Essay On The Truth About African Americans

For a sailor, the voyage usually ended in death, resistance, and illegal or legal discharge. The captain of the ship was a prominent agent of violence, cruelty, and torture. W.E.B Dubois described it as being “the transportation of ten million human beings out of the dark beauty of their mother continent into the new found Eldorado of the west they descended into hell.” What the slaves endured on the ship is something that words do no justice for. When we read stories about the amount of violence and death that occurred, we cannot fully grasp how the conditions really were. We can only get an insight of the horror that took place on the ship. The slaves were humans that were dehumanized by people that claimed to be superior and thought brutality could be

Personal narratives after narrative fully describe the putrid holds and atrocious conditions below the ship. It is apparent the captain of the ship was wholly responsible for the transportation and profit of the “cargo.” The over-packing of African slaves increased, as the demand for labor in the Americas increased. The enslaved Africans were at the mercy of the ship’s captain and the crew. Unfortunately, those would seek immediate economic wealth are often shortsighted and do not consider the long-term effects. Driven by greed, European traders did not improve horrifying conditions, in which the African slaves endured. In addition, the physical structure of the ship played a fundamental role in the deterioration of the physical health of the African slaves. If European traders transported fewer slaves, maybe more slaves could have survived the long journey across the Atlantic Ocean. Thus, ensuring the sale and delivery of a healthy slave.

Starvation and dehydration in the middle passage to Brazil was the main cause of death among the captured African slaves. Few ship captains chose to

Slaves were often crammed and stacked into ships where many of them died of disease. Slave traders didn’t care much for these slaves because they were very easily replaceable. Many slaves were sent to work on sugar

Eventually, a live of slavery awaited the ones who were unfortunate enough to survive the ships.

On the journey across the Atlantic ocean, the average death rate was 13%. The slaves were in dreadful conditions being in close bunkers for anywhere over a 6 week journey. Slaves would only be in fresh air (top deck) for a few hours a week, even if that. This caused many slaves to die in the journey. When slaves arrived in the new land, they had brought with them simple things such as music, culture, and religion. Once slaves arrived at the new world they were auctioned off the the highest bidder. The number of slaves to choose from was a large amount. To get a profit from a slaves life they only had to be alive for 2.7 years, which caused a slave owner to be free to work their slaves to death.

Slaves were seen as mere chattel destined to a lifetime of slavery. Even the option of suicide was stolen from the African slaves. The English captains of the slave ships found their human cargo to be extremely valuable and had to be unable to injury themselves. If a slave had purposely starved himself and chose death over slavery he or she was subject torture. If the lashings in public did not dehumanize the African slaves destined for Jamaica then being forced fed with the aid of a device called a speculum orum, which opened the slave’s mouth would be the inhuman tool needed to inflict the devastating blow of dehumanization. The slaves that survived the middle passage were fed and oiled to look better for auction. Auctions in Jamaican public squares went to the highest bidders. Jamaican slaves were brought in from the, Coromantee, Mandingo, Ashanti and Yoruba. Plantation slaves were sold for $40 to $120 dollars. Slaves who had training such as carpentry went for prices as high as $500 dollars (Eltis p 324) A first hand narrative the slave trade can be seen in “A Slaving Voyage to Africa and Jamaica: The Log of the Sandown.” In this journal, Captain Samuel Gamble provides a log, which contains the record of his slave

The conditions were horrible, there was starvation, disease, and smell was awful. Many slaves died on the way because of disease and the fact they were shackled together and could not move for weeks at a time. Many were whipped and beaten because they revolted the torturous conditions. Many simply committed suicide by jumping off the ship. The Middle Passage, the trip to America, was a terrible experience. The Middle Passage trip took generally one to six months in the early 1500’s and six weeks or fewer by the early 1800’s

The rest of the slaves and I prayed for good weather, good weather meant food. When it was nice out, we were brought up to the deck and were served food. There were two times where food was served. Every morning the first mate came and made sure that all us were locked to one another and had no room to move. At 9:00 AM, boiled rice, fruit, yams, and a half pint of water was served. After breakfast, we are forced to exercise to keep us “healthy.” The bilboes fastened tight around my hands and ankles rubbed my skin raw. It felt like a thousand knives being jabbed into my skin, I couldn’t handle it. But, the workers on the ship carried

. After making it to the coast the slaves were put in cells called “trunks” to wait to be sold and loaded on to the ship. These “Trunks” were so bad that they had a mortality rating of 20%. The mortality rate of those crossing the Atlantic was even worse. While on the slave ships conditions for the slaves were worse than deplorable. “The close proximity of so many naked human beings, their bruised and festering flesh, the fetid air, the prevailing dysentery, the accumulation of filth turned these holds into a hell” (James 8). This is when the world sees slavery changing from old world slavery to new world, chattel, slavery.

Some of the men have died and their bodies were thrown into the ocean. The slaves forced to do long dances to keep them strong however the the way their living space was full of disease and death the exercise help little to keep them alive. The slaves had to share the food that the europans didn’t eat and often there wasn’t enough food or all of them so many of them were starved. Al least who died everyday and the journey was set back due to storms however the captain pressed because if he arrived with little slaves he wouldn’t be payed as much. when they finally arrived at modern day Barbados the slaves were hassled of the ship and sent to cells to be kept until they were sold in the morning. While that happened many ships from the americas arrived to buy slaved and to take them back to their

The stench below deck was intolerable. Buckets of water were thrown over the slaves as they lay to wash away the excrements. Slaves suffered from infections from lying in dirt. Some died or were thrown overboard. Ships sank or were lost in storms and slaves died. For example the George ship, lost 84 percent of the 594 slaves from the length of voyage and badness of weather. Slaves also rebelled, by commit suicide and taking over ships, killing the crew members and order those they spared to sail the ship back and escaped to freedom. The death rates among slaves during the middle passage were extremely high.

Due to the cramped living conditions, poor hygiene, and shortage of food, sickness and disease circulated below the decks of the slave ships. One of the most significant physical health problems was malnutrition. The quantity and quality of food were both inadequate, as the ship crews did not want to squander resources to purchase proper nutrition. Items, such as fresh meat and fruits, added an additional expense that would cut deep into the captain’s pocket. Food, onboard the slave ships, was substandard. The African slaves’ diet consisted primarily of horse beans, yams, and rice. The slaves evidently did not have much to consume, which ultimately affected their bodies’ ability to repel infections:

Despite the differences in the various forms of slavery that exist in the 21st century, the survivor testimonies bear a remarkable resemblance to the narratives told by the survivors of the Transatlantic Trade (Middle Passage). The brutal treatment of ‘slaves’- denied the basic necessities of life, overcrowded and unhealthy living conditions, and the endless chain of pain and abuse.

As I sit here on this dreadful ship, I know I’m not going to survive. The foul odor is unbearable and the gruesome shackles that clench on my wrists and ankles are torture. The humid air and crowded area made it almost impossible to breathe. This lifestyle is dangerous and unnatural for a common white man, but this is the lifestyle for the next three months, for us slaves.