Shipboard Revolts Against Slave Traders During the Middle Passage

Royal African Company records and ship logs from the 1670s–1690s document multiple shipboard revolts by enslaved Africans during the Middle Passage. The 1672 voyage of the English ship Robert saw a revolt in which enslaved captives killed several crew members before being suppressed. The frequency of such revolts — estimated at one aboard every 8–10 slaving voyages — meant that slave ships were extensively armed and crewed with violence-suppression in mind. These acts of collective resistance, often organized by captives who shared languages and communities, were the first systematic armed resistance to the transatlantic slave trade.