The transatlantic slave trade, one of history’s darkest chapters, was marked not only by brutality and dehumanization but also by resistance, which was often sparked by the terrifying unknowns that Africans faced once captured and placed aboard European slave ships. Among the many fears that tormented the minds of enslaved Africans during the Middle Passage, one of the most chilling was the belief that they were being taken across the sea to be eaten. This fear played a significant role in fueling revolts aboard slave ships.
From the very beginning of European expansion into West Africa, many Africans were suspicious of European intentions, and particularly wary of being consumed. As early as the sixteenth century, the Portuguese reported that Africans believed “Christians ate human flesh and that all the slaves they gathered were carried away to be butchered and eaten.” This wasn’t just a passing “rumour”, it was a belief repeated across generations, passed through oral tradition, and tied to the terrifying mystery of where the captives were taken after disappearing across the sea.
In that sense, the fear of cannibalism aboard slave ships wasn’t born in the moment. It had history. Africans weren’t simply reacting to the strange and brutal world of the slave ship, they were responding to stories they had already heard.
For many Africans, the ocean itself was a symbol of death or the spiritual realm. Most had never seen the sea before, and even fewer had any understanding of European culture. Captured inland and marched to coastal forts, many were stunned to find themselves crammed into the tight spaces like livestock, and often witnessed people taken away and never seen again.
According to Olaudah Equiano, an African who was captured and sold into slavery as a child and later wrote a detailed autobiography, he initially believed the white men aboard the ship were going to eat him and the others. In The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, he recalled:
“I asked if we were not to be eaten by those white men with horrible looks, red faces, and long hair.”
Though Equiano later learned the truth about slavery in the Americas, his initial fear was not uncommon. It was widespread and contributed to an urgent sense that death was imminent, if not by starvation or disease, then by cannibalism.
European traders and crew members were often aware of this fear, and some leaned into it. There are accounts of sailors mocking the captives, joking that they were going to be eaten. For many enslaved Africans, these remarks felt like confirmation of their worst fears.
This fear didn’t just paralyze people—it inspired them to act. The idea of being slaughtered like animals for consumption was so horrifying that many chose to resist, even at the cost of their lives.
In several cases, the fear of cannibalism led to collective suicide. Women, in particular, often took the lead in these desperate acts of resistance choosing to end up at the bottom of the ocean than in the belly of their enslavers.
The most famous rebellion born from this fear was the revolt aboard the Amistad in 1839. The Amistad, a Spanish schooner, was carrying 53 Africans, mostly Mende-speaking people from present-day Sierra Leone, who had been kidnapped and sold illegally in Cuba. They were en route to another part of the island when fear and desperation turned to action.
According to survivors and court records, the ship’s cook, a man named Celestino, frequently mocked and terrified the captives by slowly running a knife across his own throat while staring directly at them, then gesturing as if he were chopping up meat, suggesting their bodies would soon be chopped to pieces, cooked and eaten. At one point, he pointed to a barrel of salted beef and implied it contained the flesh of Africans from a previous voyage.
To the Africans aboard, who had already been subjected to unspeakable violence and trauma, Celestino’s taunts seemed entirely believable. The combination of language barriers, past rumors about cannibalism, pushed the captives to their breaking point.
Led by a man named Sengbe Pieh, better known as Joseph Cinqué, the Africans waited until nightfall. Armed with sugarcane knives they found in the hold, they broke free of their shackles and launched a violent uprising. They killed the captain and several crew members, seized the ship, and tried to return to Africa. But they were intercepted by the U.S. Navy and imprisoned. After a lengthy legal battle, they ultimately won their freedom through a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case in 1841, which recognized that they had been illegally enslaved and had the right to resist.
The Arrogante Case: When Cannibalism Wasn’t Just a Fear
As terrifying as the “rumour” was, history shows that not all European slavers were innocent of the charge. In 1837, the Portuguese slave ship Arrogante was captured by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Snake off the coast of Cuba. Onboard were more than 330 Africans, most of them children, who had been embarked at Gallinas. They were liberated in Montego Bay, Jamaica. But what followed was a chilling revelation.
Shortly after the vessel arrived, shocking accusations surfaced: the Arrogante’s captain and crew had allegedly killed an African man, cooked his flesh, and served it to the rest of the captives aboard. Witnesses also claimed the crew ate the man’s heart and liver.
It is one of the few known cases in the historical record where cannibalism was not only feared, it was real.
While some have questioned the credibility of the testimony, partly because it came from children, and partly because British courts in Jamaica were deeply biased, the consistency and seriousness of the claims rattled local authorities. And it raised disturbing questions: If the goal was to sell human cargo for profit, why would slavers kill one of their captives? Why would they feed his body to others?
We may never have all the answers, but the Arrogante case confirms that cannibalism aboard slave ships was not merely a product of fear; sometimes, it was a chilling reality.
Sources:
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/americas/events/2016/nov/white-cannibalism-slave-trade-curious-case-schooner-arrogante
https://brill.com/view/journals/nwig/96/1-2/article-p1_1.xml?language=en
https://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/equiano1/equiano1.html
