Marcus Rediker The Slave Analysis

"little could the Gola warriors have known that a conflict over hunting rights could land them five thousand miles away, in Charleston, South Caroline. Now they had a different war to fight" (Rediker, 74). The passage from the book The Slave Ship written by Marcus Rediker, documents what occurred to slaves before they were transported on ships. The passage explains how slaves were captured from their communities in Africa and how they arrived on the coast to be forced on a ship and sent to their new environments. The passage also describes the dominance and resistance that occurred in the Atlantic slave trade and it effects. Documents from thousands of years have taught present generations that slavery has always existed. However, "the number of slaves held and the importance of slavery as an institution in African societies expanded with the Atlantic slave trade" (Rediker, 74). slavery was no longer about having free labor and absolute control over someone. Slavery started to become how to make the biggest profit. Greed of money and power justified individual actions for capturing people and to trade them for materials or manufacture goods. If money and power were the fuel to slavery, how did it start? "Most of the enslaved were captured in wars of conquest, after a formal battle and in quick-strike raids" (Rediker, 96). "War was the euphemism for the organized theft of human beings, advocates and opponents of the slave trade agreed that war was a major source of slaves in West Africa" (Rediker, 99). When battles were lost the defeated group would be sold to ship captains. But not enough wars were occurring for the high demand of slaves. Thus the judicial system started to become corrupt. Anyone charge of a crime would be guilty and their punishment would be slavery. No matter the circumstance or the level of the crime slavery was always the punishment. "The judicial processes in west Africa had been corrupted and that thousands had been falsely accused and convicted in order to produce as many trade worthy bodies as possible" (Rediker, 99). As noted by professor Ginsburg, "Inequality is the product of dominant group efforts to contain its dominance. Inequality equals power." For example, the merchants who were capturing individuals for slave trade were being dominant over a group. The merchants had all the romance, all the power over groups. "Lager groups who purchased guns and gun powder often grew into stronger, centralized, militaristic states. Using their firearms to subdue their neighbors, which of course produced the next coffee of slaves to be traded for the next crate of muskets" (Rediker, 77) After merchants traded captives for goods such as firearms they became more dominant over groups. Firearms allowed …show more content…
Inequality doesn 't exist without dominance and resistance. Learning about the Atlantic Slave Trade has inspired me to learn more about history so future generations don 't make the same mistakes. Individuals should take away from past experiences and learn the greed of power only causes destruction, not only of individuals but a destruction of communities and lifestyles. Learning more about dominance and resistance inspires me to find a justice system to balance fairness for everyone so individuals don 't experience too much power. Once an individual experience too much power they feel invincible and their actions cause