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Slavery during the 1500- 1800
Slavery during the 1500- 1800
Slavery during the 1500- 1800
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What would you do if you were forced to be on a ship with limited food, water and or space? The Middle Passage is the crossing of the Ocean from Africa to America of African people, who passed from the state of liberty to the state of slavery, and took place between the XVI and XIX centuries. They were captured from the tribes situated on Africa 's West Coast: Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Congo, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Senegal, etc. and they were shipped in the southern area of North America (Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida). The Slave Ship: A Human History is a historical study of the incredible human suffering and terror experienced by slaves who were transported from West Africa to the New World on British slave …show more content…
For Africans the slave ship is a hell over the water.
To begin with, the image I found is a major part of history and it is a true tragic historical event that occurred. Transport of slaves in the colonies is a French engraving by an anonymous artist from the 19th century, the engraving has a rectangle shape and it has a black and white color scheme. The image size is 4489 X 3227 PX and the photo credit goes to Scala/White images/ Art Resource, NY.
Furthermore, when you first look at the picture it just looks like slaves on a slave ship but knowing the history and the background, makes you take a closer look at the engraving which causes you to see so much more. The figures in the engraving have different colors, postures and gestures. Some figures are brown some figures are white. The brown figures are known as the slaves and the white figures are known as the captains. Some brown figures are topless women, which are on the left side of the ship and some brown figures are bottomless men, they are on the right side of the ship. There are six white figures who are men that are fully clothed and they are scattered throughout the ship. The close up view of the ship shows how crowded it is and how space is limited to none. The brown figures
“Brantley-Newton’s colorful, cartoon-style double-page illustrations, combined with the light tone of the text, convey a feeling of joyfulness that contrasts starkly with the reality of slave life...Hercules, Delila and the other slaves are seen in the kitchen below, smiling with glee as they worked on the cake, evoking a strangely cheerful and exuberant scene reminiscent of a Disney film.” (School Library
Although a practice not viewed positively by all, slavery, a least in this document, could be justified in the eyes of slavers.
Firstly, image A is an advertisement of slaves that were from the West Coast of Africa. This advertisement was posted in 1760 when slavery was very common in colonial America. South Carolina had one of the largest slave ports that saw over thousands of slave owners and slaves pass through. This advertisement was posted in the South Carolina Gazette with the main goal of attracting owners of rice and cotton plantations. These slaves were being imported from the ‘Windward and Rice Coast’, which was the central Atlantic shoreline in Africa. This would have interested plantation owners, as slaves from this area were familiar with growing and harvesting rice in similar conditions of that in the lower part of South Carolina. These Africans that were brought over as slaves ...
The reason I found this particular artifact so interesting is the word choice, which was used to describe the “cargo” of these African American people aboard the ship. They were described as “choice cargo”, which is a strange way of describing human beings and is more of a way of describing livestock or furniture. Even though it is a known fact that African American slaves were dehumanized at the time period, it is still astonishing to me to
The picture explains how sexual violence was rampant during the atlantic slave trade. Women were exploited, and their roles were to satisfy men, give birth, and feed the whites. It is a dominant theme in the picture. She agrees that her work is erotically explicit and would appreciate if people were ashamed of the exploitation done to the
One large coffin capable of fitting an adult and a smaller coffin presumably of a young child. The significance of the inclusion of a child’s coffin is an example of how slave life was hard on everyone, including the children of slaves who were slaves themselves. This is made further evident by the nearby wall containing photographs of the remains found at the site with the age and gender listed below each. I found this the wall of photographs to be particularly haunting not only because of the graphic imagery, but because it illustrates how young many of the bodies were. It is estimated that nearly forty percent of the bodies excavated at the burial ground were under the age of 15, with infants under age 2 possessing the highest mortality rate. Malnutrition and disease are considered to be the cause of the majority of deaths of slaves as a result of the poor and harsh conditions slaves had to live
A Eurocentric understanding of the early modern era would the Islamic world. While, the role of the Europeans on a global scale was that the Europeans were becoming involved in world affairs. The Europeans also became involved in the oceanic journeys of European explorers and the European conquest and colonial settlement of the Americas. The Europeans also became involved in the global silver trade.
It was supposedly meant to show how much the whites from Europe had done for the progress of the American continent and depict all that they were bringing to the new continent. It shows ships, trains, horse pulled carriages and even ox drawn ploughs.
