Summary: The Atlantic Slave Trade

The Atlantic slave trade helped established an economy in America, and helped aide a society for the New World. Slaves were one of the most important key figures in the New World since they were held responsible for working the land and developing a system of labor. With the Atlantic slave trade came the concepts of race and racism. To this day, blacks can be regarded as inferior to whites. The main reason for this inferiority of blacks is due to the fact of slavery in the Atlantic World. The concepts of racism developed meaning blacks were not given equal rights that whites were granted. They were taken from their homeland in Africa and forced to worship and go about life the way whites wanted them to. Whites are seen as the superior race …show more content…
With this being done, they developed a black code or Code Noir, which had intentions of creating a code for masters and slaves to follow regarding slavery. A key aspect of the code was religion, and colonists claimed they were teaching them ways of following the path of Jesus. Article II from the code states, “will be baptized and instructed in the Catholic religion.” Colonists didn’t give slaves the freedom to choose their religion, which is still a limitation on their freedom. The film, Twelve Years a Slave, also shows some footage of slaves on plantations attending a worship service offered by their masters. They wanted all slaves to be baptized, and claimed they would live a better life with this new religion in the New World. However, in Equiano, he began to admire the worship of the white people, “amazed to see no sacrificing, or offerings among them.” The religious cultures were very different for blacks from Africa to the New …show more content…
Granted, Equaino had life easier than most slaves encounter in the New World. There were ways he became an Englishman, “I had the strong desire to resemble them; to imbibe their spirits, and imitate their manners.” This shows that colonists weren’t always necessarily corrupting them but helping the slaves become more civilized in the New World. Equaino saw the race of the whites as superiors and felt the need to act like them. He learned to read and write, and when he first discovered books he put it up to his ear to hear it. Treatment of slavery varied from one master to the next. Equaino also gave an insight how not all slave masters were awful and some masters were fair with him. Equaino was eventually granted his freedom by selling goods and learning to make revenue off of his trades. Slaves were able to learn the logistics of economics and the value of money in the New World. He was not a runaway slave who became a maroon by running away for freedom. With the formations of maroons, slaves were more likely to run away from their masters. Some did this in order to get a point across to their master about wanting more equal rights. However, many times slaves were caught or returned to their master and had to receive harsh treatments for their consequences of running