Slaves’ apparent joy on arrival was relief, not gladness at reaching a Christian land.

Evidence

So horrific was the passage from Africa to America that only those women and men who could maintain a will to live despite their oppressive conditions survived. White people who observed the African slaves as they departed from the ships on American shores noted that they seemed to be happy and joyful. They thought that the happiness of the African slaves was due to their pleasure at having arrived in a Christian land. But the slaves were only expressing relief. They believed no fate that awaited them in the American colonies could be as horrific as the slave ship experience. — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 58