Revolt Aboard the Slave Ship Venus

Captives aboard the Rhode Island slaver Venus rose against the crew off the West African coast. The revolt was suppressed and its leaders killed or returned to captivity. Documented in the ship's log and later cited by abolitionists, it was one of dozens of shipboard insurrections during this decade as the transatlantic trade reached peak volume — roughly 80,000 Africans transported annually by the 1760s.