The Middle Passage was the stage of the Atlantic slave trade in which millions of enslaved Africans[2] were transported to the Americas as part of the triangular slave trade. Ships departed Europe for African markets with manufactured goods (first side of the triangle), which were then traded for slaves with rulers of African states and other African slave traders. Slave ships transported the slaves across the Atlantic (second side of the triangle). The proceeds from selling slaves were then used to buy products such as furs and hides, tobacco, sugar, rum, and raw materials,[3] which would be transported back to Europe (third side of the triangle) to complete the triangle.
The First Passage was the forced march of African slaves from their inland homes, where they had often been captured by other tribes or by other members of their own tribe, to African ports where they were imprisoned until they were sold and loaded onto a ship. The Final Passage was the journey from the port of disembarkation in the Americas to the plantation or other destination where they would be put to work. The Middle Passage across the Atlantic joined these two. Voyages on the Middle Passage were large financial undertakings, generally organized by companies or groups of investors rather than individuals.[4]
According to modern research, roughly 12.5 million slaves were transported through the Middle Passage to the Americas.[8] The enslaved were transported in wretched conditions, men and women separated, across the Atlantic. Mortality was high; those with strong bodies survived. Young women and girls were raped by the crew. An estimated 15% of them died during voyage, with mortality rates considerably higher in Africa itself during the process of capturing and transporting slaves to the coast.[9] The total number of deaths directly attributable to the Middle Passage voyage is estimated at up to two million; a broader look at African deaths directly attributable to the institution of slavery from 1500 to 1900 suggests up to four million deaths.[10] The "Middle Passage" was considered a time of in-betweenness where captive Africans forged bonds of kinship, which then created forced transatlantic communities.[11]
The duration of the transatlantic voyage varied widely,[3] from one to six months depending on weather conditions. The journey became more efficient over the centuries: while an average transatlantic journey of the early 16th century lasted several months, by the 19th century the crossing often required fewer than six weeks.[12]
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 sale to the European or American slave traders in the barracoons. Typical slave ships contained several hundred slaves with about 30 crew members.[13]
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 chains or hand and leg cuffs were known as bilboes, which were among the many tools of the slave trade, and which were always in short supply. Bilboes were mainly used on men, and they consisted of two iron shackles locked on a post and were usually fastened around the ankles of two men.[14] At best, captives were fed beans, corn, yams, rice, and palm oil. Slaves were fed one meal a day with water, if at all. When food was scarce, slaveholders would get priority over the slaves.[15] Sometimes captives were allowed to move around during the day, but many ships kept the shackles on throughout the arduous journey. Aboard certain French ships, the enslaved were brought on deck to periodically receive fresh air. While the enslaved females were typically permitted to be on deck more frequently, enslaved males would be watched closely to prevent revolt when above deck.[16]
The enslaved below the decks lived for months in conditions of squalor and indescribable horror. Disease spread and ill health was one of the biggest killers. Mortality rates were high, and death made these conditions below the decks even worse. Even though the corpses were thrown overboard, many crew members avoided going into the hold. The enslaved who had already been ill were not always found immediately. Many of the living enslaved could have been shackled to someone that was dead for hours and sometimes days.[14]
Most contemporary historians estimate that between 9.4 and 12.6 million Africans embarked for the New World.[17][18][19] 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.[20] Additionally, outbreaks of smallpox, syphilis, measles, and other diseases spread rapidly in the close-quarter compartments.[21]
The rate of death increased with the length of the 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. In addition to physical sickness, many of the enslaved became too depressed to eat or function efficiently due to loss of freedom, family, security, and their own humanity.
