Week Three: Reflections On Documents

As I read "Voices from the Slave Trade", two of the four stories resonated with me because they were so unsettling. One shared the story of a man who was a slave while the other story portrayed how the business worked.

"A Journal of a Voyage Made in the Hannibal of London", written by Thomas Phillips, depicted how slaves were treated like objects. He recalls that when he and the king were trading, Phillips got the worst slaves from the king and was disappointed. The slaves were then branded, like animals. After he bought his seven hundred slaves and traded a few more items he went off on his way.
This story was very upsetting to me. How can one be disappointed about the humans beings he just bought? He just bought humans. It is terrifying to think that they truly did not care about the slaves well-being unless it benefited them. I do not believe even animals should be branded so I found branding humans to be so degrading. Though the pain may be temporary, there is still pain being inflicted. The brand will always be there as a reminder that they are not thought of has a whole person. The part that made me truly distraught was the end of the story when Phillips was leaving. He bought seven hundred slaves, yet he states, "I deliver'd alive at Barbadoes to the company's factors 372, which being sold, came out at about nineteen pounds per head". He said the statement so nonchalantly that it is disturbing. He did not care about the large amount of people who died, just the profit the rest made for him.

The next story was more harsh to read.

"The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano", written by Olaudah Equiano, describes his journey of being a slave. He and his sister were kidnapped. Eventually, they were separated from one another. Equiano kept getting sold to one master to another. At one point he was bought by a family that treated him well, but he ran away, which was a mistake. He ended up getting put on a slave boat and constantly dealt with cruel and poor treatment. He saw multiple deaths along the journey and the end was no better. When the ship landed, the slaves were all squished into a yard, like sheep, to get traded once more.
It is always difficult to read testimonies of this extent. No one should ever go through the punishments African Americans went through due to slavery. One of the most difficult parts I find from the slave trade is the separation of families. At least if a family were together, they could support one another. Unfortunately, it did not happen this way and Equiano experienced it first hand. He wrote that he and his sister would lay together in each other's arms until his sister was torn away from him. It is also frustrating to read that he turned away from the widow's home, who fed him and treated him well, only to end up on a slave boat. Personally, I know I would not be able to survive. They were constantly beaten and because of the environmental conditions, dealt with sickness from the air that made it hard to breathe. The worst experiences happen to the most innocent of people.