Summary: The Slave Auction

The document “Buying Slaves in 1693” portrays how the process of purchasing and transporting the slaves from the African coastline to the the English ship Hannibal. The document is a section in Captain Thomas Phillips journal dating May 21, 1693. This small section of text shows historically how you would go about purchasing slaves, and it also describes the compounds the slaves were held in. The description lays out a step by step process and side comments on what the captain has learn throughout his career. This text also demonstrates how two different cultures and societies interacted together through a form of trade.

The African Slave Trade was a massive system of Europeans taking African Americans and selling them into slavery. The African Slave Trade began in the 15th century. This slave trade put Africa in a weird relationship with Europe that cause the depopulation of Africa, but it increased the wealth of Europe.

If I win, I shall take your life. If you win, your life will be spared. When the day of the contest arrived, both women set up their looms and the people from many villages came to

There is no doubt that the United States was built upon the hard work of Black-American slaves, referred to at the time as bondpeople, who were the main labor force in producing important American exports, such as cotton or tobacco, which were, in fact, the backbone of the American economy during that time. Due to bondpeople’s overall importance in keeping the United States the powerhouse that it was, the domestic slave trade was a value market that “‘was roughly three times greater than the total amount of all capital, North and South combined, invested in manufacturing, almost three times the amount invested in railroads, and seven times the amount invested in banks’”(23). In “‘In Pressing Need of Cash,’” Daina Ramey Berry, a professor for the Departments of History and African Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas, looks at a fifteen year period, from 1850-1865, of the economic factors of the domestic slave trade. Berry uses Steven Deyle’s findings in his study, "Carry Me Back: The Domestic Slave Trade in American Life” which examined both the "long-distance interstate trade" and the extensive local or "intrastate" trade of enslaved males and females, who were priced differently depending on their perceived market value (23). With Deyle’s findings, Berry specifically discusses the relationships among gender, age, skill, or type of sale and how those factors, generally, determined the priced paid of enslaved workers.

He asks him where he is from and begins to slowly embarrass him, cracking jokes on stage to please his fellow crowd members, for the white man knows the protagonist is somewhere he doesn’t belong. The protagonist takes no action to respond back to the host, receiving the verbal beating, because it is what he has been accustomed to throughout his life, being seen as the inferior race. He continues to show his lack of identity, as well as his powers of assertion and articulation.

[“I order you to be silent! And I issue a collective challenge! I’ll write down your names, step forward, young heroes! You’ll all have a turn; I’ll give each of you a number. Now, who wants to be at the top of the list? You sir? No? You? No? I’ll dispatch the first duelist with all the honors that are his due. All of you who want to die; hold up your hands does modestly forbid you to look at my naked sword? No names? No hands? Then I’ll get on with my business I want to see the theater curved of this boil. Otherwise I’ll lance!]

Eugene D. Genovese’s book, The Political Economy of Slavery: Studies in the Economy and Society of the Slave South, challenges the accustomed belief which concluded the immorality of Slavery was the underlying main factor of conflict between the North and the South, partnered with materialistic interests. Instead, he presents the idea which observes the social system and civilization as a whole, identifying its distinct structure and their reasoning behind their disagreeing actions. Drawing upon information from four categories which highlight the main arguments, Genovese is able to convey that the power Slavery gave to holders, dissimilated the appeal of a North bourgeois and industrialist structure and Slavery itself overall, being ineffective

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.

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.

Great Britain abolished its slave trade in 1807, sending the Royal Navy to blockade the coast of Africa and intercept slavers in an effort to shut down the commerce altogether. In 1833, it did away with slavery itself in all its empire. And yet when war over slavery broke out in the United States in 1861, the British government remained neutral, even though it was led by Lord Palmerston — who, according to Christopher Dickey in “Our Man in Charleston,” believed himself to be “the leader of Christendom in its opposition to the slave trade.” This meant that Liverpool shipyards could sell heavily fortified “merchant” vessels to the Confederates (easily converted into war ships) and London investors could buy cotton bonds, which helped finance

The two majors drivers that led to the transatlantic slave trade was the European desire for the agricultural products of the Americas and the need for laborers to work the land in the Americas. All participants, besides for the slaves, benefited from the trading.

The New Orleans slave market was extremely large and lucrative because its location on the Mississippi allowed for easy trade between Europe, Africa and the Caribbean. In fact, it was the largest slave market in the United States. About 17,000 slaves resided in the city, out of a total population of 100,000. In other Southern cities, the slave market generally spanned only a few blocks, but in New Orleans it was present everywhere, from upscale hotels to the business district, to boats docked in the harbor. The slave market was a major facet of the New Orleans economy, so there was no abolition movement in that area. In 1829, it became illegal to house slaves in the French Quarter, so they were kept in pens. Cotton and sugarcane were the most

One, Two, Three, Four, Five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. We count in our head, the numbers ring as I repeat them over and over again. What am I to do, my pride and honor forces me to commence the duel. Yet religiously I could never slay another man, the mere idea of that is repugnant, what to do what to do. On the weehawken floor, we lay back to back and slowly take steps and count. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine.

Standing in the center of a larger arena was a young youth whose faith was in the balances. Spectators raise steely on all sides directly in front of him awaiting his death. In front of him was two massive doors behind one were life and bliss, behind another lies a man-eating beast.

In the 1600’s, Slavery played a significant role in European history. The negative aspects that made up the dark times in history are, mainly centered on the brutalizing effects of the enslaved people, which can be best explained by the destroyed family bonds, history of the enslaved people erased, and unjust treatment of the slaves.