Short Story- Life Without the Slave Trade
Brittany Sandoval, Bethany Sheppard, Sarah Becknell, Natalie Ball Story

     Stunned, I sat in class, learning about the Atlantic Slave Trade. Our professor split my class up into groups and each group was carrying on their own discussion; listing reasons for and against the Slave Trade. I asked my professor what the world would be like if the Atlantic Slave Trade never happened. Laughing and scoffing in astonishment, some students acted as if a world without the Atlantic Slave Trade could have never happened. I, on the other hand, had a different opinion. If the first event of trading African slaves never happened then the Atlantic Slave Trade would have never occurred. That’s when it hit me. I ceased the conversation with my group because I had the most mind blowing idea in the world. If I could create a time machine and go back to the moment when the first trade of African Americans happened, then I could stop the first African from ever stepping foot on a European ship, on his way to an unknown future in the New World. After class that day I set up my base at an abandoned warehouse that my family used to own, where we used to construct carpet rugs. I began looking up ways to build a time machine. Cracking open every text book and searching through every google article; going all the way back to the simplest machine that was ever created. Finally, after weeks I had all the information that I needed. Thanks to Amazon, I was able to ship in the parts I needed to create my time machine. By the time the time machine was finished, months had passed. I set the date of my first trial and hoped that one would be all I needed. The very next day, I would attempt to travel back in time.
      Early the next morning, I woke up, anxious to begin my extravagant journey. I loaded up and started up the machine.There was a jolt and a rush of loud noises yet everything seemed to be going smoothly. Telling myself that it was working, I pushed my anxiety aside and focused on the task at hand. Pressing in the date to which I would go to, I pulled the levers and pressed every red button I could find. A rush of wind burst through the windows and squeezed the air so tight I could hardly breath. Unlike anything I had ever experienced, I felt like I would explode. The feeling stopped as suddenly as it came.
      I was back in the 15th century. I could smell the ocean, and hear the waves. I walked over and could see him. About to board a European boat was the very first African Slave. I ran over, yelling and screaming for him to wait. I caught his attention, just in the nick of time. The rest of my time there was blur. Filled with screams, hours of running, and bloodshed, I was worried that I had made a mistake. What if I went through all of this trouble and nothing happened? I just had to hope that all my efforts would lead to a better world in the end. Because this environment was totally unfamiliar to me, it took me hours to find where my time machine was. Finally I found the machine. I loaded back up and hit the button that would bring me back to the 21st century. I landed back at my parents old warehouse but from the moment I stepped out, something felt off. The warehouse wasn’t a warehouse at all. In fact, I was surrounded by countless numbers of trees, plants, animals, and insects. I started walking, trying to find my home. After what seemed like hours, I finally found civilization. This seemed more recognizable than the unending forest from before. Walking through the streets, I saw people that certainly were not from my little town. Nothing looked the same. There were different cars, and the houses were built out of different material. It seemed like the majority of the population was hispanic, as well. I searched in my pocket to find my phone so I could call home, but my iPhone wasn't there. In place of it was a smaller, flip phone, like the one your grandparents had. It worked well enough for calling and that's about it, but slowly, numbers that I knew were slipping from memory. Still, I continued walking the streets and came across a store that sold televisions, yet these were boxy and bulky televisions - nothing at all like a flat screen. The news was playing a segment on Africa, depicting Africa as ranking second in the Global economy, only to Europe. They showed clips of Africa while talking about their new accomplishment, and what I thought was a third world country now looked very similar to the America I used to know. There were smartphones, bigger houses, and it seemed that everyone there looked happy and healthy.
      I rounded the corner and an old library was still there. I began looking through different history books trying to figure out what had changed since I came back. The TV was right, Africa was doing well. They were advanced in technology, much more so than the world I found myself standing in now. Africa was the leading exporter and importer due to it being the original birthplace of agriculture. In my research, I found that America had never had a civil war, and in fact, due to the lack of labor and the lack of slaves that helped in the war, America was not the United States. Looking closer, the map of America was different as well. It looked like the land was divided up by the British, the Native Americans, and the Hispanics. Each owned a small portion of the country. All of the things that Africa brought to the New World never existed and because of this there was a weaker economy and rampant diseases flowing through my home.
      I slammed the book I held in my hand and took off running to my home in hopes that it was still there. What if I arrived and my house, family, and favorite cow Bessie Lou from our large Angus farm were no longer there? As I rounded the corner to the street my road was on, I could see a house similar to mine, yet not completely the same. I could see a man outside the house. He was tall, and built; yet darker in skin color. He was tending to a large garden. In fact as I looked around, almost every house on this street had men outside tending to gardens. I walked up, afraid of what this strange man might do. As I came into view the man looked at me and said “Hola hijo, donde estabas?” (Hello son, where have you been?) I did not understand what he said to me, though it did sound vaguely familiar. I just smiled a friendly smile. The man gestured for me to go inside and so I followed him. Inside the house, I could smell the most delicious food being prepared. There was a small woman inside and two younger girls in the kitchen helping to prepare the meal. Glancing at the women, she gives me a warm smile on her face. She said “Tienes hambre? Vete a lavarte las manos antes de la cena,” (Are you hungry? Go wash your hands before dinner.) With the little girl directing me, I walked towards the bathroom, washing my hands. Looking up, I shrieked a little in shock at the face I saw looking back at me.
      I had dark black hair, tan colored skin, my eyes were brown, and my hands were rough. At that moment it hit me, my new life came flashing before my eyes and I could feel the old me drifting away. Everything that seemed vaguely familiar came into my mind at full force, showing me the new life I had. With a knowing smile, I walked into the kitchen sat down next to my little sister Stephanie and waited for my mother to serve our food. Grabbing the plate from her, I said “Gracias mama, por esta buena comida,” (Thank you mom, for this wonderful food). As I sat there eating with my family, I thought back to my time machine. It seemed like ages ago that I had attempted the most wildest journey of my lifetime. How easy it would be for me to go back to the world I once lived in! But, then again, why should I? I mean, hey, now I don’t have to turn in my ten page paper tomorrow.

 Sources: https://www.quora.com/How-would-American-history-be-different-if-slaves-had-never-been-brought-to-the-New-World http://ldhi.library.cofc.edu/exhibits/show/africanpassageslowcountryadapt/introductionatlanticworld/plantations_before_the_transat https://15minutehistory.org/2012/12/03/episode-6-effects-of-the-atlantic-slave-trade-on-the-americas/ http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/migrations/legacy/almleg.html http://www.africaeconomicanalysis.org/articles/gen/slavehtm.html http://scholar.harvard.edu/files/nunn/files/the_long_term_effects.pdf https://www.quora.com/How-would-American-history-be-different-if-slaves-had-never-been-brought-to-the-New-World https://www.quora.com/How-would-Africa-be-today-if-colonialism-never-happened