Slave Trade

Part 1: The slave trade was conducted by the Europeans in order to raise their profit of sugar plantation, and they cornered Africans into a harsh situation during and after the voyage. From the early 1500’s to the early 1600’s, the Europeans increasingly bought slaves from Africans who needed weapons and other food supplies for their ongoing wars. To maximize the profit, the captains of slave ships wanted to carry as many healthy slaves for as little cost as possible by choosing either a loose or a tight packing system. From the 1500’s to the mid 1800’s, about 12 million black slaves were shipped from Africa to the Western World, enduring brutal and crowded conditions which caused the slaves to have a horror of death and diseases. Approximately 2 million blacks died during the journey, about 65 percent of them were transported to sugar colonies like Brazil and Cuba, and about 6 percent of the black slaves were sent to North America. Slavery became widespread in South America as well as in other sugar colonies. Slaves in Latin America were maltreated since the welfare laws that were enacted to protect the slaves were poorly enforced. However, slaves in the United States generally had a better life than those in South America, even though slavery there was also as cruel as it was in Latin America. All in all, Africans had to suffer from inhumane conditions without the protection of laws on the way to America and after the long voyage, just for the sake of the white people’s profit.
Part 2: Why was I so indifferent to the agony of people who were discriminated against even though I myself am a visible minority? This was the first question that popped into my mind after the last group’s presentation. To be honest, I have always had a horror of being discriminated against by racists. However, I only cared about my own problem. I was completely ignorant about other people who were maltreated and their miserable history. This topic, the history of African slaves, would