In contemporary society, the brutality of slavery is fairly well understood, and taught frequently in history courses. One of the documentations the general public has access to which explains in a clear amount of detail how inhuman slavery was is a memoir written by Olaudah Equiano, in which he describes his account of slavery. Although one could argue that Olaudah Equiano himself was fortunate for an enslaved African American during the 18th century he was still witness to many accounts of brutality towards slaves, and the horrid conditions which slaves traveled in when first captured. Equiano describes in great detail the brutality of life as a slave, as well as the emotional impact that brutality has on oneself. This brutality of slaves
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If the process of being captured was not atrocious enough once an African American was enslaved they were subject to lashings if they disobeyed orders. Equiano describes several different lashings which he observed during his time as a slave one of the most memorable of which happened to a slave on board the ship Equiano served on was the man failed to take the money he had earned immediately to his master and was whipped fifty times as punishment (Equiano, 101-102). While this is slightly understandable, the master would not want his slave to steal money which is not intended for himself. This example emphasizes the savagery of slavery because the man simply was late in turning in his money which upset his master who, in turn took the most extreme course of action for that offense and, beat his slave as an example to other slaves. While lashing was arguably an effective way of teaching slaves a lesson for their mistakes, there were so many other ways that the slaves could have been punished instead of forcibly spilling their blood. These lashings frequently occurred on the boats which the enslaved traveled in on their way to be sold in Europe; the conditions on these boats were utterly inhumane. On …show more content…
Some of these products included potatoes, tomatoes, maize, and sugar all of which have become an important part of the culture of many European countries (Colle and Symes, 450-452). While these products helped the economy in many European countries as well as influencing the creative power and European culture, it also meant that masters of slaves needed to work their slaves harder to keep up with the demands from Europe (Scofield, 9/20/2017). Thus, the average citizen unintentionally contributed to the brutality of slavery. While many European citizens also contributed directly to the brutality of slavery by owning slaves and treating them in a manner aforementioned. Ironically, for how they treated the African American slaves, during this time in history Europeans had a strong sense of enlightenment which one belief was that “... human reason would prevail over the accumulated superstitions and traditions of the past,” (Colle and Symes, 452). Had the Europeans thought to compare how they treated slaves to this ideal of the Enlightenment, the brutality of slavery may have been realized and stopped earlier. Slavery in its entirety was brutal and the pride of European citizens did nothing to ease its effect on African American
If the process of being captured was not atrocious enough once an African American was enslaved they were subject to lashings if they disobeyed orders. Equiano describes several different lashings which he observed during his time as a slave one of the most memorable of which happened to a slave on board the ship Equiano served on was the man failed to take the money he had earned immediately to his master and was whipped fifty times as punishment (Equiano, 101-102). While this is slightly understandable, the master would not want his slave to steal money which is not intended for himself. This example emphasizes the savagery of slavery because the man simply was late in turning in his money which upset his master who, in turn took the most extreme course of action for that offense and, beat his slave as an example to other slaves. While lashing was arguably an effective way of teaching slaves a lesson for their mistakes, there were so many other ways that the slaves could have been punished instead of forcibly spilling their blood. These lashings frequently occurred on the boats which the enslaved traveled in on their way to be sold in Europe; the conditions on these boats were utterly inhumane. On …show more content…
Some of these products included potatoes, tomatoes, maize, and sugar all of which have become an important part of the culture of many European countries (Colle and Symes, 450-452). While these products helped the economy in many European countries as well as influencing the creative power and European culture, it also meant that masters of slaves needed to work their slaves harder to keep up with the demands from Europe (Scofield, 9/20/2017). Thus, the average citizen unintentionally contributed to the brutality of slavery. While many European citizens also contributed directly to the brutality of slavery by owning slaves and treating them in a manner aforementioned. Ironically, for how they treated the African American slaves, during this time in history Europeans had a strong sense of enlightenment which one belief was that “... human reason would prevail over the accumulated superstitions and traditions of the past,” (Colle and Symes, 452). Had the Europeans thought to compare how they treated slaves to this ideal of the Enlightenment, the brutality of slavery may have been realized and stopped earlier. Slavery in its entirety was brutal and the pride of European citizens did nothing to ease its effect on African American