Latin American Slave Trade

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

“The new slavery flourishes where old rules, old ways of life break down” (Brazil 121). The old way of life is deteriorating; money is scarce. Now, people will do any type of work. The Brazilian slaves work in dangerous charcoal production plants called batterias. They work with little to no protection; the hot ovens leave the workers’ bodies covered in blistering burns. In the minds of the workers, there is nothing else to do but suffer through. The slavery in Brazil prospers because of the recruitment proccess and the isolated location of the batterias. However, efforts from human rights organizations have had positive effects on the modern day slavery.

The documentary Goree: Door of No Return puts the trans-Atlantic slave trade into a greater historical and geographic perspective. The film is set in Goree, an island off the coast of Senegal. Goree is where the "door of no return" was located, and seeing the actual door leaves an indelible image stamped on the viewer's brain. Through this door passed countless men and women who were being bought and sold on the island. Goree was a Portuguese holding for hundreds of years. What is most astonishing about Goree is that the slave warehouse there was only dismantled a hundred and fifty years ago; this is not ancient history. The film reveals the stunning, sunbaked atmosphere of the West African coast and also captures the languid pace of life. The viewer wonders how such brutality ever could have taken place here, especially when the palm trees sway gently in the breezes and we learn about the complex, ancient, and "highly structured civilizations" that once thrived along the West coast of Africa.

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 history of the Atlantic slave trade is long and sordid, from the working and transportation conditions to the structure of the trade itself. Historians and scholars from all backgrounds have worked to understand the impact of slavery and why it went on for so long. Two scholars, John Thornton and Mariana Candido, have extensively studied both the impact and organization of the Atlantic slave trade, but disagree on a few main conclusions. Upon thorough review of both sides, however, John Thornton’s ideas regarding the Atlantic trade are more convincing than Candido’s, and by looking deeper into each side it is clear why.

This enormous increase in slave trade came from the chartered companies (given trade monopolies in exchange for fees), as well as from new maritime knowledge gained by repeated travels across what became known as the “The Middle Passage”, a stretch of water between the gold and slave coasts, the region of Angola, and Brazil and the West Indies.

The Shipwreck Shines Light on Historic Shift in Slave Trade showed a historic shift of the Portuguese slave trade in December 1794. It reveal according to the National Geographic, “More than 400 men, women, and children lay shackled in the ship’s hold, their fates bound to the merciless law of supply and demand.” The Portuguese slave traders of Africa had their vessel ready to partake of a trying journey. The 7000-mile journey from Mozambique was on a high turbulence of waters crossing the Atlantic to Brazil. This was a high risk and based on a financial gain.

Next year sees the 120th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in Brazil. Some contemporary writers saw the period as an horrific maltreatment of our fellow human beings while others saw through this and viewed the patriarchal and familial advantages that society, especially slaves received. Whichever way one sees it, the period before its abolition saw a huge boost in Brazil’s economy, mainly down to its vast manpower – 37% of all African slaves traded – a massive 3 million men, women and children.

Slavery has evolved from what we used to know as African American’s being tortured and abused to now being transformed into a modern type of slavery existing currently in the United States of America, human sex trafficking. Human sex trafficking is a form of slavery that violates human’s rights, individuals benefiting in forms of profit by exploiting humans. Which then results in physical and psychological consequences. In today’s society, Latina women are trafficked into the United States from third-world countries and forced against their will to have sex with men to later then suffer from this emotionally and physically. In addition, they are battered, exposed, and drained from their dignity and freedom as women and human beings. At a young

This primary source shows historians the first signs of the impact the slave trade will soon have on Africa. The most well known narrative is The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah- Equiano. Olaudah was a slave from present day Nigeria that was kidnapped at a young age and sold into the slave trade along with his older sister. This primary source serves as great importance to historians, for it gives a first hand account of the trade. For example, Equiano describes his memories of the boat to Barbadoes. “”Made ready with fearful noises, and were all put under deck… the stench of the hold while were on the coast was intolerably loathsome.” This quote serves for the purpose of allowing readers to understand the misery and discomfort endured by the African as they traveled to the Americas. The next stage for the slaves includes auction and sale, where they would be sold to an owner. In The History of Mary Prince, a West Indian Slave gives the insight of how a young slave felt to be sold once making it to the Americas. She describes it as, “handled me in the same way that a butcher would a calf or lamb he was about to purchase.” This source allows readers to see how whites treated slaves as “nonhuman” this social view impacted American’s lives until the late 1960s and beyond. The next sets of primary sources of non-African people they describe the slave trade through a “white perspective”. “A Description of the Coasts of North and South Guinea” written

“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

The Atlantic Slave Trade was a never-ending cycle, so to speak, with each part playing an integral part in the continuum of the trade of human lives for over four centuries. There is no “beginning,” so I’d like to begin in a local market in the Igbo-speaking region of southern Nigeria in 1745. Olaudah Equiano recalls a bit about these markets in his narrative, “These are sometimes

Slavery as it existed in colonial Brazil contained interesting points of comparison and contrast with the slave system existing in British North America. The slaves in both areas had been left with very little opportunity in which he could develop as a person. The degree to which the individual rights of the slave were either protected or suppressed provides a clearer insight to the differences between North American and Brazilian slavery. The laws also differed greatly between the two areas and have been placed into three categories: term of servitude, police and disciplinary powers, and property and other civil rights.

A common occurrence in the twentieth century historiography of American and Middle Eastern slavery is to downplay the significance of African societies as major players in the international trade network, while ignoring the slave trade’s effect on cultures throughout Africa. Paul Lovejoy attempts to highlight these connections by examining how the demand for slaves in the export market altered local political economies and drastically changed the practice of slavery throughout Africa. Transformations in Slavery: A History of Slavery in Africa is a synthesis work, covering multiple regions of the continent over a span of five hundred years, beginning in the fifteenth century. It is an impressive piece of historical scholarship that describes the ripple effect made by the international slave trade on nearly every society in Africa, even those with limited European contact. Despite several intriguing and logical arguments, the book displays moments of inconsistency. His definition of a slave is too narrow for his application of it, his synthesis approach results in frequent generalizations, and by assuming total domination of the enslaver over the enslaved he denies any possibility of slave agency.

Captured Africans during the Transatlantic passage faced a harsh reality of being captured, sold and shipped across the Atlantic to work in sugar, indigo, or tobacco plantations. The novel argues that African identity, history and heritage were systematically erased by