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FREEDOMWAYS                 SECOND QUARTER 1973

"post-slavery" period, have supplied strong testimony to the physical hardships endured by black people. Lerone Bennett, a black historian, in describing the passage of Africans to America, has written:

"The newly-purchased slaves, properly branded and chained were rowed out to the slave ships for the dreaded Middle Passage across the Atlantic. They were packed like books on shelves into holds which in some instances were no higher than eighteen inches. . . . Here for six to ten weeks of voyage, the slaves lived like animals. Under the best conditions, the trip was intolerable. When epidemics of dysentery or small pox swept the ships, the trip was beyond endurance. . . . The slaves not infrequently would go mad before dying or suffocating. In their frenzy some killed others in hope of procuring more room to breathe. Men strangled those next to them, and women drove nails into each other's brains.

"It was not unusual to find a dead and a living man chained together. So many dead people were thrown overboard on slavers, that it was said that sharks would pick up a ship off the coast of Africa and follow it to America."1

It is important to remember that when black people came to this country, their customs, attitudes and desires were shaped for a different place and different life. Being brought to a country, a culture, and a society that are the complete antithesis of one's way of life has been recognized as one of the cruelest aspects of this particular enslavement.2

During the period of slavery, black people responded to their environment with a view of how best to survive. The relationship of master to slave was of extreme importance to the slave. There existed no communication between master and slave on any human level, instead the relationship one would have with a piece of property. If you twist the knob on your radio you expect it to play.

It was this condition of inhumanity that characterized the African slave's lot in this country.3 Survival concerned itself with the need for food, clothing, shelter, and humane treatment. Again Bennett stresses the fact that the treatment of slaves was harsh and brutal:

"...The food, which was issued once a week was generally coarse and lacking in variety. Each adult was given a peck of corn and three or four pounds of bacon or salt pork. Fractional amounts,

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