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Summary Of The Slave Ship A Human History By Marcus Rediker

1012 Words5 Pages

Marcus Rediker’s The Slave Ship: A Human History was about more than just the process of trading slaves, how the slaves travelled from Point A to Point B and what the traders did to the slaves during the trip. Rediker’s focus remained mainly on the aspect of the humanity of the slaves and the relationships that were forged between the people aboard the ship. Often it is forgotten that the slaves that were kidnapped and sold into slavery were, in fact, human beings. Instead the focus is directed towards statistics and individual events that happen aboard the ships rather than the names of the slaves and their backgrounds. While Marcus Rediker did describe the atrocities that occurred on slave ships, his overall goal and thesis was not focused …show more content…

The captains were to be emotionally removed from what they were doing mainly because they were involved in “a filthy business in almost every conceivable sense” (171). They were expected to be able to run a tight ship in every sense. They had to be able to control the massive amounts of humans that were aboard their ships, they needed to be unquestioned by the crew in their authority and thus, they were cold, hardened men (171-172). The captains were frequently noted to have treated their crew similarly to the way the crew treated the slaves (171). The captains may have shown the crew some kindness that was not shown to the slaves but it was few and far …show more content…

They followed the ships, consuming the bodies thrown overboard. While the crew was frightened by the presence of the sharks, the slaves were petrified of them (719). The captains made an effort to bury the bodies of their perished crew but the slaves were not so lucky (719). The captains used the sharks’ reputations to their advantage; they used them to keep the slaves from trying to escape by jumping overboard and their crew from attempting to desert (738). The sharks became so advantageous to the captains that they went so far as to keep the sharks fed in order to ensure the sharks would continuously follow their

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1011 Words | 5 Pages

As the boom from the transatlantic slave trade was being put into a question of universal humanity and morality, millions of Africans were still being sold into a life of victimhood. Amongst those millions were freemen being stripped from their homes, because of their race, in the core and coastal regions of Africa. The Neirsee Incident occurred on, “January 21st, 1828” at a “British owned palm oil house near old Calabar” (Blaufarb and Clarke 71). The Neirsee as it was stopped at the port near the British owned palm oil house, was interrupted by a character name Feraud who “slipped out of old Calabar on the Neirsee”, where the ship was eventually seized after it had, “just loaded its human cargo” (Blaufarb and Clarke 72). The incident had led to innocent British citizens lives being sold into the slave trade.

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Alexander Falconbridge served as a surgeon on the ships that transported slaves through the middle passage. He managed to only make four voyages between 1780 and 1787 due to the harsh circumstances he was witnessing, which ultimately led him to write An Account of the Middle Passage. The Middle Passage was the hardest and most dangerous part of the voyage for any slave transported out of Africa. The article carefully describes the strenuous conditions the slaves were in while being in the ships. An analysis of Alexander Falconbridge’s An Account of the Middle Passage reveals how this surgeon’s perspective aided the progression of the abolition movement by showcasing a new perspective of the Middle Passage, and how his purpose was to inform the general public on how dreadful these

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The Slave Ship, by Marcus Rediker was wrote in 2007 about the cruel and brutal actions the slaves endured on their journey across the Atlantic Ocean. He states, “this has been a painful book to write, if I have done any justice to the subject, it will be a painful book to read.” Marcus Rediker accomplished exactly that. This book was not only compelling but emotional, heartbreaking, and makes a reader think, how could someone be so cruel to another living being. Within the first couple pages, the book brought me to tears.

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933 Words | 4 Pages

The detailed descriptions included in primary sources, along with the descriptive and emotional illustrations included in graphic history are crucial elements in studying and understanding the process and history of the transatlantic slave trade. Rafe Blaufarb and Liz Clarke tie both of these together to help readers truly understand this historic tragedy in the book, Inhuman Traffick: The International Struggle Against the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Although different than the standard book that may be used, that simply spews information out in an uncreative and somewhat boring way, this book is a tool that can be chosen in classrooms to teach different aspects of the slave trade. Working together, the primary sources and graphic history

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Our first reading of EN101, Fredrick Douglass’ “Learning to Read,” helped our class to better understand the privilege of being a writer. Douglass lives in Hugh Auld’s household for roughly seven years. During this time, he is able to learn how to read and write, though Mrs. Auld is hardened and no longer tutors him. Slavery hurts Mrs. Auld as much as it hurts Douglass himself. The mentality of slavery strips her of her inherent sympathy for others, making her hardened and cruel.

