Slave Ship Dbq Essay

John. W. Blessingame, The Slave Community: The Plantation Life in The Antebellum South (Oxford University Press, Inc: 1972, 1979).

“The Horrors of a Slave Ship,” describes in detail, the tragic experiences of Olaudah Equiano as a captive slave. Equiano suffered many sleepless nights; he was flogged and kidnapped multiple times. In the article, the author is trying to give the reader the feeling by giving details of the brutally floggings and desperation as many slaves suffocated to death as they were placed in an overcrowded deck. Overall, the author tries to give readers their point across of the difficulties in being a captive slave.

The Slave Ship by Marcus Rediker is a great fiction novel that describes the horrifying experiences of Africans, seamen, and captains on their journey through the Middle Passage. The Middle Passage marked the water way in the Atlantic Ocean between Africa and the Americas. The use of slaves provided a great economy for the European countries due to the fact that these African slaves provided free labor while cultivating sugar cane in the Caribbean and America. Rediker describes the slave migration by saying, “There exists no account of the mechanism for history’s greatest forced migration, which was in many ways the key to an entire phase of globalization” (10). This tells us that African enslavement to the Americas causes a complete

There are different experiences of the slave trade that are reflected in these documents such as those of an enslaved person (Olaudah Equiano), a European slave trader (Thomas Phillips – an English merchant), an African monarch (King Jao) whose kingdom and personal authority suffered from the slave trade, and an African monarch (Osei Bonsu) who opposed the ending of the slave trade. Of all the commercial ties that linked the early modern world into global network of exchange, none had more profound or enduring human consequences than the Atlantic Slave Trade. And in all these documents, we can see how people reacted differently to this system based on how they encountered it and how it affected them.

Slavery in the United States was a very devastating event that was caused by the demand of labor for slaves by slaveowners. The main purpose of these slaves were to provide owners with cheap labor and make a huge profit out of their hard work. However, the effects of slaves were that the African Population in the United States dramatically increased and how petitions were being made against slavery.

In the Atlantic slave trade, African slaves were treated like animals or even objects. White people took advantage and mistreated them. A few examples of this

Opponents of slavery focused first on ending the slave trade rather than abolishing slavery because focusing mainly on the slaver trade was easier than ending slavery itself. Ending the slave trade was also more likely to succeed rather than just eliminating slavery. The abolitionists were convinced that, if trade was terminated, slavery would ultimately disintegrate. Therefore, if slave trade was stopped, that would make the abolitionists pleased since there would be no new slaves transported into different countries and colonies. Furthermore, slaveowners would also be pleased because the price they could sell their owned slaves would be driven up by the decrease of supply.

(1) The use of natural dialect can be seen throughout the slave narrative interviews through words and phrases used that were common during the period of slavery, but are not used today. One example can be seen in the dialect used by former slave Mama Duck, “Battlin stick, like dis. You doan know what a battling stick is? Well, dis here is one.” Through incomplete sentences and unknown words the natural dialect of the time can be seen. Unfamiliar words such as shin-plasters, meaning a piece of paper currency or a promissory note regarded as having little or no value. Also, geechees, used to describe a class of Negroes who spoke Gullah. Many examples can be seen throughout the “Slave Narratives”

The slave trade put fear in the Southern States because they could carry on with the trade for another two decades. But the Northern States had to wait to protect the Union. The Southern States agreed to the Compromise because they thought it would die down. In order to Appease the South they passed the ‘Fugitive State Law’. The Fugitive State Law ordered the Northern States to deport any runaway slaves. Because of the taxes on importing the slaves they were considered as commodities.

Part of this new act was that any ship found to be carrying slaves would be fined £100 for every discovered slave. If the captains of the slave-ships knew that a British navy ship would be heading their way, they would order the slaves to be thrown overboard in order to reduce their fines. The Royal British Navy, previously the defenders of the Atlantic slave routes, were now the thorn in the side of the slave traders. Likewise Parliament no longer promoted the slave trade but instead began to pave the way for international abolition. From this moment forward the British prided themselves on being one of the first European countries to no longer take part in the slave trade. Overall due to the perseverance and dedication of abolitionists,

Slavery was the most influential cause of the breakup of the Union. It essentially divided the free northern states and the southern slave states, causing immediate tension. However, it was the numerous conflicts that resulted from the primary issue of slavery that really drove the Nation into Civil War. The first of these tensions had to do with new territory mainly the land gained as a result of the Mexican War. The Mexican War was a result of Manifest Destiny or "the idea that the United States had the God-given right and obligation to take over as much land as possible and to spread its "civilizing" influence" (Doc. K). To fulfill this idea of Manifest Destiny after the discovery of gold in California, America was looking to build

Despite being held at the bottom of the social pyramid for throughout colonial times, the labor of the colonies would prove to be far from useless. While vast, open land was turned into numerous plantations in the colonies by rich planters, the plantations could not purely be run by their owners, creating a great need for labor. This lack of labor would eventually be solved through the use of African slaves, but after the first shipment of slaves to Jamestown in 1619, few were purchased due to high prices for an extended amount of time. The planters, however, would be able to fulfill their need for labor through English indentured servants. Through the use of indentured servants, basically free labor was provided to land owners, while

The article, The Horrors of a Slave Ship, is first person point of view account of the capturing of Olaudah Equiano. He tells the story of how he was captured from his home while his parents were away to be used as a slave. The article starts off with Olaudah and his sister being captured while their parents were away. They were taken into the woods, tied up, and forced to travel bound without food. After many days of traveling, Olaudah and his sister were separated. From that point he was passed around and finally landed in the hands of his first owner. His first owner was a smith and Olaudah worked in his shop. He was there for about a month

I did not know what was going to happen when I boarded the large ship. I knew it was not good for I was a captive to these white people. My imagination did not even come close to how wretched a state we were all going to be a part of for the next sixty days.

Based on the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, numbers can tell us a lot of things, for example when countries economy became industrialized and moved away from agriculture. For example, in the U.S. total slaves that were shipped to U.S.A. during 1801-1825 were 109,545 slaves, which was one of the highest slave trade according to the database. While this was high, conversely the next 25years saw drastically fall to 1,850 forcibly participating in the slave trade. Although this is an interesting observation what is equally interesting is this major shift is happened 11years before the American Civil War. Thus, it’s fair to say that during the duration of 1825-1850 is when America shifted from an economy based on agriculture to one that is