Download The Transatlantic Slave Trade: The History and Legacy of the System that Brought Slaves to the New World AudioBook Free
"The deck, that is the floor of the rooms, was so covered with the blood and mucus which had proceeded from them in consequence of the flux, which it resembled a slaughter-house. It is not in the energy of the human imagination to picture a predicament more dreadful or disgusting. Amounts of the slaves having fainted, they were carried after deck where many of them died and the rest with great difficulty were restored. It had almost proved fatal if you ask me also." - Dr. Alexander Falconbridge, an 18th century British surgeon The sail linked the continents of Africa and America, and therefore it was also the sail that facilitated the best involuntary human migration ever. There can be no doubt that even though large numbers of indigenous Africans were liable, it was European ingenuity and greed that fundamentally drove the industrialization of the Transatlantic slave trade in response to massive new market demands created by their equally ruthless exploitation of the Americas. In time, the Atlantic slave trade provided for the labor requirements of the emerging plantation economies of the brand new World. It was a particular, dedicated and professional enterprise wherein huge profits were at stake. It existed without sentimentality, without history, and without tradition, and it was only outlawed after the advances of the professional revolution had created alternative sources of energy for agricultural production.
