The torment that came with the chains of bondage, that people once called skin was indescribably atrocious. The injustice and inhumane suffrage that spanned for centuries were inflicted on African slaves went during the Atlantic Slave Trade. For historians to understand the slaves, it is crucial to know how slavery began in the Caribbean. The reason why Spanish colonists came to the Caribbean in the first place was because they were searching for gold. They forced the natives of the islands into slavery. The islands then became a trade/ gathering point for ships bringing goods from Spain. They discovered tobacco, sugar, salt and other various spices. The most profitable being is sugar and salt, which were grown on large plantations and cultivated by slaves. Very soon the natives of the West Indies practically all died due to the combination of European diseases, mental and physical injuries. Because of this the plantation owners started importing slaves from Africa, which thus began the Atlantic Slave Trade. The various hardships that slaves faced in the Caribbean were tremendously severe unlike the world had ever seen. .
Historians were able to get a better understanding of the atrocities African slaves faced by reading the Autobiography of Mary Prince. Mary Prince was an African slave born into slavery and her story is the most descriptive first person POV as a slave recorded in history. Mary Prince was born into slavery and a few years later she was separated from her family. She suffered many forms of pain and torture as her years as a slave. First hand, she experienced and witnessed almost every form of torture as a slave, from blood gashing whips, starvation, and face shattering blows to the head. Inside her personal narrative she recalls back to the time she was working in the salt ponds how her master Mr. D was intentionally cruel to one slave in particularly. She states, "Our master would order him to be stripped and laid down on the ground, and have him beaten with a rod of rough briar till his skin was quite red and raw.
