A terrible journey

Catalogue Reference:(PRO) FO 84/1310

This photograph is dated to 1 November 1868 and shows a group of boys and young men on the lower deck of the British ship HMS Daphne who seem to be on the edge of starvation. These young men were slaves from East Africa and had been taken on board from a dhow. Although illegal at this date, the slave trade still continued and many people were taken from their homes in Africa and sent as slaves to South America, the Middle East or the southern United States. These were terrible journeys and many died during them. British navy ships patrolled the coasts of Africa for many years during the mid-19th century trying to stop the slave vessels so they could remove people from them.