The Middle Passage: Slavery and the Triangular Trade

• The Middle Passage was the central leg of the triangular trade route.
• The route transported goods from Europe to Africa, Africans to the Americas and West Indies for slave labor, and raw materials back to Europe.
• Millions of African men, women, and children were transported from 1518 to the mid-19th century.
• Voyages lasted 21-to-90 days on overcrowded ships with crews mainly from Great Britain, the Netherlands, Portugal, and France.
• The Middle Passage fueled European and American economies, devastated African societies, and shaped cultures.
• Dehumanization of enslaved people led to lasting racial and social inequalities.
• This dehumanization was also a factor in the abolition of the slave trade.

Treatment of Women

• Women often had more freedom than men on slave ships.
• They weren't always chained and could be assigned tasks such as cooking.
• Women were subjected to sexual abuse by the ship's crew.
• Some female slaves committed suicide by jumping overboard.
• Women and children were sometimes kept in separate quarters on deck, allowing limited movement but exposing them to violence and sexual abuse.

Sickness Onboard

• Conditions encouraged diseases like fever and gastroenteritis.
• Average losses were 10-20% due to sickness, suicide, and murder leading to over 1,000,000 deaths.
• Main causes of death were dysentery and smallpox.
• The air was foul and putrid, with seasickness and oppressive heat.
• Lack of sanitation and suffocating conditions caused frequent epidemics of fever, dysentery, and smallpox.
• Captives endured these conditions for about two months, sometimes longer.
• Sickness often spread to the crew, but the death rate was higher among enslaved people, estimated at 15-16%.

Firsthand Accounts

• Captain Thomas Phillips, during a 1693-94 voyage, recorded significant sickness and death.
• He buried 14 crew members and 320 enslaved people, resulting in a loss of £6,560.
• Richard Drake described the enslaved being forced to dance and sing under the whip.
• He writes about the horrors of smallpox.

Rebellion

• Open resistance was common when Africans were in sight of their land.
• Approximately one in ten slave ships experienced African resistance.
• Resistance ranged from individual acts of defiance to major revolts.
• Enslaved people aboard the Clare mutinied, driving the crew away and liberating themselves near Cape Coast Castle in 1729.
• Captain Japhet Bird, in 1737, described a mass suicide attempt by enslaved people on the Prince of Orange.
• A log book from the Liverpool ship Unity records several attempted insurrections by slaves in June 1770.
• One such log records that woman were whipped 24 times

Living Conditions

• Enslaved people were packed below deck, shackled in pairs to prevent them from killing the captain and crew.
• Cramped conditions meant they couldn't reach toilet buckets and lived in their own filth.
• Seasickness, heat, and lack of air contributed to the terrible smell.
• John Newton, a former slave ship captain, described the enslaved being packed tightly.

Food

• Oceanic journeys across the Atlantic lasted one to three months.
• Unsanitary conditions led to food rotting, being consumed by maggots, rats, and other vermin.
• The enslaved were forced to consume contaminated food, leading to weakness and illness.
• James Lind notes that dry provisions were susceptible to spoilage.
• They were fed twice a day and those refusing to eat were force-fed.
• The dead were thrown overboard.
• Enslaved people often couldn't digest European food, worsening sickness.
• Instructions to Captain George Merrick in 1774 recommended treating enslaved people with care and ensuring they were fed well.

Humiliation

• Captives were kept in parallel rows and forced below deck each night.
• Whip-bearing crewmen forced captives to dance and sing for entertainment.
• This served to maintain physical fitness for sale.

Shipwrecks

• Approximately 500 to 1,000 ships wrecked during the Middle Passage, out of about 35,000.
• Enslaved people were often locked in the hold during shipwrecks, to ensure crew safety.
• Olaudah Equiano described a shipwreck where the captain ordered the hatches nailed down on the slaves.