The Culturally Middle Passage: The Role Of A Historian

Imagine being stuck in chains for six months in your own filth and waste. For some slaves on the middle passage it was exactly like that. This, however, was different than slaves born into slavery, for they didn’t have to go through that harsh journey. Both were common to try and escape, few making it. Making the outcomes of Frederick Douglass, who wrote an autobiography, and Kunta Kinte, from the movie “Roots,” different. While “Roots” and the narrative of the “Life of Frederick Douglass” have some similarities, the differences of their origins and outcomes are more significant because that’s what shaped them who they are.

In this assignment I will be taking a further look into the history of slavery. When thinking of slavery the immediate thought that comes to mind is all the negative aspects of the system. Prior to this research, I was unaware of slave systems that were not based on the long labor hours and the torture of slaves. Granted, there were still forms of slavery that practiced these brutal rituals, where slaves were treated as animals and were malnourished. One prime example of this, is the book titled “Am I Not A Woman And A Sister”, looks at the history of a Bermudan slave named Mary Prince. Another example of slavery that will be incorporated in this paper will come from a source about a woman slave named Semsigul, born in Caucasus an area that

The New World in the seventeenth century presented itself in different ways to differing groups of people as portrayed in the accounts written by Olaudah Equiano in The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, John Smith in The General History of Virginia, and William Bradford in Of Plymouth Plantation. Olaudah Equiano is a slave through the Middle Passage as a child and spends ten years of his life being traded from owner to owner in Barbados. John Smith is one of the men to lead the first set of colonists to the New World and to establish the first settlement in Jamestown, Virginia. William Bradford is one of the leaders of the Pilgrim colony aboard the Mayflower who settled in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Each man experiences his own form of fear upon board the ship that will take him to the New World as the anticipation of seeing what the future holds grows. Aboard each ship and in each settlement, conditions worsen as food supplies run low and the chance for illness increases. Dehumanization also occurs in each passage to a group of people who those from a richer, European background deem as a threat to an orderly community or as lesser in quality. As written by Olaudah Equiano, John Smith, and William Bradford, journeying to a new land is a petrifying experience when the level of supplies decreases, the chance of illness increases, and the respect for outside groups decreases.

This primary source shows historians the first signs of the impact the slave trade will soon have on Africa. The most well known narrative is The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah- Equiano. Olaudah was a slave from present day Nigeria that was kidnapped at a young age and sold into the slave trade along with his older sister. This primary source serves as great importance to historians, for it gives a first hand account of the trade. For example, Equiano describes his memories of the boat to Barbadoes. “”Made ready with fearful noises, and were all put under deck… the stench of the hold while were on the coast was intolerably loathsome.” This quote serves for the purpose of allowing readers to understand the misery and discomfort endured by the African as they traveled to the Americas. The next stage for the slaves includes auction and sale, where they would be sold to an owner. In The History of Mary Prince, a West Indian Slave gives the insight of how a young slave felt to be sold once making it to the Americas. She describes it as, “handled me in the same way that a butcher would a calf or lamb he was about to purchase.” This source allows readers to see how whites treated slaves as “nonhuman” this social view impacted American’s lives until the late 1960s and beyond. The next sets of primary sources of non-African people they describe the slave trade through a “white perspective”. “A Description of the Coasts of North and South Guinea” written

In the book "Lies my Teacher Told - James W. Loewen" embarked on a journey to dismantle the common misreporting of history that traditional textbook practices. He introduces the idea that the knowledge passed down through books utilized in schools are misreporting history at the expense of students and in favors of "Settlers" to mask barbaric / inhumane territorial acts of the European as justifiable in the name of progress. He argues that this knowledge is then recycled to create new textbooks that cites the previous misreporting as sources for their study. He argues that modern day writers are consumers, instead of true disciples of the relevant disciplines such as Anthropology, ethnohistory, folklore studies etc. Chapter Four tackles and

Slavery, a topic that still leaves a mark on the hearts of many citizens throughout America, a matter that leaves a repugnant aftertaste in our mouths. Slaves were transported from their native land, into a new world forced to do manual work that Europeans were resistant in doing and reluctant to having the natives do. Slavery lasted over 200 years; yet for some odd reason African Americans and advocates of memorializing the consistent pain, agony, torture, and mistreatment of Africans are constantly told to just “Let it go”, “Forget about it, it happened so long ago”. Those who still feel the piercing wounds of those who suffered from enslavement are expected to forget about an issue that has not even ceased longer than it lasted. A common desire that existed among all African Americans was to be free, to be released and sent back to their families from whom they were snatched. Africans were stolen from their homelands, stripped from a comfortable environment into an unfamiliar place, and forced to live under cruel conditions, known as the Atlantic Slave Trade. In this paper, several factors will be discussed including: (1) background information on the African slave trade/ middle passage(2) the slaves’ living conditions (3) the slaves’ treatment (4) and the lasting impact in the lives of the slaves after the getting off the ships.

