The act of jumping into the sea from the slave ships by enslaved Africans during the middle passage was an act of resistance. Africans resisted from the first forceful capture. The first Africans that were forcefully captured by the Portuguese sailors from around 1441 or 1444 arrived Portugal with bruises and wounds all over their bodies and Prince Henry the Navigator lamented over the ill treatment but later played along when he realized the economic benefit of enslaving other human beings.