A German surgeon who travelled with the Brandenburg Company's slave ship the ‘Friedrich Wilhelm’ in 1693 gave one of the most vivid descriptions of slave-branding. He discussed carrying out his duties in Whydah: As soon as a sufficient number of the unfortunate victims were assembled, wrote Dr. Oettinger, who was from Swabia,
they were examined by me. The healthy and strong ones were bought, while the magrones [the word was from the Portuguese magro, "weak"] - those who had fingers or teeth missing, or were disabled - were rejected. The slaves who had been bought then had to kneel down, twenty or thirty at a time; their right shoulder was smeared with palm oil and branded with an iron which bore the initials CABC [Churfürstlich Afrikanisch Brandenburg Compagnie] ...Some of these poor people obeyed their leaders without a will of their own or any resistance ...Others on the other hand howled and danced. There were ...many women who filled the air with heartrending cries which could hardly be drowned by the drums, and cut me to the quick.
Source: ‘The Branding (and Baptism) of Slaves’ by Hugh Thomas, www.ralphmag.org/slave2.html
