The Dehumanizing Realities Of Slave Trade

Beginning as early as 1492, millions of African American’s became victims of a torturous, controlling and dehumanizing lifestyle known as slavery. These African America’s, most from West Africa were sold by slave traders and shipped off in a boat to withstand a voyage known as the “Middle Passage” lasting several months long. Slaves would eventually arrive in the new world and spend the rest of their lives working for free. Though the conditions slaves faced were nothing short of wrong, slavery in the eighteenth century was considered normal and acceptable means of labor. In Give Me Liberty!: An American History it says “Slavery was common on small farms as well as plantations; nearly half of Virginia’s white families owned at least one slave in 1770. As mentioned in the background, many historians are under the impression that those born into slavery had the choice of creating a lifestyle for themselves outside of slavery despite the harsh conditions and normalcy of slavery at the time. Some are worried that further studying this idea however will permanently damage that history and discard the degrading lives slaves faced. By examining the slave trade and the history of African American slaves, we can better understand and recognize the dehumanizing conditions many slaves faced. To begin, enslaved African America’s were looked at by their owners as nothing more than a profitable solution.

According to Give Me Liberty!: An American History, “in the eighteenth century, it was a regularized business in which European merchants, African traders, and American planters engaged in complex bargaining over human lives, all with the expectation of securing a profit. To the European merchants, African American slaves were not viewed as human beings, but rather machines that completed the work that needed to be done without any reward. These slaves often worked tirelessly night and day on farms and plantations harvesting consumer goods like sugar, rice, coffee and tobacco. It was because of this forced free labor that the English economy began to flourish as the merchants earned pure profit from the sold consumer goods. Furthermore, the living conditions in which slaves endured during the middle passage from West Africa to the new world were astoundingly poor and inhumane. As mentioned in the video, these passages from West Africa to the new world took anywhere from 60 days to 6 months. Norrence Jones. Jr, a historian interviewed in the documentary Africans in America: America's Journey through Slavery said “the cramped quarters of ships being packed in such a way that a slave would be between the legs of another slave and having to lie in the feces. The lack of air, the longer the trip takes, the more suffocating”. Imagining what these slaves endured during their lengthy passage, the living conditions historian Norrence Jones Jr. mentioned are unfathomable. It is likely that these living conditions created risks to ones health as diseases quickly spread and caused death to some. It also seems likely that slaves being as tightly compacted as they were became easily angered and agitated to the point of potentially killing themselves to spare themselves of the harsh conditions. Lastly, while not all slaves on ships landed in mainland North America, those who had survived the long and enduring journey of the middle passages crammed among thousands of other slaves probably felt a sense of freedom upon their arrival of the new world. What these slaves hadn’t yet realized was how they were going to be used and treated. Most of these slaves were sold to work on farms and plantations in the Virginia colony and other southern states. Slaves who were rebellious and disobedient to their owners faced heavy punishments, sometimes paying the ultimate price of death. This was the case for Josiah Henson’s father who had been enslaved and punished for striking a white man. Josiah Henson’s father was ultimately killed as punishment for his actions of striking the white man, however his owner would face no punishment for his death as the death of a slave during punishment wasn’t a crime.

In the end, slaves were part of a game that made land owners and merchants wealthy from the selling of consumer goods without having the pay for labor costs. Slaves were subject to despicable living and working conditions, many of which greatly impacted slaves mentally and physically. From being shipped on a boat to working on farms and plantations in the new world, slaves spent their entire lives ruled by their owners until death did them part either by punishment or by natural cause.