The Role of European Traders in Human Trafficking
The English, the French, and the Spanish were the principal traders in the horrid trafficking of human beings. An honest discussion is needed here on the subject of the brutality of slavery and racial violence perpetuated against people of color and others. On slave ships, Blacks were packed like fish in the hold of a ship. They had to urinate next to each other and defecated on one another because they could not reposition their bodies in such limited space. Their skin became infected. When they got too sick to make it to a slave port to be sold, they were thrown alive overboard with rock weights tied to the feet. They were given only four to five feet to stretch out but could not do so. Nor could they rise up as the ceiling was three feet in height at most.
Cannibalistic Atrocities and Caribbean Torture
In The Black Jacobins, C.L.R. James, observed that some French merchant slave ship captains, chopped up the corpses of dead slaves and fed them to the others for food. In Haiti and other Caribbean islands, slaves in rebellion were often tortured on what the French called the Breaking Wheel. Their legs, elbows, and arms would be broken, then they would be turned face up so that they might see the axe coming down to decapitate them. In most cases, their corpses were left there as a terroristic and sadistic reminder to others not to rebel. The bodies were also left so that animals could eat the remains. The heads of the deceased slaves were placed on pikes to line a road.
Plantation Terror and the Torture of Women
Once assigned to a plantation, a slave could be worked to death or whipped to death. Often, a purchaser spit in the face of a slave who was just bought to establish a reign of terror and disrespect. Women were often branded on both breasts with a hot iron. Women who were pregnant were whipped until the baby dropped out or they were gutted until the fetus fell out. If it was decided that an example needed to be made for her disobedience, her baby would be hacked to death with axes in front of her eyes. Sometimes, the fetus would be attached to a horse as a souvenir of power. Andrew Jackson did this in America.
Unimaginable Punishments and Spectacles of Horror
In between whippings, sometimes a piece of burning wood would be placed between their buttocks or hot ashes thrown on them. Some slaves were stuffed with gun powder in the rectum and a fuse was lit, blowing them to pieces as other slaves were forced to watch from a distance. If a master caught a rebellious the enslaved person would be hanged, burned alive, or buried up to the neck in a hole. Their nostrils, ears, and mouth would be smeared with honey or food so that flies and ants would eat them alive.
Slave Revolts, Resistance, and Historical Lies
There were great slave revolts in the Caribbean and America though slavery was the dominant institution for many years. This is important because false arguments are often made that contend that everyone believed in slavery during these periods of barbaric humanity. This is fundamentally untrue as millions opposed slavery throughout the ages. Other arguments floated around include simply dismissing the horrors of slavery on account of slave labor being needed by settlers to build a racist society. These arguments skip over the inhumanity of lazy slave owners to gain wealth and pass it on to lazy grandchildren. Don’t tell us to forget slavery when some of you all won’t forget the Alamo or some other falsehood.
