Analyze the orgins and development of slavey in Britains North American colonies in the period 1607-1776. African slaves who were brought to the Americas in the time period 1607-1776 were treated with great cruelty and lived and worked in very harsh conditions and were treated like animals. They were treated like pieces of property. The first Africans brought to the New World after 1607 were in Jamestown. As more settlers came in the situation kept on becoming worse, until 1612 when John Rolfe began the planting of tobacco, which was soon known as the cash crop for the colonies.
"Chained together by their hands and feet, the slaves had little room to move." It has been estimated that only about half of the slaves taken from Africa became effective workers in the Americas. A large number of slaves died on the journey from diseases such as smallpox and dysentery. Others committed suicide by refusing to eat. Many of the slaves were crippled for life as a consequence of the way they were chained up on the
Conditions on America-bound slave ships were a disgrace. Slaves were chained to the floors in spaces no bigger than a coffin. They laid in their own excrement not being able to move. Many times the sailors came to find the slaves in suffocation, dead, and trying to kill others for a desperate breath. One of three blacks died overseas.
During the 1700’s African slaves had to endure some of the harshest conditions. On the west coast of Africa, Europeans built forts that served as trading places of the slaves. Europeans searched for and brought rum, cloth, guns and other goods from these places and also traded them for human beings. The slaves or “human cargo” were carried across the Atlantic Ocean to be sold to the New World slave owners. These people bought slaves to work their crops for them.
The slave trade had made Africa a major market for European goods. The Africans were more interested in weapons than their own crafts. In order for them to receive weapons, they needed to keep supplying Europe with slaves. The Africans took the weapons and overcame their neighbors to capture more slaves, to trade with the Europeans. (“Give Me Liberty” (by Eric Foner) Africa and the Slave Trade
Negroes were brought in as indentured servants but later on sentenced to slavery as they tried to escape from there service. The idea of slavery wasn’t new to the colonies but enslavement of Negroes spread like a wildfire. Millions of slaves were brought in to serve the white masters. Slaves were brought in cargoes in heavy
The Middle Passage The slave trade was a major business that made many people rich, but made many more people very poor. Starting around the 1500s, what was once a peaceful trade between Africans and Europeans became a corrupt trade of non-equality and unfairness. Many books, laws, and protests were made but nothing could stop the greedy slave masters. One slave named Olaudah Equiano, describes what his life was like as a slave in his book called The Kidnapped Prince The Life of Olaudah Equiano. Equiano depicts horrifying details of his life.
They were chained and loaded on to ships. The trip was very hard because the slave trade was across the Atlantic Ocean. The slaves were chained together in the ship and were crowded and not able to move about. Diseases were very common because of the unhealthy conditions they were in, the crew would give food only to those that looked healthy and skipped the others, people were left chained and unable to get up and go toilet. When the slaves died they would still remain chained to the people around, until the crew would take away the body.
The African prisoners were being taken to a scary, unknown world awaiting an unknown future. They were taken from their families, homes and didn’t know why or where they were going. Many Africans believed they were going to be eaten by the Europeans. Europeans considered Africans as savage and inferior. They were treated as cargo and placed below the deck.
The racial group I choose for my article was African Americans and the experiences of this group throughout U.S. history. It has been one of bitterness and hardships, according to http://crf-usa.org in the mid-1500, Europeans started to bring Africans to America as slaves. Many Africans died during this long voyages across the Atlantic Ocean. Once in America these slaves were sold to mostly plantations owners who treated many slaves harshly. In the 18th century, some Blacks acquired their freedom, gained property, and gained admittance to American society.