Week Four

From the readings this week, I was most intrested by the "Voices of the Slave Trade". The passages themselves were each different and offered different perspective on the slave trade. I thought it was very effective to write letters to the different people who wrote the passages. I chose the second passge because I was a feeling that most would have assumed that one in his position would have being involved in the slave trade. I did not expect him to feel bad or even feel for the slaves he was purchasing, but the language Thomas Phillips used to describe his journey of buying slaves really angered me because he spoke of trading humans as one today would talk about trading stocks. I wrote : A man like yourslef is clearly a money motivated and well educated on how business trades are conducted. Your efforts and profits would be commendable, if you were not selling humans for the benefit of your personal and financial gain. in your passgae you describe your experience as if it was a pleasent journey through the market looking for slaves and barding prices for the finest African you could fine in exchange for goods. Did the horror on the slaves faces not make you feel bad or think that you were doing something wrong? I hope that on your journey back to England you were able to talk to he slaves and get their perspective.