1/25 The Journey Through Slavery

      Today's history reading revolved around various accounts of people who lived through the Atlantic Slave trade. In the reading I gained a first hand view through the eyes of a slave, through the eyes of a merchant, and then through the eyes of two kings living in Africa. I was most shocked at the what the people describe their treatments as being, and I believed in my mind things would have been much different.
     What do I mean by much different? Well in the first narrative about the slave Olaudah, I got the feeling that Africans were so much kinder to their slaves than their American counterparts. At times I felt as if Olaudah was almost welcomed into the families who bought him, and that his only true suffering began when he was captured and place on a slave ship.
     Through the eyes of the English Merchant, I gained the sense that all Africans where beneath the esteem of the Traders. It seemed they found it difficult to respect the culture, and they ultimately felt that the people where not worth the space or money paid for them.
    The last two account through the eyes of the two kings, different greatly. I was most enamored with the king who sought to end slavery in his territory. But it was shocking to see how involved his society was with the western world. The other King was all but desperate in his attempts to promote slavery.
       Each of these accounts was meant to establish a certain image of slavery in the readers eyes. By reading each I have gained a little understanding from each point of view. It is incredibly sad to see that Africa's culture has been shaped by the larger standing parties such as the merchant and king who promoted slavery, and not by the educated slave, and King who knew exactly what slavery can do to populations. In the end, I believe that if more Kings had the incite to keep slavery out of their territory's, and had promoted their own trade network things would not be as they are today.

    

Yay - I'm Done!!!

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