Slavery Condition In America

Many recognize slaves were kept under horrible conditions, but few understand its severity. This discrepancy between knowledge and actuality is caused by a lack of awareness of slavery’s true nature. Luckily, there are ways to see the severity of slavery, and the two primary documents selected for this assignment are an example Through imaging, the primary sources provide evidence of the poor physical conditions Africans suffered under slavery.
The first image depicts a slave ship with numerous African lined next to each other. This image is significant because it is an example of the harsh physical conditions Africans faced. Some conditions resulted from slave traders neglecting to stay within a certain number of slaves. According to The African American Odyssey, many captains chose to ignore their ship’s weight capacity and packed twice as many slaves (2.4.2). To accommodate, slaves were often laid on top of one another or chained very closely together to make space. The result of this, as image one shows, was very little room for movement.
The outcome of this cruelty manifested in many forms. One of those, according to the movie “Africans in America: Terrible
Transformation”, was an outbreak of deadly diseases. The outbreak occurred in part because slaves ate, defecated, and slept in close proximity. Slaves also suffered abuse on ships at the hands of sailors. For instance, Dr. Jones’ lecture on the Transatlantic Slave Trade talks about a captain was put on trial for throwing Africans overboard. Women were also victims of abuse, often sexual ones (African American Odyssey, 2.4.9). These forms of mistreatment amongst others, all happened on ships such as the one depicted in image one and continued until slavery ended.
Image two depicts slave women working in a plantation field.
Unfortunately, the physical mistreatment of enslavement did not improve once bought. In fact, they were often similar to mistreatment on ships. Once on land, slaves were often put to work right away. In Barbadian plantations, for example, replacing slaves was cheaper than taking care of them (“Africans in America: Terrible Transformation”). This further promoted mistreatment slaves, resulting in slaves being worked to death. In the beginning, Americans did not work slaves to death as often as in the Caribbeans, but treatment was no better. Dr. Jones’ lecture on Africans In Colonial America highlights the Chesapeake Colonies eventual adoption of the Caribbean plantation system. This meant similar forms of brutalization occurred there as
well.
Though people have generalized ideas about the brutality of slavery, few know the full extent. fortunately, primary sources like the ones in this analysis give audiences a clearer picture. Both images, one of a slave ship and the other of slaves working, paint a picture of the terrible physical conditions suffered at the hand of slavery. Through analysis of these documents, one can conclude physical and sexual abuse, and death due to overexertion was just a few forms of physical hardships that made slavery a daunting episode in American history.