and the brutal aftermath that saw hundreds executed. We examine the colony's sugar plantations, the oppressive conditions that...