Group of severely emaciated boys from East Africa in lower hull of ship Daphne, after they have been freed. Nov. 1, 1868.

Aboard the Daphne, after they have been freed.

Nov. 1, 1868.

British ships monitored the coasts to prevent the illegal slave trade.

Slave pen, Alexandria, VA.

Auction & Negro Sales, Whitehall Street, Washington, D.C.

These dwellings, located on Florida's St Georges Island in the Gulf of Mexico, are typical plantation slave quarters.

Flogging a Slave Fastened to the Ground 1850

These are examples of bits used today to keep horses in line.

Similar devices were used on slaves who were considered insubordinate.

The bit rendered the slave unable to speak or even swallow, causing a great deal of discomfort and difficulty breathing.

“The importance of being voiceless is perhaps one of the most dehumanizing aspects of slavery. The wildness in the eyes, even when the bit is removed shows how part of their humanity is stripped away…They [the bits] stopped you from talking, little by little that should destroy you.”-Toni Morrison, BBC Interview

When persons being held as slaves were accused by their masters of insubordination, or of eating more than their allotment of food, they might expect to be fitted with an iron muzzle.