Chapter Eight: The Sailor's Vast Machine

Chapter eight is all about the sailors. Rediker gives the reader plenty of primary sources within this chapter to make his arguments credible. He talks about what the slave trade offered to a common sailor and how that ultimately drew them in. "What the slave trade offered above all else was ready money-an advance of two or three months' wages. This was the key to enticing sailors to join a trade they did not like." I believe this chapter is the basis of understanding the sailors involved in the trade. Rediker makes it clear that most of them did not join because they agreed with slavery or punishing the enslaved. Yet, they needed money and an opportunity, and they would do just about anything to receive it.