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Slave Trade Research Paper

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Devour their curdled blood, gobble up their molten flesh, and ravish their females’ ebony bodies; what else have masters to do when the slaves’ toil brings them all that they need and more. Bundled up under the decks, inhaling a loathsome stench, Equiano feels “so sick and low” that he becomes unable to eat and wishes for death, his last friend, but only to get tortured further (Equiano 65). This represents an average slave’s life when being transported from his native land to the colonizers’ country to work in fields, mills, and factories. Slave trade, the cruelest evil of colonization, has resulted in the deprivation of African people of their kith and kin, their freedom and dignity, and their right to a decent life. On the other hand, their …show more content…

Once they reach there they are sold off by merchants for toiling in plantations, factories, and fields while their ladies worked in households. On the other hand, the masters enjoyed their life. For example, in the southern planter William Byrd’s diary, he record his daily life that enjoying reading the Bible or Homer’s Odyssey, or playing billiards, and winning or losing stakes. The laws of the land favored the master in everything while inflicting injustice on slaves. (Byrd 41-42) In The African Slave Trade, Equiano describes the horrifying experience of a slave during his journey from Africa, where they remain tied or “chained down to the decks” so that he does not leap out into the sea and escape (Equiano 66). On the other hand, the Virginia Statutes in theory dictates that slaves should be provided “competent diet, clothing, and lodging,” but in practice the masters ignore it and followed the rules that served their interests (Virginia’s 40). Similarly, while the slaves worked hard and took care of the whole affairs of the masters, the latter lived in affluence, ate chicken for dinner, rode on horseback, and beat the slave for “beating his wife,” and whipped his wife for being his whore (Byrd 42). Thus, all the three articles portray the life of slaves in the early American history, when they have had to suffer for making their master

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In the documents “Considering the Evidence: Voices from the Slave Trade” it shows how the Atlantic slave trade was an enormous enterprise and enormously significant in modern world history. In document 15.1 - The Journey to Slavery it talks about the voice of an individual victim of the slave trade known as Olaudah Equiano. Equiano was taken from his home and sold into the slave trade. He worked for three different families while in the slave trade but what is different about him is that he learned to read and write while being a slave. He traveled extensively as a seaman aboard one of his masters' ships, and was allowed to buy his freedom in 1766.

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Equiano shows that freedom for slaves in the Atlantic ended up being a new kind of persecution because of the color of their skin. Throughout Equiano, prejudice is evident everywhere towards people of color. Because of this prejudice, Equiano sometimes thinks enslaved Africans were better off than freed slaves. Any slave or freed slave had no rights, but a slave had a master that would look out for him because he was the master’s property.

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This was the corruption of the white men of that time who were afraid of the truth surfacing and everyone finding out the truth about slavery. Equiano was able to share a little detail about how slaves were treated by saying that “[he] was first transported to Barbados and then Virginia, where he was purchased by a local planter,” (512). This action shows the reader that the slaves were treated as a form of property that was sold for labor. Equiano was never given the chance to gain the same freedom as a white man, he had to work for money. He goes on to say "I was now exceedingly miserable, and thought myself worse off than any of the rest of my companions ...

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It was not only these images of violent acts of abuse that caused their hearts to demand the end to these practices but the clear indication of starvation that was forced upon them because of their master’s view of them being property not humans, “Added to the cruel lashings to which these slaves were subjected, they were kept nearly half‐starved” (1198). Theses clear harsh and abrupt realities that Douglass felt compelled to convey in his writings enhanced his audience’s awareness of the truth that they had allowed themselves

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The use of slaves has always been present in the world since the beginning of civilization, although the use and treatment of those slaves has differed widely through time and geographic location. Different geographies call for different types of work ranging from labor-intensive sugar cultivation and production in the tropics to household help in less agriculturally intensive areas. In addition to time and space, the mindsets and beliefs of the people in those areas affect how the slaves will be treated and how “human” those slaves will be perceived to be. In the Early Modern Era, the two main locations where slaves were used most extensively were the European dominated Americas and the Muslim Empires. The American slavery system and the

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The Life of a Slave Slavery a name known since the beginning of time but I will be focusing on the year of 1619 to 1865. When Africans first arrived at the colonial America and how they got there. They greatly influenced the lives throughout the thirteen colonies. People failed to realize they were humans just like them.

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Actual reasoning for the way whites handled African Americans was also shown in the novel March. Grace, a black slave in march, wanted an education for her daughter, but Mr. Clement denied her the request. “”I asked Mr. March to instruct Prudence. I urged him to do it, against his own judgment and inclination.”” (Brooks 37).

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My natural elasticity was crushed, my intellect languished, the disposition to read departed, the cheerful spark that lingered about my eye died; the dark night of slavery closed in upon me; and behold a man transformed into a brute” (55)! On the contrary, there were masters who treated their slaves fairly. For example, John Pinney was a

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The Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass shows the imbalance of power between slaves and their masters. In his book, Douglass proves that slavery is a destructive force not only to the slaves, but also for the slaveholders. “Poison of the irresponsible power” that masters have upon their slaves that are dehumanizing and shameless, have changed the masters themselves and their morality(Douglass 39). This amount of power and control in contact with one man breaks the kindest heart and the purest thoughts turning the person evil and corrupt. Douglass uses flashbacks that illustrate the emotions that declare the negative effects of slavery.

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Frederick Douglass’s narrative provides a first hand experience into the imbalance of power between a slave and a slaveholder and the negative effects it has on them both. Douglass proves that slavery destroys not only the slave, but the slaveholder as well by saying that this “poison of irresponsible power” has a dehumanizing effect on the slaveholder’s morals and beliefs (Douglass 40). This intense amount of power breaks the  kindest heart and changes the slaveholder into a heartless demon (Douglass 40). Yet these are not the only ways that Douglass proves what ill effect slavery has on the slaveholder. Douglass also uses deep characterization, emotional appeal, and religion to present the negative effects of slavery.

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“Yes, sir, he gives me enough, such as it is.” The colonel, after ascertaining where the slave belonged, rode on; the man also went on about his business, not dreaming that he had been conversing with his master. He thought, said, and heard nothing more of the matter, until two or three weeks afterwards. The poor man was then informed by his overseer that, for having found fault with his master, he was now to be sold to a Georgia trader. He was immediately chained and handcuffed; and thus, without a moment’s warning, he was snatched away, and forever sundered, from his family and friends, by a hand more unrelenting than death.”

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The Trans-Atlantic slave trade impacted and changed the world by misplacing and separating thousands of individuals from their families and homes. Thousands of people lost their lives when they were abducted and forced into slavery. Many did not survive the ship rides to the Americas. Many were murdered and tortured. Some were thrown of boats and died from diseases caught on the ship.

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By using this reference, it illustrated the severity of the alienation of blacks in the Southern United States. In 1619, a Dutch ship “introduced the first captured Africans to America, planting the seeds of a slavery system that evolved into a nightmare of abuse and cruelty that would ultimately divide the nation”. The Africans were not treated humanely, but were treated as workers with no rights. Originally, they were to work for poor white families for seven years and receive land and freedom in return. As the colonies prospered, the colonists did not want to give up their workers and in 1641, slavery was legalized.

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