The 1694 Capture of the Henrietta Marie: Slave Ship Wreck

The Slave Trade's Diet: What Enslaved Africans Ate on the Middle Passage

What did enslaved Africans actually eat during the Middle Passage? This episode of The Atlantic Slave Trade: Empire Built on Human Suffering dives into the logistics of provisioning slave ships—from the vast quantities of horse beans and yams to the dried fish, palm oil, and rice that sustained captives across the Atlantic. Lucas and Luna examine ship manifests, the notorious 'squatting' position for feeding, and how malnutrition and disease were baked into the system. They also explore the contrast with the diet of enslaved people on plantations, the role of African provisions like millet and plantains, and the grim irony that many ships carried more food for the crew than for the people in the hold. Drawing on records from the Royal African Company, the 1788 Dolben Act, and accounts by Olaudah Equiano, this episode uncovers a little-examined but telling dimension of the slave trade: the daily caloric calculus of human cargo. #MiddlePassage #SlaveTrade #AtlanticSlaveTrade #HorseBeans #OlaudahEquiano #DolbenAct #RoyalAfricanCompany #Provisions #Yams #PalmOil #Malnutrition #HistoryOfFood #Slavery #18thCentury #Equiano #Calico #FexingoHistory #History Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo [https://buymeacoffee.com/fexingo]

Cape Coast Castle: The Door of No Return

Lucas and Luna explore Cape Coast Castle, the brutal epicenter of the Atlantic slave trade on Ghana's Gold Coast. They trace its origins as a Swedish trading post in 1653, its capture by the English, and its expansion into a fortress that held up to 1,500 enslaved Africans in its dungeons. The episode details the castle's layout—the male dungeon, the female dungeon, and the infamous 'Door of No Return'—and contrasts the cramped, filthy conditions below with the airy governor's quarters above. The conversation also covers the role of local Akan states like Fetu and the Asante Empire in supplying captives, the logistics of the 'Middle Passage' from Cape Coast, and the ongoing legacy, including UNESCO World Heritage status and modern pilgrimage. This episode builds on prior discussions of the Royal African Company and the Gold Coast by zooming into one of its most iconic and haunting sites. #CapeCoastCastle #DoorOfNoReturn #GoldCoast #AtlanticSlaveTrade #Ghana #RoyalAfricanCompany #MiddlePassage #Akan #AsanteEmpire #Fetu #UNESCO #WorldHeritage #SlaveDungeon #TransatlanticSlaveTrade #History #FexingoHistory #AfricanHistory #ColonialHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo [https://buymeacoffee.com/fexingo]

The 1733 Slave Revolt: Akwamu Rebels on St. John

In 1733, enslaved Akwamu warriors from the Gold Coast seized control of the Danish island of St. John for six months. This episode follows the revolt from its planning to its brutal suppression, exploring how the rebels used their military experience from West Africa to fight Danish planters and how the Danish governor finally crushed the uprising with help from French Martinique. We discuss the role of the Amina and Akwamu peoples, Fort Christiansborg, and the lasting impact on Danish colonial policy. The revolt was one of the earliest and most organized in the Americas, yet it remains little known. #1733SlaveRevolt #Akwamu #StJohn #DanishWestIndies #GoldCoast #FortChristiansborg #SlaveRebellion #Amina #CaribbeanHistory #DanishColonialism #1730s #WestAfrica #StCroix #PeterVonScholten #FexingoHistory #History #AtlanticSlaveTrade #Resistance Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo [https://buymeacoffee.com/fexingo]

The Danish Slave Trade: A Small Empire's Big Role

When we think of the Atlantic slave trade, we think of Britain, France, Portugal, Spain. But what about Denmark? For over a century, the Danish West India Company ran a brutal triangular trade from Copenhagen to the Gold Coast to the Caribbean sugar islands of St. Thomas, St. John, and St. Croix. This episode explores Denmark's surprisingly significant role in the slave trade—how a small Scandinavian kingdom became a major slave-trading power, building forts like Christiansborg on the Gold Coast, transporting tens of thousands of enslaved Africans across the Middle Passage, and running a plantation economy that rivaled its larger neighbors. We follow the story of the Danish fort at Christiansborg, the rise of sugar on St. Croix, and the eventual abolition of the Danish slave trade in 1803—a full four years before Britain. Along the way, we meet key figures like Governor Peter von Scholten, the enslaved rebel leaders of the 1733 St. John slave revolt, and the African kingdoms that supplied the trade. This is a chapter of Atlantic history that's often overlooked, but it reveals how deeply the slave trade penetrated even the smallest European empires. #DanishSlaveTrade #Christiansborg #GoldCoast #DanishWestIndies #StCroix #StThomas #StJohn #1733SlaveRevolt #PeterVonScholten #MiddlePassage #DanishWestIndiaCompany #Abolition1803 #AtlanticHistory #CaribbeanHistory #GhanaHistory #SugarPlantations #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo [https://buymeacoffee.com/fexingo]

The 1763 Tacky's War: Jamaica's Great Slave Revolt

In 1763, the island of Jamaica became the stage for one of the most determined slave rebellions in British colonial history. Tacky, an Akan-speaking overseer from the Gold Coast, led a coordinated uprising across the island's parishes, seizing weapons, burning plantations, and nearly capturing the entire colony. This episode unpacks the rebellion's Akan military strategies—including the use of abeng horns for communication and oaths sworn on fetish objects—the brutal reprisals that followed, the role of the Jamaican Maroons in suppressing the revolt, and how Tacky's War reshaped slave codes and colonial fears. We also examine the legacy of Tacky as a symbol of resistance in Jamaica and beyond, and the archival evidence that distinguishes fact from lore. #TackysWar #Jamaica1763 #Akan #SlaveRevolt #AtlanticHistory #Maroons #GoldCoast #Abeng #Coromantee #BritishEmpire #CaribbeanHistory #SlaveResistance #ColonialJamaica #History #FexingoHistory #18thCentury #AkanMilitary #Tacky Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo [https://buymeacoffee.com/fexingo]