Strange New Land The time period and events of when slavery took place is a topic that is frequently and heavily covered in United States history. Peter Wood’s book, A Strange New Land gives an intrinsic synopsis of slavery from the very beginning of slavery in the Americas dating 1492 all the way through the start of the American Revolution in 1775. Wood reveals insight into the excruciating lives and the daily challenges slaves in the Americas endured. Wood begins with a preface that speaks of an African American graveyard. Wood’s brings up the graveyard to make his reader’s acknowledge slavery was very real here in the United States, and the people who were enslaved were from all different background and were in fact intrinsic and unique …show more content…
Gomez suffered under the harsh ruling of Vasco Goncalez and would escape to live amongst the natives. Many other Africans would follow in Gomez’s footsteps were they lucky enough to have the opportunity to escape. Esteban was an African slave who had the opportunity to be somewhat of a leader of Native American slaves. He was a leader in the search for Cibola, or the “city of gold.” Esteban was met with resistance when he did eventually find a town he believed was the city he was searching for. The resistance he encountered would be fatal for Esteban and many of his group members. Esteban’s significance is that many other Spanish explorers used Africans in their conquest to discover new land. One can see from the story of Esteban, initially African slaves were often servants or soldiers for the Spanish army. In the beginning slaves did not work solely on plantations. Their roles would evolve as the society and economy in America …show more content…
The Middle Passage was a horrific voyage from Africa to the Americas that slaves endured. While aboard the overcrowded, disease filled ships the slaves suffered unimaginable horrors. The suffering was not limited to physical pain only. These people were essentially kidnapped from their homeland. They did not know or recognize the people who were taking them. The captives certainly did not know where they were sailing to or what they would face when they arrived. The language their takers spoke was different. The Africans aboard the ship with them were from different regions and tribes, so they did not speak the same languages either. Wood reveals these horrors by stating, “Their current location, future destination, and ultimate fate a mystery” (41). Wood tells how attempts at uprisings were essentially suicidal, so most slaves relied solely on their faith in hopes of being saved from their horrific
In Africa, men, women, and children were being kidnapped and sold. Once abducted from their home, Europeans would make their way back to the port to transport the slaves to the New World. Most of the time salves never knew where they would end up. Before Africans would be transported, each slave would be branded on the chest and this was a way to claim a slave for when they tried to escape (Hylton). Once boarded on a ship
Jordan Guice US History I Jennifer Egas 18 February 2018 Strange New Land Book Review Wood, Peter H. Strange new land--Africans in Colonial America, 1526-1776 / Peter H. Wood. Oxford University Press, 1995.
This book is what gives us the background knowledge needed to really understand the content we receive in the course. One of the ways it aligns with the content is that education on slavery in the south side is always given but we tend to forget that slavery existed in the north as well. We hear about southern plantation owners, southern slavery and everything happening there but we do not often hear about the slavery that existed in the north. This is also the time in which the “seasoning” period was seen. The “seasoning” period was seen as a time in which the slaves who were seen as “the best” were sent off to the Caribbean where here they were traded with sugar, and tobacco.
When Esperanza and Estevan came to America they did NOT get the freedom they were hoping
In the documents “Considering the Evidence: Voices from the Slave Trade” it shows how the Atlantic slave trade was an enormous enterprise and enormously significant in modern world history. In document 15.1 - The Journey to Slavery it talks about the voice of an individual victim of the slave trade known as Olaudah Equiano. Equiano was taken from his home and sold into the slave trade. He worked for three different families while in the slave trade but what is different about him is that he learned to read and write while being a slave. He traveled extensively as a seaman aboard one of his masters' ships, and was allowed to buy his freedom in 1766.
The gruesome account of Mittelberger aboard one of these ships was similar to the account of Olaudah Equiano, a freed slave. The journey across the Atlantic during the 17th century was one plagued with disease, hunger, and death. The perils of the journey were not restricted to those with white skin or those with black skin. Equiano’s account is filled with confusion since, like many other slaves, he did not know where he was going or why he was going there. As he entered the ship Equiano’s thoughts painted an imagine of a frightened and confused slave.
