History of Slavery in the US
...ause of his money and power but after he refused to tell were his riches were they cut and pounded him until he eventually was unable to take the pain anymore and eventually died. The trips from their tribe homes were very hard for the African Americans to withstand. They made you do many things against their will and often made them do task that were beyond their physical ability. The prisoners were usually accompanied a large army of men usually around a couple thousand. In the case of Venture he said “I was obliged to carry on his head a large flat stone used for grinding corn, weighing as I should suppose, as much as twenty five pounds.” (III) They also made them prepare their food such as cattle for example, and after that very seldom were they ever given very big portions. Also in some cases it wasn’t out of the ordinary for the woman to be abused sexually. The transportation of the slaves to the Americas was probably by far the most demoralizing and life threatening experience that any of the African Americans had ever faced. A common slave had no idea what their captures had intended for them. As many thought they were going to kill them and maybe even eat them. To them they looked like mean white men with horrible red faces and long hair. After the slaves were boarded onto the ships they were forced below the deck were they had to stay for the duration of the trip to the America. The smell and the noise were usually quite unbearable for the occupants aboard the ship. Olaudah a captive of one of these slave ships tells of her experience by saying “I had never experienced in my life such a loathsomeness of the stench, and crying together.” (IV) She also said; “I became so sick and low that I was not able to eat, nor did I have the least desire to taste anything.” (V) The conditions on the ship were often so bad that the African prisoners would even try to jump over board. Slaves that attempted this were usually stopped, because they were so closely watched. After they were stopped they were severely cut and then whipped hourly for attempting to do so. The conditions on the ship were so bad that not even the whites aboard the ship were safe from brutal cruelty. Olaudah said; “she witnessed a white man flogged so unmercifully with a large rope near the foremast, that he died as a consequence of it and they tossed him over the side.” (VI) Illness was very common during the trips to the U.S. Smallpox was the most common of the killers. Another condition was the stench, the effluvia, between the decks of ships. A slave trader of the time said; “It was not unknown to have a 50% mortality rate during the passage from Africa.”(VII) Often times when slaves were too ill to survive the trip they were sometimes thrown overboard to drown. Jim Turner a slave ship captain said “the ships were closely followed by sharks who awaited a meal from diseased dead thrown overboard into the Atlantic Ocean.” (VIII) These conditions and experiences that I have stated in the above paragraph are just a few of the many things that the African American slaves had to face on their horrible journey to become slaves in America. Another horrible cruelty that the slaves had to face in their lives was the experience of being bought and sold. Once on American soil, slaves were largely treated as property, to be bought and sold. Even though slave marriages were not recognized by the states some owners still allowed their slaves to get married. Even though the two slaves were married the owner was still free to split up a couple or family at any time by just simply selling some of his or her slaves. Slave owners did not care if you had a family or if you ...