Discuss the concept of "cruelty" as it applied to the treatment of African slaves during the Middle Passage segment of the Atlantic slave trade

Question

Is it possible to use modern moral arguments to understand European and African participation in the Atlantic slave trade?
What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Ideal Answer: The ideal answer should:

1. Explain that historians debate how much cruelty slave ship crews inflicted on African slaves. The goal of captain and crew was to deliver as many live African slaves as possible.
2. Point out that the slave trade required extremely large amounts of investment capital in ships, supplies, and crewmen.
3. Note that some historians argue that the ordeal of slaves on ship was similar to the challenges experienced by indentured servants.
4. Explain that the lack of freshwater, adequate food, overcrowding, and extreme weather combined to inflict suffering on all passengers at sea during the colonial period.
6. Conclude that African women were sexually exploited during the Middle Passage, and this experience sets off the ordeal as unique compared to indentured servitude.
7. Conclude that cruelty and suffering are historically relative in that practices acceptable in the past are now considered inhumane. Cultures distinguish between what constitutes acceptable behavior to their own people on the one hand and to strangers on the other.