Robert Aquino History


Property. A word today we know only as one’s land, house, car, etc. But what if it meant people? What if human beings were degraded down to only being as property? One does not have to imagine, because this was nothing but reality to african slaves. “Examine their teeth just like they was a horse, and talk about the kind of work they would be fit for and could do.” This quote is from “Morris Hillyer’, who is desribing how the property was examinded and how low it made the slaves feel. I, for one, have never expirenced rascim in which we are studying now, and probabbly never will. But if I had to stand there and watch people inspect every part of these humans, I would feel disgusted. No one wants to be standing on a block, all eyes on you, and nude. No one wants that type of ridicule or wants to manifest the hate that would come from the situation. And then the worst was yet to come. Being bid on. Who would ever want to know that they are worth money? Though, today, people are paid high salaries, that does not mean someone can buy them for that amount. I believe that bidding on humans is one thing that should be regretted greatfuly, for it is putting a price tag on a human life, which is truly priceles.
Family, it’s something we all know and never want to let go of. Being with your family gives you a sense of joy, and happiness. But during the slave trading, families were split without a secodn thought. While many people were fooled into thinking that the slaves were well fed and treated very well, the real story was depressing and hoorifying at the same time. “He feed that one good for a few days, then when he goes to put ‘em up on the auction block he takes a meat skin and greases all around that nigger’s mouth like they been eatin plenty meat and such...” This is from “Jenny Proctor” and from the sound of it, the masters would need to fool people into the fact that the slaves were treated excellently so that they would work very good for their next master. But who wanted to be fixed up just to be sold? Imagin being placed on E-Bay? And then having something done to you to make you look like you’re worth something. Making the slaves seem “enhanced” obviously shows the slaves they are nothing and are just a good source of money. This passage makes me feel depressed in a way. Who would want this done to them? “Sometimes he sell the babes from the breast...” Family being split up. This is one of the more depressing topics. The seller’s would not care about family, just as long as they made a nice, hardy profit off of there slaves. If that meant selling a whole family, so be it. Greed is so heavly influenced in these times, at times it is overwhelming.
Being faced with going to different places, slaves are scared, yet willing, to see their family members. Sometimes owners try to lure the salves into their plantation by telling them that some of their family is there before they are bought. This is the case in the “Anonymous” story. The man tells her that her sister is down in Mississippi, that he has better food and such, but she refuses to go. This makes me feel happy, since she was spekaing out and not letting anyone tell you what to do. But then, at home, she is whipped, and regrest not going with the man. Soon after, she is finnally bought by the man, but tries to run away. She does this unsucsefully, however, and finally is brought to Mississippi. Though no one really had any say in where slaves would go, the feeling of an african telling others how they feel and what they want to do is a an enlightening thing for a time back then, since they had no say. But the most truly interesting expierence was the case of “Amistad”, one of the best stories known to man dealign with slavery.
Cinque, a slave who knew nothing about what was going on during the time he was captured and put on a ship, was one man who did not want to be put in slavery. He was an illegal slave, being captured and sent to countries for their own profit. But during this hard-hitting and gripping movie, I was fully moved into another spectrum on how slavery affected everyone. During scenes in which we saw slaves being discarded like trash, I had to sit and think about “Why?”. I cannot comprehend the meaning of this, since it was such a graphic scene. It did not leave time for me to think, the action just happened. The men and women being attached by chains to rocks and thrown over board nude to drown was such a depressing scene, it makes you just want to cry. The graphic nature used in this scene and many others made you really understand the pain and cruelty that these people had to deal with. Not only were the slaves treated like dirt, everyone looked upon them to be that and only that. Amistad was so moving, that this essay is even hard to write, for I cannot put my thoughts down on this paper good enough. Just seeing these terrible events happen can change anyone’s look on life and how precious it is. Not only were we making a huge mistake by enslaving these innocent people, we had do regret at the time. Slavery was like food, it needed to be traded for money and profit. Amistad made me want to learn more on this hard-to-grasp topic. But now after watching this movie which inspired hope and sadness on me, I come to realize that this was an error of our ways that we cannot fix and not hide, because it is so important in history today. Though rascism continues, it is not as bad as it used to be, but the smell of hate still lingers, and one must wonder, “Have we learned from out past errors?”