Issues of Slavery: Answers

1. Most slaves originated from the coast or the interior of West Africa, between present- day Senegal and Angola. Other enslaved peoples came from Madagascar and Tanzania in East Africa. Africa, The Caribbean and North America and Europe, slave traders from Holland, Portugal, France and England delivered Africans in exchange for products such as colonial rum, sugar, and tobacco. The regions above were all active in slave trading. The list below is base on research that I have found.

Number of exported slaves

Senegambia	479,900		4.7
Upper Guinea	411,200		4.0
Windward Coast	183,200		1.8
Gold Coast	1,035,600		10.1
Blight of Benin	2,016,200		19.7
Blight of Biafra	1,463,700		14.3
West Central	4,179,500		40.8
South East	470,900		4.6

Number of imported slaves

Brazil	4,000,000		35.4
Spanish Empire	2,500,000		22.1
British West Indies	2,000,000		17.7
French West Indies	1,600,00		14.1
British North America and United States	500,000		4.4
Dutch West Indies	500,000		4.4
Danish West Indies	28,000		0.2
Europe (and Islands)	200,000		1.8

2a. How did slavery in Africa differ from white slavery? Slavery in Africa consisted of slaves being enslave in Africa. Usually Africans in a higher power would enslave Africans in a lower power, or either Africans that have committed a crime. White slave usually consisted of white men from various continents coming to get slaves. White enslavers take the African slave from the homeland to different continents miles and miles away. On the journeys to different continents almost millions of African would did at a time. White enslavers usually take Africans to work in their fields picking cotton.

2b. If I was an African Queen and was asked by a European slavers to enslave a neighboring African group; I would have to decline the author. The positive aspect of accepting the offer from the European enslavers is that I would receive gun in which we would use to protect ourselves. Another positive aspect of accepting the author is that the Europeans will continue to come back to Africa wanting to do business. The negative aspect of accepting this offer is that I would become dependant on. Also if I was to accept the author I would be selling my own people and that would we wrong. To sell anyone for that matter is wrong and in moral. Another negative aspect would be if I was to accept the offer it could turn my own people against me. And without unity we would be in some what war against on another. Also if I was to accept the offer I would become dependant on the European and that is exactly what the Europeans want. Because in the in the end the Europeans want us to depend on them and be in total control.

3. Yes, Africa was apart of the slave trade but in my opinion Africa was thrown into the slave trade by being bribe with food and guns. It’s said that African had to partake in that particular role. The Africans that were sold, was unfortunately taken for their homeland. I strongly disagree that slavery and the slave trade were essentially African inventions. I don’t understand why the Africans would create something that would hurt them and they would not benefit from at all

4. Africa benefited from the transatlantic slave trade by receiving various trade goods including beads, cowry shells, textiles, brandy, horses, and most importantly, guns. But Africa in my opinion took a loss when they sold their own people.

5. The Providential Design was created so that Americans could take Africans to the New World and teach them how to become civilized. The African that go to The New World were to come back to Africa as civilizing agents. I believe that this was a good idea and turn out as a good deed to our American history.

6. In my opinion Rawley and Walsh did an excellent job of displaying the horrifying details of what it was like to be aboard ship. Rawley states that the Africans were exposed to acts of brutality, incited to revolt on shipboard and driven to taking the own lives. Rawely also went into great detail about the amount of slave that died or were killed during the middle passage. For example, Rawley says “he designated sick and weak slave, and on that day fifty- four were thrown into sea. on 1 December forty-two more were thrown overboard; on the day of heavy rain enabled the ship to collect in casks enough water for eleven days full allowance. Even so, twenty- six more slaves, their hands bound, were thrown into sea, and ten more, about to be bound for disposal, jumped into sea.

Walsh did an excellent job going into great detail as far as letting his audience know about the conditions the slave had to endure. In fact Walsh did such a good job while reading I begun to cry because it hurt so much that I could actually picture the horrible images in my head. in on particular section of the reading welsh states that there were 562 slaves in total, and the space was so low that they sat between each others legs and were stowed so close together that there was no possibility of their lying down or at all changing their position by night or day. Another part of the passage that caught my attention was when Walsh says “It is possible to

conceive the effect of this eruption- 517 fellow creatures of all ages an sexes, some children, some adults, some old men and women, all in state of total nudity scrambling out together to taste the luxury of a little fresh air and water." Walsh painted a vivid image of how the slaves were locked under the ship for long periods of times that when the did come to the deck they were so thankful for something as simple as air and sunlight.

