Response To John Barbot's Voyage

John Barbot described the way that French treat slaves on their voyage compared to the other Europeans. He goes into great detail about each individual precaution and procedure that takes place on the slave ships. John Barbot describes the role that Europeans played by providing transportation of slaves to the New World. Barbot’s description of the slave ship shows that the slaves were not treated as people instead they were simple cargo. He stated that slaves were placed on shelves one on top of each other, and they were also pressed as close as possible to one another. The reason they were squeezed so close was to maximize profit by increasing the amount of human cargo aboard the ship. Willem Bosman describes the sale of slaves in the …show more content…
He experienced first hand that Africans were feed only twice a day with an insufficient excuse for a meal. They were feed lard and Indian wheat with occasionally beans or peppers. They were only given water during their meals, but they were given insufficient amount of water as well. They were only given a coconut shell of water, and sometimes brandy which would only further aid in dehydration. The African slaves were kept in a constant feeble state because of malnutrition. Managing the slaves’ diet allowed easier control of the masses because they could not rebel successfully when kept in a feeble state. The slaves were also controlled through violence which invoked fear. Although Barbot does not recommend violence, he does acknowledge that many slave ship owners beat and abuse their slaves to maintain control and appease themselves. Additional psychological abuse happened to slaves once they arrived in the New World. Willem Bosman described his observation of a scramble as Europeans running into a pin full of Africans, and Europeans grabbed Africans that they wanted to purchase. The slaves were ambushed like livestock and tied together which added to the psychological suffering endured by the slaves. The African slaves also suffered from an array of diseases which were contracted from Europeans, insufficient living conditions, malnutrition, lack of medical care, and stress from psychological abuse. Bosman details diseases riddled slaves still being sold into slavery, but he states that they were discounted as low as one dollar for a slave. Primary sources from Bosman and Barbot have limitation because both men benefited from the operation of the trans Atlantic slave trade. This would give both men an incentive to justify and find favorable attributes about the slave trade. Both men would be writing their sources for European readers who support slavery. Another limitation of their