DBQ Living Africans Thrown Overboard

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From the mid 15th century through the majority of the 19th century, slave trade was used to supply laborers to the Americas. The ways used to bring these forced laborers to the Americas lacked humane treatment of them as slaves. Overall the neglect of humanitarian concerns had a violent and inhumane impact on the treatment of the slaves throughout their capture, trade, transportation, and continued life as a slave. Throughout the slave trade, from 1450 to 1870, many Africans were kidnapped from their homes by both fellow Africans and Europeans who treated these prospective slaves in a similar manner. Document 3 is a piece of artwork that demonstrates how Africans were treated by their captors, who are also of African descent. Even though those …show more content…

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

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