After the indigenous people of the Caribbean were terminated by the Spaniards the Europeans needed to find an alternative work force to mine their sugar plantations. The African were seen as the ideal supply of labourers. In Africa, slavery was not a new concept as it was already practiced so because of this the European deemed the Africans suitable for labour on the sugar plantations in the Caribbean. The enslaved people, men and women and children, were taken from their country and exposed to greater degree of slavery than that which they were familiar with. Once captured – these people of dark skin colour – were chained and then journeyed on foot to the coast where the slave forts were located (fig. 1).
Fig. 1. Slave march
These expeditions to the slave forts on the coast, where slaves were stored until it was time for the voyage to the Caribbean, may sometimes take months. Slave castles as they were commonly called, were forts in which the enslaved people were kept within the dungeons until their journey to the Caribbean and Americas.
Fig. 2. Cape Coast Castle
If there were not sufficient slaves to transport or if the ships were on other voyages the wait period at the slave castles were extended. Slavery for these people, men, women and child, were a horrific experience. Yet the enslaved women experiences of enslavement were different in during the voyages, in the seasoning camps, auctions and on the plantations.
During the voyages men were stacked as inanimate objects, chained together and stacked closely on the bottom decks. This storage method made it difficult for the slaves when it came to excretion, and so they were forced to excrete right where they were stored. As a result many slaves suffocated ...
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The practice of slavery for men and women both presented equally sufferings. However, the white planation owners or overseers routinely raped women during this time. Women regularly had their children stripped away from them and sold into slavery. However, ironica...
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The typical life of an indentured servant was not a convenient one. Their journeys to the Americas were miserable. The servants were packed into large ships carrying thousands of people as well as, tools, food, etc. Not only were the people densely packed, there were various diseases flooding the ships, and many people would die from them. “I witnessed . . .
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conditions aboard ship were dreadful. The maximum number of slaves was jammed into the hull, chained to forestall revolts or suicides by drowning. Food, ventilation, light, and sanitatio...