Transport through the Middle Passage was a time of immense misery, suffering, and death for the millions of Africans who experienced it between the 1600s and 1800s. After arriving to Africa from Europe, slave traders violently kidnapped or bought African men, women, and children, for iron, cloths, and firearms. The Africans, most of whom were taken from Upper Guinea, Sierra Leone, Angola, the Gold Coast, which is now the nation of Ghana, and other West African countries knew nothing of their fate, leading some to commit suicide and starve themselves on the slave ships. Though there was a heavy loss of life during transport and upon arrival to the Americas and the Caribbean, at least 12 million Africans endured deadly conditions and began what is now called the African Diaspora. The Middle Passage had a great influence on many aspects of African culture due to the shared sense of pain and struggle that united the slaves and due to the ways they responded to oppression in the New World. Conditions of the Middle Passage contributed to the carving out of new cultural systems in New World slave plantation societies and resistance to slavery led to a retention of African cultures in many Caribbean countries that is still evident today. In this paper, I wish to argue that cultural and linguistic similarities between the people of Ghana and the people of Jamaica can be attributed

The story of the world is indeed, considered the study of African Diaspora. The term diaspora is commonly known to mean a settling of scattered colonies of people from their home country to another place. The study of African Diaspora represents a growth industry. Slavery has been a common theme throughout history. To conquer the oppression and adversity usually set into place for those whom are forced to leave their homeland, resiliency is essential. Humanity has molded and shaped the progress of the world in ways such as the movement or scattering of African colonies and tribes to the Americas in an inhumane fashion. This diaspora is known as the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. This essay will aim to provide a historical examination on the experience of Africans whom were forced to the Americas, ultimately triumphing over the obstacles and hardships that were put in place to hinder and obstruct human rights such as freedom, the right to read and write, and for women physical right were taken away and violated. The cruelty displayed by the Europeans were shocking. Africa entered into unique relationship with Europe that led to the devastation and depopulation of Africa, while contributing to the wealth and development of Europe. Ultimately the slaves endured centuries of cruel enslavement only to become the leading race in the New World.

Jeremy Black has recently stated ‘slavery played a major role in the twentieth century.’ The twentieth century, he argues, witnessed a highpoint in slavery as it rose to a new peak. He defines slavery as being ‘public’ which differs from the ‘conventional account of enslavement, economic exploitation and racism.’ For Black, the conventional account of slavery has been ‘easier to define and confront.’ This dissertation through the work of three authors: Buchi Emecheta, Ayi Kwei Armah and Tayeb Salih aims to act as a corrective to approaches similar to Black’s theory, that slavery has been easily defined, by demonstrating the tension between remembering and forgetting history. The twentieth century narratives trace the history of the Atlantic slave trade through contemporary Africa, reflecting the role of slavery in present day. The works unearth remnants of the past in order to locate African memories in literature and bring them forth from the margins of history. Each author originates from different geographical locations in Africa, which allows various forms of slavery to emerge in the narratives, representing slavery as continuing to haunt the African psyche.

Historians are faced with the challenge of working with the small amount of historical evidence that they have. Between primary and secondary sources, indecipherable languages, damaged artifacts, and biased accounts of history, they have quite the task in front of them. The state of the evidence we have to learn from allows us an interesting look into peoples thoughts, feelings and experiences, but also forces us to interpret to the best of our ability, and make educated guesses on what life was like in ancient times.

Hegemony and resistance are different subjects, where hegemony is one buying into their own oppression, while resistance is breaking free from oppression. These aspects play a role in creating a slave who does not to have the capacity to rebel due to past slaves who resisted through various of ways. Resistance is illustrated during the 1750’s in “The Horrors of the Middle Passage” by Olaudah Equiano, who was an African sold into slavery, and this resistance is one of the first ways that Africans showed rebellion towards Europeans. According to the text, “ … cut for attempting to do so, and hourly whipped for not eating” (The Horrors of the Middle Passage, Olaudah Equiano, 2) meaning slaves analyzed a situation where eating would keep them

Who are you? Where are you from? Who are your ancestors? What is your history? Thanks to Triangular Trade in the 1600s to 1700s, many people, especially those of color, can’t answer these questions. The Middle Passage, or the route of trade between the Americas and Africa, was the first slave trade to bring people across the ocean to an entirely new continent. Because of this, many enslaved Africans didn’t get to tell their stories. Their origins were lost in the midst of being beaten and killed. How can you not know who you are? What caused Europeans to perform such heinous acts? What could push a person past humanity?

The purpose of this piece is to give alternate perceptions of the origin of slavery from the standpoint of a historian. Although, the message may seem genuine and frank, this article remains to be a list of authors’ opinions who are Caucasian and hold an underlying bias toward the idea of slavery. There are no African historians featured in this article, therefore, there is no conflicting argument to give the audience another idea to consider. Yes, the historians have different standpoints about how economic driven slavery was regarded and they are to a certain degree valid. However, there are no

Abina Mansah, like many other women in her time, was a young Akan woman who was wrongfully enslaved by her captors. Although slavery was made illegal in 1875, many “important men” continued to seize youthful slaves – female ones in particular, because they were less likely to run away and seek liberation. Despite this, Abina refused to be a slave under the authority of her master, Quamina Eddoo. With the help of court interpreter James Davis, she attempted to force the court system to hear her voice. Young enslaved women like Abina are often talked about in history, but never the ones to write historical documents themselves. Their voices are hidden beneath the voices of important men, and this left women like Abina frustrated and angry. As a student of the history of gender, Abina’s story and her initiative to challenge the authority others had over her shows us the importance of being heard, and how young women’s expressions are often disregarded and deemed less significant than those of important men.

One of the most baffling aspects of European interest in African people is the civilizations collective distaste of and fascination with people of African descent. The initial journey into Africa, and the planning that preceded it, spawned many of the most enlightening theories about African people. These theories, usually in support of African savagery and inferiority and in favor of European superiority and civility were based in the colonial mentalities of that time. Of the most notable theories is the idea that African religious system was pagan and that African people were inferior because of their darker skin pigmentation and “beast-like” nature. These theories dispersed rapidly across the globe, and even today people of