Before this time period, the native indians of the Americas were used for free labor. Due to their lack of natural resistance to European diseases, the native population soon died down to the point of no longer being a viable source of free labor. This is when the Europeans began to import negro slaves. These slaves were brought from Africa by the Portuguese without a thought to how the Africans felt or how they were treated. They were stolen from their homes by the Portuguese and sometimes traded by their own people to the slave traders. Without humanitarian concerns, there was no care whatsoever about how the slaves were treated so long as there was a steady supply of labor to make money, an efficient way to obtain more slaves, and the slaves
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It was “necessary to acquire negro slaves” in order to mine gold and silver in the New World due to “Spaniards not [being] willing to do the work” (Doc 1). The Spaniards were in the New World to get rich but they did not want to put in the effort themselves when they could force others to do it for them. The Spaniards did not care how their slaves were obtained as seen when Offobah Cugoano describes his capture and transfer to the slave ships, how “some would not stir from the ground, when they were lashed and beat in the most horrible manner” (Doc 2). The slaves were taken from their homeland by any means necessary and to Cugoano those means must have seemed barbaric but to the Spaniards it would have been seen as no different from breaking a horse, as the slaves were seen as less than people, on the same level as animals. Once they acquired their slaves, the Spaniards did not care how they were treated as the masters would make “them work too hard and [give] them too little to eat [making many] fall sick and the greater part of them die” (Doc 1). So long as they made money, the masters did not …show more content…
The slave owner would use any means necessary to force their slaves to work as much as possible without interruptions in production by disobedient slaves. The slave owners would punish their slaves in a variety of ways such as whipping, beating, breaking bones, confinement to a dungeon, slitting of ears, and castration as an example to their other slaves as to why they should obey(Doc 7). Cruelty was the weapon of the slave owners and with it, they were able to continue to oppress their slaves by fear of the same punishments happening to them. They “altogether [treated] them in every respect like brutes” (Doc 8). The slave owners dehumanized the slaves to the point that they hardly thought they were humans anymore and thereby made it so they felt like they had no right to disobey their
It was “necessary to acquire negro slaves” in order to mine gold and silver in the New World due to “Spaniards not [being] willing to do the work” (Doc 1). The Spaniards were in the New World to get rich but they did not want to put in the effort themselves when they could force others to do it for them. The Spaniards did not care how their slaves were obtained as seen when Offobah Cugoano describes his capture and transfer to the slave ships, how “some would not stir from the ground, when they were lashed and beat in the most horrible manner” (Doc 2). The slaves were taken from their homeland by any means necessary and to Cugoano those means must have seemed barbaric but to the Spaniards it would have been seen as no different from breaking a horse, as the slaves were seen as less than people, on the same level as animals. Once they acquired their slaves, the Spaniards did not care how they were treated as the masters would make “them work too hard and [give] them too little to eat [making many] fall sick and the greater part of them die” (Doc 1). So long as they made money, the masters did not …show more content…
The slave owner would use any means necessary to force their slaves to work as much as possible without interruptions in production by disobedient slaves. The slave owners would punish their slaves in a variety of ways such as whipping, beating, breaking bones, confinement to a dungeon, slitting of ears, and castration as an example to their other slaves as to why they should obey(Doc 7). Cruelty was the weapon of the slave owners and with it, they were able to continue to oppress their slaves by fear of the same punishments happening to them. They “altogether [treated] them in every respect like brutes” (Doc 8). The slave owners dehumanized the slaves to the point that they hardly thought they were humans anymore and thereby made it so they felt like they had no right to disobey their