The Slave Ship: A Human History written by Marcus Rediker is a painful eye-opening novel, embodying the many truths at a life at sea. This testament to a time when Anglo-American slave ships subjected countless numbers to the hatred and terror of the world, aims to eloquently prevail the provocative stories behind it. Rediker recreates this world by using personal accounts and seafaring records to reproduce the feelings and emotions that challenged life and death along this rigorous journey.
After the 1700’s in a world progressively dominated by Britain, slave ships transported millions of people from African coastlines to the New World. A term commonly referred to as the “middle passage.” This stage for the Atlantic slave trade unwinds and …show more content…
Yet, this account in history tragically bound to a starless midnight, still attempts to examine not only the relentless quest for profit, but the separation of class and legacies of race among these tortured soles.
In examining the slave trade we often group slavery as being a pre-capitalist notion, but the idea of capitalism this early on may have played a more crucial role in the development of this country than we could have ever examined. Human beings were being annexed and relocated to a setting where their experienced work and tolerance in a scorching climate could be mutilated and exploited for a profit. These slave ships were nothing more than a factory producing a labor force for the world’s economy. They doubled as a sugar carrier by day and a slave transporter by …show more content…
From that point on the sailors would show active opposition and hostility toward the enslaved. Unfortunately, the roles are reversed as they approach the New World and the captives become commodities. The sailor’s animosity reaches an all-time high as their sleeping quarters are taken over and they are ordered to tend to the “profit.” Their responsibilities included: bathing them, shaving them, rubbing their bodies with palm oil, and feeding them. The crews often released this hatred and animosity out on the women and children. With such a lack of character and integrity, the sailors would attack the “abject and powerless” first, leaving the remaining anger to anyone else under their
After the 1700’s in a world progressively dominated by Britain, slave ships transported millions of people from African coastlines to the New World. A term commonly referred to as the “middle passage.” This stage for the Atlantic slave trade unwinds and …show more content…
Yet, this account in history tragically bound to a starless midnight, still attempts to examine not only the relentless quest for profit, but the separation of class and legacies of race among these tortured soles.
In examining the slave trade we often group slavery as being a pre-capitalist notion, but the idea of capitalism this early on may have played a more crucial role in the development of this country than we could have ever examined. Human beings were being annexed and relocated to a setting where their experienced work and tolerance in a scorching climate could be mutilated and exploited for a profit. These slave ships were nothing more than a factory producing a labor force for the world’s economy. They doubled as a sugar carrier by day and a slave transporter by …show more content…
From that point on the sailors would show active opposition and hostility toward the enslaved. Unfortunately, the roles are reversed as they approach the New World and the captives become commodities. The sailor’s animosity reaches an all-time high as their sleeping quarters are taken over and they are ordered to tend to the “profit.” Their responsibilities included: bathing them, shaving them, rubbing their bodies with palm oil, and feeding them. The crews often released this hatred and animosity out on the women and children. With such a lack of character and integrity, the sailors would attack the “abject and powerless” first, leaving the remaining anger to anyone else under their