Essential Questions - PREMS

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Essential Questions - PREMS

• Why did/does slavery exist?
• What were the benefits and costs of slavery?
• Why did slavery end (in the Americas)?
• Why is America singled out for slavery?
• Did it really matter where a slave was sent?

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The Cost of Slavery
'Nowhere in the annals of history has a people
experienced such a long and traumatic ordeal as
Africans during the Atlantic slave trade. Over
the nearly four centuries of the slave - which
continued until the end of the Civil War -
millions of African men, women, and children were
savagely torn from their homeland, herded onto
ships, and dispersed all over the so-called New
World. Although there is no way to compute
exactly how many people perished, it has been
estimated that between thirty and sixty million
Africans were subjected to this horrendous
triangular trade system and that only one
third-if that-of those people survived...'
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Slave Trade Caravan
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One day, when all our people were gone out to
their works as usual, and only I and my dear
sister were left to mind the house, two men and a
woman got over our walls, and in a moment seized
us both, and, without giving us time to cry out,
or make resistance, they stopped our mouths, and
ran off with us into the nearest wood. Here they
tied our hands, and continued to carry us.
Equiano age 11
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Middle Passage 5-12 weeks
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Every morning, perhaps, more instances than one
are found of the living and the dead fastened
together."John Newton - Slave Ship Captain
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'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...
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Slaves on a sugar plantation
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Negro slaves washing for diamonds in the Serro Do
Frio
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Treatment of slaves varied with the region and
owner
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Account from an 1857 auction
Class Value in Dollars, 1857 Value in Dollars, 1857 Value in Dollars, 1998
Number 1 men Number 1 men 1250-1450 20,800-24,100
Fair/Ordinary Men Fair/Ordinary Men 1000-1150 16,700-19,200
Best Boys (Age 15-18) Best Boys (Age 15-18) 1100-1200 18,300-20,000
Best Boys (Age 10-14) Best Boys (Age 10-14) 500-575 8,300-17,900
Number 1 Women Number 1 Women 1050-1225 17,500-20,400
Fair/Ordinary Women Fair/Ordinary Women 1050-1225 14,200-17,100
Best Girls Best Girls 500-1000 8,300-16,700
Families Families "sell in their usual proportions" "sell in their usual proportions"