Alexander Falconbridge suggested that most surgeons worked on slave ships because they were driven by financial need, not because they supported slavery or the horrific conditions on board. He saw money pressures pushing men into doing work they might otherwise have found morally repugnant.

Who was Falconbridge?

  • Alexander Falconbridge was an 18th‑century British ship’s surgeon who made several voyages on slave ships before later becoming an abolitionist writer.
  • In his published account of the slave trade, he described in detail the brutal conditions of the Middle Passage and criticized the system that created them.

Why he emphasized money

  • Pay on slave ships could be relatively high for surgeons, with wages, free medical supplies, and sometimes bonuses for each enslaved person who survived the voyage.
  • Many surgeons lacked stable positions or “half‑pay” from the navy, so a slave‑ship post might be one of the few ways to support themselves or their families.

Moral discomfort vs. economic pressure

  • Falconbridge and other surgeons described the work as unpleasant and disturbing, which suggests they did not choose it out of enthusiasm for the trade itself.
  • By saying surgeons went “from necessity,” he implied that economic desperation could override moral objections, highlighting how the slave trade exploited not only enslaved Africans but also poor Europeans’ vulnerability.

What this reveals about the slave trade

  • The comment underlines that the system was built on profit at every level: ship owners, traders, and even medical staff were financially tied to the survival and sale of human beings.
  • It also helps explain why the trade persisted so long—many people around it were trapped by money needs, even when they recognized its cruelty.

TL;DR: Falconbridge said most surgeons worked on slave ships because of their financial situations to show that economic pressure and limited career options pushed them into a job they knew was horrific, revealing how deeply profit and desperation fueled the slave trade.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.