African Slave Hardships

The Atlantic Slave Trade was a part of African history that had made one of it's biggest impact on Africa's relation with the world and more importantly on the inner workings of the country itself due to its large-scale involvement of many of the people in the continent. Although the slave trade was so long ago the impact can still be seen in Africa's social workings within the people, its economy in the local and global market, and within the political landscape of the countries.

The Europeans tried to enslave the Native Americans but found it to be very difficult as it was easy for them to escape and rejoin their tribes and in such a time, there were power in numbers. On the other hand, it was not so easy for Africans to escape and travel back to Africa, and if they did attempt to escape, the punishment in most cases was death. Slavery was profitable and the slaves were sustainable to the tobacco plantations. The African were physically able to work under harsh conditions and another key aspect is that although the African slaves were from Africa they came from different parts of Africa and were diverse in language and skills. The diversity especially in language made it hard for them to rebel. Since, they spoke different dialects it made it hard for them to communicate with each other, rebuttal, and more importantly made it hard for them to organize and to stage any form of rebellion.

Anthropology findings continue to educate people on how human beings before our time used to live and run their societies in the past. While searching online for an article, I was able to find a recent anthropology related article on slave findings at the Magnolia Plantation in Louisiana. The name of the article that I found was called Slave Culture Research Showcased at New Smithsonian Museum written by Katelyn Kenny. This article interested me the most because I am very interested in African American culture and the history of African Americans and how they were treated as slaves, which is why I choose to write about this particular article for my extra credit assignment.

First, African slavery was very different than normal slavery, like in America before it was abolished. In Africa, slaves had very different opportunities compared to the slaves of another culture. Slaves in Africa could (depending on the location) be integrated into the slave owner’s family, or even obtain positions of military or administrative importance. Also, in early African culture, slaves were used as a way to determine land ownership. Before colonial officials imposed European law, African tribes distributed land based on the amount of laborers available to the family, thus beginning regular raids on other tribes to obtain slaves and by extension: land.

Harsh. Fatal. Bloody. These traits are from the book Narrative of The life of Frederick Douglass. This book was written and narrated by Frederick Douglass himself. It is an autobiography about the life of Frederick Douglass. This story is really based on how slaves were treated and the different kinds of slave masters from Frederick’s point of view. Some people think that ingenuity led to his escape but determination enabled him to run away, learn how to read, learn to write, and helped him plan to escape from slavery.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, slaves had to endure a great deal of hardship. It was tough, but some slaves had a better life than others. It depended on the masters and what relationship the slaves had with them. Some masters were kind to their slaves so that they would receive loyalty in return. Other masters weren’t so nice; they operated by a vicious system that attacked their slaves and gave them terrible working conditions. However, where they lived, the time that they lived in, and the specific job they had also determined whether they had a good or bad life experience.

African slaves have been a fast adaptive race from the eighteenth century during the era of slavery through to emancipation.

“What they cared about was the simple fact that African slaves could be made to work. In that regard, it was far easier to use and abuse African people than it was either other Europeans or Native Americans. This pattern had been true before 1619 and it would continue to hold after”. Michael Guasco “Slaves and Englishmen”.

During the Atlantic World, African slaves had many effects on the Americas, and that resulted in economic, cultural, and trading changes. When Europeans discovered the New world, they wanted to colonize it. However, they were missing one thing: a workforce. The Europeans went through Natives, Indentures, and finally stopped at Africans. Africans had many positives to them being the workforce to help colonize the new world.

The difficulties of slavery describes the hardships the slaves went through. Two difficulties they went through were horrible treatment and severe consequences if they escaped.

The living condition for slaves were determined by the size and nature of the agricultural unit on which they lived in. the conditions of slaves in these circumstances were grouped into the experiences of field slaves and house slaves. The majority of plantation slaves worked in the fields though a few were selected to work around the owner’s house. The slaves that worked on the fields lived in small shacks with a dirt floor and usually no furniture. The slaves that worked in their owner’s home had better living conditions then the captives that worked in the fields. Their weekly food rations consisted of corn, lard, some types of meat, syrup, peas, greens and flour. The slave’s morning meals were often prepared at daybreak in the slave’s

British slave trading begun in the late sixteenth century and grew remarkably during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. As a woman in society, she faced challenges herself; however, she addressed the humanity of slaves as human beings and not by the color of their skin. She believed that “non whites” were equal to “whites” and deserved the same human rights. She wrote her famous piece, “Slavery, a Poem” during the abolitionist movement to persuade others to partake in the anti-slavery campaign. Hannah More condemns British slavery in “Slavery, a Poem” by advocating for women, religion, and depicting the inhumane treatment of Africans in order to promote human rights.

The African slaves solved many of the problems faced by the Europeans. In term of physical, Africans were already used to such brutal weather conditions, and capable of labouring in the field for longer periods than whites. Since African slaves come from a diversity of nations and spoke a wide variety of languages, they also found it difficult to communicate with one another and organize resistance for their rights. The most vital thing, unlike the Native Americans, Africans were ridiculously far from their homeland to run away from the white masters. Other than that, some West African leaders proved extremely receptive to the idea of selling other Africans into slavery for profit. Most of the kidnapping and forcing of Africans slaves into

I decided to talk about Slavery and why it was a big issue. Most slaves were African American and were usually sold as an object. African Americans were treated differently because of their skin color and didn’t have the same respect that the white people had. African Americans weren’t usually respected and were sold to people as property and treated like property.

Are you tired and lazy to go to work every day? If you’re answer is YES. Well, that’s life. What about slaves that never go to sleep and eat? As it say in the Bible (1 Peter 2:18) “Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only those who are good and considered, but also those who are harsh”. Is even the bible saying the truth? What about change it and make it “Masters of the slaves submit yourselves to your slaves with all respect and treat them like your family and not a piece of property” I think that’s more specific. Living condition among slaves are the worst conditioned that you can imagined, it can be worse than treating an animal.