Issues Contributed To Furthering The African's Trauma

Prior to coming to America, Africans were forced to face several traumatic experiences that only worsened their time spent in America. From trading to slavery, Africans endured plenty of psychological damage that is often disregarded, when discussing history. During the period of interregional trade in ancestral Africa, slaves were used by African merchants to carry cargo through trade routes that attached to rivers. Carrying this heavy cargo on a long trade route proved to be exhausting. Not only would this feel physically training but also mentally draining as it is such a mundane task that could easily trap the slaves in their thoughts.

Often times, people lessen the burdens that African slaves carried on their shoulders by comparing it to American slavery. However, African slaves were considered chattel, which meant they were treated like objects, and comparable to animals or tools. Female slaves were bought so that they could fulfill a role as a wife, servant, or agricultural laborer. This is traumatic because it instills a distorted idea of worth in the mind of a woman who is not provided with the proper education to correct it. Even when the women are removed from those demeaning “jobs,” it is nearly impossible to erase those experiences and restore the value of self. The ability to enjoy wealth and opulence as a slave or have families and marry did not remove the psychological issues that occurred as a result. Indentured servitude also posed a major issue that contributed to furthering the African’s trauma.

According to the textbook, laborers accepted a term to serve a master in return for freedom and a grant of land. However, servants hated the fact that they had to wait until their indenture expired so much that they sued their masters, and even fled to lands that were not yet settled. The fact that these indentured servants were willing to live in a place that was unsettled, showed how poorly they were treated, and how confined their living situations were. What they were forced to endure for freedom combined with what they did to escape is a devastating experience to reflect on. The fear of captivity, the act of being held captive, and the experience of avoiding captivity was traumatic for enslaved Africans.

In Olaudah Equiano’s autobiography about his encounter with white men on a slave ship, he mentions asking other black people on the ship if they were not meant to be eaten by the white men. This horror is all-consuming and further highlights to painful conditions that Africans were placed in. From smallpox to sanitation concerns and overcrowding, slave ships became unbearable. Africans willingly jumped off the slave ship and into the mouths of eager sharks in order to escape slavery in the New World. This shows how desperate and fed up these people were with their living conditions as a slave. Unfortunately, suicide proved to be a desirable way out.