Atlantic Slave Trade Dbq

1121 Words3 Pages

The Impact of the Atlantic Slave Trade In the 1500’s to the 1900’s African slaves would be put through traumatizing events such as being taken from their families, abused both mentally and physically, and were treated as animals instead of human beings, all because of trade. This began when Christopher Columbus, a Spanish explorer, tried to go west instead of east to the Spice Islands and he found South America. Spain travels to this land and finds many empires and tribes and soon sends more explorers like Hernan Cortes. Cortes was a very terrible man, he ruined the Aztec empire with smallpox and greed, all because they had gold. Hernan began to use the Aztecs as slaves to look for gold. He returns back to the King and Queen that sent him. …show more content…

Along the African coast, Africans would be taken away from their families and tribes/clans to be transported onto a boat. Offobah Cugoano expresses his abduction and journey to the new world, he was kidnapped and brought to a neighboring town, then put into a prison. Inside the prison, he heard the groans and cries of others who were kidnapped. “It was a most horrible scene;” is how he described his time on the ship, all he could hear was the chains, whips, groans, and cries (Doc #3). The point of view of the author describes this moment in their life to be very bleak and gloomy. Their lifestyle was just taken from them and now they’re being put through very disturbing events. Some slaves would die while being transported to their destination. On slave ships, slaves would be forced under the deck of the boat and left there for weeks to months (Doc #8). This historical situation shows how many would potentially die under there. They probably weren’t fed a great deal of food. It is truly ghastly. Over 12 million slaves were brought over to the Americas. Since they brought so many slaves they wouldn’t have enough rations for all of them and with the Europeans spreading …show more content…

Their freedom was stripped from them. Slavery was one way of treating people poorly and benefiting from it. Slaves would be used as a tool instead of people. If a slave would die they would just replace that slave with another. They didn’t have the right to heritage and they didn’t have the right to start a family (Doc #2). The point of view of the author describes how worthless the Portuguese made the slaves seem yet they did so much for them. In North America, they actually invited less African slaves so that they could start families, so more people could be brought into slavery. In South America, more slaves would be brought there if slaves did die. Their lives didn’t matter one bit to them, they were basically trash. They didn’t have the right to anything and this lead to many revolts. Not a lot of blood would be shed, but sometimes they would succeed (Doc #6). This historical position describes what the slaves were willing to do to obtain their freedom back, they wanted to escape their

Show More
Related

  • Olaudah Equiano And Phillis Wheatley's View On Religion

    1464 Words  | 3 Pages

    The origin tale of the African American population in the American soil reveals a narrative of a diasporic faction that endeavored brutal sufferings to attain fundamental human rights. Captured and forcefully transported in unbearable conditions over the Atlantic Ocean to the New World, a staggering number of Africans were destined to barbaric slavery as a result of the increasing demand of labor in Brazil and the Caribbean. African slaves endured abominable conditions, merged various cultures to construct a blended society that pillared them through the physical and psychological hardships, and hungered for their freedom and recognition.

    Read More

  • Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad

    1559 Words  | 4 Pages

    Slaves were then transported to the Americas on a journey called the middle passage which lasted about six weeks. These ships were very unsanitary and cramped often carrying three hundred slaves. Once onboard the ship, men and women were stripped naked and shackled two-by-two. They could either be packed loosely or tight. Either way the ship had terrible hygiene, often nowhere to go to the bathroom. Also the slaves were hardly given any food, so many of the slaves went hungry. These factors contributed to many suicide attempts while onboard.

    Read More

  • How Did the Atlantic Slave Trade Evolve?

    633 Words  | 2 Pages

    1) Columbian Exchange- the Columbian Exchange term is, described as the massive worldwide trade of animals, plants, foods, and slaves. Christopher Columbus first voyage launched an era of extensive contact between the Old and New Worlds that resulted in the ecological revolution. The Columbian Exchange is important because, it affected every society on earth, by bringing devastating diseases that depopulated many cultures.

    Read More

  • Insights on the Domestic Slave Trade

    2115 Words  | 5 Pages

    The image of American slave traders popularized and ingrained upon the national consciousness is based predominantly upon the character of Mr. Haley in Uncle Tom's Cabin. It is one of brash and opportunistic men of dubious background, character and principles, inherently racist and brutish in nature, motivated solely by profit. Ironically this largely echoed the view depicted publicly in the pro-slavery oratory and writings, which typically minimized the importance of the trade and portrayed the traders as social outcasts from the genteel antebellum culture of the South, thus reinforcing this fictitious version of history. Close scrutiny by many prominent historians has unquestionably shown this image is not historically accurate however. Far from being social outcasts with no community ties, many traders were in fact prominent citizens holding important positions in government and business. The most enterprising and successful of their number took full advantage of the latest innovations in modern transportation and employed effective market and advertising strategies thus introducing a spirit of commercialism which was so prevalent in the North to the South's agrarian culture. While it can not be disputed the most of these men held strongly racist views and many committed appalling acts in the course of the business, most saw themselves as men of vision who were simply pursuing their own American dream of happiness and prosperity. In their estimation their business practices were no more unethical than those of Northern entrepreneurs and served a viable need to the public at large.

