Middle Passage

This is about the slave trade route. For the novel, see Middle Passage (novel). For the album, see The Middle Passage.

The Middle Passage refers to the forced transportation of African people from Africa to the New World as part of the Atlantic slave trade and was the middle portion of the triangular trade voyage. Ships left Europe for African markets, where their goods were sold or traded for prisoners and kidnapped victims on the African coast. Traders then sailed to the Americas and Caribbean, where the Africans were sold or traded for goods for European markets, which were then returned to Europe. The European powers Portugal, England, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Brandenburg, as well as traders from Brazil and North America, all took part in this trade.

The journey

African kings, warlords and private kidnappers sold captives to Europeans who held several coastal forts. The captives were usually force-marched to these ports along the western coast of Africa, where they were held for purchase to the European or American slave traders. Ships contained up to 300 slaves aboard one slave ship and was crewed by about 30 white men. The male captives were normally chained together in pairs to save space; right leg to the next man's left leg — while the women and children may have had somewhat more room. The captives were fed beans, corn, yams, rice, and palm oil. Slaves were fed one meal a day with water, but if food was scarce, slaveholders would get priority over meals. Fortunately, not the entire journey for the slaves was spent below decks. In the mornings, they were allowed the chance to come out on the deck; and often they engaged in odd exercises referred to as "dancing the slave."

Most contemporary historians estimate that between 9.4 and 12 million Africans arrived in the new world.[2][3] Disease and starvation due to the length of the passage were the main contributors to the death toll with amoebic dysentery and scurvy causing the majority of deaths. Additionally, outbreaks of smallpox, syphilis, malaria, measles, and other diseases spread rapidly in the close-quarter compartments. Lacking a decent place to relieve themselves, the slaves were forced to do everything wherever they lay. The crew often neglected their duty to clean the holds, which meant that most slaves were forced to live in their own excretion. The number of dead increased with the length of voyage, since the incidence of dysentery and of scurvy increased with longer stints at sea as the quality and amount of food and water diminished with every passing day. In addition to physical sickness, many slaves became too depressed to eat or function efficiently because of the loss of freedom, family, security, and their own humanity. This often led to worse treatment like force-feeding or lashings. Some even committed suicide before they arrived in the New World [1]

For two hundred years, 1440-1640, Portugal had a quasi-monopoly on the export of slaves from Africa. During the eighteenth century however, when the slave trade accounted for the transport of about 6 million Africans, Britain was responsible for almost 2.5 million of them [2]

References

Faragher, John Mack. Out of many. Pearson Prentice Hall. 2006: New Jersey. 'The Book About Slaves' By Daniel Edward Lopez The Third.