African Slave

The Role of an African slaves was obeying orders from their masters because of the color of their skin.

African Slaves were usually taken from their villages by force and sold to slave traders and shipped from West Africa and West Central Africa across the Atlantic by Europeans between 1500 and 1900. African slaves were dispersed across the Americas and forced into slavery in different places such as North and South America and the Caribbean.

Slaver traders kidnapped Africans that they thought would be potential slaves and they would be shackled and have to walk to European coastal forts where they would be shipped across the Atlantic. A typical trip across the Atlantic from Africa would be 30-50 days. During their journey, the ship conditions were very difficult for the slaves because on board they wouldn't have much room to move so that there would be more room to pack more of them on a ship at once. It would usually be dark, hot and the air was unbreathable. Some ships did and some didn't provide buckets for their waste. Many died from disease and some tried to commit suicide because of how horrible it was. They were treated as if they were nothing and had to suffer horrible conditions during their journey.  

When they reached the Americas, captains sold the slaves that survived the journey for raw materials to bring back to Europe. The slaves were auction at slave markets and once they were sold their masters would have complete control over them. Most slaves would have to work on plantations that produced cotton and tobacco. Many of the slaves didn't understand the language in the places they were sent to so when the master talked to them they didn't respond or for some things needed to be explained in detail but masters just thought they were stupid.

Many slaves worked dawn to dusk and got the weekend off if they finished their work during the week. During the harvest they would have to work more hours and some just worked every day. If the master allowed it some would have children but the child would automatically be a slave. Slaves would live in shelters that were used mainly to keep them alive such as small huts or in barns with the animals and some were lucky enough to live in the house with their master. Different masters treated their slaves in different ways, some treated them more kindly than others.