African Resistance To Slavery

In Africa, men, women, and children were being kidnapped and sold. Once abducted from their home, Europeans would make their way back to the port to transport the slaves to the New World. Most of the time salves never knew where they would end up. Before Africans would be transported, each slave would be branded on the chest and this was a way to claim a slave for when they tried to escape (Hylton). Once boarded on a ship

He selected three less valuable slaves, killed one, and forced the others to eat his heart. Many of the ships were followed by, what Marcus called them, “greedy robbers.” Human waste and bodies were thrown off often enough to constantly have sharks following the ship, greedily waiting for the next over

Some slaves jumped overboard then suffering. Others staged violent shipboard

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.

According to the article, “Suicide, Slavery, And Memory in North America,” it deeply explains the torturous lives of the slaves. The article displays the horrific stories of slaves in 1800’s. Basically the slaves committed suicide while traveling in ships/vessels to America. They revolted against the captains & enforcers, and literally drown themselves to death in the sea.

One day after the crew had satisfied themselves, they the extra fish over the side of the boat and back into the ocean. The slaves begged and begged and prayed for the crew to give them some of the fish (page 173). Some of the slaves got so hungry they tried to steal some the food, they always got caught. Not only did these slaves die of starvation or dehydration, but so did many other slaves in the world (Horton).

On these british prison ships there was a lot of diseases. Tim states“ In June of that year , 1777, we found out that Father was dead”(Collier and Collier 164). This is one of the most straightforward sentences I have ever read but it gets straight to the point . Another tragic event was when Sam dies. We all expected for sam to be killed in war, not to be executed for stealing his own cattle.

The Atlantic Slave Trade was the movement of Africans to the Americas as slaves. The slave trader, Captain Thomas Phillip in document B he says “ We endure twice the misery; and yet by their mortality our voyages are ruined. ”(Phillips). He is saying that they are dying and that it isn’t a good thing, but for a different reason. He also says “But what the smallpox spared, the flux swept off, to our great regret, after all our pains and care to give [the slaves] their messes,... keeping their lodgings as clean and sweet as possible…”(Phillips).

All these atrocities committed for one thing; profit. Money was the singular motivation for the Europeans, and with their blatant disregard for human life,

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).

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).

One of the reasons is that it is very expensive and troublesome to transport a huge number of slaves across the ocean. People were treated horribly, but in those days such actions were not crimes. Even if we consider them as crimes, they can not be regarded as

The blacks brought him onboard, then left him abandoned. He became sick and lost his appetite in food and taste. He became suicidal waiting for death. He refused to eat and two white men tied him up and beat him. If you did not eat Africans were cut and hourly whipped, including himself.

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

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.