The Slavery Of The Slave Ships

The Middle Passage was a horrible and cruel experience. Olaudah Equiano, a former slave, states, “I now wished for the last friend, death, to relieve me…cruelty; and this not only shown towards us blacks, but also to some of the whites themselves” (Equiano).

Heinrich Heine's poem the Slave ship reveals the inhumane and horrible experiences slaves had to go through while traveling on slave ships. At the beginning of the poem the captain Mynheer van Koek of the ship admires his work, for he obtained six hundred slaves "dirt cheap". More than likely, Koek bought the slaves from African leaders who had no problem in trading their own people. Often times African leaders would do this to punish their people, not knowing the lingering effect it would have on the world. Heine's describes how Koek swapped "brandy", "trinkets", and "beads" for the precious life of a slave. In stanza 7, the captain's moment of bliss has finally come to an end we he realizes that the slaves are dieing in substantial numbers,

“The Horrors of a Slave Ship,” describes in detail, the tragic experiences of Olaudah Equiano as a captive slave. Equiano suffered many sleepless nights; he was flogged and kidnapped multiple times. In the article, the author is trying to give the reader the feeling by giving details of the brutally floggings and desperation as many slaves suffocated to death as they were placed in an overcrowded deck. Overall, the author tries to give readers their point across of the difficulties in being a captive slave.

The main point of the article, The Horrors of a Slave Ship, was to inform the public of the great deal of pain inflicted upon the victims that were attacked within the African American slave trade system. The article, The Horrors of a Slave Ship, has a main point of purpose to shed light on the truth of the

Another individual, Olaudah Equiano, was captured in Nigeria. He was taken by ship across the Middle Passage. Once he was put aboard the ship, the crew roughed him up some in order to test his fortitude. Having looked around his situation, he noticed the other slaves were very dejected. He passed out and awoke with members of the party that had sold him around him. He was afraid he was being sold to be eaten, but was assured he was not. He was led to the lower decks of the ship. The stench and disgust of the area were more than he could take. Olaudah became depressed and fell very sick. He often wished that death would come and take him. Once the cargo ship was fully loaded, the space was exceedingly limited. He was beaten for not eating and whipped hourly. After finding some of his own nation, he was told that they were being taken to a white man’s country to work. This was some relief to him. He soon became so weak that he was brought to the deck and allowed to stay there. This was a minor relief as he had to witness those that were brought form below at near death. During a period of calm seas, several slaves successfully jumped ship. The crew was quick to react and made all slaves go below deck. After stopping the ship setting about a

The slaves were put on to these horrible ships as the Glory Field states. While the slaves were being transported they were shoved in to the bottom of the terrifying ship. With barely “any light or even fresh air” as Muhammad from the Glory Field says. An article titled An Account of the Slave Trade on

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 slaves are endure great misery throughout the ocean journey. They cannot use the bathroom, stand up, or even walk. Once in awhile, they are brought onto the ship’s deck, and their traditional music is used against them to make them dance and exercise. It is absolute torture for them to move and stand after being

Slaves were forced to survive in the bowels of the ship with contaminated water and foreign, non-beneficial food. As the ship rocked, so did the “cargo” of slaves. Zamba Xembola, a prince turned captive slave, recounts his encounter as an onlooker to the slave transportation by saying, “The poor slaves below…were mostly thrown to the side, where they lay heaped on top of each other…fifteen of [the slaves] were smothered” (Document D). Made helpless because of their chains, slaves would begin to roll and pile on top of one another after large storms or waves rocked the boat. Many of these events resulted in the suffocation of those on the bottom of the piles, for they would not be relieved from their positions for many hours after the crew made their rounds, and righted all the piles. On top of this, poor ventilation compounded the problems of a slave struggling to breathe. Olaudah Equiano describes the conditions in the tween decks by commenting, “[the air was] unfit for respiration, from a variety of loathsome smells and brought on a sickness among the slaves” (Document E). Because of the close quarters in the tween decks, diseases spread quickly, often plaguing entire rows at one time. Both the dead and living slaves coexisted in the tween decks, with the rotting bodies of passed slaves transferring many diseases before being found, often times, several days after the original

Equiano, on a slave ship towards the West Indies, was on the verge of everlasting bondage. “In this manner we continued to undergo more hardships than I can now relate, hardships which are inseparable from this accursed trade. Many a time we were near suffocation from the want of fresh air, which was often without for whole days together.” (57) The conditions for slaves on these transport ships was horrendous, as those in charge cared little for the well being of these Africans. Equiano was unaware of what was to come, and fear lingered in his memory of this unforgiving experience. He explains the process of the transaction, “We were not many days in the merchant’s custody, before we were sold after their usual manner, which was: On a signal given (as the beat of a drum), the buyers rush at once into the yard where the slaves are confined, and make choice of that parcel they like best.” (58)

Before becoming a slave African Americans were first kidnapped from their homes. The kidnapping process was fast. There was hardly any chance given to scream or fight back against the kidnapper. Their journey was “to travel, sometimes by land, sometimes by water, through different countries and various nations” (Pearsons, 2011, 149). The slaves transatlantic voyage was called the “middle passage” (Berkin, Cherny, Gormly, Miller, 2013, 82). This middle passage was “a nightmare of death, disease, suicide, and sometimes mutiny” (Berkin, Cherny, Gormly, Miller, 2013, 82). The waters near West Africa were known as the “white man’s grave” because so many white officers and crews of the slave ships died because of diseases and were buried at sea (Berkin, Cherny, Gormly, Miller, 2013, 82). While the death toll of the crew was great in numbers. The deaths of the black slaves aboard were far greater. These slave ships were hotbeds for many diseases such as “scurvy, yellow fever, malaria, dysentery, small pox, measles and typhus” (Berkin, Cherny, Gormly, Miller, 2013, 83). A crewman recorded anywhere from eight to ten slaves were dead every

For approximately 360 years starting in 1500 and ending in the 1809, Africans were brought to the Americas against their own will. This was known as the slave trade and was considered to be the largest forced migration in history. During the slave trade more than 12 million Africans were forcibly relocated to the Americas, which were then known to European settlers as the “New World,” (Gates). Throughout the slave trade Africans were captured, separated from their families, then brought to the American’s on ships in which they were auctioned off and sold. The ships that they were transported on were of treacherous and often fatal conditions.

room for the buyers. Slaves sat with fear and faced their potential buyer, their enemy

The most common and cruelest way the slave traders would transport slaves was called “tight packing”. The name basically describes the system, the system was based on the fact that the more slaves they had, the more profit they could make. They carried as many slaves as their ship could carry. The slaves were chained ankle to wrist, with barely any place to move. The less common and most humane way slave traders would move slaves was called “loose packing” (people back then were not cleaver when it came to coming up with names.) Under that system, captains transported fewer slaves than their ships could carry in order to reduce the disease and deaths

The condition upon the ship was horrible. It was the worst I had ever seen, the scent was despicable. We were placed tightly together. We were crammed. They made sure to use every inch of the space available. We were placed so close together that a simple thing as turning from side to another became a problem. We laid head to toe and though I wasn’t able to count how many of us there were I knew it was plenty because even the air to breathe was limited. We were stored as cargo the name that we were eventually called aside from Negroes. I couldn’t tell if the women were stored in the same manner, but I assumed so. The vessel was filled to capacity with little or no room left. We were now ready to be taken to the white man country. I lay on the bunk and