Olaudah Equiano During The Middle Passage
In the beginning time of the North American colonies, the slave trade became extremely popular and vital to the culture and economy of America. People from Africa were enslaved and sent on ships across the Atlantic to North America; this voyage was called the Middle Passage. “The North American colonies remained peripheral markets for the European slaving industries in the Atlantic, which, in the years before about 1800, delivered 90 percent or more of their captives to the West Indies, Brazil, and the mainland colonies of Spain.” (Miller) Several individuals kept record of their slave experience, and many of these tended to be very violent and terribly inhumane. One such person to record his journey was Olaudah Equiano, who was separated from
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“The closeness of the place, and the heat of the climate, added to the number in the ship, which was so crowded that each had scarcely room to turn himself, almost suffocated us.” (p.171) The extreme lack of room just described is only one of the terrible conditions in which slaves were kept in transport; just like barn animals would be kept. These people were truly treated like garbage and were extremely disrespected as basic human beings. In fact, “Estimates for the total number of Africans imported to the New World by the slave trade range from 25 million to 50 million; of these, perhaps as many as half died at sea during the Middle Passage experience.” (Todd) Before slaves ever made it into the actual slavery world, they had to survive the trip alone which often times didn’t even seem worth surviving to many, including …show more content…
“The major reason for bringing all of these Africans to the Americas was the production of cash crops to make profits and satisfy European tastes.” (Kerr-Ritchie) Slaves were, overall, cheap labor and a money maker for any owner. Slaves, like Equiano, were sometimes unaware of their purpose when they were in transportation to the market, but they eventually learned they were merely a piece of property to make money off of. “They told us we were not to be eaten, but to work….” (p.175) The purpose of the slave trade as a successful industry was clear to both the employers and employees by the height of its power, and it seemed completely natural to those who participated in
“The closeness of the place, and the heat of the climate, added to the number in the ship, which was so crowded that each had scarcely room to turn himself, almost suffocated us.” (p.171) The extreme lack of room just described is only one of the terrible conditions in which slaves were kept in transport; just like barn animals would be kept. These people were truly treated like garbage and were extremely disrespected as basic human beings. In fact, “Estimates for the total number of Africans imported to the New World by the slave trade range from 25 million to 50 million; of these, perhaps as many as half died at sea during the Middle Passage experience.” (Todd) Before slaves ever made it into the actual slavery world, they had to survive the trip alone which often times didn’t even seem worth surviving to many, including …show more content…
“The major reason for bringing all of these Africans to the Americas was the production of cash crops to make profits and satisfy European tastes.” (Kerr-Ritchie) Slaves were, overall, cheap labor and a money maker for any owner. Slaves, like Equiano, were sometimes unaware of their purpose when they were in transportation to the market, but they eventually learned they were merely a piece of property to make money off of. “They told us we were not to be eaten, but to work….” (p.175) The purpose of the slave trade as a successful industry was clear to both the employers and employees by the height of its power, and it seemed completely natural to those who participated in