Atlantic Slave Trade Essay

Submitted By tayloroliviaa
Words: 1410
Pages: 6

jdaoireke October 28, 2012
Atlantic Slave Trade Period 2

Document 1

Document #1 is a document opposed to the African Slave trade. This document is opposed to the African Slave trade because Lewis Clarke himself was a preacher who had traveled on those ships. He wrote several books and his books were based on exactly what he had seen on the ship. In Catholicism you were suppose to treat everyone as equal and the Atlantic slave trade went against that Which can also be another reason as to why he was opposed to the Atlantic slave trade. He states, “ The slaves were all enclosed under grated hatchways, between decks. The space was so low that they sat between each other's legs, and were stowed so close together that there was no possibility of their lying down, or at all changing their position, by night or day. As they belonged to, and were shipped on account of different individuals, they were all branded, like sheep, with the owners' marks, of different forms.” In this quote he is expressing the inhumane conditions that the slaves were forced encounter during this time. This proves that Document 1 is opposed to the Atlantic Slave trade.

Document 2

Document 2 encourages the slave trade. Document 2 encourages the slave trade because it is an advertisement of selling African Americans. It describes the amount of each type of person shipped in and are being used as profits. The Advertisement says “A Cargo of prime, healthy, NEGROES consisting of thirty-nine men, fifteen boys, twenty-four women, and sixteen girls.” A biographical reason to support this is because John and David were always doing slave trading during this time and kept on doing it got big profits because slave trading was very popular during this time period. Document 2 encourages the Atlantic slave trade.

Document 3 Document 3 has a scholarly point of view on the Atlantic Slave trade. It was not against the Atlantic slave trade or in favor of the Atlantic slave trade. The person who wrote the document was a surgeon on the ships. Is document id very reliable because he wrote exactly what he saw and did not make any exaggerations and did not show any thing to make us perceive him in favor of the Atlantic slave trade? He states “They are brought from the places where they are purchased to Bonny, etc. in canoes; at the bottom of which they lie, having their hands tied with a kind of willow twigs, and a strict watch is kept over them.” This shows how he was not in favor or opposed to the salve trade considering he was not a slave or someone getting profit from trading the salves. Document 3 has a scholarly point of view.

Document 1:From Notices of Brazil (1820) quoted in Rufus W. Clark, The African Slave Trade
She had taken in, on the coast of Africa, three hundred and thirty-six males, and two hundred and twenty-six females, making in all five hundred and sixty-two, and had been out seventeen days. The slaves were all enclosed under grated hatchways, between decks. The space was so low that they sat between each other's legs, and were stowed so close together that there was no possibility of their lying down, or at all changing their position, by night or day. As they belonged to, and were shipped on account of different individuals, they were all branded, like sheep, with the owners' marks, of different forms. These were impressed under their breasts, or on their arms, and, as the mate informed me, with perfect indifference, ‘Queimados pelo ferro quento, -- burnt with red-hot iron.’ Over the hatchway stood a ferocious looking fellow, with a scourge of many twisted thongs in his hand, who was the slave-driver of the ship; and whenever he heard the slightest noise below, he shook it over them, and seemed eager to exercise it. As soon as the poor creatures saw us looking down at them, their dark and melancholy visages brightened up…They perceived something of sympathy and kindness in our looks, which they had not been