They were sent naked on boats and put in small cages, and young women were gathered on deck and humiliated by the crew. In the dim and narrow cabin, there was a fishy and disgusting smell. Every day, they receive very little food, and during the long transportation process, they become sick or injured, receive no medical treatment, wait to die, and are then thrown into the sea to be fished. It's a scene of the slave trade on the island of Gorée and the dark history of Senegal, the westernmost country in Africa.
In 1444, Portuguese colonists first occupied the island of Gorée in Senegal, which later became known as the "Slave Island". Between 1617 and 1664, the island fell into Dutch hands. Britain and France fought for the fortress for nearly a hundred years. Until the abolition of the criminal slave trade in the French colonies in 1815, it was one of the centers of the African slave trade for 400 years.
According to records, this period of dark colonial rule cost Africa more than 100 million young and middle-aged people, and about 20 million black slaves were removed from the slave forts on Gorée Island, and 5 million died on the island.
For the sake of profit, colonists engaged in the slave trade, from the 15th century, came to Africa with industrial goods, weapons and ammunition, encouraged local chiefs to start wars, and instigated the victors after the war to sell the captives of the other tribe to them as slaves, and then they sold the slaves to plantations and mines in the Americas in exchange for sugar, tobacco, rice and other plantation products, as well as gold and silver, industrial raw materials, and then returned to Europe for trading.
In order to obtain more benefits, greedy colonists would even force female slaves and male slaves to have children together. When these children are born and grow up, they will continue the tragedy of their parents and be sold to various estates in the Americas as lifelong slaves for slave owners.
In order to sell slaves at a good price, there were two "special" rooms in the slave fort on Gorée Island, one called "fattening room" and the other called "punishment room".
In the slave market, the price of male slaves was determined by weight, female slaves were measured by appearance and chastity, and children were determined by their teeth and priced. The fattening room was where they fed underweight slaves and quickly gained weight. The punishment chamber is designed for disobedient and rebellious slaves. They kept the slaves in groups of four or five in small punishment chambers where they could only squat and were deprived of food and water. In a dark space, the slaves suffered inhuman torture and had to obey in the end.
It was not until the early 19th century, due to economic and political factors, coupled with the continued abolitionist movement of religious groups in North America and Britain, large numbers of people's signed petitions and public rallies, and perseverance in the black slave uprising, that the international community gradually abolished the slave trade, leaving this criminal trade forever in the past.
Today's slave fort, where slave traders once lived, has been converted into a museum. Inside the museum, you can still find shackles that were used to bind the hands and feet of slaves, iron balls specially made to prevent slaves from escaping, and weapons left over from European colonists.
On the island today, one can still see a well-preserved slave fort. This sturdy wooden and stone building, built hundreds of years ago, consists of two floors. The upper floor was floored and sunny, and it was the residence of slave traders at that time. Downstairs was a slave cell of five or six square meters, divided into men's rooms, women's rooms and children's rooms. There are no windows, dark and damp, and dirty. There were only a few small holes in the wall for slave traders to monitor the movements of slaves. These cramped, dark cells held 500 to 600 people at a time, and a cell could hold 15 to 20 slaves at the same time. They were shackled and tied with a large 14-pound iron ball to prevent escape. Between the cells, there was a long, narrow and gloomy passageway, with a stone gate in the middle of the passage facing the rough Atlantic Ocean, from which thousands of black slaves were escorted onto ships and transported to the Americas.
The island displays the cannons of that year, which were the tools and criminal evidence of the crimes of Western colonists, as well as more books and collections from the period of the slave trade, and the words on them wept blood, unfolding the history of blood and tears for everyone.
Today, Gorée is a tourist attraction and is home to more than a thousand indigenous people. The colorful and unique colonial buildings and the history and culture behind them attract more and more tourists. The island and prison have thus become Senegal's patriotic education base, warning people that freedom and independence are hard won.
