The Loss of Self During the Atlantic Slave Trade

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During the Atlantic slave trade many different things were taking place; monarchies where becoming insanely wealthy, free labor was becoming a necessity and free African people were dehumanized and were forced to be slaves. From the capture of the African people and past their sale to their first owners in America they were constantly degraded and treated like cattle. On African soil; on transportation vassals; and on American soil; free people were brutalized and many became salves. Slave traders and “owners” used many different tactics to make their captives become salves. The process of becoming a slave is directly linked to the loss or weakening of oneself in a multifaceted way; these facets lost include but are not limited to the free will, self-worth, self-esteem and identity. Michael Gomez discusses in his passage the capture of the captives and the hardships they face on the way to the coast. After being kidnapped from their own villages these prisoners were forced to walk for up to “four months or longer to reach the coast”. The dehumanization starts here, when these hum...

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