The primary source that I will be analyzing in this article is “Francis Daniel Pastorius Describes His Ocean Voyage, 1684” written by Francis Daniel Pastorius which is about the perilous journey of Francis to find a better home for his family and himself. The article accounts the incident of Francis leaving his home in Germany to go on to the Atlantic journey where he and the other passengers faced many obstacles as he begins the account of his trip by illustrating the obstacle as “unpleasant on account of the terror of shipwreck” in his way to create a new life in Pennsylvania (Francis Daniel Pastorius Describes His Ocean Voyage, 1684 | The American Yawp Reader). I will explicate what the excerpt “Francis Daniel Pastorius Describes His Ocean Voyage” bangs on in a vigorous manner and how this excerpt significantly paints a picture of the colonial lifestyle in US history.
Pastorius in his text paints a picture that how Native Americans are depicted like newly arrived colonists as righteous and pious people but savages who supposedly live in a naïve closeness to God. The story conveys the deadly narrative of discrimination and slavery in the United States where the author explicitly shows how enslaved African people are stacked on top of each other. The crew thinks of the enslaved people as products who were not treated as humans, not even animals and the Captain of the ship wanted to maximize the profit margin through them. Adding salt to the injury, everyone felt suffocated due to the variety of loathsome smells and sick slaves were thrown overboard.
In the nutshell, after reading this, I believe that Francis through his descriptive writing style has described the minute details. He further illustrates how one enslaved person dreams of death because of the unfair treatment and the other think of getting off the ship, having food, and his survival even in the bad weather. Francis mentions hardships that “worst of all was the fish” salted to such an extent that none of the enslaved persons “could eat half of them” and even the crew threw all the edible fish back into the water without thinking of the sick who needed the food (Francis Daniel Pastorius Describes His Ocean Voyage, 1684 | The American Yawp Reader). However, one was suffocating while the other had the hope of freedom from the colonial lifestyle of America. Francis, one of the enslaved people, is enthusiastic about getting a new life and a change in the United States through his travelling experience to the Atlantic.
Works Cited
Francis Daniel Pastorius Describes His Ocean Voyage, 1684 | The American Yawp Reader. https://www.americanyawp.com/reader/british-north-america/francis-daniel-pastorius-describes-his-ocean-voyage-1684/. Accessed 19 Oct. 2022.
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