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# Slave Catching in the Indian Ocean
# The Dream of a Slave Empire
Cowley stated that ''Black Cargoes'' was Mannix's book, and his role was chiefly editorial. However, he had been preparing to write a book that was never published, and his material was included. He noted that he accepted primary responsibility for chapters 5, 7, and 12.<ref>Mannix and Cowley 1962, ''Black Cargoes'', pp. Contents & page xiv</ref>
''The Middle Passage'' was published separately in [[American Heritage]], a hardcover magazine, in 1962. The title page had the heading, "Packed like animals in the holds of ships, Negros bound for America were prey to disease, brutal masters, and their own suicidal melancholy. Such was the fearful MIDDLE PASSAGE".<ref>{{cite magazine
|first1=Daniel P.|last1=Mannix
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==Narrative==
In contrast to Spears, Mannix and Cowley were respectful of African culture: "There were kingdoms and commonwealths comparable in size with many European nations, and even the smaller tribes had definite and often complex cultures . . . Many of their communities had highly involved religions, well-organized economic systems, efficient agricultural practices, and admirable codes of law. We have only in recent years begun to appreciate West Africa's contribution to sculpture, folk literature, and music".<ref>Mannix and Cowley 1962, ''Black Cargoes'', p. 10.</ref>
In contrast to Du Bois, their account was emotive. It had no quotations of long political speeches, but rather focused on narratives of slave ship captains and crews.<ref name="Dorsey">{{cite journal
|first1=Joseph C. |last1=Dorsey
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''Black Cargoes'' begins with Christopher Columbus and the brutal suppression of revolt by Indians. As recounted in a Time magazine review, the black slave trade to the Americas ironically began as a humanitarian effort. Colonist in [[Hispaniola]] had attempted to enslave the Indians but they were not suited to the work, which led to "thousands of Indians dying in corrals, and scores of men and women burned alive in the hope that their fate would induce the others to work" (Mannix's description). In 1515, moved by the suffering of the Indians, a priest [[Bartolomé de las Casas]], petitioned [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor]], to import slaves from Africa to relieve the Indians. His request was granted, although the motive for granting the request may have been at least partially economic. In 1518, 4000 African slaves were sent to the island.<ref>Mannix and Cowley 1962, ''Black Cargoes'', pp. 1{{ndash}}3.</ref>
According to Mannix and Cowley, in the 16th century, slavers were unapologetic{{ndash}}slavery was just an accepted practice. It was justified on the basis of religion. Africans were seen as benefiting by conversion to Christianity. The "racial excuse was seldom used". The racial aspect surfaced in the 17th century. Initially in Virginia, for example, "Negros had been regarded as servants indentured for life, their children were born free and were also reared in the true faith". However, in many cases planters refused to let them go. So they came up with a new excuse based on race and the bible. They argued that the Negros were the children of Ham or Cannan and claimed that slavery was a biblical practice based on Noah's curse: "And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren” (Genesis IX, 25). Some slave owners even claimed that Negros were not human and so could not become Christian.<ref>Mannix and Cowley 1962, ''Black Cargoes'', pp. 26 & 59{{ndash}}60</ref>
According to Mannix and Cowley, the slave trade then blossomed and continued unabated for nearly three centuries. However, in 1807, Britian and the United States passed legislation banning the slave trade. Britain launched a [[naval blockade]] to suppress the trade by all nations. The British policy came about largely through the moral advocacy of [[William Wilberforce]] in parliament. Unfortunately, the blockade was thwarted by the United States, which refused to allow their ships to be searched. Even though it was technically illegal, the U.S. government did not enforce the ban and it became a major transporter of slaves to the New World. Demand for imported slaves had previously dampened following the [[Haitian Revolution]], during which white plantation owners were slaughtered in 1804. The authors claimed that all states south of Maryland feared a slave rebellion, nevertheless the fear was later overcome by greed. They concluded (as did Du Bois before them) that the invention of the [[cotton gin]] in 1828, which made the processing of cotton far more efficient, led to a vast expansion of cotton plantations and the need for more slaves. Also according to Du Bois slavery was changing from a "family institution to a industrial system". <ref>Mannix and Cowley 1962, ''Black Cargoes'', pp. 186{{ndash}}187 & 195</ref><ref>Du Bois 1896, p. 152.</ref>
