The Slave Ship
Part One: Name Unknown
        In the first excerpt, a story is told about an unnamed man who makes multiple attempts on his own life after being put on a slave ship. Around the turn of the year 1784, the man boarded the slave ship "Brooks" along with his wife, two daughters and mother who had all been convicted of witchcraft.  The ship was heading for Kingston, Jamaica.  while on the ship, the man had made an attempt of slit his own throat. He only succeeded in "dividing the external jugular vein."  The next morning he made another attempt to slit his throat on the other side.  The man said that "he would never go with the white men" and he decided that death would be better than a life of slavery.  When the crew of the ship were unable to find the tool used to cut the man's throat, the doctor confirmed that the man had used his own fingers to rip open his flesh.  His hands were bound so that he could not attempt to kill himself again but he had died about a week later due to lack of food and nutrition.
        It is clear that the mans greatest act of resistance is trying to kill himself while onboard the ship. But he had made other acts while on the ship previously. He refused to eat anything before and after his suicide attempts. He showed signs of despair and shock at the beginning of the voyage while his family were very dependant. The crew thought that these feelings would eventually go away but they remained until the man’s suicide attempt.
         Something I learned about slave ships because of this personal story could be that some of the people were becoming slaves because of something they did and not only because they were of a certain race.  The story said he and his family were on the ship because they had been convicted of witchcraft. I found it interesting because it showed that the spanish may have had social structure levels for even the people that they enslaved.