Better-Organized Crime
By 1850, ocean patrols and harbor surveillance had effectively stopped the smuggling of slaves into French and British territories in the Caribbean as well as the American South. Cuba and Brazil remained vulnerable; their plantations were desperate to pay for new slaves, whatever the price. The risks and profits of slave trading skyrocketed. Independent ship owners and captains gave way to international cartels with deep pockets; lawyers and accountants gained power. With a cartel’s legal responsibilities and financial exposure limited, it could operate multiple voyages a year, hypothetically lose half its ships, crews, and human “cargo“ to storm or seizure, and still make incredible profits.
Disguised as a freighter or a whaler, a ship would set sail from a northeast American port for some announced destination. Several days out, it would change course, and head for the Danish West Indies, to stock its hold with slave trading supplies. It then would sail to the African coast, where innocent villagers captured specifically for this ship’s voyage were already imprisoned in slave pens. Then came the long, terrible voyage west. Despite the slaves being valuable “cargo,” they were treated as expendable sub-humans. Many succumbed to disease, malnutrition, beatings, or the excessive heat in the ship’s hold. Some starved themselves in despair; some tried to rebel and were slain. Sick and dead slaves alike might be chained together and tossed overboard, tied to weights so that their bodies would not float to the surface and betray the presence of a slave ship in the area.
After the survivors were delivered, the ship would be burned to the waterline and sunk in deep water, in hopes of destroying all evidence of the voyage. Crewmen and officers would find other ships on which to work their way home.