6. (Essay)

Entering a huge ship of four different levels the white masters packed the Africans up onto the ship. There was a total of 562 Africans being taken away from their homeland. Into another continent that would be known as a hell on earth to many Africans. The men were put on the bottom level of the ship. Children were on the next level and women were on the third level right below the deck. I was astonished to see how the slaves were basically packed down on one another to fit into such a small amount of space. Men slaves were shackled from the arms to the legs. But women and children were not. The masters on the ship were harsh and cruel. If an African slave did not move fast enough the master would quickly catch a temper and began to beat and curse the slave.

We sat sea on May 1 and had been at sea for fifth-teen days now and the weather was very humid. The hot air left an indescribable dry taste in you mouth. The sun was beaming, and the white workers and masters on deck had beads of sweat rolling down their face and had begun to turn fire red. One master name Cornell decides to go down below the deck to check on the slaves. And to his arrival the heat and the smell was intolerable. The heat made his eyes water and the smell of death burnt his nose hairs. Master Cornell felt some what sympathy for the slaves and let the slaves come above deck one level at a time. While Cornell let the slave above to the deck he discovered that a total of 63 slaves were dead and 22 were barely breathing. In all

85 slaves were thrown into the sea. If you were to lean over the ship you could see the sharks

come and devour the sick, poor, malnutrition bodies. The other slaves were so happy to see sunlight, smell fresh air, and taste cool water that they began to cry and chant thanks. But the masters put an end to their short amount of some what happiness and force them back below the ships.

At night when the workers and master became bored and drunk the whit masters and there crew would go below the deck to the first level and get women. The women looked to be any where between the ages of 14 and 30. The white men would beat the women if the did not do as they said. The masters would slap the women and rub there hands all over the African women bodies so hard they women would burse and whelp up. After the African women give up and stop fighting the white masters would then force themselves into the bodies of pure young African girls and women. The women would just lay or stand their crying, and saying prayers of the native language until the horrible torture would end. By the end of the voyage a total of 107 Africans had died. And the settlers were planning another voyage in about two months.

7a. Eric Williams states “The reason was economic, not racial; it had not to do with the color of the laborer, but the cheapness of the labor. And the Negros was the cheapest and the best.” William also says that he would rather black servants on plantations than who servants in the industry, which would encourage aspirations to independence. Also the white servant expected land at the end of his contract and the Negro was ignorant to the idea of receiving land therefore expected nothing. Also three blacks were better and cheaper than one white. In addition Negro slave were cheaper. Williams states the money which produced a white servant for ten years could buy a Negro for life. Williams also say that he would go to the moon for slave but Africa is much than the moon, also nearer to the most populous countries of India and China. But their turn was to come.

Winthrop D. Jordan on the other hand says that the reasons were basically racist in my

opinion. Jordan states Negros looked different: their religion was un- Christian; their manner of living was anything but English; they seem to be a particularly libidinous sort of people. Winthrop associates race with the reason as to why the whites chose Africans over any other race.

7b. (Essay)

I agree with both Winthrop D. Jordan and Eric Williams, the both make excellent points as to why African Americans were choose over any other race. I agree with Williams some what because he states that African slave’s heaper and the smart choice. For example, an African slave could be brought for the rest of his or her life to work; where as if you were to have a white servant for the same amount but the he would only work for ten years and expect land. Williams also states than three African slaves work better and cheaper than one white slave. Williams made very good point throughout his article but the one

Particular passage stated, “The Africans were latecomers fitted in to a system already developed.” Also he later says “The reason was economic, not racial; it had not to do with the color of the laborer, but the cheapness of the labor.”

Williams contradicts himself in my opinion because he says it was not a racial issue. But he does so every time he refers to white workers as servants, and blacks as slaves. Because they never state that they went to different continents and took white from their homeland and tortured, and beat them to death.

Jordan on the other hand says the reason for Africans being chose d over any other race most definitely had to do with racism. And I totally agree because I strongly believe that slavery would not have lasted as long if the were enslaving their own kind. Therefore, I favor both arguments but only because the both have logical explanations.