Slavery in the 1700s
Slavery occurred all around the world in the 1700s. Almost 70,000 slaves were sold per year in America, where most of the worlds slaves were sent and worked. To capture the slaves, African kings sent their serviceman to arrest the African citizens and when locked in cells for weeks till the ships came, they were sold to European traders and Arab merchants. This brought great financial support to the not too wealthy kings in the continents of Africa. Sometimes countries demanded slaves from Africa and to capture the slaves quickly and protecting the continents population, the king sends warriors to the neighbouring continents to take people to become slaves. Once the slaves were on the ship they were packed in side by side with barely enough room to scratch and were fed the bare minimum. Due to the lack of movement and the amount of bodies in a small room underneath the deck the stench and heat was unbearable and many slaves died or became terribly ill on the ship. Death was a common occurrence on slave ships and on for every 1000 slaves, 200 men, women and children died while crossing the Middle Passage. Many slaves made the ultimate decision and decided that taking their life so they did not have to endure a life of pain and torture. Disease was a major issue on the slave ships and spread very quickly across the ship. To avoid the slaves getting diseases the crew of the ship made the slaves run around the deck of the ship while they were followed with whips and they were forced to dodge them though many of the slaves were still shackled making this event twice as hard. The crew of the ship called this a good activity and was commonly known as the Slave Dance. To get to most countries, the slave ships had to cross the Middle Passage. This section of ocean was very rough and was very uncomfortable for the slaves and the crew on board. Some captains allowed a bucket to be passed around for waste but not all slaves endured the simple pleasure due to shackles and the obstacles they were faced with when trying to get to the waste buckets. The trip to the American plantations took around 30-50 days where slaves were beaten, tortured and were given very little to survive. Once the slave ship had arrived in America, the slaves were escorted of and directed to slave markets where they were auctioned or sold to their new owner/master. The slaves were then sent to plantations or huge farms in Brazil, the Caribbean, or the South under the order of their new masters. The slaves were to work on the land from dawn to dusk, picking cotton in the fields or working with the tobacco. The slaves were also called in to work extra hours during harvests and we forced to work into the night or weekend if they were behind on their day work. Weekends were a break from the long hours of labour though not all slaves received the break. The slaves of the Masters house worked each and every day and were commonly assaulted and sexually abused by the white men. In the 1700s, it was acceptable in some regions of the West Indies to sexually abused. Children also lived on the plantations and we seen as branded slaves if they were born during the time on the farms. Once the child turned 3, they were forced into their first stage of slavery and we to take the garbage out or other small household jobs. The slaves lived in small wooden huts providing just enough to protection from the earths elements to keep the slaves alive. A kitchen was shared between many slave families and little furniture was featured in the huts. Other slaves were not as lucky and were forced to sleep in barns or wherever suitable. Some slaves were even lucky enough to sleep inside the masters house and were allowed freedom and lived as they did previously. The reason behind most of the worlds black slavery, is racism. Most common slaves were black and the slave owners were most commonly white. There was an obvious racial difference and to make the gap bigger, the black people frequently did not understand the language of the white people. The white people also saw the black people as dumb and thought they needed guidance therefore they did not think that slavery was wrong as it was "guiding" the black people. The slave owners also thought that black skin made you inferior to the white people, this spread all over the world and whites strongly believed that they were worth more than the black population. It was not possible to protest against the white people or try to testify against them.