The Slave Trade was a very brutal thing. Slaves were treated worse than most animals, and had no rights at all. They were shipped off in exchange for raw materials that usually had very little value at all. These human beings were sometimes stolen by their neighbours, or even their family members to be sold. Their way of life was absolutely terrible. Whoever sold the slaves, had no regard to their rank, or possessions. Before they would get on the boat, they were stripped of all the clothing on their bodies and sent off to endure an extremely hard life. Most slaves would have easily preferred death over the cruel punishments they endured. The life of a slave is a life that one should be glad they do not have to live. The voyage to the New World was very cruel for the slaves. In the first passage it says, “they are carried like sheep to the slaughter, and that the Europeans are fond of their flesh.” This shows how awful the slaves were treated. As mentioned before, they were even stripped of all their clothing, and belongings if they had any. Most slaves were so exhausted from the beatings, that they did not even want to eat, but if this happened, the white men would force food into their mouths. In the second passage it describes a slaves personal experience with this saying, “two of the white men offered me eatables and on my refusing to eat, one of them held me fast by the hands and laid me across the windlass and tied my feet while the other flogged me
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.
He made her get upon the stool, Tied her hands to the large hook. She now stood fair for the purpose. Her arms were stretched up at their full length, so that she stood upon the ends of her toes... he commenced to lay on the heavy cow skin, and dripping soon warm, red blood...” (Douglass,12) This quote is showing how the slaves are treated when they disobey in their plantation.
Douglass reiterates multiple times throughout the narrative how he is starved, deprived of clothing and beaten in his time as a slave. As a child, Douglass describes
The Portrayal of Slavery in Antebellum Louisiana in Solomon Northup’s Twelve Years a Slave In his memoire Twelve Years a Slave, illegitimately enslaved Solomon Northup does not only depict his own deprivations in bondage, but also provides a deep insight into the slave trade, slaves’ working and living conditions, as well as religious beliefs of both enslaved people and their white masters in antebellum Louisiana. Northup’s narrative is a distinguished literary piece that exposes the injustice of the whole slaveholding system and its dehumanizing effect. It is not a secret that the agriculture dominated the economy of antebellum Louisiana (Louisiana: A History 183). Therefore the Southern planters needed relatively cheap workforce to cultivate
“The people of the great vessel were wicked: when we had been shipped, they took away all the small pieces of cloth which were on our bodies, and threw them into the water, then they took chains and tethered two together. Every morning they had to take the man, and throw them into the water,” (First Hand Accounts Case Study). This quote suggests that the crew expressed little sympathy to slaves. This is demonstrated in the novel by Paula Fox The Slave Dancer.
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.
Name:Conor Corcoran ________________________ Equiano & Falconbridge primary source exercise 1) How are Equiano and Falconbridge similar in describing the Middle Passage? What specific examples are consistent between the two accounts? The brutally of slaves and beating up slaves. How in Equiano the author was talking about how he had never seen so much brutally and mistreatment with slaves and in Falconbridge it talks about how The traders frequently beat those slaves.
Douglass encountered multiple harsh realities of being enslaved. For example, the ex-slave was practically starved to death by his masters on multiple occasions. In fact, “[He was] allowed less than a half of a bushel of corn-meal per week, and very little else... It was not enough for [him] to subsist upon... A great many times [he had] been nearly perishing with hunger” (pg 31).
PAGE 2 In the Narrative Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass, he uses this text to explain his purpose in “throwing light on the American slave system”, or show it for what it really is, as well as show his position on how he strongly believes slavery is an issue that needs to be addressed and how it differs from those who defended slavery, with experiences from his own life to support his argument. Douglass uses experience from his early days as a young slave to throw light on the aspect of physical abuse. According to his narrative, Douglass states, “Master, however, was not a humane slaveholder.
Throughout the narrative, the author includes his personal stories about experiencing the violence of slavery first-hand. For example, on page 20, he writes about the first time he witnessed a slave, his own aunt, getting the whip. “The louder she screamed, the harder he whipped; and where the blood ran fastest, there he whipped longest…I remember the first time I ever witnessed this horrible exhibition… It struck me with awful force. It was the blood-stained gate, the entrance to the hell of slavery…” The author including his experience of his aunts whipping, in detail, appeals to the emotions of the reader.
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
Men were chained by each other’s packed in cargo they had to lie in each other’s blood and urine. The development of the Atlantic slave trade enslaved far greater numbers of Africans and increased exploitation of slave labour from Africa to New World. Slaves were exported from Africa to America for a hard work firstly had to endure inhuman conditions in
Deshanna Glenn ENG 1300 Letter to my old master, Thomas Auld “Yon bright sun beheld me a slave - a poor degraded chattel - trembling at the sound of your voice, lamenting that I was a man”(Frederick Douglass). Mr. Frederick Douglass spoke intelligently and articulately in this well-written letter to his old master, Thomas Auld. Douglass used metaphors, wit, and irony in this sentence to his master, He sounded, “removed” and placid as he spoke very straightforward, bold, yet respectful way about the degradation of being treated as personal property instead of a human being. There is a little melodrama in there
Living conditions for slaves were dreadful, with long work hours and low wages. Slave masters separated families and sold off children from their parents, or vice versa. Slaves were prone to severe punishment for even trivial offenses. Whippings and beatings were prevalent. Running away allowed them to get away from all the hostility, if only for a while.
The term "trafficking" is a convenient euphemism that seeks to eliminate the ethical dimension implied in " slave trade " concept. A more appropriate term is " slave trade " because the word " slave " has retained the burden of infamy that involves lowering man to the category of merchandise. In any case , both terms are presented to us in the XXI century as far as devoid of real meaning . And that is precisely the aim of the graphic dimension : bring us the concept of slavery, seek , where possible through photography, which come alive the institution of slavery . Therefore I thought it convenient to group images into two sections :