Isabella Nugent
Professor McKinney
Slavery in the US
September 30, 2014
The Search for
Humanity
American Slavery and Saltwater Slavery are able to enlighten
a reader more about the origins, the process, and the aftermath of slavery than
all four years of any high school history courses could. It is common knowledge
to American students of all ages that slavery existed as a horrendous blight on
our otherwise proud history, before being essentially outlawed by President
Lincoln with the Emancipation Proclamation. Unfortunately, the dry facts of
history sometimes leave out the unspeakable truths of slavery that, if widely
understood, would bring a much deeper level of emotion and understanding to the
topic for all students of American history. Throughout the reading, Peter
Kolchin and Stephanie Smallwood are able to illustrate with vivid detail so
many aspects of the slave trade, which in turn insight incredible feelings and
empathy for modern day readers towards the real life people that suffered
during such a dreadful, horrific existence in our history.
The first book that the class
discussed was Saltwater Slavery
written by Stephanie E. Smallwood. Having a very limited knowledge of the Slave
Trade, Smallwood wasted no time jumping into the history of the Slave Trade.
Throughout the first chapter, Smallwood explains how the original demand for
gold quickly went hand in hand with the demand for slaves. Smallwood states,
But a rapidly growing demand for
labor… meant that English traders would look to the region to serve as a dual
market for the purchase of gold and people, and the pull of the Atlantic market
for slaves would henceforth be felt on the Gold Coast as it had elsewhere in
Africa in the preceding two centuries[1].
Money is a universal path to power. When it became
abundantly clear that with more labor comes more money; the slave trade began
to flourish in the new colonies. In other words, it was a shortcut, for a white
man to become wealthy on the backs of slaves, without putting in his own sweat
and tears. With this mentality, the need for slaves increased substantially and
those handling the shipment and commerce of human labor had to adapt to the
growing demand.. In a very short period of time, this living, breathing
commodity quickly lost any remaining source of humanity as they were now
considered to be simply “human cargo”[2].
In other words, these human beings were viewed and treated as if they were
furniture being shipped across the Atlantic, with often less care. Smallwood
describes the living conditions of the slaves before and during the slave
commerce and transportation. This was quite tough to read, not because it was
hard to understand, but because while reading, one needs to constantly keep in
mind that this is not fiction, or a scene from an overly graphic Hollywood
movie, but the brutal, vicious reality for a fellow human. Thousands of slaves were kept in a
small, underground spaces so they could not escape, chained to the boat.
Violence was not unusual and nutrition and sanitation were not a priority. Smallwood explains, “Meant not to
support health but rather simply to ensure subsistence, the diet on which
captives tried to survive provided, at best, a consistent intake of
nutritionally empty calories”[3].
Food is a necessity for living. Captured like a wild animal, torn from their
home and family, beaten and humiliated, the slaves were then also deprived of
basic nutrition for sustenance.
Smallwood
made it very clear that even though a boat was only built to carry a certain
amount of ‘cargo’, the captains and traders would often literally cram as many
living bodies into the below deck space for increased profit. Smallwood writes,
“Slaves became, for the purpose of transatlantic shipment, mere physical units
that could be arranged and molded at will- whether folded together spoonlike in
rows or flattened side by side in a plane” [4].
This one description proves that not only were these humans treated as if they
were furniture but the main concern for the traders was the overall profit they
were going to make without zero consideration that their merchandise were
living, breathing souls. On page 71, Smallwood described that the little space
that was left, would not be used as legroom, but instead would be filled by a
child so no space was wasted. Not only are they taking away every ounce of
freedom from these people but they are also taking away any sense of humanity
they have left. As the reading continued, Smallwood explains that the only way
they would stop loading slaves onto the ship is if it became a risk to their
money. In other words, if the slaves began to die on the ship, it would only
hurt their pockets. Another astonishing quotation that was striking was when
Smallwood states, “Women were more valuable than men on the African market for
slaves, but women were also easier both to obtain and to dispose of”[5].
Once again these people are being described as an object that can easily be
replaced if damaged or rendered worthless. To envision a loved one, by actually
putting a face to the experience, slavery is such a violation of humanity, it
is practically impossible to understand how another human being could commit
such atrocities, much less thousands who supported this commerce of human
labor.
In
addition to the immense physical suffering, the psychological and emotional
anguish would have been equally as great. Imagine being suddenly captured, held
hostage, put on a boat in essentially a closed box for weeks on end, with
absolutely no understanding of what is happening or where you are. Due to that
lack of information, the slaves were forced to come up with their own sense of
reasoning to explain their living nightmare. Smallwood discusses their culture
and traditions and how it played such a significant role during both their
transportation across the ocean, as well as their immersion into their new
daily existence in the New World. Every ‘fact’ that they gather, every scrap of
information about where they are going, how they are getting there, and what is
going to happen to them upon arrival,
is “a rumor-based body of knowledge of their own”[6]. They have no sense of time, location,
or sense of meaning as they are shoved in the bottom of a boat, surrounded by
strangers. It is impossible to imagine how an individual brain even moves past
this type of trauma. The one aspect an enslaved person might have to cling to
while having lost all sense of physical freedom, would be his or her culture
and beliefs, to grasp on to what little sense of humanity they have left.
Although suicide is a naturally considered a tragedy, for a slave it was one
means of escape, figuratively and literally, and for him or her to die on their
own terms. During such desperate times, taking one’s life to put an end to the
seemingly never-ending suffering, was a way to maintain one’s own dignity,
especially if the person had a belief in an after life of any type. Suicide
might release their soul from slavery even if it ended their life. Many years
after the Civil War, although slaves were gaining their freedom, Peter Kolchin
notes that due to “legal discrimination and vicious hostility” a black man
still was far from being considered ‘free’[7].
Regardless
of how shameful a period in the past may be, it can obviously never be changed.
Slavery is a fact, a horrible chapter in the history of a great country. The
greatest gift that can be given to the descendants of such a tragedy is to
focus attention on the harsh details so that such events are never repeated. It
may seem highly improbable that slavery could ever reemerge, but today’s
citizens must learn from history so that a greater understanding exists towards
groups of American society that even today may not have the same opportunities
in their communities because of decades of discrimination and racism.
[1] Stephanie
Smallwood, Saltwater Slavery a Middle Passage from Africa to American
Diaspora (Harvard University Press 2008),18-19
[3] Stephanie
Smallwood, Saltwater Slavery a Middle Passage from Africa to American
Diaspora (Harvard University Press 2008),44
[6] Stephanie
Smallwood, Saltwater Slavery a Middle Passage from Africa to American
Diaspora (Harvard University Press 2008),130
[7] Peter
Kolchin. American Slavery, 1619-1877. (New York: Hill and Wang, 1993),
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