![]() The transatlantic slave trade scattered enslaved Africans across the Americas, the Caribbean and Europe, where we led lives filled with fear and violence. We harvested sugar and coffee, tobacco, rice and cotton that was then sailed back to Europe, making the Europeans richer, while the horrendous cycle of enslavement continued. We were put to work on plantations, farms and in people's houses. Families were separated, children taken from their parents. When we arrived, those of us who had survived were often sold to the highest bidder at an auction. Those who were thought to have started the revolts were killed or punished, but we never stopped trying to find ways to resist. A few were successful and the ships were turned back, but most were not. Any sign of resistance and we were beaten or worse. Disease was everywhere and many people died, their bodies thrown overboard. Conditions were appalling and we lived in filth. The women and children were kept separately and faced regular abuse from the ship's crew. The men were locked below deck, chained and shackled. ![]() ![]() They called it the Middle Passage and it took many weeks. Then we were transported thousands of miles across the Atlantic Ocean. ![]() And for hundreds of years, we were sold into slavery as part of a war, or forcibly stolen from our homes, traded for goods that had come from Europe. Enslaved young woman: We were mothers, fathers, husbands, wives, sons, daughters, farmers, priests, merchants, musicians. ![]()
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