The Atlantic Slave Trade + Sources - Blog #4

The Atlantic Slave trade traded about 12.5 million people from African Societies, and of course, because of the harsh conditions experienced during the trade there were about 10.7 million slaves left. The children of parents who are slaves inherited the slave status. Because of the inherited slave status, freedom for slaves seemed far-fetched. Owners typically had their slaves do agriculture or industrial labor. The word slavery has a negative connotation to it, but in some cases some slaves did not do any dirty work rather they were able to acquire a significant status in politics or in the military.  What sets the Atlantic Slave trade differently from other enslavement in the world is that when any power, economic or political, was obtained opportunity was there to sell slaves. Africa’s significance in the Atlantic trade increased because of the amount of slaves being sold. For slaves, the idea of laborious work seemed strenuous and terrifying because of the new world they were going to enter, but they also found that as opportunity to live their lives in the Americas.

Document 14.1 follows the life of Olaudah Equiano an African slave who was taken, along with his sister, when he was young. His experience as a slave as portrayed in the document engages the readers with Equiano’s intense his emotions after being taken to being separated with his sister. Equaino’s experiences sheds more light on the conditions that slaves endured in Africa. One thing I found interesting was the fact that as a slave, Equiano was sold numerous times. The worst part about it is that they have no choice to stay with family who treats them as equals. The end of their slave work seems to end when their life’s are taken. Transportation across sea caused the slaves to become sick from the perspiration lingering in the air and many eventually died. Document 14.1 shows readers the life of a slave, in-depth, through the eyes of Olaudah Equiano.