The Great Plague and the Great Fire in London lowered the population in London and therefore massive hiring’s ensued in order to rebuild the city. This made it less attractive to make the long journey across the Atlantic because so many jobs were available in England. After 1650, immigration to the new world dwindled and the colonies gradually started relying on themselves for population growth. Another main theme this week was the incredible forced migration of African slaves to the British colonies and the West Indies.
After all the indentured servants did their time or died if, the labor-intensive colonies in the south needed cheap labor to cultivate their crops. By paying off African tribe leaders, slave traders could round up enslaved Africans and ship them over to the colonies. They turned to Africa for several reasons; one being that there would be no ego-political backlash for enslaving them. Also, most Africans knew how to cultivate the land and were good with land tools. Africans were also used to a low meat diet (cheaper for the owners), and were more accustomed with the labor squired.
Lastly, the English looked at Africans as different and inferior so English laws did not apply to them. This racial superiority led to the bondage of 10 to 12 million Africans and the largest migration of people in world history. The reading by Aloud Quinoa, an African slave who retold his horrific experience with the middle passage and life as a slave, really touches on just how bad these people were treated. He was so frightened by everything around him because he was completely unaware of what was appending to him.
He describes the conditions below deck; where there was barely room to stand with so many people crammed in. The conditions became so horrible that many tried and succeeded at throwing themselves overboard instead of accepting the grim future that lay ahead. Many people also died of disease, as the air was so staunch with the smell of the diseased and dying. This reading really emphasized how inhumane slavery was during this time and its impact on a whole race of people.
