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The kidnapping and selling of slaves was only one of many treacherous acts by European seamen. Men and women were ripped apart from their families and their homes. Unwilling and afraid, they were often forced onto crowded ships. Smallwood wrote about the power that the Europeans had held against the \u201ccargoes\u201d on the slave ships. (Smallwood, 679). The captives would often try to shift the balance of power by seizing any objects that could used as weapons. Smallwood reminded her readers that slaves were not always confined. They were often called on for help by the captains and his crews. There were many instances where the unwilling travelers helped sail their ship to safety. (Smallwood, 682).<\/p>\n

One of the many things that intrigued me in this article was the use of African guardians. These guardians were slaves who were appointed to police the rest of cargoes. They helped discipline and control the rest of the captives. Many of the documentations and records of these slave guardians were produced by those of the Royal African Company. These slave guardians were often bought and sold just the same as the rest, yet they hold more power than them.<\/p>\n

This article was very interesting to read and also well written. However, compared to many other articles and documentaries that I have seen about slavery, I believe that Smallwood definitely looks to the less gruesome side of slave trade. There are many things that she had brushed aside or sugarcoated. Smallwood had focused a lot more on their use and worth on the slave ships. She mentioned that it was important for captains and their crew to \u201cminimize their need to ever put such force to direct use against their human cargoes.\u201d (Smallwood, 681). This was true for many ships that want to maximize their profit. Unfortunately, there were other slave ships who packed on as much captives as they could. This often caused a shortage of food and supplies for everyone. Slave traders would then lessen the mouths to feed by brutally torturing and killing the captives.<\/p>\n

Stephanie Smallwood. \u201cAfrican Guardians, European Slave Ships and the Changing Dynamics of Power in the Early Modern Atlantic\u201d in The William and Mary Quarterly. Volume 64, Number 4, October 2007<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

…read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The kidnapping and selling of slaves was only one of many treacherous acts by European seamen. Men and women were ripped apart from their families and their homes. Unwilling and afraid, they were often forced onto crowded ships. Smallwood wrote about the power that the Europeans had held against the \u201ccargoes\u201d on the slave ships. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist410-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist410-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist410-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist410-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist410-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist410-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":996481,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist410-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180\/revisions\/996481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist410-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist410-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist410-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}