Techniques In Middle Passage

Slaves were treated like dangerous animals that were being loaded on a ship ready to be sent to a zoo. From the passage

In Middlemarch, George Eliot utilizes several literary devices to portray her two characters and their complex relationship that reveals their marriage is dominated by the husband who objectifies his wife into silence. Throughout the passage, Eliot makes it clear that Rosamond and Tertius Lydgate are in an uneven relationship, considering Tertius refuses to listen to his wife who seems to only have his best interest at heart, yet still, he continues to yell at her for thinking she knows what is best for him. With the help of details, Tertius’s critical tone, and imagery, Eliot is able to showcase how complex their relationship is when it comes to Rosamond giving her opinions and ideas, just to be casted to the side.

The slaves are all on the boat, loaded in loose pack. They are laid on their backs, luckier than those who had to be in tight pack, but unfortunately continue to suffer. The slaves all cry, yell, and moan as they take off. All of them are miserably separated from each other, keeping them from communicating or supporting each other through the pain. Each one of them is chained to one another, forced to watch the other die slowly.

Went onto the ship or the death boat they were nothing but skin and bone. This was the most heartbreaking and unsettling experience anybody could go through or understand. This boat was full of Slaves gasping for mercy, Crying for loved ones, Confused and Scared from the waist up. They were forced to sleep on top of on and other pacted together This was the voyage of the Atlantic passage.

Olaudah Equiano, a former African slave in the sixteenth century who later became a slavery abolitionist, was a man of wisdom and experience. In Equiano’s autobiography, The Horrors of the Middle Passage, he explains the hardships that him and other enslaved Africans endured during the migration across the Atlantic to the Americas. During his time on the ship, Equiano’s first-person observations in his autobiography elaborate on the fear, torture, and sickness that Africans were faced with throughout the entire migration. Africans, such as Olaudah Equiano, dealt with getting brutally beaten for the slightest forms of disrespect. If a European offered an enslaved African food and they rejected it, they were “hourly whipped for not eating” (Equiano,

The people in the Middle Passage experienced hell pretty much. They were tortured every single day. According to Alexander Falconbridge, a slave ship doctor, he says “ The men negroes, on being brought aboard the ship, are immediately fastened together, two and two, by hand-cuffs on their wrists, and by irons riveted on their legs” (Falconbridge). Basically, these negroes were treated horribly. I mean they had metal bolted to their legs. Literally bolted inside their legs. And then they were hand-cuffed. So, they pretty much were trapped with their legs bolted to metal and their wrists hand-cuffed. The only time they could possibly get out is if they had to do work.

Slave trade dates back to Ancient Europe, so the Middle passage shouldn’t be anything different from the norm. However, this was a harsh and gruesome way of trading slaves. Many Africans were taken from their homes by Europeans. The Europeans would pack the slaves into small crevices on a boat and shackle them down. Since the slaves were so close together they were prone to getting disease, which would then lead to death. A famous African American, Olauda Equiano, wrote a book about his experience during the Middle Passage. Equiano wrote "The closeness of the place and the heat of the climate, added to the number of the ship, which was so crowded that each had scarcely room to turn himself, almost suffocated us” (Equiano). Many slaves were beaten severely and some even jumped overboard. Death

The journey to America was inhuman and dreadful. There were about 600 slaves in the hull of a ship per trip, which traveled over 3,000 miles to America. Slaves were packed on top of each other sardine-style, with no bathroom breaks, and very small proportion of meals. Usually, one bucket of food was shared by about 10 people twice a day. Slaves were chained together, deeming them immobile, so they had no choice but to relieve themselves right where they sat. With different odors and feces, disease and sickness spread rapidly killing most of the slaves. If a slave die, money is lost, so if the weather permitted slaves were allowed on deck for fresh air.

