Essay On African American Slavery

Slave Treatment
In the 16th and 17th centuries, the practice of slavery was growing throughout Europe. The Africans took part in the slave trade because they were able to trade slaves with the Europeans for money and goods. The Portuguese and the Africans had different motives as to why they wanted to follow through on their decisions to create a slave trade. The Portuguese introduced slave trade to Brazil as they had been given land in Brazil and the slaves could help with agriculture in the area to help lower food prices. Through the slave trade, the Portuguese had registered over 812,000 workers in the agricultural industry in Brazil. (Conrad) Four million slaves were imported to Brazil and 7,328,000 more were exported to other countries
across the globe. (The Slave Trade) For the Europeans and Brazilians, Slave Trade was a great deal, but for the slaves, it was a terrible deal.
The conditions in Brazil were far worse for the slaves than they were in Europe.
Slaves were mistreated as they had to carry 160 pound sacks of coffee, received little food, had to do whatever their masters ordered and were lashed as punishment for running away or evading their duties. The African slaves were treated terribly. After slaves were transported to Brazil, they were mostly employed in agriculture. (Conrad) The Portuguese supplied them with only one pair of clothes per year, they had to carry over 150 pounds of coffee, the slaves received little food, and pregnant women were not excused from working. Imagine having to do whatever your masters ordered. How would you feel? The slaves likely felt sad, angry, or even deceived because slave work was not as bad as this in Africa. In Africa, slaves did many different types of work such as working as personal servants or doing housework, but once they got to South America, it was a whole different story. There they mainly worked in agriculture and diamond extraction in the mines. The slaves woke up at 5 a.m. and worked until nightfall. (Biography of Mahommah G. Baquaqua) It was gruelling work and their living conditions provided little comfort. It is overwhelming how terribly the slaves were treated in South America. Since they were forced to work from the morning to the night, they received a great deal of sun exposure, which lead to illness. Evening work “almost always causes illnesses.” (David Gomes
Jardim)
In exchange for working all day, slaves earned 3 ¼ pounds of corn flour, beans, salt, and a slice of tobacco. You really do not get any big breaks being a slave. Other than your master helping you out when you are sick, there is not anything else you can do. Whether you are pregnant, a teen, or hungry, you have to listen to what your master wants you to do or you could receive punishment.
Fortunately for some slaves, they were able to have a slightly better job at times, extracting diamonds. Most slaves preferred extracting diamonds over normal agricultural work. If a slave found a diamond, depending on its size, he would be awarded with anything from a hat to his freedom and a paying job at the mine. “When a black man finds a diamond weighing three-fourths of a dram, his freedom is guaranteed, but he is obliged to work yet for a certain time for the administration… For diamonds that weighed less than three-fourths of a dram the blacks receive small rewards in proportion to the values of the stone, for example, a knife, a hat, a waist coat, and so forth.” (Auguste De Sainte-Hillaire) It is no wonder that the slaves preferred this assignment because with it came hope. (Auguste de Saint-Hilaire)
Clearly the Portuguese were not comfortable with the fact the slaves were not Christian. Most slave owners asked many questions of their slaves, all of them with the same essential meaning: are you a Christian or not? Such questions as “Do you want to wash your soul with holy water?” and “Will you cast the devil out of your soul?” () In the evening, the masters called their slaves for prayer, even though most of the slaves did not believe in the Christian religion. In 1814, after centuries of exploitation, the slaves decided to rebel against their masters. After many years of slave trade in Brazil, the slaves finally rebelled showing that they did not approve of being treated so badly and that they want freedom from their masters. “The rebels started out at Manoel Ignacio’s Warehouse, moving from there to Itapua and to the Joanes River with the intention of joining up with blacks from other plantations and farms, and crying out: ‘Freedom! Long live the blacks and their King, and death to whites and Mulattoes!’ And they killed all the black women and a black boy who did not want to join them.” (Carlos B.) Years of abuse had brought great rage to the slaves and their numbers had grown. The author suggests that the rebellion would be successful because of the enormous advantage they had in numbers. Sadly, history reveals that slavery was far from over as it was just beginning in the United States. Unfortunately, this is but one example of a more powerful class exploiting a less powerful class in the form of slavery. Even today, in our world, there are instances where slavery still exists. Over history, there are also examples of uprisings and in the slavery such as the United States, when slavery was abolished.