Slave Treatment

7 Pages 1778 Words

ca, and the Caribbean.

'It was not atypical to see a massive school of sharks darting in and out of the wake of the ships filled with human cargo plying the Atlantic. For miles they followed the battered and moldy vessels, waiting to attack the disease-ravaged black bodies that were periodically tossed into the ocean. If the Atlantic were to dry up, it would reveal a scattered pathway of human bones,
African bones marking the various routes of the Middle Passage.'
There were successful uprisings in which the Africans gained control of the ships and were able to steer them back to their homeland. Joseph Cinque led a memorable mutiny in 1839. Cinque and the other rebels killed the captain and took over the slaver Amistad. They were eventually captured and tried for murder and piracy on the high seas. However, in the end they were acquitted of all charges.'
'Despite the miserable conditions, inadequate space and food, deadly diseases, and the violence from crew members, millions of African captives survived, demonstrating their strength and implacable will.
"But, if this part of our history could be told in such a way that those chains of the past, those shackles that physically bound us together against our wills could, in the telling, become spiritual links that willingly bin...