“The Slave Ship A Human History” Written By Marcus Rediker

â€Å"The Slave Ship: A Human History† written by Marcus Rediker describes the horrifying experiences of Africans, and captains, and ship crewmen on their journey through the Middle Passage, the water way in the Atlantic Ocean between Africa and the Americas. The use of slaves to cultivate crops in the Caribbean and America offered a great economy for the European countries by providing â€Å"free† labor and provided immense wealth for the Europeans. Rediker describes the slave migration by saying, â€Å"There exists no account of the mechanism for history’s greatest forced migration, which was in many ways the key to an entire phase of globalization† (10). African enslavement to the Americas is the most prominent reason for a complete shift in the†¦show more content†¦Many slaves would die along the route from disease, starvation and/or the elements, their bodies dumped overboard for the sharks to eat. Africans who arrived at their destination an d appeared healthy after being cleaned and oiled were sold and would most likely spend the rest of their life cultivating crops such as cotton or sugar cane. To really show the horrendous conditions that the slaves endured, the author includes a 1787 replication drawing of the slave ship Brooks. Built in 1781 with a lower deck intended to accommodate 294 slaves, giving each slave a space comparable to the size of a coffin. Adult males were allocated a space six feet long and fifteen inches wide and allowing even less space for adult women, boys, and girls. The height of the same area was just five feet, and did not include any toilet facilities for the slaves. In most cases, the captains would load double the number of slaves their ships were designed for leading to even worse conditions onboard with more mouths to feed but not enough provisions to compensate. Those slaves who died during the journey through the Middle Passage were simply thrown overboard, where their bodies were ea ten by ravenous sharks. Rediker explains that captains of slave ships rationalized their brutality by stating that it was detrimental to chain the slaves in order to prevent rebellions where the salves mightShow MoreRelatedThe Slave Ship By Marcus Rediker1415 Words   |  6 PagesThe Slave Ship was written by Marcus Rediker and it tells several accounts of the African slave trade as well as the world of the middle passage. The author discusses the nature of the slave ship and the African paths to the middle passage. Rediker also mentions the lives of historical figures (Olaudah Equiano, James Field Stanfield, and John Newton) and the roles that they had during the Atlantic slave trade. For the African captives, the sailors, and captains, the slave ship was seen as a woodenRead MoreSlaverys Global Impact and Economic Justifications, Yesterday and Today2490 Words   |  10 Pagescivilizations, slave labor built nations and empires in Europe, Egypt, Greece, Asia and Africa. Thousands of years later, the Port uguese, Dutch and English realized the profit value that a market in human capital would provide. Africans were exported from their homeland to the New World under the most miserable conditions imaginable. Prof. Marcus Rediker, author of The Slave Ship, A Human History says, â€Å"We’re fascinated by all the tall ships except the most important one, and that’s the slave ship. AndRead MoreThe Trans Atlantic Slave Trade2208 Words   |  9 PagesPhilip Curtin described the historiography of the Atlantic slave trade as a â€Å"Numbers Game.† Curtin found that historians conceptualized the commodification of human beings through quantification. A year earlier in 1968, Frederick George Kay claimed in The Shameful Trade that fifty million Africans were exported into slavery in foreign lands. Twenty years later, Paul Lovejoy offered a summary of the field. He argued â€Å"that known scale of the slave trade was on the order of 11,863,000† Africans were expor tedRead MoreSlave revolt comparrison of La Amistad and Benito Cereno1564 Words   |  7 PagesAfricans revolted on the ship that was taking them to South America to become slaves. The slaves revolted and killed many sailors and were trying to guide the ship back to their home country, but how often did that happen in real life? Herman Melville must have gotten his inspiration from somewhere. Around the time that Benito Cereno was written, the slave trade ship La Amistad was sailing around. Throughout history, slave revolts were very common on ships. Slave ships during the 15th century