Middle Passage Stage

The taking of Africans and the transportation to the “New World” is called the Middle Passage. This was the most cruel and tortuous trip anyone could imagine. Africans would be forced to march up to one thousand miles to the coast line. There was a fifty percent survival on this march. Once on the ships the slaves would be bound together, made to lie side by side. Disease was rampant aboard the ships, because of the vomit, feces and death. If you were fortunate enough you would receive two meals a day which would include rice beans and maybe a piece of meat. Slaves were forced to exercise so they would appear to be healthy when

Middle Passage- the perilous journey to the new World by African slaves in which they suffered from disease and death. They had little to nothing to eat or

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.

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

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

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 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 two majors drivers that led to the transatlantic slave trade was the European desire for the agricultural products of the Americas and the need for laborers to work the land in the Americas. All participants, besides for the slaves, benefited from the trading.

From the moment of capture, African men, women and children endured a relentless chain of pain and abuse. Life onboard the slave ships became a constant battle for survival, as the gruesome conditions below the deck presented formidable physical health problems. Burnside describes the African slaves descent into hell:

The transition of being brought from Africa to America was called the middle passage since there what then were slaves started to understand that their status was going to be low. Their treatment since the moment they were in the ship was deplorable; they were punish to

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

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

All around Africa, African people were turning on one another so that their tribes would be safe. After capturing the slave Americans would make the march to the coast wand their slaves would be held in slave dungeons or factories. Often times the woman’s wing would be held closer to the American men’s wing there they would be raped, tortured, and some even died. After being held in the slave dungeons, Africans would take the trip on the Middle Passage, it could take anywhere from four weeks to six months. Slaves would be held below deck in tight cramped spaces and some would be lying next to others who were no longer alive. Some Africans tried to escape the fate that awaited them by jumping over board; so, to prevent this from happening Americans would put nets around the ship so that their captives could no longer escape. If the African was lucky enough to survive the Middle Passage they would then be sold at auctions where women would go for the price of two men where they would start their new lives on plantations. Slaves would work tirelessly in the fields from sun up to sun down picking cotton. Some slave women were the servants to the wives of their owners; they would sleep outside their bedrooms on the cold hard floor and make sure the wives every need was taking care of, this was especially true women the white women were expecting to have a baby. For other slaves they were lucky