During this reading I found that I was more drawn in during the parts of the reading where Hochschild discussed the gruesome parts of the slave trade. I think it is because I find it interesting how the Europeans thought that they were superior beings so they could just do whatever they wanted, not to mention how greedy they were. Also it did not help that the Africans as well wanted to new goods so they were willing to trade slaves to the Europeans to get these little trinkets and knick-knacks which were abundant in Europe. This particularity drew me in because I cannot even fathom the condition these slaves were in. How they were transported all the way across the Atlantic in chains! I read a statistic once that the conditions became so bad that at one point almost a third of every slave convoy died before reaching port. These slaves were literally treated like objects! I supposed this draws me in because I cannot believe that one human would treat another, unknown, foreign human in that way. If anything the Europeans should have been trying to please the Africans.
Discussion Questions:
Why was Affonso so eager to become more like the Europeans? Why did he feel like he needed to be more like them?
Why did the Europeans automatically think they were better than the Africans?
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