preview

Middle Passage

Decent Essays

From the 16th century to the 19th century, millions of African men, women, and children forced to voyage aboard a ship for approximately two months only to become a slave to the European people. This catastrophic event known as the Middle Passage, which not only spread the Africans across the world, but also transmitted raw materials and manufactured goods. The voyage began from Europe to Africa then Africa to the Americans. The main countries that precipitated in this exchange included Portugal, England, France, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark, Brazil, Brandenburg, the Caribbean, and the Americans Also known as the Atlantic slave trade, the men and women separated, with the women located toward the stern and left unchained while the men chained and forced to lie shoulder to shoulder and located toward the vessels’ bow. The conditions on the slave ships were revolting and appalling due to the condense spacing of several slaves being on one ship, foul and putrid air, seasickness, and the heat was oppressive. These suffocating conditions and lack of sanitation formed fatal diseases. The death rate of the slave ships reached about 25% in the seventeenth century due to various diseases, including smallpox, syphilis, fever, measles, scurvy, and dysentery. The combination of disease and inadequate food lead the slaves …show more content…

The Africans culture, traditions, and lifestyle would have remained in Africa and as well the people. The United States population wouldn’t contain so many African Americans as it does now nor would it be as diverse or economically successful. The continent, Africa itself wouldn’t be in poverty, war, and wouldn’t be as dysfunctional. If given the chance, the nation would be in control, successful, and well developed as the countries that are present today. The United States wouldn’t have to representation as the land of the

Get Access