Maybe we should look to other cultures. The following evidence given to a Parliamentary committee on the slave trade in 1789 relates to an incident from around 1770:
Quote:
About 20 years ago, a ship, with about 400 slaves struck on a shoal, half a league from the Morant Keys, (3 small sandy islands, 11 leagues S. S. E. from Jamaica) the officers and crew took to the boats with arms and provisions, and landed. At day light it was found that the slaves had got out of their irons, and were forming rafts, on which they placed the women and children, the men swimming by the side, whilst they drifted towards the little island where the crew had landed ; who lest the slaves should consume their provisions, came to the resolution to fire upon them, and actually killed from 3 to 400. Of the cargo, 33 or 34 only were saved, which he saw sold at vendue at Kingston. The ship, he thinks, was consigned to a Mr. Hugh Wallace, of St. Elizabeth's parish.