Devin Michael
U.S. History 1
Mr. Kokoska
April 22, 2013 The Middle Passage The Middle Passage was a small piece of a much larger system. The system it belonged to is known as the Triangular Trade. The first stage of the Triangular Trade was the journey from Europe to Africa to trade goods like copper, clothing, guns, and ammunition to African kings and royalty in exchange for young African men and woman. The second stage, or the Middle Passage, was the transport of African people to the Caribbean and to the Americas in exchange for raw materials such as sugar cane, tobacco, and hemp. The Triangular Trade was a very lucrative system, however it was quite brutal for those involved.

Diagram of Triangular Trade The major countries involved in the Middle Passage were European powerhouses such as
Portugal, England, and France. These powerhouses got slaves from various regions in Africa like Senegambia, Guinea, and areas of Southeast Africa. Originally slaves came from settlements near the shore, but as the word spread that unknown people were taking natives, settlements moved further inland to escape the foreigners. They weren’t very successful in hiding because they were often found and taken anyway. The journey from Africa to the Americas was horrific for the slaves as well as the sailors and the crew members, but it was especially brutal for the slaves. Some voyages lasted a month, others lasted six months to nine months, and some unlucky crews were at sea for a grueling year. Ships contained several hundred slaves and about 30 crew members. All of the slaves were crammed into the bowel of the ship where each person had less room than needed to breathe. Male captives were typically shackled in pairs in an attempt by the captains to save space, while woman and young children were allowed slightly more room. Because of the lack of space, slaves sat in their own filth and bodily wastes.

Illustration of ship conditions Slaves were treated extremely cruel on the slaves ships. They were considered goods or cargo, and they were treated as such. Slaves were often beaten, tortured, and raped for unapparent reasons. A perfect example of the cruelties on the slave ships took place on the slave ship Zong, captained by Luke Collingwood. Collingwood was a brutal, money hungry captain who was willing to do the most demented things to make money. Collingwood was responsible for the Zong Massacre
The period of time and travel was also a time of slavery and suffering for blacks all across Africa. The Middle Passage, also known as the Transatlantic Slave Trade, was a long voyage that took packed African slaves into a ship like sardines and took them to America. The trade started around the early 1500’s but quickly grew; by 1750 anywhere from 60,000 to 70,000 slaves were being imported from Africa to America every year. No one knows the extent of these numbers due to the lack of necessary paperwork…
the practice of legal slave trading and ownership during the days of the Atlantic-Slave Trade. The enforced migration of Africans to the Americas in conditions of slavery lasted from the middle of the sixteenth century until the 1860s and constituted the largest movement of people across the Atlantic until the middle of the nineteenth century. 1The repercussions of this practice are still felt to this day. Although slavery has been abolished it still exists today in underground forms of human trafficking…
Olam Kowoh Professor McNeil English 1001, Intro. to Pros and Fiction 21 February 2015 Surviving the Middle Passage: What it takes You are surrounded by darkness only able to see daylight once a day. The remainder of your time is spent in the company of death, disease, and the foul odor produced from the combination. Stomach screaming for food, is only silenced by the nausea of being aboard this floating coffin. Despite the circumstances you manage to find glimmering moments of hope; far and few…
Cyrus Oveissi Thursday, October 18, 2012 The Amistad Choice 2 The movie Amistad depicts a sad but true picture of how slaves were treated during the Antebellum period. It displays the harsh conditions Africans were expected to live and survive in while being whipped, starved, and in some cases raped. This film incorporated many historical and powerful events into it, while also creating an enjoyable watching experience for it’s viewers. As with many Steven Spielberg movies, it was very…
The Slave Ship by Marcus Rediker is a great fiction novel that describes the horrifying experiences of Africans, seamen, and captains on their journey through the Middle Passage. The Middle Passage marked the water way in the Atlantic Ocean between Africa and the Americas. The use of slaves provided a great economy for the European countries due to the fact that these African slaves provided free labor while cultivating sugar cane in the Caribbean and America. Rediker describes the slave migration…
Brathwaite mentioned in her presentation about her daughter learning about how it happened during The Middle Passage. A reasoning why I find it interesting was because Brenda Brathwaite simply took the ideas of a real historical life, The Middle Passage and simply turning it into a game. Brenda Brathwaite and her daughter used small wooden prototypes representing the African People during The Middle Passage and some small white Note card papers representing as the actual boat itself. It was not only just…
The Horrid Journey If it were not for the stories past down from generation to generation or the documentations in historical books, the history of the twelve million African slaves that traveled the “Middle Passage” in miserable conditions would not exist. Olaudah Equiano contributes to this horrid history with The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano. Through this narrative, the appalling personal experience of each slave is depicted. He accomplishes his rhetorical purpose of…
slaves to New World. The colonial goods that were being shipped were tobacco, indigo, sugar, and rice. The slave economies of the West Indies were the largest market for fish, grain, livestock and lumber which was exported from New England and the Middle Colonies. Eventually the injustices of slavery helped propelled the colonists to get true freedom. Atlantic commerce primarily consisted of slaves, crops produced by the slaves, and goods destined for slave…
One of them was the king. The king often had prophets who offered God’s guidance and correction to the king. For example, King David had two prophets Nathan, and Gad. 3. The three passages are all about God’s covenant with Israel and how he sent he led the Israelites out of Egypt through Moses. All of the passages express God’s anger. He did so much for the Israelites and he saved them, yet some of them were not worshipping him. They were worshipping other gods and idols. 4. Royal theology is…
exit from developmental writing courses and move on to college-level courses. The CATW asks you to write an essay in response to a reading passage you are given and to show competency in five categories. The five categories are (1) critical response to a text; (2) explanation and support of ideas; (3) organization of a response that has a clear beginning, middle, and end; and two elements of language use: (4) sentence construction and word choice, and (5) grammar, usage, and mechanics. The learning…