Chapter Seven: The Captain's Own Hell

This chapter was somewhat difficult to follow. However, it does give the reader multiple viewpoints. The chapter's main topic is all of the captain's worries while on the slave trade, and during this discussion Redicker adds first hand stories from a few captains who wrote about the slave trade later on in their lives. I was not a huge fan of this chapter simply because a lot of the same topics were already discussed, and Redicker seemed to lack organization in the midst of the chapter. He did, though, add in some good points about all of the different worries captains had while aboard, and why that made them so hostile. For example, management of the voyage and how to maintain the ship and its social order, resistance waged by both slaves and sailors, suicide and insurrection among the enslaved, and the health of all those on board. It was mentioned in the book that, "maintaining proper discipline was the crux of the whole enterprise." Which is seen as no surprise after reading about all of the captain's worries. Discipline was the only thing a captain had to maintain order on board, and scare the others into doing what they were asked. Unfortunately, most captains abused this power and turned discipline into harsh violence. "Many slave ship captains adopted a domineering style of shipboard leadership that can be summed up in a word: bully."