Suffering at Sea: Alexander Falconbridge's Account of the Slave Trade on the Coast of Africa (1788)

Falconbridge's book, Account of the Slave Trade on the Coast of Africa, was published in 1788 after Falconbridge had met Thomas Clarkson, and left the slave trade. The account became so influential in the abolitionist milieux in England that Falconbridge and his wife, Anna-Marie, were later sent by the Anti-Slavery Society to “Freetown,” the settlement for freed slaves established by the Sierra Leone Company. In this article, I revist the Account, focusing on Falconbridge's medical perspective, and on his approach to the conditions of enslaved people. He was well aware of the larger communities and environmental constraints that determined slave voyages. Not only were medical men in charge of caring for the confined crew, they were also closer to the enslaved people's bodies, as agents of control and perpetrators of violence. Falconbridge's profession as sea surgeon, and his medical background will be presented in this paper as providing a specific—and ambivalent—insight into racial violence.