Slavery In The Middle Passage

The Middle Passage was a crowded and unsanitary experience. Alexander Falconbridge, a slave ship doctor, wrote, “They are frequently stowed so close, they can only lie on their sides...the floor of their rooms was so covered with blood and mucus because of the flux, that it resembled a slaughter-house” (Falconbridge). What Alexander Falconbridge is saying is that the slave ships were unsanitary and disgusting. There was blood all over the floors and the slaves were crammed together side by side.

The conditions on the Middle Passage were horrible. The space allotted to each slave was often too small to move the shoulders and the neck and legs were chained down. Many slaves died on the voyage and never made it out of the hull of the slave ships.

In discussions of the Atlantic Slave Trade, the term “Middle Passage” often arises. The Middle Passage was the stage of the triangular trade in which millions of Africans were shipped to the New World as part of the Atlantic Slave trade. The journey was one of the most horrific aspects of the morally deplorable system of slavery. Death was a constant threat as diseases, starvation, asphyxiation and severe depression rampantly claimed the lives of African and the ship’s crew. Throughout this essay you will understand the tragic journey of the slaves and what hardships they had to go through.

Slaves were viewed as barbaric and untrustworthy, which caused more unprecedented punishments for slaves. Since slaves were viewed as animals, the conditions of their transportation were horrible and ridden with rats and diseases. The boats used to transport Africans across the Middle Passage are depicted in Document 5, where one can clearly tell that the ship was not made for shipping thousands of people. Ships often would give slaves less than one square foot in space, preventing slaves from moving around and exercising their muscles. This overcrowding caused the slaves to weaken as well as allowed disease to kill hundreds.

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 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 captives were treated during the Middle Passage like animals. The Europeans needed slaves to work for them, the Native Americans were dying from their diseases, but the people from Africa were immune. The Europeans kidnapped the Africans and forced them to work, with no choice they had to obey. The captives during the Middle Passage were from Africa, but during the passage they were treated like animals. The captives experienced shackles, restraints that looked like a animal or prisoners would be in. (Doc C) Not only that, but the Africans experienced starvation and diseases. They were so close together that diseases spread, as well as diseases, they didn’t even have food, added to this and all the dead bodies were thrown overboard.(Doc

One of the worst aspects of the Middle Passage was the living conditions in which the slaves had to live and their treatment by the crew. While slaves were given food and water, it was very infrequently, and if food was scarce, the crewmembers and slaveholders got preferential treatment over the slaves (Mannix & Cowley 6). Slaves resisted in several ways; they either refused to eat or committed suicide. They knew that they were being fed so they could make strong slaves, and some were too proud to be slaves, so they killed themselves

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

During the time of the slave trade, the injustices and cruelties that slavery presented were unimaginable. Enslavement of individuals meant separation from their families, destruction of their homes, and potential death. The Middle Passage, a slave voyage to the Americas, was particularly traumatic and shocking for many individuals. On the voyage, the Africans faced dangers to disease, brutal treatment, little food and sanitation, and beatings. In his account of the Middle Passage on pages 450-451, Olaudah Equiano’s description contradicts previous understandings of the slave trade not being so bad, and shows ways in which the Africans resisted the process through their actions on board; it also addresses how the Africans’ experiences on the

An estimated over 9 million Africans arrived in the Americas between the 16th and 19th centuries. The voyage was a terrible and horrific time for slaves who were chained together and given inadequate food supplies, and suffered from various diseases. The death rate of the enslaved Africans on slave ships was very high. Many of the enslaved died in route to the Americas. At times, the Middle Passage became violent as the slaves attempted to rebel by mutiny or through suicide. The Middle Passage allowed the Americas to colonize and prosper. Without the forced labor of the enslaved Africans, the Americas’ colonization would have taken much longer and much of the Americas would probably be different today. The Atlantic Slave trade exerted a disastrous impact on the peoples of Africa. This was the most traumatizing mass human migration in modern

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

Imagine being taken from your home and being sent towards slavery. Many Africans were taken from their home and put on a ship in horrible conditions just to become enslaved and treated horrible. These newly turn slave endure terrible living environments on the ship and where they stayed. Slaves were used for many different things, such as farming cotton and different plants as well as mining. This essay will discuss The Middle Passage and the ship ride to the new world, as well as how slaves were treated once they arrived, and

Since failing to control the Indian Ocean, as they hope, the Portuguese adapted to the ancient patterns. Also in the 15th century the Portuguese brought European ships to Africa. Since this region was for a long time a source for slaves through the Sahara, the Portuguese opened up other channels for slavery. This region has long been the source of slaves for the route through the Sahara to the Mediterranean. Africans were sold by their own people to traders and then the African men who were sold would be forced into slavery but treats and guns. After the men are forced into slavery, they were placed aboard ships to be taken across the ocean to the west. This voyage was called the Middle Passage. The Middle Passage conditions were horrifying. Millions of slaves died from disease or if they were affected they were thrown off the ship. Since they didn’t know how to swim, they

The coast of West Africa saw the establishment of an extensive network of European forts very soon. Local rulers were easily paid off (rent and protection fees). The slaves were held in the dungeons until the ship arrived to take them to their next destination. As a consequence of these endurable oppressive measures, a lot of the slaves had to draw their last breath before they departed Africa (Manning