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<colleen_v@yahoo.com> The following is the abstract of my MA thesis, finished at East Tennessee State University (1998). ABSTRACT SUFFER THE CHILDREN: EXPERIENCES IN THE ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE by Colleen A. Vasconcellos This study examines the experiences of children below the age of fifteen in the traffic of the slave trade from West Africa to the West Indies. The purpose of the study is to investigate the motive for including children in the traffic of the slave trade, indicating to what extent their experience compared and contrasted to those of the adult slaves in the Middle Passage, and to estimate the number of children involved. The approach to the study is descriptive and utilizes data from primary sources including the narratives of slave traders, bystanders, and the children themselves. This data is supported by information taken from a small collection of secondary sources on the slave trade as a whole. Areas of data presentation include a discussion of the concept of childhood, the controversy centering around profitability in purchasing child slaves, demographic and quantitative evidence of children in the Atlantic slave trade, experiences of slave children in the Middle Passage, and the sale of slave children in the West Indies. Conclusions of the study emphasize that although the children were at times given preferential treatment by the traders and fellow slaves, their experience was equally as traumatic. The trauma of this experience combined with placement into a new culture often caused the children to repress their experiences, and often to forget their past in Africa. Advisor: Melvin E. Page
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