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Inhumane and degrading punishment of slaves
Inhumane and degrading punishment of slaves
An essay on the journey of the middle passage as a slave
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According to Alexander Falconbridge, a slave ship doctor of the middle passage was disgusting and horrible. The slave's owner treated them like they were nothing. They barely got any food and water. They were treated like they were animals in a cage. Diseases were transferred because the floor of all their room was covered with blood and mucus because of the intestinal infection that causes intense diarrhea. Then the captain would blame the slaves for dying, so obviously it wasn't a good place to be. Alexander Falconbridge said it reminded him of a slaughterhouse. There was so much blood that it disgusted many people. If the slaves refused to eat they would get burned on their lips. If you didn't eat slaves had a punishment. Another way disease
In “Slaves and the ‘Commerce’ of the Slave Trade,” Walter Johnson describes the main form of antebellum, or pre-Civil War, slavery in the South being in the slave market through domestic, or internal, slave trade. The slave trade involves the chattel principle, which said that slaves are comparable to chattels, personal property that is movable and can be bought or sold. Johnson identified the chattel principle as being central to the emergence and expansion of slavery, as it meant that slaves were considered inferior to everyone else. As a result, Johnson argued that slaves weren’t seen as human beings and were continually being mistreated by their owners. Additionally, thanks to the chattel principle, black inferiority was inscribed
Douglass also gives accounts of the horrific treatment of slaves by the plantation owner. "He (Master) would at times seem to take great pleasure in whipping a slave. I have often been awakened at dawn by the most heart-rending shrieks of an own aunt of mine, whom he used to tie up to a joist, and whip upon her naked back till she was literally covered with blood."(14) He mentions the tangible blood and shrieks to emphasize the pain and torture of a human being. This slave bleeds like any other person and so it is easier for a reader ...
Colonial living in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in the New World was both diverse and, in many cases, proved deadly through such avenues as disease, Native American attacks, a lack of proper medical treatment, and disastrous weather conditions. Even through all of these hardships, the first colonists persevered, doing their best to see the blessings in their lives and create a better life for their children through all of the uncertainties. Nothing, it seems, in the original colonies was set in stone except for the fact that they never knew what the next day would hold in store. Everything, even small mishaps, had dramatic impacts on the social, economic, and political aspects of their lives. These circumstances, however, were more strongly influenced by geography than class position, unlike what many were used to in England. How population, economics, disease, and climate played into the social conditions of early colonists is truly a story for the ages. Whether people were seeking land, religious freedom, or money and profits, everyone worked to a certain extent just to survive, let alone thrive, in the wilderness that was North America at that time.
During the American Revolution and the civil war, the North and the South experienced development of different socio-political and cultural environmental conditions. The North became an industrial and manufacturing powerhouse as a result of rise of movements like abolitionism and women’s right while the South became a cotton kingdom whose labor was sourced from slavery (Spark notes, 2011).
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...
The film “Slavery by another name" is a one and a half hour documentary produced by Catherine Allan and directed by Sam Pollard, and it was first showcased by Sundance Film Festival in 2012. The film is based on Douglas Blackmonbook Slavery by Another Name, and the plot of the film revolves around the history and life of African Americans after Emancipation Proclamation; which was effected by President Abraham Lincoln in 1865, for the purpose of ending slavery of African Americans in the U.S. The film reveals very brutal stories of how slavery of African Americans persisted in through forced labor and cruelty; especially in the American south which continued until the beginning of World War II. The film brings to light one of my upbringing
By the 1700s, it was usually easy to discern an urban slave from their rural counterparts by their clothing. The elite slave owning society in the city often felt a sense of social pressure to dress their servants stationed in the city in finer clothing than they did for those that they enslaved on the plantation. Johann Martin Boltzius, a minister throughout Georgia and South Carolina, described the clothing of slaves as he witnessed in the city:
Since the beginning of slavery in the America, Africans have been deemed inferior to the whites whom exploited the Atlantic slave trade. Africans were exported and shipped in droves to the Americas for the sole purpose of enriching the lives of other races with slave labor. These Africans were sold like livestock and forced into a life of servitude once they became the “property” of others. As the United States expanded westward, the desire to cultivate new land increased the need for more slaves. The treatment of slaves was dependent upon the region because different crops required differing needs for cultivation. Slaves in the Cotton South, concluded traveler Frederick Law Olmsted, worked “much harder and more unremittingly” than those in the tobacco regions.1 Since the birth of America and throughout its expansion, African Americans have been fighting an uphill battle to achieve freedom and some semblance of equality. While African Americans were confronted with their inferior status during the domestic slave trade, when performing their tasks, and even after they were set free, they still made great strides in their quest for equality during the nineteenth century.
During the nineteenth century, there were a variety of diseases that affected both slaves and their masters in the Antebellum South of the United States. Tuberculosis, yellow fever, whooping cough, malaria, worms, cholera, and diphtheria were some of the many medical conditions that affected much of the population. Childbirth also had a large impact on the health of women and newborn children, due to a lack of knowledge about proper nutrition and prenatal care. As a result, there were many accidents during childbirth and a high mortality rate ("Plantation Medicine and Health"). The same medical solutions to these diseases were often used for both masters and their slaves, however it was ultimately the slave master's decision about the health care of their slaves. James O. Breedon, editor of Advice Among Masters: The Ideal in Slave Management in the Old South, stated, “In matters of health care, slaveowners often extended their ideas concerning domestic medicine to their slaves. In many cases, the owner provided the same care for the slaves as he did for himself and his family. In order to exercise what they felt was their
The living conditions on the ships were awful. Slaves were crammed into a small area overflowing with other slaves all crowded together. Slaves battled dehydration, being given little to no water, and malnourishment, being given small amounts of food, and no place to use the bathroom. Viruses like scurvy and fly disease spread rapidly throughout the ship. Slaves also battled dehydration and malnourishment. The long time on the ships is another condition the slaves had to go through for months at a time. Many slaves died before getting to their destination.
Those that were able to withstand the grueling conditions of the middle passage were than divided and redistributed for the economic gain of others. They were treated like savages, as slave owners strapped heavy metal shackles that covered their body. Linked together by chains, these slaves were again loaded and transported to the place they would call "home". A home quite different from what they were used to abroad.
All were subject to harsh circumstances and the relentless fears of shipwreck and disease outbreaks. It took as long as five to twelve weeks, depending on the weather circumstances and point of departure. The captain and the crew workers treated the slaves like wild animals, giving them barely enough food to survive and leaving them to suffer with lice, fleas, and rats, which led to many diseases (“Middle Passage”). The records stated that about two –thirds of the fatalities were caused by malaria, yellow fever, and intestinal disorders (Postma 25). The enslaved Africans were linked with heavy iron chains around their hands and feet with barely enough room to lie down (Howarth). Constant odors of urine, vomit...
African Americans and servants both are treated quite poorly, they did not have the necessary clothing to properly work in the field. They were given a canvas shirt and trowsers, and that 's it. No shoes, no hat, and the shirt and trowsers were hopsack, meaning not the best woven, and rough to the touch. The servants also were given the same amount of food as the slaves, and they worked the same hours. (Source 3)
Also, the ship’s crew often treated the Africans badly; they often whipped them because many of the people resisted and tried to escape from the cargo ship.
1. Slave’s lifestyle in the 1800 was anything but enjoyable. They lived, breathed, and sweated work.Their hours were from sunrise to sunset. Not only did they live in poor living conditions, and work in undesirable conditions, but they also were often taken from their families, and had religion forced on them. To sum it up, the lives that slaves led were unfavorable due to the way they had to live, and the lifestyle that was imposed on to them.