African American Slave Relationships

In nineteenth century New Orleans, the booming cotton industry created an extremely high demand of labor to maintain production and distribution. The expansion of the cotton industry resulted in millions of Africans being shipped across the Atlantic Ocean to America to work in the cotton fields for the white man. This forced migration of Africans to America for labor is known as the slave trade. Inside the slave trade there was the slave market, where slaves were auctioned and purchased. The slave market was composed of three prominent groups of people: the slaves, the traders, and the buyers. These groups constantly competed with one another and their relationships set the tone for the way that slavery operated in the nineteenth century and …show more content…
When Africans were first brought to America, they were either sold to Americans, given to Americans, or captured by Americans. Nonetheless, these people were ripped from their culture and were forced to assimilate into another because of Americans. On their journey to America, these slaves were packed wall to wall on ships for weeks at a time. During the amount of time they spent together on the vessels, the slaves bonded with one another to get through the difficult process of being uprooted. Their journey was a terrifying one, and many did not survive because of the living conditions. Once the remaining slaves made it to America, they were taken by, or more commonly, sold to slave traders. The relationship between slave traders and slaves were competitive and impacted the way that they interacted with one another. More often than not, these first relationships were not pleasant ones for the slaves since the traders kept the slaves bonded in …show more content…
Like the slaves did for their owners, traders put on a show for the buyers. The traders shared exaggerated stories about the slaves they had possession of, which intrigued the buyers. Buyers went into the market wealthy, and looked for the best slaves these traders told stories about. Unknown to the buyers, traders often bought unhealthy or aggressive slaves for half price and sold them to wealthy buyers for full price. Many times, buyers came home from the slave market with their slaves confident that they purchased the best slaves that had been described to them. Shortly after their purchases, buyers were very disappointed because they were deceived and often got aggressive with their slaves, which showed how much they truly relied on their slaves for their livelihood. If a buyer felt like he was taken advantage of by the trader and wanted justice for it, the two could battle it out in the