The transatlantic slave trade was one of history’s darkest enterprises, carrying millions of Africans across the ocean in brutal conditions to serve as labor in the Americas. The ships that ferried them were not just centers of commerce but also of cruelty, where greed and violence ruled the decks. Yet, alongside captains, sailors, and traders, pastors, often assigned as boat chaplains to the ships, were sometimes present. Their roles on these voyages did not involve protecting or comforting the enslaved but rather ministering to the crew, blessing the trade, and cloaking atrocity with religion.
Boat chaplains aboard trans-Atlantic slave ships primarily served the religious and spiritual needs of the colonialists. However, their duties extended to the captives, as they were believed to offer prayers for the enslaved Africans before they were forced to embark on the harrowing Middle Passage. These chaplains also accompanied the ships throughout the voyage, performing requiem rites for those who perished during the journey, after which the bodies were cast into the sea.
These religious officers also served to justify the entire enterprise. Many spoke of the slave trade as part of God’s providence, presenting it as a mission to expose Africans to Christianity. They suggested that, despite the pain and death of the Middle Passage, the enslaved were being offered spiritual salvation. This distorted theology soothed the consciences of sailors and captains, who might otherwise have been unsettled by the screams, disease, and despair that surrounded them. By portraying the suffering as part of a divine plan, they made the trade appear not only lawful but sacred.
Life Aboard a Slave Ship
The horrors ministers witnessed, or chose to ignore, were staggering. Enslaved men, women, and children were packed into the lower decks, chained together with barely enough room to move. The stench of sweat, blood, and human waste filled the air, turning the hold into a coffin-like space where disease spread rapidly. Dysentery, smallpox, and fevers killed thousands before they ever reached the Americas. Women were often subject to sexual violence at the hands of crew members, while men who resisted were beaten or tortured to break their spirit.
Equally important as what the religious officers did was what they did not do. They rarely spoke out against the beatings, starvation, and degradation inflicted on enslaved Africans. Their silence reinforced the message that the enslaved were not fully human, not worthy of the same spiritual care as sailors and captains. In choosing to look upward to heaven while ignoring the suffering beneath their feet, they became active participants in the trade’s machinery.
The presence of boat chaplains aboard slave ships illustrates how deeply religion was entangled with the slave trade. Their role was not one of resistance or compassion but of reinforcement. They ministered to the crew, blessed the voyage, and cloaked the horrors of the Middle Passage in the language of faith. In doing so, they provided the spiritual framework that allowed sailors and captains to see themselves not as criminals but as men fulfilling a divine mission. The atrocities of the slave ships, disease, death, rape, and despair, were thus carried not only by chains and cannons but also by prayers and sermons that sanctified the suffering.
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Sources:
https://scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1017-04992018000200008
https://www.chemsterdam.com/25-minute-deep-dive-the-preachers-who-bought-slaves-with-the-bible-in-hand-now-finally-on-exhibit/
https://www.iiardjournals.org/get/IJRCP/VOL.%2010%20NO.%201%202025/Religion%2C%20Slavery%20and%20African%2011-26.pdf?
https://noyam.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/ERATS0320ART4.pdf
