Venture of Smith and Alexander Falcon bridge
Analyze the voices of European slavers and enslaved Africans on slavery and the transatlantic slave trade. Read the accounts of Venture Smith and Alexander Falconbridge. Captured in West Africa at 6 years old and sold into slavery in North America, Smith (also known as Broteer) authored one of the first known slave narratives. The narrative of Venture Smith was published in late eighteenth century Conneticut. Alexander Falconbridge, a ship physician turned abolitionist wrote a first-hand account of the capture of slaves and life on board a slaver in the late eighteenth century. In your essay, explain what insight these accounts give readers today about the nature of the middle passage. Identify the authors and explain the time period in which they were writing. What were they writing about and why? What particular perspective do they bring to the subject? What is the audience for their work? What biases do they bring to the account? What are the obvious silences, gaps or errors that you find in the telling or recording of the event? Use these questions to guide your analysis.
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