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At the beginning of their slavery, the unfortunate Africans were thrown onto unsanitary slave ships that were so overcrowded slaves were often piled on top of one another. Europeans did not treat the slaves like humans, who deserve and need their own space, they abused them and heaped them together in unsanitary piles. The fullness of these ships is depicted in the picture of a slave ship in Document 5 that shows how the bodies were sorted together. The close proximity and the unsanitary conditions, that resulted from the neglect of slave traders, lead to disease and sickness that broke their internal body and often stole their lives. Many slave traders tried to hide a slaves sickness in order to sell them at a market.

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‘“I s’pose you gotta keep on makin’ yourself useful in Massa Clay’s bedroom-that be all any slave women can do,’ Cato explained” (Draper 134). In “Copper Sun” the author, Sharon Draper, makes it possible to understand how poorly black African women slaves were treated. The women slaves were used and abused for their masters own benefit. This quote explains how even the male slaves know that the women are mostly rapped by their master. Amari was Clay's birthday present.

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In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass reveals several inhumane practices of slavery. He gives great description of the many horrors and evils of this practice along with the damaging effects slavery had on both slaves and slaveholders. During this period, ignorance was the most beneficial tool used to keep slaves ignorant and out of touch with reality. Along with robbing slaves of their identity and keeping them in the dark about basic facts about themselves, slaveholders also used false religion to justify treatment of the slaves. Lastly, Douglass describes the injustice and inhumane suffering and beatings amongst the slaves by white men without them ever having consequences.

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1477 Words | 6 Pages

The slave ship built the Western world. In his novel The Slave Ship, Marcus Rediker asserts that the slave ship not only imported African slaves but also carried with it class systems, race, and capitalism; these monumental institutions were birthed on the ship and made possible by unimaginable violence. Class systems on the slave ship were the byproduct of differences in power and condition. Unlike in our current class system, those in the middle saw little to no benefits of being superior

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330 Words | 2 Pages

Also, there were constant outbreaks of illnesses and disorders which could cause destruction at sea. In some instances, a lot of brutality and cruelty were exercised on them. Some commandants would cut off the feet or hands

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1147 Words | 5 Pages

Many of the sailors were accurately portrayed by their actions, by throwing slaves into the ocean, flogging, beaten, tortured, and other forms of cruel punishment. “Alexander Falconbridge was a surgeon on slave ships in the 18th century. An abolitionist and governor himself is guilty of all the violent attacks towards slaves. A disgraces to human nature, and profound language were brutal examples sailors often used towards slaves.” ( First Hand; Accounts Study).

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507 Words | 3 Pages

The conditions aboard the slave ship, The Amistad, were so very terrible and so grieving that the slaves rebelled against the ship owners and their crew, killing most of the crew. It 's not part of the question, but, in my opinion, the slaves had a very good reason to kill the crew of the ship. I mean, if I were a slave, I would 've killed them all the first chance I got, and honestly, I would show them no mercy. Anyway, the conditions were so terrible that when a baby was born aboard the ship, the mother would often jump ship with the baby in her arms. The women did this because they would not want the babies to live in the conditions and do the hard, tiring labor that the other slaves did.

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816 Words | 4 Pages

The Narrative written by Fredrick Douglass was an important book and was a big part of contributing to what we know about the history of slavery. The narrative involved the troubles slaves and Fredrick would go through and how they felt in those horrible moments of their lives. For Fredrick to be free he needed to disguise himself as a sailor and he boarded a northbound train. Sometimes we don’t realize how good freedom really is until we lose it. The book talks about the struggle for freedom, and the horrors of slavery both country and city slaves.

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804 Words | 4 Pages

As Olaudah Equiano mentions, some men that were traveling with him jumped to the ocean to reach death, but did not succeed. The death of the Africans meant economic loss for the traders, so maintaining them alive before selling them, was a rough

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166 Words | 1 Pages

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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