Sailing technologies
The need for profits in the 18th century's Atlantic market economy drove changes in ship designs and in managing human cargo, which included enslaved Africans and the mostly European crew. Improvements in air flow on board the ships helped to decrease the infamous mortality rate that these ships had become known for throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. The new designs that allowed ships to navigate faster and into rivers' mouths ensured access to many more enslaving posts along the West African coast.[22] The monetary value of enslaved Africans on any given American auction-block during the mid-18th century ranged between $800 and $1,200, which in modern times would be equivalent to $32,000–48,000 per person ($100 then is now worth $4,000 due to inflation). Therefore, ship captains and investors sought technologies that would protect their human cargo.[23]
Throughout the height of the Atlantic slave trade (1570–1808), ships that transported the enslaved were normally smaller than traditional cargo ships, with most ships that transported the enslaved, weighing between 150 and 250 tons. This equated to about 350 to 450 enslaved Africans on each slave ship, or 1.5 to 2.4 per ton. The English ships of the time normally fell on the larger side of this spectrum and the French on the smaller side. Ships purposely designed to be smaller and more maneuverable were meant to navigate the African coastal rivers into farther inland ports; these ships therefore increased the effects of the slave trade on Africa. Additionally, the ships' sizes increased slightly throughout the 1700s; however the number of enslaved Africans per ship remained the same. This reduction in the ratio of enslaved Africans to ship tonnage was designed to increase the amount of space per person and thus improve the survival chances of everyone on board. These ships also had temporary storage decks that were separated by an open latticework or grate bulkhead. Ship masters would presumably use these chambers to divide enslaved Africans and help prevent mutiny. Some ships developed by the turn of the 19th century even had ventilation ports built into the sides and between gun ports (with hatches to keep inclement weather out). These open deck designs increased airflow and thus helped improve survival rates, diminishing potential investment losses.[22]
Another major factor in "cargo protection" was the increase in knowledge of diseases and medicines (along with the inclusion of a variety of medicines on the ships). First the Dutch East India Company in the 18th century, followed by some other countries and companies in the late 18th early 19th centuries, realized that the inclusion of surgeons and other medical practitioners aboard their ships was an endeavor that proved too costly for the benefits. So instead of including medical personnel they just stocked the ships with a large variety of medicines. While this was better than no medicines, and given the fact that many crew members at least had some idea of how disease was spread, without the inclusion of medical personnel the mortality rate was still very high in the 18th century.[24]
Treatment of enslaved people and resistance
Treatment of the enslaved was horrific due to the captured African men and women being considered less than human; to enslavers, they were "cargo", or "goods", and treated as such. Women with children were not as desirable for enslavement for they took up too much space, and toddlers were not wanted because of everyday maintenance.[25] For example, the Zong, a British enslaver, took too many enslaved on a voyage to the New World in 1781. Overcrowding combined with malnutrition and disease killed several crew members and around 60 enslaved. Bad weather made the Zong's voyage slow and lack of drinking water became a concern. The crew decided to drown some slaves at sea, to conserve water and allow the owners to collect insurance for lost cargo. About 130 slaves were killed and a number chose to kill themselves in defiance, by jumping into the water willingly. The Zong incident became fuel for the abolitionist movement and a major court case, as the insurance company refused to compensate for the loss.
While the enslaved were kept fed and supplied with drink as healthy slaves were more valuable, if resources ran low on the long, unpredictable voyages, the crew received preferential treatment. Punishment of the enslaved and torture was very common, as on the voyage the crew had to turn independent people into obedient enslaved.[26] Pregnant women on the ships who delivered their babies aboard risked the chance of their children being killed in order for the mothers to be sold.[25] The worst punishments were for rebelling; in one instance a captain punished a failed rebellion by killing one involved enslaved man immediately, and forcing two other slaves to eat his heart and liver.[27]
As a way to counteract disease and suicide attempts, the crew would force the enslaved onto the deck of the ship for exercise, usually resulting in beatings because the enslaved would be unwilling to dance for them or interact.[28] These beatings would often be severe and could result in the enslaved dying or becoming more susceptible to diseases.
