When people think of slavery in America they think of slave ships and slaves working on plantations. History books have been projecting these images into our heads for decades, what society has forgotten is what went on before the slaves boarded those ships. There is whole another side of American Slavery that is not really discussed and it happened on the coast of West Africa and further inland. It was here that the whole slave era started.
It was on the coast of Guinea that the purchases of slaves took place and were brought from their tribes and society, which they were snatched from. John Barbot a French Royal African Captain describes this the scene at one of the camps:
“As the slaves come down to Fida from the inland country, they are put into a booth, or prison, built for that purpose, near the beach, all of them together; and when the Europeans are to receive them, every part of every one of them, to the smallest member, men and women being all stark naked. Such as are allowed good and sound, are set on one side, and the others by themselves; which slaves so rejected are there called Mackrons, being above thirty five years of age, or defective in their limbs, eyes or teeth; or grown grey, or that have the venereal disease, or any other imperfection. These being set aside, each of the others, which have passed as good, is marked on the breast, with a red- hot iron, imprinting the mark of the French, English, or Dutch companies, that so each nation may distinguish their own” (2)
Many Africans were but into slavery by Kings of their own country or province, “The kings are so absolute, that upon any slight pretense of offences committed by their subjects, they order them to be sold for slaves, without regard to rank, or possession...” (2). Many people are very surprised to learn this as textbooks state that hunting parties that would go inland and snatch Africans from their societies and bring them back to the coast caught almost all slaves.
Once the purchase has been made and the ship captains have their new “cargo” they resort to new lows of cruelty to save a few pence:
“When we have agreed with the owners of the slaves, they are returned to their prison; where, from that time forwards, they are kept at our charge, cost us two pence a day a slave; which serves to subsist them, like our criminals, on bread and water: so that to save charges, we send them on board our ships with the very first opportunity, before which their masters strip them of all they have on their backs; so that they come to us stark-naked, as well women as men: in which condition they are obliged to continue, if the master of the ship is not so charitable (which he commonly is) as to bestow something on them to cover their nakedness.” (1)
People do not realize the whole story behind slavery and just how cruel this act of man really was. Some people would ask whether the act of being a slave in America was actually the easiest part of being a slave in colonial times.
(1) Bosman Williem http://college.cengage.com/history/world/resources/students/primary/eyewitness.htm
(2) Barbot, John
