Pros And Cons Of The Middle Passage

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

With many resources and reasons, African slave experience numerous of punishment during their time period of slavery. As they crossed from Africa towards the West Indies their encounters experience of starvation, mistreated, beaten, sexual harassment and torments from Europeans slave’s dealers, owners, master and their own kind. Breaking the law or even working slow was a punishments. Especially for runaways slaves. Two primary sources advertisement that explained the hardship of slavery is document one. Documents one is an “advertisement come from New London (Connecticut) on March 30, 1764” and Documents 2 is a “Broadside advertisement that

In discussions of the Atlantic Slave Trade, the term “Middle Passage” often arises. The Middle Passage was the stage of the triangular trade in which millions of Africans were shipped to the New World as part of the Atlantic Slave trade. The journey was one of the most horrific aspects of the morally deplorable system of slavery. Death was a constant threat as diseases, starvation, asphyxiation and severe depression rampantly claimed the lives of African and the ship’s crew. Throughout this essay you will understand the tragic journey of the slaves and what hardships they had to go through.

During the duration of the Middle Passage, there was an abundance of hardships that had an effect on altering the many different experiences encountered by blacks. Some of these experiences included being shackled, labeled as merchandise, disease, and being crammed. Throughout this passage you will agree with the statement based upon the evidence provided from primary and secondary sources.

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. Those that were kidnapped 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 tossed overboard (Berkin, Cherny, Gormly, Miller, 2013, 82). While the death toll of the crew was great in numbers. The deaths of the black slaves aboard was 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). The

“The Slave Ship: A Human History” written by Marcus Rediker describes the horrifying experiences of Africans, and captains, and ship crewmen on their journey through the Middle Passage, the water way in the Atlantic Ocean between Africa and the Americas. The use of slaves to cultivate crops in the Caribbean and America offered a great economy for the European countries by providing “free” labor and provided immense wealth for the Europeans. Rediker describes the slave migration by saying, “There exists no account of the mechanism for history’s greatest forced migration, which was in many ways the key to an entire phase of globalization” (10). African enslavement to the Americas is the most prominent reason for a complete shift in the

The Trans-Atlantic slave trade was “responsible for the forced migration of between 12 - 15 million people from Africa to the Western Hemisphere from the middle of the 15th century to the end of the 19th century.” (Edser). Slaves from Africa, that were transported through the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, were captured or purchased, held in confinement for months, and then shipped on large cargo vessels, where they ran the risk of acquiring multiple diseases, scurvy, and malnutrition. These people were not treated like humans, but instead animals. They were naked, shackled together with chains, stored on the floors with little to no room to move because of the stuffed conditions. With these horrid conditions, which lasted a few months, there would be no surprise that when their freedom became lessened, their natural reaction was to

Natives on the other hand were very difficult to enslave because many died due to diseases and lack of immunity to them and they were very knowledgeable with the surrounding terrain if they were to ever escape. To comply with the demand for cultivation of cash crops, a shipping route that imported Africans to the new world was the famous “horrendous six-to eight- week long ocean voyage known as the Middle Passage” (Goldfield, The American Jorney, 55). The European powers traded these slaves for guns, rum and other textiles. But in order to get these slaves, Africans kidnapped and traded other Africans for these resources. The African kingdom traded slaves who have done punishable crimes in their country for valuable resources that could help protect the kingdom from other rulers in Africa. Once the Africans were enslaved, they now begin their long journey to the New World on the compacted ships. Similar to indentured servants on their long voyage to the New World, the living conditions for the slaves on board were disgusting and unimaginable, they lived in their own filth struggling to barely survive the week long passages and slaves were often tightly packed below the deck. The slaves who did survive were then bought and sold just like cattle, often being separated from loved ones

The captives were treated during the Middle Passage like animals. The Europeans needed slaves to work for them, the Native Americans were dying from their diseases, but the people from Africa were immune. The Europeans kidnapped the Africans and forced them to work, with no choice they had to obey. The captives during the Middle Passage were from Africa, but during the passage they were treated like animals. The captives experienced shackles, restraints that looked like a animal or prisoners would be in. (Doc C) Not only that, but the Africans experienced starvation and diseases. They were so close together that diseases spread, as well as diseases, they didn’t even have food, added to this and all the dead bodies were thrown overboard.(Doc

Around the 20 million people who were taken from their homes and sold into slavery, half didn't make it to the African coast, most of those people dying along the way. The captives were about to embark on the infamous Middle passage. Then the first leg of the voyage carried a cargo that often included iron, cloth, brandy, firearms, and gunpowder. They landed on the Africa’s slave coast and the cargo and stuff was traded for Africans. Africans who had made the Middle Passage to the plantations of the New World did not return to their land to tell what happened to those people who suddenly disappeared. Sometimes the Africans were told by white men that they were to work on the field, But they didn’t believe it because it took barely any time

Olaudah Equiano, a former African slave in the sixteenth century who later became a slavery abolitionist, was a man of wisdom and experience. In Equiano’s autobiography, The Horrors of the Middle Passage, he explains the hardships that him and other enslaved Africans endured during the migration across the Atlantic to the Americas. During his time on the ship, Equiano’s first-person observations in his autobiography elaborate on the fear, torture, and sickness that Africans were faced with throughout the entire migration. Africans, such as Olaudah Equiano, dealt with getting brutally beaten for the slightest forms of disrespect. If a European offered an enslaved African food and they rejected it, they were “hourly whipped for not eating” (Equiano,

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

This is a key part of the barracon; after being shorn and denuded, they were cast into animal pens with complete foreigners, who only shared their predicament and the cause of their predicament, their skin color. The barracon experience created a sense of hopelessness and dread that Africans experienced for what was to come Middle passage excerpt from other one The Middle passage was a horrific and traumatizing experience for Africans. They were treated a less than animals .Africans were dehumanized and subjected to abuses such as unclean and tight environment, sexual abuse ,and the fears and anxiety caused by separation of home and being thrust into an unfamiliar, strand environment. The Middle passage allowed Africans to grasp the true extent of brutality of their masters and a chance to bond amongst themselves and their will to

Introduction The Atlantic slave trade began in 1525, capturing millions of people from their homes. They were shipped from West Africa, across the Middle Passage to North America for new lives as slaves. The conditions aboard the ships were horrendous for the African slaves to endure, this caused many to die from disease, starvation or mistreatment. Paragraph One - Living Conditions The slaves lived through appalling conditions while crossing the middle passage.

Many died at sea due to dysentery, smallpox, and other diseases. Upon arrival on the American shores, African men, women, and children were enforced to work from sunrise to sunset. Even old and ailing Africans were forced to work. The brutality shown