Although Rhode Island was not highlighted by Mannix and Cowley, it became the center of the American slave trade in the 18th century. A triangular trading route was developed. Small "clippers" were loaded with rum distilled in Rhode Island. Mannix and Cowley described them as the "whippets of the sea" (rather than greyhounds). The fast ships were able to elude the British patrols and sail further up African rivers than larger ships. It also allowed the slavers to load a shipment of slaves quickly so as to reduce sickness among the crew and slaves alike. They then sailed to the West Indies where slaves were exchanged from molasses, which was carried back to Rhode Island to make more rum, which could be sold at a profit and used for further trade. In a treatise on the subject Jay Coughtry concluded that this scenario was correct in outline however he noted that "Returning slavers, however, did not carry enough syrup to supply even the local African fleet with sufficient rum for the first leg of the slaving voyages, let alone furnish a surplus for domestic consumption and coastwise exports".<ref>Mannix and Cowley 1962, ''Black Cargoes'', pp. 186 & 200</ref><ref>{{cite book
|first1=Jay |last1=Coughtry
|title=The Notorious Triangle: Rhode Island and the African Slave Trade, 1700-1807
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As noted earlier, Du Bois approached his history of the suppression of the slave trade more systematically than in the colorful Mannix and Cowley's narrative. He included a table showing the passage of laws of countries banning the trade and the implementation of treaties which allowed the British (which had taken over the role of "policeman of the seas") to actually enforce the bans. However, since they were not permitted to search American ships, captains from other countries began to falsely fly American flags which frustrated the effort.<ref>Du Bois 1896, pp. 136 & 143{{ndash}}145.</ref>
According to Mannix and Cowley, slavers began to carry an American passenger (called the capitano de bandiera, or captain of the flag) who ostensively took command of the vessel if it was boarded by the English. They claimed that one was a tailor, and another was a grog-shop keeper.<ref>Mannix and Cowley 1962, ''Black Cargoes'', p. 202.</ref> It wasn't until 1862 when the Steward in Lincoln administration [[Lyons–Seward Treaty of 1862|negotiated a treaty]] with the British that allowed their ships to be searched and for violators to be tried in joint British and American courts.<ref>Du Bois 1896, p. 150.</ref>
Mannix and Cowley included many quotations from eyewitnesses to the horrors endured by the slaves and the callous indifference of the slavers. For example, they included a half page quotation from a narrative by George Lydiard Sulivan, a British naval officer in squadron tasked with suppressing the slave trade in the Indian Ocean.<ref>Mannix and Cowley 1962, ''Black Cargoes'', p. 250.</ref> The last paragraph of the quotation is as follows:
{{Blockquote
|text=In another portion of the square are a number of women, their bodies painted, and their figures exposed with barely a yard of cloth around their hips, with rows of girls from the age of twelve and upwards exposed to the examination of Arabs and subject to inexpressible indignities by the dealers. We saw several Arab slave-dealers around these poor creatures; they were in treaty for the purchase of three or four women who had been made to take off the only rag of a garment which they wore.
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In another example, they included a quotation from George W. Howe, a medical student who shipped in 1859 with an illegal slave ship. Howe purported it be the last slaving ship. The authors commented that it was one of the best descriptions of the morbid melancholy that often affected slaves during the Middle Passage.<ref>Mannix and Cowley 1962, ''Black Cargoes'', p. 120.</ref>
The quoted paragraph is as follows:
{{Blockquote
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The authors concluded that, "What [the slave trade] had produced in Africa was nothing but misery, stagnation, and social chaos . . . In the Western Hemisphere, besides introducing a vigorous new strain of immigrants, it had created the plantation system, it had opened vast areas to the cultivation of the four great slave crops{{ndash}}sugar, rice, tobacco, and cotton{{ndash}}and it had also encouraged the fatal and persistent myth of Negro inferiority". It took the American Civil War to effectively end the trade in about 1865.<ref>Mannix and Cowley 1962, ''Black Cargoes'', p. 287.</ref>
''Black Cargoes'' focused on the slavers and the human cargo that was carried from Africa to the New World. It did not include substantive discussions of re-capture slaves returned to Africa or the transport of slaves within the United States from the upper south to the lower south and from the south to the west which became the dominant form of forced relocation of slaves after the Revolutionary War.<ref>{{cite journal
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: {{ndash}} anonymous but likely Isaac Teale (Edwards's tutor)
In addition to depicting the Sable Venus on a scallop shell in the fashion of "[[The Birth of Venus|Botticelli’s White Venus]]", it includes "a wealth of classical details, to show the painter’s learning". According to Mannix and Cowley, the messages of the painting and poem were obvious: "that slave women are preferable to English girls at night, being passionate and accessible". The idealize figure belies the horrors faced by women slaves, which they described in graphic detail.<ref>Mannix and Cowley 1962, ''Black Cargoes'', pp. 112{{ndash}}113 and illustration</ref><ref>{{cite book
|title=The Sable Venus. An Ode. Inscribed to Bryan Edwards
|author=Anonymous [most likely Rev. Isaac Teale]
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