How were enslaved Africans treated by slave traders and their masters?
They were treated by the traders in ways that would be illegal even to treat animals today–chained and crammed into ships where there was no room to sit up or turn over. They simply lay there in their own filth, and it was said that a slave ship could be smelled from miles away. Although it was in the traders’ interest to deliver healthy slaves to the Americas, many died on the voyage and were simply thrown into the sea. For more on this phase of the institution of slavery, just google the words “middle passage.” The owners’ treatment of slaves varied widely, but the fact remains that even the most humanely treated slaves were still slaves, who could be beaten, raped, or separated from their families at any time. It was in the owners’ interest to keep their slaves healthy and therefore productive, but there are accounts of horrifying tortures and killings carried out by owners, among them two nephews of Thomas Jefferson. At the other extreme, two literary works show the insidious harm
