Atlantic Slave Trade: Social and Cultural Impact on the Society

Today, many American’s are very prideful of being part of a Country that not only portrays, but also truly offer an abundance of opportunities for education, careers, housing, for many immigrants’ jobs, and most importantly Freedom. Currently the American motto is that there are no impossibilities, work hard to achieve highest potential and failure is not a negative innuendo, but a mark of the imprints of success. Nevertheless, as one researches and studies American history the stroll down memory lane is sad and disappointing. Use The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database website (http://www.slavevoyages.org/voyage/search)1 take a stroll into the past during 1607-1808 the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade slaves took the place of what we call today America’s industry workforce. Unfortunately, during the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade the slaves did not have a choice, mistreated and stripped of their rights and dignity, dehumanized, and all for the purpose of commercialism competitiveness and industrial prosperity. As shown on the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, during 1607-1808, the total number of slaves embarked on voyages to the Mainland North America was 360,999; however, these slaves experienced the highest form of cruelty and uncaring treatment

The story that surrounds the transatlantic slave trade is notoriously known, by both young and old, across the nation. This story has not only survived, but thrived as “truth” through generations for several centuries; Although, it is much closer to a mystical tale than reality. In Reversing Sail, Michael Gomez lays the myths affiliated with African Diaspora to rest. Gomez shows the path of the amalgamation of the African people along with their resources into Europe. A path that leads to the New World, that would potentially become the Americas, would ultimately result in more than just the exploitation of Africans as slaves. Compacted into an eight-chapter undergrad textbook, Gomez uses Reversing Sail to unground the history, complexity, and instrumentality of the African Diaspora. He does such in a

Walter Johnson examines the fluid nature of the domestic slave trade and its role in shaping a culture of slavery. Central to this culture was the fundamental reality that the slave person was a commodity to be bought and sold as the market demanded. Describe the effects of the practice of slave trading on the actors involved. How did the domestic slave trade help create the identities of slave, the slaveholder and the slave trader? How did the activities of the slave pen help “make” race (both white and black) in the antebellum period?

The African Voices of the Atlantic Slave Trade by Anna C. Bailey takes a rather interesting approach into the history of the Atlantic slave trade. Bailey took a personal journey, and was determined to break the silence. Of course with that being said it would prove to be a difficult quest since so many of these people are shamed about slavery, and the discussion of slavery is a taboo topic in its own ways. It was time to break the silence. Through out the book she explores diverse groups, of distinct people who all share the prevalent history of slavery. Her central theme in unveiling the past is through oral stories. Bailey makes it known in the first chapter that most texts written about the slave trade primarily focus on the Europeans perspective, which is what sets her book apart. Bailey herself residing in Jamaica takes an intimate standpoint to slavery, herself being of African slave descent, and knowing very limited details about her extensive family history. “What is clear from my family history is that more is known about the relatively recent past than is known about the period when my family members were undoubtedly slaves) . Through the obstacles and difficulties Bailey was able to succeed, and gave those affected a voice. Her approach will be examined, and the strengths and weaknesses in her approach will be brought to light.

Although all this documents stress voices from the Slave Trade, each document sheds a unique light on the much-debated question about who should be held responsible for the tragedy of the Atlantic slave trade. For example, Document 15.1 sheds light on the role of both European and African merchants in the trafficking of slaves as well as the human suffering of the slave trade. However Document 15.2 reveals the cooperation between local African rulers and European and African traders in the slave trade. Moreover, Documents 15.3 focus on how disruptive European traders could be to established African governments, even those that actively opposed the slave trade. And finally, Document 15.4 shows how some African leaders were attached to the slave trade and promoted it even when European were moving to end it. Nonetheless, all the documents do shed a clear and a full light on what should be held responsible for the

The Atlantic Slave trade began to pick up speed with the development of colonies by the Spanish and then the English, which were used to expand the mercantilist countries empires and power. African slaves began to be seen as a necessity once the Native American population plummeted and Spanish Creoles refused to do the hard work to supply their home country with the needed raw materials. Europeans were unwilling to provide the heavy menial labor required to successfully build a colony, making it “necessary to acquire negro slaves” (Document 1). Creoles and other European settlers forced slaves to “work too hard” and gave “them too little to eat” which weakened slaves and caused many to die off (Document 1).

