Slavery In The Middle Passage

The Middle Passage (or Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade) was a voyage that took slaves from Africa to the Americas via tightly packed ships. The trade started around the early 1500s, and by 1654 about 8,000-10,000 slaves were being imported from Africa to the Americas every year. This number continued to grow, and by 1750 that figure had climbed to about 60,000-70,000 slaves a year. Because of the lack of necessary documents, it is hard to tell the exact number of Africans taken from their homeland. But based on available clues and data, an estimated 9-15 million were taken on the Middle Passage, and of that about 3-5 million died. While the whole idea seems sick and wrong, many intelligent people and ideas went in to making the slave trade

Some Africans did not go without putting up a fight. For instance, Captain Tomba led many villagers “in burning huts and killing neighbors who cooperated with slave traders” (14). He was later captured and sent to the slave ship where he would be sold in the New World. The slaves also resisted by refusing to eat. Most of them decided they would rather have death than to live the lifestyle on the slave ships. The captains punished those who refused to eat by giving them lashes to the bare skin until they decided to eat. Olaudah Equiano could be considered one of the more fortunate Africans involved in the slave trade. Rediker uses Equiano to show how Africans were kidnapped and brought to the slave ship. Equiano was home alone with his sister when he was snatched by a neighboring enemy tribe. Tribes were kidnapping each other to sell to the slave traders for goods and even weapons. Equiano was separated from his sister and sold off to merchants before actually boarding the slave ship. He mentioned several times how he would rather die than be on the slave ship. He noticed right away that “the slave ship was equipped with nettings to prevent precisely such desperate rebellion” (109). Equiano went to the Americas and was left alone when none of the merchants purchased him. He was sold to a captain and boarded his ship back to England. On this slave ship, he was treated much better. He got to stay on the deck and eat better food than he had

Through the same brutal process as the original middle passage slave trade, slaves were forcibly kidnapped and tortured in order to be brought to the U.S., or traded within the U.S. as well. Slaves originally were kidnapped and stolen from their tribes or towns in Africa and put onto boats in large number in order to be shipped across the Atlantic ocean to the America. Document B mentions that “a lot of slave speculators in Cheste to buy some slaves for some folks in Alabama...I

The Middle Passage is an event in history that is forgotten and there recognition needs to be on those affected by this event. The Middle Passage was a slave trade that took place between 1450 and 1860. This was an occurrence that was not seen cruel at the time. Slaves were under awful condition and treated poorly. When they were sent on a ship, the conditions for them consisted of the slaves chained close together while standing. If they did not want to eat or did not eat when they were commanded to eat, they were violently abused. Many slaves lost their lives on these voyages and many became sick. The treatment of the slaves were unspeakable. Those in charge of the slaves during the voyages had no respect for the slaves’ needs and drained

The Middle Passage, the second, or middle, leg in the triangular trading routes linking America, Africa, and Europe, was the name for the voyage of the slaves across the Atlantic Ocean. America was the popular destination for people selling slaves because they were sold for up to thirty times the price of the slaves sold in Africa. The higher amount of money made by selling the slaves in America caused a number of crammed vessels full of African-American men, women, and children to head through the Ocean towards America. The conditions on the ships were horrible for the slaves. The slaves were chained to the decks by their necks and legs, and the enslaved people were so packed that they could not even turn around. Death of many of the slaves

Now not many of us understand how it was like to be born or abducted to be slaves. I know people have heard and read about how these poor innocent people were forced from their home country and commanded to do hard labor; but I don’t think they really actually understood the severity and harsh conditions these human beings underwent. Olaudah Equiano wrote this document of his journey through the Middle Passage to show people

The “Triangular Trade” was the trade between Europe, Africa, and the Americas. They traded crops, goods, and slaves. The transportation of slaves from Africa to the New World is what has been labeled as the “Middle Passage.” Many accounts have been documented about this transportation, in the eyes of historians, crew members of the actual ships, and even slaves who went through this voyage themselves. All of them have a different way of describing how the Middle Passage was truly experienced. However, when looking at them in a general sense, a very clear conclusion can be made: slaves were kept in a horrific environment, which often affected the crew on board, but the only reason the slaves were kept alive was because the white crews saw them as monetary beings rather than human beings.