The slave journey, after the breaking of the kinship, begins with the forced collection and shipment of the enslaved human towards the new world. On this voyage a transformation of the self takes place, a loss of hope; desperation. A slave’s mind would wonder and think if it was better to just jump off and let the sharks take their lives rather than give their life to the white man. The ‘Tall Ship’, the name of a vessel with a large mast, was the primary ship that carried hundreds of the slaves across the torturous and sickening journey (Ruddy 26 Jan. 2017). This ship not only brought goods like spices, but it also transported the slave to their new life, a life without their family or themselves. Aboard these ships is where the transformation

The purpose of the Middle Passage was to improve many Europeans and Americans, but the Africans who were enslaved suffered inhumane conditions and mayhems during these voyages. The total number of Africans that were imported to the New World by the slave trade ranged from 25 million to 50 million; as many as half died at sea. The death rate was so high due to diseases and starvations because of the length of the passage. The amount of food and water lessened the longer the voyage. The core contributors to the death toll were dysentery and scurvy. In addition, there were outbreaks of measles, small pox and syphilis, and other diseases spread rapidly in those close-quarter compartments. So it was very likely if one the bodily fluids of the person

     Rutherford faces the enslavement of marriage before and after getting onboard the Republic. He is on the ship because he doesn’t want to marry Isadora. By marrying Isadora, he could have freed himself from the bondage of debt. However, once he boards the ship and becomes a crew member, he is faced with the enslavement of marriage once more. Falcon considers Rutherford his spy and gives him a special gun. This gun requires him to wear a ring to prevent anyone else from using it. They both have the same rings on their left hand, and Rutherford states that “we were married, and the very thing [he] had fled from in New Orleans had overtaken [him]”(103).

In the Middle Passage (during which the slaves were transported to America) the slaves were treated as anything but equal. There were a few ways to initially become a slave, including being an indentured servant, or even being forcibly taken from your country. Once on the Guineaman the slaves had different privileges, the men “were shackled two by two” to each other and the women and children were free to wander about the ship during the day. Often times the women were considered fair game for the sailors. The living conditions were subpar and the slaves were forced to clean the living and sleeping quarters. The sleeping quarters were very small. Sometimes if there wasn't enough water for every slave to drink then they just threw some slaves

The Africans came to America with religious beliefs and practices, including the belief in a loving God who had created the universe and was its ultimate Provider. The Africans have faced problems to those tending religious beliefs and practices both the “Middle Passage” and the effects of slavery. The Africans which had survived the “Middle Passage” had a powerful impact on early African spirituality is the African understanding of life. Slaves held on this understanding of life, and the end result was that their worship was restricted to neither time or place (www.ministrymagazine.org.).

The conditions were incredibly harsh on the ‘Middle Passage’. When the ships docked at port for rest, there was always a chance that they could be attacked from enemies or pirates. They were even sometimes attacked by native tribes if they did not like their arrival. If the ships were faced with bad weather conditions, it would make the journey longer. Due to this the daily food rations the slaves had twice a day would be reduced greatly which resulted in many of them getting sick or nearly starving to death. These weather conditions affected both the crew and captain as well as the enslaved Africans, but the conditions were much worse for the enslaved Africans as they also dealt with mental, physical, and sexual abuse/assault from the captain and crew. These punishments were mainly due to rebellion of the enslaved Africans. Due to the slaves outnumbering the crew, they thought the rebellion would be successful. In spite of the punishments, the slaves often rebelled or

Although both knew how much more profit their was for every live slave, the “tight-packers” thought was the more people, the more profit. If some of them die, it doesn’t matter because the boat is packed full and they can afford a couple casualties. The captains had charts of the boats to find a way to maximize their space and fit as many slaves in as they possible could. “They had not so much room as a man in his coffin either in length or breadth. When he had to enter the slave deck, he took off his shoes to avoid crushing the slaves as he was forced to crawl over them” (Dr. Falconbridge). Surgeons and doctors would have bite marks and scratches covering their ankles from were the slaves would attack them. The shelves were so low that the enslaved Africans were not able to even sit up. The journey would last between three to four months and with the horrible conditions the slaves had to be in during that time, many would die. Since the men were taken on board and shackled to one another the dead would be attached to the living. The women and children were held separately. Although women were allowed to wander around, they had worse fates then the men below deck. “The women—usually regarded as fair prey for the sailors—and the children were allowed to