When the international slave trade was banned in 1808, it did not put a stop the trade of slaves. Since slaves could no longer be traded internationally, the domestic slave trade blossomed into an even larger part of America’s economy. Beforehand, when international trade was allowed, “ten to eleven million people were packed beneath the slave ship decks and sent to the New World” and “behind the numbers lie the horrors of the Middle Passage: chained slaves forced to dance themselves into shape on the decks; the closed holds, where men and women were separated from one another and chained into the space of a coffin; the stifling heat and untreated illness, the suicides and slave revolts, the dead thrown over-board as the ships passed on” Judging based on this information alone, one

Screams for relief, cries for comfort, and moans for death all revolved around the slave trade. The slave trade is an event that not only impacted Africa, but the whole world even still today. This essay will explain how cultures were ruined and families were torn apart. The slave trade has influenced history worldwide because it has impacted continents economically, socially, and politically.

To understand why Thornton’s ideas on Atlantic slave trade are more convincing than Candido’s, it is crucial to know what Thornton’s ideas actually are. In a broad sense, Thornton rejects the idea of the gun-slave or horse-slave cycle, which suggests that Africans needed to trade slaves for military technologies from Europe so they could defend themselves against any enemy and more easily obtain slaves (Thornton, 49). Thornton points out that this theory falls apart when faced with the simple fact that before 1680, any of the military technologies that Europe had to offer were not absolutely essential to waging war (50). Furthermore, any of the technologies that Europe did have available as a means of warfare would not have been effective in Africa. Since the weapons available were developed to

Chapter three delves into the subject that has intrigued me ever since high school, especially how the slave trade came to be, how it was started, and those who actually began and ran it.

Without excitement throughout the book, Johnson fails to grasp the readers attention. Johnson unceasingly tries to string former slave narratives and statistics to explain the repugnances, and then proceeds to force his interpretation upon the reader. This does not allow the reader to create their own picture of the slave trade. He is also excessively repetitive and would often goes for pages restating the same information. Johnson also shows exceptionally biased content goes and bases his information off of stereotypes.

People have ample knowledge when it comes to Transatlantic slavery because it was a long-lasting institution built upon the idea of trading humans in the form of stolen goods through negotiation (Berry Lecture 4). Although textbooks and classroom lectures thoroughly cover the topic of transporting slaves through what would become the Middle Passage, these perspectives fail to report what it felt like to experience the journey firsthand. People’s understanding of the psychological and physical torture negroes were coerced into is limited because slaves were either illiterate or their opinions were invalid. As a result, rare records such as images and texts obtained directly from the slave trade unveil unique

“The transatlantic slave trade concerns history of three continents over four centuries and it has served as a crucial element of New World protohistory since the slave trade soared in the eighteenth century in response to the increasing demand for unfree labor in both the Caribbean and the

Slavery, a topic that still leaves a mark on the hearts of many citizens throughout America, a matter that leaves a repugnant aftertaste in our mouths. Slaves were transported from their native land, into a new world forced to do manual work that Europeans were resistant in doing and reluctant to having the natives do. Slavery lasted over 200 years; yet for some odd reason African Americans and advocates of memorializing the consistent pain, agony, torture, and mistreatment of Africans are constantly told to just “Let it go”, “Forget about it, it happened so long ago”. Those who still feel the piercing wounds of those who suffered from enslavement are expected to forget about an issue that has not even ceased longer than it lasted. A common desire that existed among all African Americans was to be free, to be released and sent back to their families from whom they were snatched. Africans were stolen from their homelands, stripped from a comfortable environment into an unfamiliar place, and forced to live under cruel conditions, known as the Atlantic Slave Trade. In this paper, several factors will be discussed including: (1) background information on the African slave trade/ middle passage(2) the slaves’ living conditions (3) the slaves’ treatment (4) and the lasting impact in the lives of the slaves after the getting off the ships.

The universal consensus within twentieth century historiography regarding the cruelty and inhumane nature of New World slavery and the Atlantic slave trade encouraged many late century historians to focus on sub-topics containing more substantive academic debate. This led to scholarship which emphasized African slave’s efforts to resist their new status and to maintain their cultural identity. However, in the last few years, some historians have tried to reverse this trend. They view these diversions towards slave resistance as a minimization on the obvious atrocities they believe should be the center of scholarship on New World slavery. Greg Grandin’s The Empire of Necessity: Slavery, Freedom, and Deception in the New World attempts to refocus the reader’s attention on the sheer violence and human suffering that was the Atlantic slave trade in the early-nineteenth century. The framework of The Empire of Necessity follows three related, and sometimes connected, story lines. Grandin centers the book around the captain of a seal hunting ship from Massachusetts, a French privateer, and the crew of a rebellious slave ship as they all try and navigate the waters off of South America in the hopes of securing personal gain. While a truly engaging and emotional work of popular history, filled with thrilling tales of pirate battles, rebellions, and intimate details on the relentless inhumanity of the slave trade, when judged strictly on academic standards Grandin falls short. He