Atlantic Slave Trade Dbq Essay

Slavery’s inhumane codes and punishments, raise Africans resistance and escapes, which causes more cruelty from

Many slaves being shipped to America had been betrayed by their own race, kidnapped and sold into slavery. The conditions on the ship were horrendous and each man was chained to an area and given about six feet long by fifteen inches wide. The boats were extremely packed with close corners and no bathroom, and women or children got even less space than the men. Many a times, the crew tried to justify the chaining by stating the it was a form of protection to avoid an uprising. In one of the examples Rediker gave, the slave ship, with Captain Tomba, who was known for brutal beatings including whipping, handing out cruel punishments to scare the other slaves into not acting out.

The poor conditions in which slaves lived present another troubling aspect of slavery. Slaves were made to eat stale food and drink dirty water this put them at risk of developing health complications. Sexual harassment was an equally troubling aspect especially for female slaves. As highlighted by the life of Jacobs, female slaves had a lot of challenges dealing with sexual advances from their

“The Atlantic Slave Trade—The Full Story” was written by Dr. Sheldon Stern, an African-American history professor who later served as a historian at the John F. Kennedy Library Museum. In his article, Dr. Stern discusses the profound ignorance found in the education system on the topic of Slaves, and more specifically on the topic of the Atlantic Slave Trade. Stern states that during his many visits to high schools while he was a historian and director of the American History Project for High School Students at John F. Kennedy Library Museum, he was disappointed to discover that many students were being taught that slavery only existed in the Northern American colonies. Stern adamantly argues with evidence which shows that slave trade in other countries had been occurring for hundreds of years, and that only a small percentage of African slaves were sold to the British colonies in comparison to the vast amounts of African slave purchases made from other countries.

The course of Native African’s history has been marked by deadly wars, spreads of mortal diseases, massive droughts, food and water scarcities, but there is one tragedy that rises above all of them: slavery (involuntary human servitude). During the 15th to the 19th century massive slave trades took place across the Atlantic Ocean, from Africa to the Caribbean, North and South America. This has been the most concerning fatality that has ever occurred to Native Africans. Not only was their culture taken away, but their lives as well. The trades had no limits, slaves were from small boys and girls to elder men and women.

Back when there were slaves in America, their owners didn’t realize that they did the wrong. The master’s had a feeling of power, even those that started out nice would soon understand the power that lay in their hands. The impetus of their cruelty, was the feeling of power and control over a person that would swallow even the nicest of the people. Slaves, the creatures of the time that used to be thought of as nothig. To show their control, owners would sometimes beat slaves for no reason at all.

Although the treatment of slaves varied depending on the plantation more often than not it was characterized by brutality. Whippings, executions, beatings and rapes were commonly suffered by slaves. Some slaves were treated differently according to their value or their

Western Civilization was formed by the help of many different things and one of them is the American Domestic Slave Trade of the 1800’s. Most people have been taught that the American Domestic Slave Trade started in the early 1800’s but it was actually proven to have started in the 1760’s during the African Slave Trade. The American Domestic Trades climax point was during the periods between 1787-1807. During the 1860’s the Domestic Trade continued and forced 1.2 men, women, and children (born in America) to the shores.

Douglass uses paradox to demonstrate that slavery degragrates the slaverholder. When Douglass under Mr. Sever’s care he described that: “He was less cruel, less profane… He whipped, but seemed to take no pleasure in it. ”(Douglass 24). Most slaveholders are characterized to be cruel and inhuman because of the whipping and the way they treated the slaves.

They describe their life as gruesome in reference to their punishments and abuse they endured. Many slaves received harsh punishments when it was assumed that they weren’t working to their pull potential. One slaves recounts his punishment of thrown in a stable all night and having to stand up all night until the morning as punishment. He then explains how the punishment continued the next morning even after being pusnished through the night. Many of them got beaten and one recounted a slaved about to be “boiled to death”, and some even wore masks, chains and shackles for punishment.

Labor systems have been the foundation for civilizations since the beginning of time. Who did what and how they benefited each other, in other words, specialization of labor, came to be a defining factor in whether a society was truly a civilization or not. Most great civilizations were founded on agricultural labor systems, and societies with no systematic format on their workforce were seldom able to take the main stage in world history. Between 1450 and 1750, the Americas began to mark their place in the world, proving they were just as relevant as Europe, Africa, or Asia. The labor systems established during 1450-1750 were key factors in how they were able to do so.

Psychological abuse was another effective way to control slaves and make them work hard, and fear was the foundation of psychological abuse. Usually, the master would call his slaves together to witness how they punished a slave hardly. Douglass mentions the first time he witnessed a master tied up a woman, and whipped her naked bask till she was literally covered with blood, and he wrote “I was quite a child, but I well remember it…… It was the blood-stained gate, the entrance to the hell of slavery” (Douglass, page 4). As well as Douglass, most slaves witnessed the cruelty of the master, and they would work harder in order to avoid being whipped by their inhuman master.

Equiano writes how the white men would throw the dead over board as if they were basically trash, slaves were beaten severely if they refused to eat or tried to escape. These severe acts of punishment

imparticularly in the Atlantic slave trade in the 1500s-1700s (“Chronology” 483). Slavery was not only a problem in the ancient times, but also continued to worsen over time. Slavery began to become more of a problem as time ran on. While many protection acts were implemented, they were ignored and the problem continued to rapidly expand. In 1833 Britain formed laws banning slavery, while France joined in on the act to protect its victims (“Chronology” 483).

One of the largest forced movements of humans was via the Trans-Atlantic slave trade route between the mid-fifteenth century and nineteenth centuries, which transported about 10-12 million African slaves into the Americas. The Trans-Atlantic slave trade formed a devastating relationship between the Europeans and Africans through slavery, an inhumane act of forcing drudgery among other humans. At first Africans themselves were enslaving each other through the freehold system. The freehold system was a way for African slave owners to employ slaves by giving them land in exchange for their labor. By 1441, Portuguese began to abduct Africans and forced them to work in Portugal as slaves with the help of African slave traders.