Male Travelers, Female Bodies By Jennifer Morgan

Throughout our history class we have learned about a variety of different societies and their progression before and after the development of the atlantic world. For some this transition was drastic and others the change was minute. After the Atlantic world came together there was a noticeable shift change in the number of enslaved African individuals; as well as a transformation in the way in which they were treated. Before the Atlantic world slaves typically worked as servants performing domestic activities or as family farms hands. Additionally, it was typically for slavery to not last over a lifetime and was not passed on through generations. This changed as the slavery enterprise boomed. At this time african slaves were mostly sent to the Americas where they would work on plantations under harsh conditions, but the trip to the Americas could be just as bad if not worse. The horrendous treatment of the African slaves was clearly depicted in
In the essay “Male Travelers, Female Bodies” written by Jennifer Morgan she argues that the european version of beauty and the social creation of racism led to Africans being viewed as animals and were therefore treated as so. This is exemplified when Ligon a european traveler said, “their breasts hang down below their Navels, so that when they stoop at their common work of weeding, they hang almost to the ground, that at a distance you would think they had six legs.” This was followed by Morgan stating that, “ for Ligon, their monstrous bodies symbolized their sole utility- their ability to produce both crops and other laborers.” Both of these quotes are further evidence that the europeans had little respect for the african people, and clearly thought of themselves as superior leading to heinous actions performed on the Amistad and towards African people in