Suicide
Slaves resisted in many ways. The two most common types of resistance were refusal to eat and suicide. Suicide was a frequent occurrence, often by refusal of food or medicine or jumping overboard, as well as by a variety of other opportunistic means.[29] If an enslaved person jumped overboard, they would often be left to drown or shot from the boat.[30] Over the centuries, some African peoples, such as the Kru, came to be understood as holding substandard value as slaves, because they developed a reputation for being too proud to be enslaved, and for attempting suicide immediately upon losing their freedom.[31]
Both suicide and self-starving were prevented as much as possible by enslaver crews; the enslaved were often force-fed or tortured until they ate, though some still managed to starve themselves to death; the enslaved were kept away from means of suicide, and the sides of the deck were often netted.[32] The enslaved were still successful, especially at jumping overboard. Often when an uprising failed, the mutineers would jump en masse into the sea. Slaves generally believed that if they jumped overboard, they would be returned to their family and friends in their village or to their ancestors in the afterlife.[33]
Suicide by jumping overboard was such a problem that captains had to address it directly in many cases. They used the sharks that followed the ships as a terror weapon. One captain, who had a rash of suicides on his ship, took a woman and lowered her into the water on a rope, and pulled her out as fast as possible. When she came in view, the sharks had already killed her—and bitten off the lower half of her body.[34]
Identity and communication
In order to interact with each other on the voyage, the enslaved created a communication system unbeknownst to Europeans: They would construct choruses on the passages using their voices, bodies, and ships themselves; the hollow design of the ships allowed the enslaved to use them as percussive instruments and to amplify their songs. This combination of "instruments" was both a way for the enslaved to communicate as well as creating a new identity since enslavers attempted to strip them of that. Although most of the enslaved were from various regions around Africa, their situation allowed them to come together and create a new culture and identity aboard the ships with a common language and method of communication:
[C]all and response soundings allowed men and women speaking different languages to communicate about the conditions of their captivity. In fact, on board the Hubridas, what began as murmurs and morphed into song erupted before long into the shouts and cries of coordinated revolt.[35]
This communication was a direct subversion of European authority and allowed the enslaved to have a form of power and identity otherwise prohibited. Furthermore, such organization and coming together enabled revolts and uprisings to actually be coordinated and successful at times.
Uprisings
Aboard ships, the captives were not always willing to follow orders. Sometimes they reacted in violence. Slave ships were designed and operated to try to prevent the slaves from revolting. Resistance among the slaves usually ended in failure and participants in the rebellion were punished severely. About one out of ten ships experienced some sort of rebellion.[36]
Ottobah Cugoano, who was enslaved and taken from Africa as a child, later described an uprising aboard the ship on which he was transported to the West Indies:
When we found ourselves at last taken away, death was more preferable than life, and a plan was concerted amongst us, that we might burn and blow up the ship, and to perish all together in the flames.[37]
The number of rebels varied widely; often the uprisings would end with the death of a few slaves and crew. Surviving rebels were punished or executed as examples to the other slaves on board.
African religion
The enslaved also resisted through certain manifestations of their religions and mythology. They would appeal to their gods for protection and vengeance upon their captors, and would also try to curse and otherwise harm the crew using idols and fetishes. One crew found fetishes in their water supply, placed by the enslaved who believed they would kill all who drank from it.[33]
Sailors and crew
While the owners and captains of slave ships could expect vast profits, the ordinary sailors were often inadequately paid and subject to brutal discipline. Sailors often had to live and sleep without shelter on the open deck for the entirety of the Atlantic voyage as the entire space below deck was occupied by enslaved people.[38]
A crew mortality rate of around 20% was expected during a voyage, with sailors dying as a result of disease (specifically malaria and yellow fever), flogging or slave uprisings.[38][39] A high crew mortality rate on the return voyage was in the captain's interests as it reduced the number of sailors who had to be paid on reaching the home port.[40] Crew members who survived were frequently cheated out of their wages on their return.[38]
The sailors were often employed through coercion as they generally knew about and hated the slave trade. In port towns, recruiters and tavern owners would induce sailors to become very drunk (and indebted) and then offer to relieve their debt if they signed contracts with slave ships. If they did not, they would be imprisoned. Sailors in prison had a hard time getting jobs outside of the slave ship industry since most other maritime industries would not hire "jail-birds", so they were forced to go to the slave ships anyway.[41]
The Atlantic slave trade or transatlantic slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. The outfitted European slave ships of the slave trade regularly used the triangular trade route and its Middle Passage, and existed from the 16th to the 19th centuries. The vast majority of those who were transported in the transatlantic slave trade were from Central and West Africa who had been sold by West African slave traders mainly to Portuguese, British, Spanish, Dutch, and French slave traders, while others had been captured directly by the slave traders in coastal raids; European slave traders gathered and imprisoned the enslaved at forts on the African coast and then brought them to the Americas. Except for the Portuguese, European slave traders generally did not participate in the raids because life expectancy for Europeans in sub-Saharan Africa was less than one year during the period of the slave trade.
Triangular trade or triangle trade is trade between three ports or regions. Triangular trade usually evolves when a region has export commodities that are not required in the region from which its major imports come. It has been used to offset trade imbalances between different regions.
