The Horrific Trade Years ago, I was just a boy with little money, who worked as a fisherman. My family had passed away years ago, but I was too young to remember. My captain was the man who raised me since he first saw me on the street. That time, I was five. Yet, I had skills I'd learned from my biological father long ago. Captain Trover was now my adoptive dad. Sadly, he had little money as well. Fish nowadays were rapidly dying. No fish equals no money. Yet, I believed that something will change. That we will earn money and become wealthy for decades and we won't have to worry about living on the street in rags and living off of garbages. Though, we found ourselves in a tougher situation. A situation that we debated with for days... How to earn money when we are bankrupt? That answer came faster than a blink of an eye. Slaves. I felt uneasy about it. The thoughts of taking people from their own countries to ours seemed wrong, but my father quickly changed my mind by a simple saying of "They are not forced, son. They want to come and work for us." And here I am, as a sailor on Nassau, delivering African slaves to our new world. And from the look of it, I don't think they really wanted to come. "Son, take the girls to the cabins!" My father squawked. After ten years of drinking alcohol, his voice slowly came to sound like a girly pitch. Some sailors teased him about it, but my father waved their remarks aside. I settled the bucket of water next to the three, African warriors, who stood in front of the girls I was supposed to take to the cabins. The warriors flexed their muscles and masked their fears with bravery. Yet, I could still see it... The fear in their eyes. I sighed and tried to move them aside, yet, they stood their ground. The girls behind them clung to their arms as I stepped a bit closer. Let's admit, a teenager like me who's only 5'11 can't take down someone whose 6'4. That's called a miracle. Those can only occur in plays. I took a step back and examined the deck. There were once fourteen thousand slaves in here, but many has died from malnutrition and dysentery, as well as scurvy. Those that were sick were thrown overboard or chose to jump themselves to avoid being forced. This journey was known as the Middle Passage to a few sailors, but not to me. This should had been known as the Suicidal and Murder Passage... a passage where many slaves were killed instead of being saved. I grabbed one of the girls by her arm and forced her away from the man. "Adunbi!" The girl shrieked as I grabbed hold onto the other girls. She started weeping as I dragged them all up the stairs. A slight guilt weighed on my heart. I was doing something I never imagined myself doing... I was delivering slaves to sailors for their use. As gross as it sounds, what choice did I have? This was earning me a lot of money than I had when I was a fisherman. More money means bills are paid and foods are brought. Add to the fact that I could now go to school once all of these slaves were taken to the Americas and they pay us with goods. From there, we were told to take the goods to Europe and we will receive our prizes from there. I motioned for the three sailors to take the girls from me. It wasn't like I could just let them go and hand them to the sailors... It was because they were clinging to me with all their might and sobbing onto my now wet shirt. Yet, the same pain stayed in my heart as Jan, Willem, and Abel took the three, young girls to their cabins. I can do this. I can do this... I recited to myself over and over. I tried to walk away from the cabins as I heard a scream. I can do this. I can do this... And sure enough, I had never looked back again. I accepted the guilt of my needs for money and the fate that came with it. I knew as day by day, month by month, and year by year goes by, I would never forgive myself for letting this happen.