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Chapter 02
An Inhuman Trade

Illustration of Africans being taken by traders

The Trauma of Transition

I was brought from a state of innocence and freedom, and in a barbarous and cruel manner, conveyed to a state of horror and slavery.
We had a . . . discontented journey . . . in . . . fear that the people . . . would murder me . . . travelling so far by land . . . upwards of a thousand miles . . . I was about thirteen.
The slaves were all put into a pen, and . . . ordered not to look about . . . to insure obedience, a man . . . with a whip . . . [was] ready to strike.
The captains go ashore from time to time to examine the negroes . . . and to make their purchases . . . if they are afflicted . . . they are rejected.
A burning iron, with the . . . name of the companies, lies in the fire . . . [and is] marked on the breast.
A vessel arrived to conduct us . . . to the ship, it was a . . . horrible scene, there was nothing to be heard but rattling of chains . . . and groans and cries of our fellow men.