Many different things were happening during the Atlantic Slave Trade; monarchies where becoming insanely rich, free labor was becoming a necessity, and free Africans were being dehumanized and forced into slavery. From the capture of Africans until they were sold to the first owners in America, they were constantly degraded and treated like livestock. On African soil; on transporting vassals; and on American soil; free people were brutalized and many became safe. Slave traders and “owners” used many different tactics to get their captives to become ointments. The process of becoming a slave is directly linked to the loss or weakening of oneself in multifaceted ways; these lost aspects include but are not limited to free will, self-worth, self-esteem, and identity. Michael Gomez discusses in his passage the capture of prisoners and the difficulties they face on the way to the coast. After being kidnapped from their villages, these prisoners were forced to walk for up to “four months or more to reach the coast.” The dehumanization begins here, when these buzz...