Between the 1700s to the early 1800s, about three million captive African Americans were carried on the British and Anglo-American ships. About 40 percent went through the Middle Passage, a trip across the Atlantic Ocean, to be sold as slaves. Slavery brought America a lot of money and slaves helps boost the economy. The United States supplied the best cotton in the world, that was picked by slaves. The African Slave Trade was shut down in 1808. By the 1830s and 1840s, slavery was being abolished in most Latin American territories. The US and Brazil were the last two, to abolish with slavery in the world. A single trip to America would take about 6-weeks or less.
When looking at the diagram of a slave from the Atlantic slave trade, I notice that the image is black and white, it is a picture of the boat’s interior, and there are a lot of slaves in the boat. Slave boats held about 250-600 slaves, this image looks like it holds up to 600 slaves. The slaves had no space to move and I also notice that the boat is shaped like a bullet. The image also has Roman numerals, “Fig IV, Fig V”, and there are people like figurines that are shaded black to represent the slaves on the boat. Looking at the image, Fig IV represents the bottom of the boat and I can see that slave owners held most of their slaves under the deck. Fig V was the top deck, and I see that there are fewer slaves up there, but they are around the outside area of the deck. I first notice the shape of the boat and the number of people that the boat held. The slaves are arranged to the point where they are cramped, and they do not have enough space to move. Looking at the physical setting of the image, the setting is set as a somber, or depressing, feel. Slaves were chained by their ankle had did not have enough room to lie down. Slaves were also physically abuse and female slaves were sexually abused.
Having previous knowledge about how slaves were treated during their trip the New World, I have realized and understood that their placement on these ships was extremely unpleasant. On the way to America, the slaves were treated poorly, they barely got the rightful amount of nutrition, several slaves died of starvation and dehydration and slaves were also abused. As mentioned in the textbook, half a million captive Africans died on the voyage across the Atlantic due to malnourishment and diseases. Slaves were imprisoned in dark and crowded areas with visibility of where they were headed. Slaves were ill-fed due to not having enough food and water, also, women were victims of sexual abuse from the ship’s crew.
127 our experts are availableright now
Since the government allowed slavery, slave owners physically hurt their slaves. Abuse was harsher in plantation fields, where they suffered hard labor, whipping, hanging, and beatings. Slaves were usually fed corn meals, some meat, and a couple of vegetables that was distrusted every Saturday. When being held in the crowded areas, it soon began to be a miserable living condition. The under deck soon began to smell like feces and began to carry diseases that killed the slaves. Most slaves in slave trade boats did not know how to communicate, as they were from different places. They didn’t know where they were or where they were going. When they arrived at their designated location, captives were sold to the slave market, when sold, they went through a “seasonal period” where they got their strength back, got used to the environment, and learned the language.
When observing the image, I think that this image was used as an instruction manual on how to build slave ships and how to place the captive Africans. It was a blueprint for other slave boats to help them get a visual on how to set up their slaves and how to fit a lot of slaves on their boats. This image was a layout on how to ship slaves through the Middle passage. The intended targets for the image were slaveholders, ship makers, and export merchants. It allowed the audience to get a visual on how the slaves will be placed on the boat and it allowed them to see how much export goods could fit on the boat. I believe that this image was at first a drawing or a sketch of an actual slave trade boat. From looking at this image, I can learn that being in a slave trade boat, it was not a great way to travel. Slaves suffered a lot when traveling to America. Women were raped by their captains, slaves did not get enough food and they got sick and died from diseases.
Since slavery isn’t happening in today’s time, I think that if someone were to create this image again, it would be a racial bias towards African Americans. Even though slavery is over, African Americans are seen and treated as second citizens. For example, there are a lot of stories on social media that African Americans are getting killed for no reason or without a cause.
There have been stories about policemen shooting and killing innocent Africans, just because they felt “threatened” or “scared”. They are not respected in today’s society and they are not seen as human beings. Since Africans Americans are not seen as human being, or equal to a Caucasian person, I think that the message is still the same, they are seen as less equal to a local to a white person, thus them being treated poorly. This image shows us a small part to a big era that brought America a lot of money. Because of the slave trade, it helped boost the economy and it brought them a lot of crops. Slave trade was a big part of America, American needed slaves to help our economy survive.
Slave trading was a form of human trafficking, which is scary to think, but sadly that is still going on today. There are predators that are targeting the weak, taking advantage of them, and selling them to different people for money. Sometimes the predators will abuse their captives, and sexually abuse them, just like how slave owners treated their captives. Slave trading was a hideous part of our history, that sadly we cannot change, but we can make a better living environment for African Americans.
