bus “descovered” the new world. SLAVERY: To describe and explain every aspect


of slavery is nearly impossible to do in such limited space. However, we will try to be as brief and to the point as possible to bare the hideous sides of slavery that aren’t much talked about. THE SLAVE CASTLES: Every move was calculated and made


to ensure the psychological destruction of Black people. When Africans were captured and chained in slave castles, the


lomé de las Casas convinced the Span- ish crown to enslave the Africans instead of the native americans because the Afri- cans would be more fitted for hard labor because their bodies ability to adapt to harsh conditions, its toleration of the sun, and its immunity to diseases in the New World. With his argument, de las Casas sealed the fate of Africans into the horror


we know as slavery in N. America. (http:// www.webster.edu/~corbetre/haiti/history/spanish/ lascasas.htm)


The bowels of a slave dungeon


men, women and children were separated from each other. The young women were thrown in a dungeon and would be raped by Portuguese men in order to “breed mixed elites” that would run the colony. Also, before being sent on the ships, fam- ilies and tribes were separated to prevent rebellions and unions; because Africans were so diverse and had many languag- es, it was easy to divide them. Families were broken in the most irreparable way; a mother would be sent to Brazil, father to the French West Indies, brother to the Spanish West Indies, sister to the U.S, etc… Africans were also sorted accord- ing to their skills: pottery, metal smelting,


sculpture, and so on. (This website contains an interesting video on the slave castle in Goree http://webworld.unesco.org/goree/)


THE VALLALOID DEBATE:: One of the events that reinforced slav- ery was the debate at Salamancas. Barto-


THE JUSTIFICATION: René Descartes (1596-1650), a re- naissance philosopher, was instrumental in justifying slavery. He came up with the idea “I think, therefore I am,” the seperation of mind and body. He claimed animals couldn’t think or feel pain due to their lack of minds and souls. Even though it appeared that their bodies react- ed to pain, because they lacked thought, their minds couldn’t process it. This idea justified and made ethical any treatment to non-humans. This idea developed around the same time slavery was tak- ing off and becoming more profitable; also when Africans and other non-whites were considered sub-human animals and where subject to worst conditions and torture imaginable. RAPES, LYNCHING & TORTURE: Many atrocities against Black men,


women, and children were documented during slavery: the women were subject to rape by multiple slave maters during any time of the day, sometimes in front of her family. Many women on the bowels of the slave ships were pregnant. Many died due being shackled to the floor and not having any assistance during labor. if she lived, the baby would soon die due to the disgusting condition of the ship; feces, urine, disease, etc. The men were often castrated to control the population


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