1. Slavery and the Middle Passage
Olaudah Equiano, a native of the African province Eboe and author of The Interesting Narrative experienced the cruel and inhumane life of a slave. ... He faced slavery on several fronts, in his native Africa, the West Indies, Europe and America. ... He was in constant fear of being sold to "human butchers, who cut and mangled the slaves in a shocking manner on the most trifling occasions, and altogether treat them in every respect like brutes." (105) Beyond these fears, slaves were forced to labor unmercifully for their master's and in return were underfed and ill-treated as ignorant me...
By setting aside their forced leaving of their native Africa the slaves emerged with new identities with local roots but all based on their strong cultural belief and need for kinship. ... Unfortunately for the Anglican ministers they did not have much success at this time and returned home bemoaning their failure to convert no more than a handful of slaves. ...
As early as 1680 the majority of the slave population was native-born. ... They found that the rates of return on a slave were quite high and that holding slaves was quite profitable. The average rate of return of a male or female slave was about the same, around ten percent. ... This was a blow to all the theories that slavery was unprofitable and that slaves had low rates of return. It also showed that the rates of return were higher and not below that of alternative investments. ...
"The bargain included the exchange of votes on the extension of the slave trade for twenty years in return for support the Deep South for majority vote in the Congress rather than a super majority of two-thirds," this allowed both sides to claim victory without the knowledge of it (Ellis 94). ... There was no Africans or Native Americans," because the image of America was thought of a white, nothing else (Ellis 101). ...
He made a speech in the House of Commons in 1792 in which he said, "I know of no evil that has ever existed worse than the tearing of 70,000 or 80,000 people each year from their native land. " He frequently and strongly voiced his opinions to the rest of the MPs to try to persuade them to join the cause for although he was Prime Minister he still had to gain enough votes from his counterparts to pass the act. ...