Slave trade: Business or Torture?
By V. Krishna
Atrocious kidnapping
The trans-Atlantic slave trade, lasting from 1501 to 1867, was a cruel and horrible experience for African slaves who were kidnapped from their homes or prisoners of war. It completely changed the course of American democracy, influencing many major political events such as the the civil war. The slave trade used to be part of American culture, but now most people view it as a cruel transport of Africans across the Atlantic ocean, which it basically is. International law has a strong opinion about this, stating it as a "forgotten crime against humanity".
C-Children being sold by their parents for money.
R-Rendering Africans not equal to other races.
U-Unaware of their perspective, selling 12.8 million Africans into slavery.
E-Exercising slaves when the weather was good with aggression.
L-Letting 1.8 million slaves die at sea.
"The prisoners would be forced to march long distances, as Major Galan describes, with their hands tied behind their backs and their necks connected by wooden yokes."
- the Abolition Project
Slave Ship Conditions
Fun Facts
- If you were a sugar worker in Jamaica, you had to work 11 hours a day, about 4000 hours a year.
- The trade made slaves produce sugar, coffee, tobacco, cotton, and rice.
- One in three of the abducted passengers were women, and toward the end, one-fourth were children.
- Portugal shipped the most amount of Africans.
Slaves cramped on a ship
When transported, slaves had barely any space to often even stand.
Ship crew coming to execute a slave
When slaves were disobedient, crew had the right to kill them without the slave's consent.
Salves being held together by a Yoke
The mechanism on the slaves' shoulders is called a yoke, something also used to hold cattle together.