TERA Gallery - African Art and Antiquities

"Altering The Way You View The World Of Art"
Type of Object:
    Slave Shackles - Transatlantic
    15th c.
    Museum Quality

    This is an extremely rare item used on ships coming from Africa
    to control, punish and humiliate defiant captured men, women and
    children slave being transported to American an other parts of the
    world.

    When Europeans arrived along the West African coast, slavery
    already existed on the continent. African slavery was more akin to
    European serfdom. In the Ashanti Kingdom of West Africa, for
    example, slaves could marry, own property and even own slaves.
    Slavery ended after a certain number of years of servitude. Most
    importantly, African slavery was never passed from one
    generation to another.

    The first Europeans to come to Africa's West Coast came to
    trade. The purpose of the exploration was to expand European
    geographic knowledge, to find the source of prized African gold,
    and to locate a possible sea route to valuable Asian spices. As
    time passed this situation took a horrific turn, Africans were either
    captured in warring raids or kidnapped and taken to port by
    African slave traders. There they were exchanged for iron, guns,
    gunpowder, mirrors, knives, cloth, and beads brought by boat
    from Europe.

    "Concerning the trade on this Coast, we notified your Highness
    that nowadays the natives no longer occupy themselves with the
    search for gold, but rather make war on each other in order to
    furnish slaves. . . The Gold Coast has changed into a complete
    Slave Coast." - William De La Palma Director, Dutch West India
    Co. September 5, 1705

    By the start of the 16th century, almost 200,000 Africans had been
    transported to Europe and islands in the Atlantic. By 1619, more
    than a century and a half after the Portuguese first traded slaves
    on the African coast, European ships had brought a million
    Africans to colonies and plantations in the Americas and force
    them to labor as slaves. Trade through the West African forts
    continued for nearly three hundred years. The Europeans made
    more than 54,000 voyages to trade in human beings and sent at
    least ten to twelve million Africans to the Americas.

    These shackles served to bind the captive either by the legs at the
    ankles or the by the hands at the wrists.  The slave could not walk
    with these, so they were installed in the ship.


Ethnic Group:


Country of Origin:  

Material:   
    Iron

Dimensions:
    14-3/4”s x  4”

Reference: