Chapters 5-6

Interesting. the author really takes the reader for a ride in these two chapters i feel. More so than in the earlier sections of the book. The end of both chapters throw in a lot of the shock factor that the first part of each respective chapter had hinted towards. Page 81 brought the disconnection between the human element and the business world to a head. In the last part of the page the author comments on how despite the fact that there were 132 humans thrown overboard the court case had little to do with the matter. It was instead more important that the insurance company did not have to pay what would be millions of dollars in todays money for the incident that was passed off as losses from the sea. This monetary value on human life is a concept that is continuously brought up throughout the text.

The author on page 93 adds in a comment by Ramsay that successfully sums up the slaves spirit in a sentence. "Had nature intended negroes for slavery...they would have been born without any sentiment for liberty." It is interesting to throw that in. You can see the change in the tone of the book at that moment.