|
View the h-africa Discussion Logs by month
View the Prior Message in h-africa's November 1998 logs by: [date] [author] [thread] View the Next Message in h-africa's November 1998 logs by: [date] [author] [thread] Visit the h-africa home page.
<colleen_v@yahoo.com>
The following is the abstract of my MA thesis, finished at East
Tennessee State University (1998).
ABSTRACT
SUFFER THE CHILDREN: EXPERIENCES IN THE
ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE
by Colleen A. Vasconcellos
This study examines the experiences of children below the age of
fifteen in the traffic of the slave trade from West Africa to
the West Indies. The purpose of the study is to investigate the
motive for including children in the traffic of the slave trade,
indicating to what extent their experience compared and
contrasted to those of the adult slaves in the Middle Passage,
and to estimate the number of children involved.
The approach to the study is descriptive and utilizes data from
primary sources including the narratives of slave traders,
bystanders, and the children themselves. This data is supported
by information taken from a small collection of secondary
sources on the slave trade as a whole. Areas of data
presentation include a discussion of the concept of childhood,
the controversy centering around profitability in purchasing
child slaves, demographic and quantitative evidence of children
in the Atlantic slave trade, experiences of slave children in
the Middle Passage, and the sale of slave children in the West
Indies.
Conclusions of the study emphasize that although the children
were at times given preferential treatment by the traders and
fellow slaves, their experience was equally as traumatic. The
trauma of this experience combined with placement into a new
culture often caused the children to repress their experiences,
and often to forget their past in Africa.
Advisor: Melvin E. Page
 Humanities & Social Sciences Online 
|