The West Africa Squadron, also known as the Preventative Squadron, was a squadron of the British Royal Navy whose goal was to suppress the Atlantic slave trade by patrolling the coast of West Africa. Formed in 1808 after the British Parliament passed the Slave Trade Act 1807 and based out of Portsmouth, England, it remained an independent command until 1856 and then again from 1866 to 1867.
Slave ships were large cargo ships specially built or converted from the 17th to the 19th century for transporting slaves. Such ships were also known as "Guineamen" because the trade involved human trafficking to and from the Guinea coast in West Africa.
Tecora was a Portuguese slave ship of the early 19th century. The brig was built especially for the slave trade although the transport across the Atlantic of human beings as slaves had already been outlawed by several nations in international treaties in the first decade of the 19th century. She was fast and maneuverable in order to evade British patrols that attempted to stop such illegal slave ships off the coast of Africa.
La Amistad was a 19th-century two-masted schooner owned by a Spaniard living in Cuba. It became renowned in July 1839 for a slave revolt by Mende captives who had been captured and sold to European slave traders and illegally transported by a Portuguese ship from West Africa to Cuba, in violation of European treaties against the Atlantic slave trade. Spanish plantation owners Don José Ruiz and Don Pedro Montes bought 53 captives in Havana, Cuba, including four children, and were transporting them on the ship to their plantations near Puerto Príncipe. The revolt began after the schooner's cook jokingly told the slaves that they were to be "killed, salted, and cooked." Sengbe Pieh unshackled himself and the others on the third day and started the revolt. They took control of the ship, killing the captain and the cook. Three Africans were also killed in the melee.
The Hannibal was a slave ship, hired by the Royal African Company of England. The ship participated in two slave trading voyages, in the Triangular Trade. The wooden sailing ship was 450 tons and mounted with thirty-six guns. The ship is most remembered for her disastrous voyage of 1693–95. Captain Thomas Phillips commanded the Hannibal. He was a Welsh sea captain from Brecon, Wales who was employed by the Sir Jeffrey Jeffreys, and others. who owned the Hannibal and were governors and Assistants in the Royal African Company.
Seasoning, or the Seasoning, was the period of adjustment that slave traders and slaveholders subjected African slaves to following their arrival in the Americas. While modern scholarship has occasionally applied this term to the brief period of acclimatization undergone by European immigrants to the Americas, it most frequently and formally referred to the process undergone by enslaved people. Slave traders used the term "seasoning" to refer to the process of adjusting the enslaved Africans to the new climate, diet, geography, and ecology of the Americas. The term applied to both the physical acclimatization of the enslaved person to the environment, as well as that person's adjustment to a new social environment, labor regimen, and language. Slave traders and owners believed that if slaves survived this critical period of environmental seasoning, they were less likely to die and the psychological element would make them more easily controlled. This process took place immediately after the arrival of enslaved people during which their mortality rates were particularly high. These "new" or "saltwater" slaves were described as "outlandish" on arrival. Those who survived this process became "seasoned", and typically commanded a higher price in the market. For example, in eighteenth century Brazil, the price differential between "new" and "seasoned" slaves was about fifteen percent.
Will was a ship launched at Liverpool in 1797 for Aspinal & Co., who were one of Liverpool's leading slave-trading companies. She made numerous voyages between West Africa and the Caribbean in the triangular trade in enslaved people, during which she several times successfully repelled attacks by French privateers. Will apparently foundered in a squall in July 1806, shortly before the passage of the Slave Trade Act 1807 abolished the slave trade for British subjects.
Eliza was launched in America in 1780 and taken in prize in 1782. She entered the Liverpool registry in 1783, 1786, and again in 1792. She made nine voyages as a Liverpool-based slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. She was lost in an explosion on her tenth voyage after she had already embarked her captives. All the captives died, as did her captain and most of her crew. The explosion occurred during a single ship action on 17 December 1797, with a French privateer.
Byam was a snow launched at Oban, or possibly Padstow, in 1800. She made four voyages as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. The French captured and burnt her in late 1807 or early 1808 as she was about to deliver the captives from her fifth voyage.