Rediker, Marcus. The Slave Ship A Human History. New York, New York: Penguin Group, 2007. Print.
The Middle Passage was a long voyage that African Americans endured just to get sold into slavery when the voyage was done. According to ushistory.org African Americans in slave ships were fed twice a day, and holes were cut in the deck to allow slaves to breath, but these holes were closed in bad weather such as storms, regardless of the attempts to keep the African Americans Alive and well most of them died of lack of water, food, and air. According to (pbs.org) slaves were stuffed between decks in spaces too low to stand, the heat was unbearable, and the air almost unbreathable. The women were used sexually, and the men were chained in pairs, slave ships were very crowded for the slaves, and slaves were forced to lie in their backs with their heads in between the legs of others, slaves would have to lie in each others feces,urine, and maybe even blood. In these slave ships diseases would spread very quickly, and sick slaves would of usually been thrown overboard to prevent an epidemic. Upon reaching the end of the voyage the remaining slaves that survived were cleaned, and checked by a doctor to see if they would make a good price at the ports, those slaves that were declared unfit to be so...
The slaves were not afforded the luxury the white people enjoyed that was the universal belief that one’s life has value simply because they are human; the white oppressors did not see the enslaved Africans as humans, therefore they did not afford them the inherent value bestowed upon human life. The practices conducted aboard the slave ships coincided with the believe that the Africans were nothing but cargo or livestock. Hine describes the practice of “tight packing” writing, “most captains were “tight packers,” who would squeeze human beings together in hope that large numbers would offset increased deaths.” She continues in a subsequent passage claiming, “one third of the Africans subjected to the trade perished between their capture and their embarkation on a slave ship” (Hine, 2012). There is no clearer indication that the white slavers felt the lives of the enslaved Africans were worthless than the blatant disregard for slave mortality aboard the ships. The captors attempted to keep the enslaved alive simply in order to receive monetary recompense, however, Hine’s describes slavers as being exceptionally cruel to enslaved Africans aboard ships despite the possible monetary consequences. Finally, Hine describes how the amount of value placed on an enslaved African’s life and health was directly proportional to the amount of money that slave was worth, when describing the experience of women aboard slave ships. Hine writes, “because the women were less valuable commodities, crew members felt they had license to abuse them sexually” (Hine, 2012). This passage describes how different enslaved Africans faced different amounts of cruelty and abuse based on the assumed price this person was worth. Not only were all the enslaved black people seen as less than human, some people were
This was one of the most common places where slave auctions took place. Through this cartoon, Miller helps prove Johnson’s point that slaves were seen as chattel property. The fact that there were auctions for slaves taking place proves that they weren’t seen as humans and were considered property who can be moved and bought or sold. Furthermore, you know the saying how you can’t put a dollar value on another human being? Many people think of their children as invaluable, as they believed you can’t put a price tag on them. They wouldn’t sell their children for anything in the world, even if they were offered millions of dollars. Well, according to Johnson, many slave masters tried using paternalism as a form of justification for slavery. However, if this were really true and they treated them like they were their children, how could they possibly be willing to sell their slaves in such auctions and tread them so brutally? Every slave owner was willing to part with their slaves for a certain price. As Johnson stated, this proves that the paternalism justification is just an outright lie. Additionally, a mother is seen holding her baby in the drawing, as others are bidding for her and her baby’s services. Once again, this proves how slaves were treated so cruelly, as Johnson pointed out, even putting a
village, and then burn the huts to the ground. Most of the people who were taken
Blacks have become the most often targeted in hate crime. The slightly covered moon might be an indirect indication that there will be some kind of transformation going on at night. For example, the little African boy grew horns at night which makes him look like a devil after catching a duck by the river or lake. There is a white man lifting a black woman on the end of this artwork. It looks like he is about to throw her off to ground. The broom she is carrying in her hand may be a signal that she is a witch for the reason that she is high up above the ground. To whites, these slaves from Africa are portrayed as devils in disguise and witches who practice witchcraft. In the 21st century, our society still has stereotypes remain rooted for African Americans. Those stereotypes are often created during our first impression. However, most of our negative stereotypes are created by advertising, media, and our society. The problem is we are developing an image of African Americans based on generalizations and not our encounter or first impression of them.
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...