Slavery- The Atlantic Slave Trade

Numbers, we use them everyday, sometimes a number can have a strong effect on us and at other times a number is simply just a number. But, when you think of a number in terms of slavery, what comes to mind? The number of people captured, sold, beaten, branded, the number of families torn a part, the number of HUMAN LIVES gone forever due to slavery. In a span of about 336 years, from 1500-1866, “the Atlantic Slave Trade took an estimated 12.5 million people from Africa and deposited some 10.7 million of them in the Americas”. Just think about how many people that is. The average football stadium holds about 70,000 people. Imagine every person who was brought as a slave took a seat in a football stadium, they would fill it up about 179 football stadiums. Let that thought simmer in your mind for a while. How does that make you feel? When I think about those numbers, it makes me sick to my stomach. Thinking about all the people, each and every one of those human lives that went through so much pain and suffering. Its just sad to think that other humans can do this to others. Now from the 12.5 that were captured only about 10.7 made the journey over to the American. Which leaves about 1.8 million people. What happened to them? Those 1.8 million died during the transatlantic crossing. People taken from there families and then gone forever. Numbers, we use them everyday, but how much meaning to they have, hopefully in the case of slavery they have some sort of impact on you.

            I used this quote earlier “the Atlantic Slave Trade took an estimated 12.5 million people from Africa and deposited some 10.7 million of them in the Americas”. When you read this sentence does anything odd cross your mind? What about the word deposited. When someone refers to HUMANS as something you deposit, it is such a depressing thought. You deposit money into a bank account; you don’t however use the world deposit to describe people. But I guess the whole idea was about money. Capture innocent lives and sell them, that equals money. Have people work for free, another way to make some easy cash right? The whole idea of slavery is just so sickening, and to imagine that it went on for years, and is STILL going on today, just in different forms, like Human Trafficking is terribly sad :(