Important ideas:
Dilemma: having to make a choice when both choices are unpleasant.
Middle Passage: the second stage of the slave trade. The voyage on the ship from Africa to America that was extremely horrible for the Africans.
Europeans who lived in the colonies wanted slaves to work on their plantations.
Europeans offered guns, rum, cloth, and tobacco in exchange for slaves.
West African leaders sometimes felt they had to trade slaves for guns, even when they didn’t want to, because their enemies had guns.
The conditions on the slave ships were horrible and inhumane; not much room to move and not sanitary.
Africans would react by trying to revolt, jumping off the ship, or by just trying to survive.
As soon as they got to America, they were immediately sold to plantation owners and often split up from their families.
If they resisted during the “breaking in” period, they were whipped, beaten, burned, and sometimes killed.
Africans would react by playing dumb, breaking tools, and pretend to be sick. Also, some would work hard in hopes of making it in to the main house to do indoor duties.