    Read More

  • European Influence on Early Modern Era

    511 Words  | 2 Pages

    A Eurocentric understanding of the early modern era would the Islamic world. While, the role of the Europeans on a global scale was that the Europeans were becoming involved in world affairs. The Europeans also became involved in the oceanic journeys of European explorers and the European conquest and colonial settlement of the Americas. The Europeans also became involved in the global silver trade.

    Read More

  • DBQ Living Africans Thrown Overboard

    1328 Words  | 3 Pages

    Conditions aboard the ships were horrendous and very inhumane. The following documents describe these horrors though different types of documents. Document 4 is a picture that depicts the treatment of slaves aboard the ships. This image entitled “Living Africans Thrown Overboard,” delivers a straightforward meaning to what the image portrays. This title fully expresses the torture that was placed on them. Document 6 is the personal surveyance of Robert Walsh, describing the cruel things these people were forced to endure; often driving them to insanity. The author of this passage, Robert Walsh, did not personally encounter these cruel happenings for himself, but did witness them. He seemed to sympathize with those enslaved and realized what the circumstances were which produced unhealthy results for the enslaved. Document 5 is an image that describes the layout of the slave ship. This image truly shows how the captors had no regard for the comfort of the captives, but rather were concerned with how many bodies could fit. The space each slave was given was not nearly enough, making them more susceptible to diseases. Diseases often spread rapidly, killing many of the slaves aboard. While these enslaved men and women suffered in these ships, the captors lived more comfortably with room to roam and food to eat. An additional document that would help to prove the horrible treatment of slaves due to transportation would be a record of the cargo aboard the ship. This would tell the initial amount of slaves that were taken, allowing the determination of how many slaves were lost throughout their transport. Knowing this would allow one to understand how horrific the travel had actually been due how the slaves were dealt with. Documents 4, 5, and 6 portray the awful treatment of slaves during their transportation across the ocean and how the way they were

    Read More

  • Comparing the Atlantic Slave Trade with the Arab Slave Trade

    837 Words  | 2 Pages

    In contrast to the Atlantic slave trade, where the male-female ratio was 2:1, the Arab slave trade instead usually had a higher female-to-male ratio. Concubinage and reproduction served as incentives for importing female slaves, though many were also imported mainly for performing household tasks. In both continents, anything a slave owns, is automatically the master’s own too, however in Arabia, a slave may be allowed to earn money to purchase his or her freedom and similarly to pay bride wealth if he was to be married, the marriage requiring the consent of the master first. If the master was to use his slave for sexual gratification, he may not co-habit with a female slave belonging to his wife, neither can he have relations with a female slave if she is co-owned, or already married. In America, a man may have relations with a slave but it wasn’t very likely, as this was taboo and not approved of.

    Read More

  • Similarities Between North And South American Slavery

    816 Words  | 2 Pages

    Slavery by its very nature is a brutal act of depravity forced upon another person. It deprives a person of any freedom and strips them of human dignity, forcing upon them the will of another as absolute power. Slavery in North America was a much harsher institution than slavery in South America. Slavery in North America had no pre-colonial rules regulating slavery due to England not establishing any prior to establishing claims in America. However, the Spanish and Portuguese had a history of slavery and had preexisting laws and practices in place that they brought with them to the Americas. The rules put into place provided more liberal practices in dealing with issues of slavery, such as the freeing of slaves. In South America slave owners were encouraged to provide a conversion and transition their slaves from being enslaved to free. South America provided more legal pathways for slaves to be freed and it was something encouraged by the Catholic church the predominant faith practiced by the Spanish and Portuguese. It was far more common for slaves to be freed by their owners in South America. By contrast, in North America the law did not encourage the conversion of slaves to

    Read More

  • Arguments Against African Slave Trade

    772 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Africans slaves were treated just as badly as the Native Americans if not worse. They were forced to work hard gruesome hours in a fields, never feed or kept in good health, they were branded like common farm animals and brutally tortured at any signs of disobedience and resistance. As European crops and materials grew in demand, more African slaves were brought to the New World for work, thus beginning the Atlantic slave trade Europeans justified the Atlantic slave trade, which was the buying and selling of African slaves, in different ways. Three commonly used excuses being one: “ Apologist for the African slave trade long argued that European traders purchased African who had already been enslaved and who otherwise would have been put to death.Thus, apologists claimed the slave trade actually saved lives.” As well as two: “ In the Christian world, the most important rationalization for slavery was the so called ‘Curse of Ham’ According to the doctrine, the Bible figure Noah had cursed his son Ham with blackness and the condition slavery.” The last justification was that Europeans, full of greed and power, needed more people that weren't of European descendent to do all the dirty, hard and dangerous work for them. All of

