Book Report on Stand the Storm A History of the Atlantic Slave Trade

Reynolds, Edward. , Stand the Storm: A History of the Atlantic Slave Trade.

My Responses from Reading Stand the Storm

With my sallow understanding of slavery, I imagined slavery only happening in the New World, where they obtained a better treatment than the book recorded; at least, slaves would have enough nutritious food on their trip to North and South America. After reading this book, Stand the Storm, the pains of African slaves conjured up on my mind, and I thought their suffering and humiliation was difficult to compensate with any amount of money. This book portrays thorough history and impacts of how African slaves were captured and sent to North and South America. One thing was true that slave trade favored the economic development of Americas to expand in a fast pace. However, it was absolutely an evil economic activity that brought great suffering and incredible distress to many thousands of the Africans. In this paper, I would like to probe deeply on how the Africans slaves were treated in their tribes. Also, in that sense they were captured to serve as slave on their own continent of Africa. Comparing with North and South America, I will find out the differences of practicing slavery between

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In order to survive until last minute, the Africans altered their life completely along with their sweat and blood. African religion survived in the heart of every African slave under the influence of Catholic and Christianity. Still, they would probably be assimilated to be a new kin that depended on whether they were utilized or not. For instance, Saint Bouleverse was believed to have the capacity for good and evil that just similar to African gods. Tribal dancing and songs were practiced as well. Furthermore, the Africans imaged the similarities and created relationship between African gods and Christian saints. It was no doubt that the slaves in other African tribal societies also escaped to their homes, but in the Americas, the situation was extremely different. In the same way, the Europeans had such ideas towards the African slaves in the New World. To halt this from happening, “hot coals were put on a shovel and placed so near the lips of a recalcitrant slave that his mouth was scorched and burned…, a mouth opener, was used to force food down a slave’s throat. Moreover, the songs acted as the linkage among the slaves working in the same place because they had to cooperate to create and follow the particular rhythm and chant together. Hence, it was common for the slavers to sell prisoners among many tribal societies.

The most apparent difference between the Africans and the Europeans on practicing slavery were kinship assimilation and conversion to Christianity. Particularly, females worked as domestic slaves who usually married to her master or became his concubine.

Another phenomenon that often occurred in the Americas rather than in Africa was escaping.

Approximate Word count = 2060
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)

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