If there is anything in this world we all are passionate and most sentimental about, it is the safety of the little children – our offsprings. No matter how careful or tough war is, you would still find nations creating space to fly children to safety.
We have seen stories in the world where enemy soldiers take babies of their enemies and bring them up, in the case of the death of the parents. That is how humanity values children.
But in this story, we find that somehow it was not really humans who carried out the atrocities on Black people during slavery. Somehow we feel these were demons from the pit of hell, wearing human skin. I mean, how can one be so cruel to a baby? How does one lose his humanity so much that he doesn’t see the innocence in a 10 months old baby?
It was accounted for and documented that while Black slaves were being transported from Africa, an incident that shocked everyone happened. A 10 months old baby was sulking and did not want to eat. It troubled the captain because that was part of the money they would make.
So the captain took the child from the mother and tried to force the child to eat while hitting the child. He was furious and he said: ‘I’ll make you eat or I’ll kill you.’
The way the captain manhandled the child and the harsh conditions the baby was facing on the ship made the child’s leg swell. The captain ordered his men to boil some water which would be used to douse the swollen legs of the child. Either he had some compassion for the child or he was just trying to save a commodity for the market.
The cook that prepared the water put his finger into the water and declared that it was actually too hot for a human. But in rage and a blink of an eye, the captain ordered them to put the baby’s feet into the hot water. Immediately they threw the baby’s feet into the overheated water, the nails and skin came off.
After the baby’s skin and toes nails peeled off, the captain didn’t stop there. He used oi cloths to wrap the foot of the child, and then tied the child to a heavy log of wood for about two to three days. After those days, he still wanted the child to eat by force, as he cursed and said: ‘I will make you eat, or I will be the death of you.’
When the captain tried again to feed the baby and the baby refused, he went ahead to keep his promise and flogged the ’10 months old baby’ for about 15 minutes and the child died. And he did it stop there. He actually called on the child’s mother to pick up the baby and throw the lifeless body overboard. Oh, what cruelty!!!
When the mother cried out of agony and grief, the captain beat her mercilessly until she picked up the child and threw it into the ocean. She could not believe what had happened and she looked away so she would not witness her child drop into the sea.
All of these were done under the view of other black slaves who murmured and cried out of pain for what the captain did to a poor little baby and the mother.