    Read More

  • Abraham Lincoln and The Voice of The Abolitionists

    878 Words  | 2 Pages

    Slaves had an expanding economic force for the Europeans. “Trade between the Europeans and Africans created the first route of the triangular slave trade”. African citizens were “forcibly removed from their homes to never return”. Sales of Africans were classified as having the full cooperation of the “African kings” in return for various trade and goods. Africans who were exchanged were forced to walk chained to the coast of the Indian Ocean. Once at the coast they were stripped of all their clothes, men, women and children all alike with just a loincloth, or strips of blue tap for women to cover their chest area. Once the Africans boarded the ship they were divided by sex, males in the bowel of the ship and the women on the upper deck. The men would be chained side by side by their necks with barely enough room to move. African women were forced to do the “unmentionable acts”. Neither were fed or watered well, and the men would be forced to sit in their own “excrement, and vomit”. Once in awhile the men would be brought to the deck and rinsed off with cold water. While on deck they would be forced to dance to “entertain the ships crew”. Many Africans would try to “revolt” or commit “suicide”, when revolting against their captors many Africans would die. For as much as “3- 6 months” the Africans would endure these torments. Once the ship ported in the America’s shore, all the Africans would be “cleaned up and stripped naked to be sold”. Once the Africans were sold they were no longer Africans to the Merchants, they were product, and, no longer having rights as humans; they were caught into what is called chattel slavery. For approximately “246 years” African Americans would endure such bondage.

    Read More

  • Abina And The Important Men Analysis

    1051 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ever since there has been humanity, slavery has been a mechanism used by people in order to subjugate and dehumanize other individuals. Abina and the Important Men is a book that illustrates how slavery was still able to manifest, even after it had been abolished within British society. By enslaving young women under the false pretense that the individuals were wards, powerful African leaders and British rulers were able to maintain a social hierarchy where African women occupied the lowest rung. The trafficking of Africans through the Transatlantic Slave Trade, brought wealth to European and other western nations as well as African leaders who were willing to cooperate. Europeans, such as the Portuguese, British, and French, first began arriving to Africa in the 16th century since they were drawn by the valuable resources that could be found in coastal, African societies.

    Read More

  • DBQ ESSAY

    920 Words  | 2 Pages

    ... The Economic History Review, by Behrendt, Stephen D. David Eltis, David Richardson that stated, “…second impact of Africans that goes beyond violence on slave ships followed from the natural Africans assumption of equal status in the trading relationship…came in the wake of holding Europeans…”(Source 9). The result of considering the equal status between the Africans and the Europeans from Africa’s point of view was the Atlantic slave trade which millions of African people’s live had been jeopardized and their fate had been seal to work in the fields for the rest of their lives.

    Read More

  • The Middle Passage

    799 Words  | 2 Pages

    It is prudent to speak here to the inhumane way in which the slaves were transported during this first leg of the journey. The trading of slaves was very lucrative for the Europeans. As it goes in business, the higher the demand, the larger the quantities supplied. All the slaves were branded to show to whom they belonged, and the male slaves were shackled together and packed in the hole like sardines, while the women and children were sometimes allowed to stay on deck.     Any acts of aggression by the men or women resulted in severe beatings to discourage the behavior. Imagine being beaten and shackled with a rival tribe man or not being able to communicate with the person beside you because you both spoke different languages!

    Read More

  • The Consequences of Slavery

    2031 Words  | 5 Pages

    Slavery is defined as a person being owned by someone, a state of bondage, servitude, or work performed under harsh conditions for little or no pay. Both continental African slavery and external commercial slavery deprived people of freedom. Continental slavery focused on adding people to a group to be productive members of the society and for other reasons beside monetary benefits. External slavery consisted of obtaining slaves for monetary means while inducing physical, emotional as well as psychological detriment to ensure compliance (Reader, 1997). With the emergence of European colonies, a system of trade with American Indians was created ...

    Read More

  • Reversing the Master and Slave Role in Benito Cereno

    1088 Words  | 3 Pages

    conditions aboard ship were dreadful. The maximum number of slaves was jammed into the hull, chained to forestall revolts or suicides by drowning. Food, ventilation, light, and sanitatio...

    Read More

More about Atlantic Slave Trade Dbq

Open Document