Norwegians like to think that slave-trade was 'none of our business'
The remains of one of the Danish slave ships, the Fredensborg, has been found in our days on the Norwegian coast where it was wrecked in 1768 after having sailed almost all the way along the triangular route. After the wreck of the Fredensborg was located and identified in 1974, one of the main tasks was to research the extensive written materials preserved in Danish and Norwegian archives pertaining to the ship’s journey. These texts, together with the items that were retrieved from the wreck – from exotic goods such as elephant tusks and dyewood to the crew’s tobacco cans and shoes with fine buckles – constitute probably the most thorough documentation of a slave ship found as a wreck anywhere in the world. Thus, it is known that on this voyage the Fredensborg took 265 Negro slaves onboard in Africa, 24 of whom died en route across the Atlantic. The survivors were sold at good prices at an auction in Christiansted on Saint Croix.
The Danish-Norwegian slave trade brought approximately 100.000 Africans to the New World as slaves, and according to Mr. Svalesen there is no reason to believe they were better treated than other slaves.
The transatlantic slave trade was the most extensive forced transportation of human beings in history. Millions of Africans were carried across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas. The ships are gone, but their tracks remain on the ocean floor.
This Internet exhibit is about the Danish-Norwegian slaver, "Fredensborg". The ship ran aground on the southern coast of Norway on December 1, 1768.
Education Transatlantic Slave Trade (TST)
The United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO)Picture gallery
 |
| Add caption |
No comments:
Post a Comment