The slave trade is one of Britain’s most profitable trades. But did you know just how cruelly treated those innocent men and women are treated? No, of course you wouldn’t know; because you couldn’t care less that they get beaten, humiliated and punished in ways that are unhuman. Maybe you do know that, but you probably didn’t know that thousands of families get torn apart as the men and women, sometimes even the children, get captured and are forced to become slaves. You also probably didn’t know that they had to walk to the coast of West Africa chained by the necks to one another. How would you know that most captured men die on the way and if they try to run away, to fight for their freedom, they get whipped and beaten?
Now you could argue that these deeds were done by the African Slave Dealers, but then I ask you this: who pays those dealers to gather slaves? Who pays them to put them on ships to come to our, supposedly revolutionary, country? That very country which is encouraging more of this vicious, cruel and evil behaviour.
Our country supplies ships for these people to be transported in and that, is probably the worst part. To know that our country is responsible for making people wish they died on the way to the coast. To know that our country holds the responsibility of people dying because the decks they lived on were so crowded they couldn’t breathe. To know that our country supplied the ships with room for men and children to be chained to the walls, and each other, as they stayed on the ship. Those ships facilities were horrific; for toilets each deck was supplied with buckets. And due to the lack of space and fatigue, children would trip and drown in those buckets!
Now, you’re probably all thinking that is as bad as it can get; but I tell you, the worst is yet to come. On one of those ships, which departed in September, 130 slaves got thrown overboard as the captain believed he would get insurance money and then by November, another 60 slaves died whilst the rest were seriously ill.
So, assuming some of these people survived on the thousands of ships, all with these appalling, then you’d have the hope that they lived a better life in our all good country, right? Well you are as wrong as their lives cruel. Their pain, agony and suffering does not end here. Some slaves might be lucky enough to be sold to people who know how to respect human beings – but that chance is as minimal as you waking up and realising that money is not everything. Most slaves get sold to families who make them work 20 hours a day and then if they commit a small mistake will receive a whipping. Can you imagine, after being torn apart from your family, surviving the horrendous ship journey that you would have to succumb to something like this? Most slaves walk around with a collar of nails on to mark their loss of freedom. But your humiliation wouldn’t end there, oh no. Some families are cruel enough to buy a male and female slave, in hopes they’d raise a family of slaves together – and therefore the family wouldn’t pay for the child as they “own” him or her.
But not all the captured receive this fate.
That sugar that you drink in your tea, doesn’t it taste lovely? Well, that’s a slaves back being whipped twelve times to make sure it tastes that good. And that tobacco you