FREDRICK DOUGLASS AND HARRIET JACOBS Slavery and its long brutalizing history. Deep, bloody gashes to an inch-wide or more whip and scarred. Cold with barley enough clothes to cover them in the winter or year round. Half-fed left to starve. Rape, murder, beaten on a daily basis to death.
The Middle Passage was the voyage from Africa to the Americas. This voyage was a horrible experience characterized by cramped areas, rampant disease, hunger strikes, filth (which contributed to ultimately more deaths), and even suicide by those who couldn't tolerate the conditions anymore and jumped overboard. This horrible treatment of slaves it was makes it so significant. In addition, 12.5 million slaves were transported. As a result, this large importation of slaves was responsible for European wealth in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Great observation, in the reading I found several shocking events in our reading and unfortunately, I wasn’t able to elaborate on each one, but I agree with your surprising event that, slavery existed long before the Europeans arrived on the shores of West Africa and long before the 20 slaves arrived in Jamestown in 1619 (Robin, Kelley & Lewis, 2005,). For the most part, in my earlier education my understanding that slavery started when Christopher Columbus discover America. Therefore, to learned in the reading that other Africans were assisting the Europeans in capturing fellow Africans from different tribes made me angry. Therefore, when I read the story about Olauda Equiano were kidnap by Africans from different tribe really gave me a clear
Slavery in Louisiana existed from the foundation of the colony. However, it existed in different forms depending on the nation in power and was considerable different from American chattel slavery. This essay argues that Louisiana slavery existed in different forms during the French, Spanish, and Early American periods. Slavery in French Louisiana consisted of both Native American and African slavery. French colonists first introduced slavery in Louisiana in 1706.
By using this reference, it illustrated the severity of the alienation of blacks in the Southern United States. In 1619, a Dutch ship “introduced the first captured Africans to America, planting the seeds of a slavery system that evolved into a nightmare of abuse and cruelty that would ultimately divide the nation”. The Africans were not treated humanely, but were treated as workers with no rights. Originally, they were to work for poor white families for seven years and receive land and freedom in return. As the colonies prospered, the colonists did not want to give up their workers and in 1641, slavery was legalized.
Personalities can dictate a lot of what can happen between two groups of people. In A Land So Strange, the Europeans are described as having an authoritative and aggressive personality toward the Indians. Though early in the expedition the personalities of the Europeans were more on the friendly side, the personalities quickly evolved becoming very unfriendly. The Europeans used their authoritative personality to their advantage but left a sour taste in the Indians’ mouth about what explorers acted like. The sour taste led to the Indians becoming aggressive toward the Europeans.
Argument paper. The Middle Passage is the part of the trade, where Africans, tightly packed on ships, were transported across the Atlantic Ocean to the West Indies. The journey lasted for several months, at this time the enslaved people basically lay in chains in rows on the floor of the ship 's hold. Genocide, in turn, does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of the nation, except for the massacres of all members of the nation.
He talks about people such as the Danish, French, English and how they all had their “spheres of influence” that helped the African coast’s trade continue to be “open and competitive” (77-78). Senegambia, Sierre Leone and the Windward Coast, Gold Coast, Bight of Benin, Bight of Biafra, and West-Central Africa were a part of this sphere, as the trading of the slaves went on between the regions. These slaves were key to the institution of slavery as it helped African societies continue to expand with the Atlantic slave trade (77). Olaudah Equiano was one of those traded. Rediker points him out almost directly as he was ripped off his life at only age 11.
Introduction In Ronald Takaki’s book, A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America, Takaki argues that despite the first slave codes emerged in the 1660’s, de facto slavery had already existed and provides evidence to support this claim. While he provides a range of data, these facts can be categorized in three groups: racial, economic, and historical. These groups served as precursors to what eventually led to slavery codes to be enacted and the beginning of one of the darkest chapters in American History. Racial