From Africa to America

From Africa to America

FROM AFRICA TO AMERICA
Slavery has existed throughout most of recorded history. In America African slaves were bought and sold for 150 years in a lucrative human trade that divided the nation.
1619: The journey
We came from an area bordering a 3,000 mile stretch on the West Coast of Africa. We came from a thousand villages and towns. We came from many tribes, the Hasas, the Mandingos, the Youubas, the Ibos, Efiks, the Krus, the Fantins, the Dahomeans, the Binisand and Sengalese. We were taken, and put into a booth, or prison, near the beach, all of us together; and when the captors were ready to receive us, they bought us out into a large plain, where surgeons examine every part of us, men, women and children all stark naked. Those being set aside which passed as good, is marked on the breast, with a red-hot iron, imprinting the mark of the French, English or Dutch companies. Properly branded and chained, we were rowed out to the slave ship for the dreaded Middle Passage across the Atlantic. We were packed like books on shelves into holds. We were shackled to others from our tribe; we were forced to lie without the ability to stand, or change positions. The conditions on this slave ship are inhumane. Disease led to death, and dead bodies were thrown overboard into the Atlantic Ocean. The stench, between the decks of the ship caused by the death of one African chained, two by two, the wrist and ankle of one to the left wrist and ankle of another. The ship was dark, dank, airless, infested with lice, fleas, and rats, also causing sickness and death among us. Terrible whether conditions extended our trip, so food rations were minimized; our two meals a day, included water plus, either boiled rice, cornmeal, or stewed yams.
Women were forced to bed warmers. We were taken back to either the Captain’s Chambers or the crew’s living quarters and beaten and physically forced to have sexual relation with the crew members.   Some of the slaves attempted to rebel...