To really show the horrendous conditions that the slaves endured, the author includes a 1787 replication drawing of the slave ship Brooks. Built in 1781 with a lower deck intended to accommodate 294 slaves, giving each slave a space comparable to the size of a coffin. Adult males were allocated a space six feet long and fifteen inches wide and allowing even less space for adult women, boys, and girls. The height of the same area was just five feet, and did not include any toilet facilities for the slaves. In most cases, the captains would load double the number of slaves their ships were designed for leading to even worse conditions onboard with more mouths to feed but not enough provisions to compensate. Those slaves who died during the journey through the Middle Passage were simply thrown overboard, where their bodies were eaten by ravenous sharks.

The misery of enslavement commenced in the remote parts of Africa when he/she was either captured by a chief and sold as punishment, caught during raids by European or African tribes or sold as a prize of war. The slaves were then marched to the West coast where they would be traded for manufactured goods and other raw materials such as textiles, cloth, firearms and alcohol. During the march however, slaves endured harsh

Natives on the other hand were very difficult to enslave because many died due to diseases and lack of immunity to them and they were very knowledgeable with the surrounding terrain if they were to ever escape. To comply with the demand for cultivation of cash crops, a shipping route that imported Africans to the new world was the famous “horrendous six-to eight- week long ocean voyage known as the Middle Passage” (Goldfield, The American Jorney, 55). The European powers traded these slaves for guns, rum and other textiles. But in order to get these slaves, Africans kidnapped and traded other Africans for these resources. The African kingdom traded slaves who have done punishable crimes in their country for valuable resources that could help protect the kingdom from other rulers in Africa. Once the Africans were enslaved, they now begin their long journey to the New World on the compacted ships. Similar to indentured servants on their long voyage to the New World, the living conditions for the slaves on board were disgusting and unimaginable, they lived in their own filth struggling to barely survive the week long passages and slaves were often tightly packed below the deck. The slaves who did survive were then bought and sold just like cattle, often being separated from loved ones

The Middle Passage was the last leg of the trip by sea in which the African slaves rode in the cargo hold of the ship until it reached the West Indies or America. This trip could last up to 2-3 months. The slaves were kept in the cargo hold and were packed so tightly that there was no room to sit or stand. Many of the slaves died in the middle passage for one of three things. Many died of asphyxiation because of how hot the air was in the cargo hold. Some died of starvation, but most died of diseases. When the ship reached the Americas the slaves would be auctioned off never to see their families again.

The middle passage was a passage on the sea that kidnapped slaves would have to experience. They would be taken by force, put into harsh conditions on a boat headed to the west indies. Many slaves died because of exposure to bacteria which causes disease and cuts from the shackles on their wrist. The africans were treated terrible, if they died they were often thrown overboard.

The Middle Passage was part of the triangular trade that existed between America, Europe, and Africa. It was an extremely harsh boat ride in which slaves from Africa were brought to the West Indies. The Africans were tightly packed

The trade of Africans was part of Triangular trade, from Europe to Africa, Africa to the Americas, and the Americas back to Europe. The journey from Africa across the Atlantic was known as the Middle Passage. For many months, enslaved Africans were treated terribly on the voyage. Slaves were packed on top of each other into the bottom of the ship. African men wore iron chains around their wrists and legs and had little room to move. The chains and cuffs prevented revolts and escapes. Revolting slaves would be shot or drowned. Women and children were sometimes

In discussions of the Atlantic slave trade, the term "Middle Passage" often arises. The Middle Passage was the route of sea going journeys of Africans taken from their Native land, to the shores of the Caribbean and America, where they were invariably destined to an existence of institutional slavery. The journey was one of the most horrific aspects of the morally deplorable system of slavery. One cannot, of course, mention the Middle Passage without eliciting the horrors of tightly packed men, women and children chained together, to keep them from rebelling, or from choosing the suicidal fate of jumping overboard. Death was a constant threat as disease, murder, starvation, suicide, asphyxiation and severe depression rampantly claimed the lives of both African slaves and white crewman. The portrait painted of the Middle Passage relies on a myriad of published documents, including abolitionist publications, as well as accounts of the journey written by vessel crewmembers and Africans transported as slaves, such as Olaudah Equiano.