The Harmful Effects Of European Migrations

While migration spurred innovation, trade of goods, and cultural exchange, it also caused a devastating hierarchy among different groups of people from around the world. Europeans viewed themselves as discoverers and conquerors of new places. The natives of these conquered lands were considered savage, primitive, and a lesser class of humans. Through these various migrations, the most harmful effects were the dehumanization and enslavement of Africans and the mentalities that stemmed from such treatment. With access to new crops and resources, Europeans needed a large workforce to maintain the agriculture. The people of West Africa were viewed as having a rudimentary understanding of life by the Europeans. This made them vulnerable …show more content…
Upon arrival, he was grabbed by a group of men and forced onto the ship. Once presented to the Europeans, the enslaved Africans were examined to “inquire into the state of their health, if they are afflicted with any infirmity, or are deformed, or have bad eyes or teeth; if they are lame, or weak in their joints, or distorted in the back, or of a slender make, or are narrow in the chest.” Those who were rejected by European slave traders were consistently beaten and ridiculed, further exemplifying the complete disregard for the lives of African slaves. Millions of West Africans would eventually be enslaved and sent around the world to perform brutal labor under cruel …show more content…
The buyers all congregated around the platform preparing themselves for the bidding. While the white bidders thought of these auctions as means of business and property ownership, the slaves felt a devastating crash of emotions as their lives were put in the hands of their abusers. It is clear that the buyers had no remorse for their actions. Otherwise, they would have felt compassion or at least noticed that “the expression on the faces of all who stepped on the block was always the same, and told of more anguish than it is in the power of words to express. Blighted homes, crushed hopes and broken hearts was the sad story to be read in all the anxious