Atlantic Slave Trade Research Paper

When looking at the African dispora from the 1400s until the 1800s, it can be said that the trading of black slaves from Africa to European countries and else where symbolizes a tragic and dramatic encounter of economy, culture, humanity, geography and world history. Due to the large number of the black slaves transferred from their homeland to various corners of the world, the slave trade even managed to constitute one of the first forms of globalization. However, the black people were brutally treated during this inhumane trade. On the basis of the assigned reading materials, this essay aims at exploring the slave trade’s influence on the black experience during this era from three aspects, namely, the black people’s physical being, their …show more content…
In the book Ama: A Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade, the author depicts to the great detail how the slaves were kidnapped from their homeland, starved, beaten and trapped in the dungeons for sale. Many of the women among them were raped and treated violently. The protagonist Ama was sold like a livestock to Mr. De Bruyn as a sex slave, and was stripped off in front of the public to check for cleanliness. Suffering from all these, she still knew that it is many times worse on the ship (slave ship), which indicates that all the black slaves were suffering from great physical pain and maltreatment at that time. Besides, the black slaves are deprived of any spiritual aspirations or beliefs. They were locked up in the dungeons, resigned to their fate and was forced into fear and desperation. They even regard Jensen, the culprit of their enslavement, a slave merchant, as God, a golden haired red-faced god in spotless white uniform, because at that time the contempt on the black slaves are so powerful even the black themselves would regard themselves as worthless lower life forms. However, all these have been made up by the slave owners and dealers to justify their selling and using black people as