The trans-Atlantic slave trade
In this lesson you learned what slavery is, from how it originated and developed to recognizing the practice of slavery and all its forms. The trans-Atlantic slave trade, specifically the Middle Passage, showed the abuse Africans went through as they were transported from their homeland to the Americas to be enslaved. You also learned how slavery still exists today.
For this assessment you will read two personal accounts of slavery—one from Olaudah Equiano, a West African who was sold into slavery in the mid-1700s, and one from a list of survivors of modern-day slavery.
Your task after reading through these personal accounts is to determine six total differences and similarities between these two accounts (at least two similarities and two differences with a total of six). Afterwards you will need to answer this reflection question in one complete paragraph: Why does slavery persist?
Note: Human trafficking is a form of slavery. The 12-15 million people removed from Africa between 1400 and 1900 were victims of human trafficking, and people forced to work against their will in the 21st century are enslaved people.
Olaudah Equiano’s Story
The closeness of the place, and the heat of the climate, added to the number in the ship, which was so crowded that each had scarcely room to turn himself, almost suffocating us. This produced copious perspirations, so that the air soon became unfit for respiration, from a variety of loathsome smells, and brought on a sickness among the slaves, of which many died, thus falling victims to the improvident avarice, as I may call it, of their purchasers. This wretched situation was again aggravated by the galling of the chains, now become insupportable; and the filth of the necessary tubs [large buckets for human waste], into which the children often fell, and were almost suffocated. The shrieks of the women, and the groans of the dying, rendered the whole a scene of horror almost inconceivable.
We were not many days in the merchant’s custody before we were sold after their usual manner, which is this:—On a signal given, (as the beat of a drum) the buyers rush at once into the yard where the slaves are confined, and make choice of that parcel they like best. The noise and clamour with which this is attended, and the eagerness visible in the countenances of the buyers, serve not a little to increase the apprehensions of the terrified Africans, who may well be supposed to consider them as the ministers of that destruction to which they think themselves devoted. In this manner, without scruple, are relations and friends separated, most of them never to see each other again.
Stories of survivors of modern-day slavery. Please choose one.
Choose of one these stories for this paper: Click on the link
http://www.endslaverynow.org/blog/articles/flor-molina
https://web.archive.org/web/20160501130154/http://endslaverynow.org/blog/articles/vannak-prum/
https://web.archive.org/web/20160803101507/http:/www.endslaverynow.org/blog/articles/james-annan
http://www.endslaverynow.org/blog/articles/beatrice-fernando
