His 465 week 4

Learning more and more about the slave-traded system from the past, over the last few weeks, has help me realize how harsh they were treated.  Yes, I have learned that they were beaten and had horrible punishments from learning about it in grade school, but seeing the clip from the video this past week has opened my eyes and, makes me sick to my stomach, of how hard it really was.  The part that got me the most was when they lined up the slaves on the ship and had the bag of rocks and let them sink to the bottom of the ocean, pulling the slaves down with it.  It was a hard realty for them, although it was a bit interesting to learn that some of the slaves from Latin America were allowed the sew their masters for harsh punishment, which I know it was not too common but the fact that they has some rights is surprising, for all the were put through.  One story that I have enjoyed from this weeks readings was Angela Batallas, A Fight for Freedom in Guayaquil.  There are a few things I enjoyed from this story, and one of them was when Angela was allowed to baptize her baby even thought it was mixed race baby.  It showed that they recognized it as a worthy enough baby to be seen as a product of God.  Another part from the story that I liked was when the Minster believed Angela when she said that her baby’s father was her master.  The Minster could have very easily said I do not believe you and dismissed her and the baby.  It showed that even thought she was a slave; her word did count for something.  One thing that I did find very odd about the story was the fact the many masters would have sexual relations with their slaves even thought many of them had wives and lived in very Christian towns, where cheating on your wife could send you to hell.  The fact that the minister knew that Angela’s master was having sex with her, and he was not punished shows that money was power.  Another thing that is odd about many master having sexual relations with slaves was that fact the their wives had to know something was up but would not say anything to their husbands, just shows you another example that women in the 1800’s were always second class citizens, and men with money always had strong power.  The last thing that I had a hard time understanding about Angela’s story was that even thought he knew that Angela’s child was his, he did not seem to look at him as a son, because his mother was a slave.  It was a hard life for the slaves and its crazy to see how people could be so cruel to one another.