Hannah was built in Liverpool in 1795. She made four voyages as a slave ship in the triangular trade of enslaved people. She was lost in 1801 as she was returning home after having delivered her captives on her fourth voyage.
Vulture was built in France 1777 and captured. By early 1779 she was sailing as a privateer out of Liverpool. She then became a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. She made 10 voyages transporting enslaved people and was captured in 1795 on her 11th such voyage.
Prince was launched at Bristol in 1785 as Alexander and then made two complete voyages as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. Her owners changed her name to Prince in 1787. As Prince, she made six more complete voyages as an enslaving ship. She sailed on enslaving voyages for owners in Bristol, Liverpool, and London. She foundered in 1800 as she was returning to England from her ninth, having delivered captives to Jamaica.
Black Joke was a ship built in 1720 or 1743. She appeared in Lloyd's Register (LR) in the issue for 1764. Between 1764 and 1767 she made three complete voyages from Liverpool as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people.
Liverpool Hero was built in France in 1777, probably as Jeune Emilia. She was taken in prize in 1780. In 1781 she entered into the triangular trade in enslaved people. From 1781 she made six complete voyages from Liverpool as a slave ship. On her fourth enslaving voyage she suffered an exceptionally high mortality rate among the captives she had embarked. Her third voyage had been marred by high mortality, but on the fourth 330 captives, 59% of the number she had embarked, died. She was lost in 1794 off the coast of Africa on her seventh voyage, probably with her crew and captives.
Bell was launched in 1788 in Liverpool. Between 1788 and 1795 she made five voyages as a Liverpool-based slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. The French captured her in 1798 on her sixth voyage transporting enslaved people after she had embarked her captives. In 1798, the Royal Navy destroyed her.
Golden Age was launched at Havana in 1779, almost certainly under another name. She was taken in prize circa 1783. From late 1783 she sailed from Liverpool as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. She made four complete voyages. On her third her captives rebelled, but were unsuccessful. A French private frigate captured her in 1793 after she had disembarked her captives from her fifth enslaving voyage. Her captors took her into Philadelphia where she was sold to a French owner who named her Republican, and sailed her to France.
Bud was launched at Liverpool in 1783. Between 1783 and 1800 she made 12 complete voyages as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. In 1796 she repelled an attack by a faster, better armed, and more heavily crewed French privateer in a single ship action. Then in 1798, a French privateer captured her in another single ship action after Bud's short but sanguinary resistance. The Royal Navy quickly captured her, and her captor. On her 13th enslaving voyage she was condemned at Kingston, Jamaica after she had arrived with her captives.
The Sally (1764) was an 18th century Rhode Island brigantine slave ship launched from Providence and destined for the western-most coast of Africa. Like many voyages from the state at this time, the ship was charted by Nicholas Brown and Company, a merchant firm founded by the prominent Brown family. This same company, and the successful mercantile family, was the main benefactor in the foundation of Brown University in 1764. The story of The Sally rose to infamy upon return – and for centuries, thereafter – due to high mortality rates following a slave revolt and widespread health issues. Of the 196 captives on board, more than 109 were either murdered by captain, Esek Hopkins, and crew, died from diseases and starvation, or took their own lives. Within the state of Rhode Island, The Sally serves an important historical symbol of the atrocities of northern slavery, as well as the legacy of slave labor within prominent American institutions, namely Brown University.
↑ Lovejoy, Paul E. (2000). Transformations in Slavery. Cambridge University Press.
↑ Bennett, Herman L. (2009). Colonial Blackness: A History of Afro-Mexico. Indiana University Press. p.11. ISBN9780253223319.
↑ Wolfe, Brendan (2021). "Slave Ships and the Middle Passage". In Miller, Patti (ed.). Encyclopedia Virginia. Charlottesville, VA: Virginia Humanities – Library of Virginia. Retrieved 4 March 2021.
1 2 Deborah Gray White, Mia Bay, and Waldo E. Martin, Jr., Freedom on My Mind: A History of African Americans (New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2013), 32.
↑ Allen, Weslynn M. (2009). Trace: Our connection to the past. [n.p]: Tate Pub & Enterprises Ll. p.84. ISBN978-1607998334.
↑ Thornton, John (1998). Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400–1800. Cambridge University Press. p.155.
↑ Eltis, David and Richardson, David. "The Numbers Game". In: Northrup, David: The Atlantic Slave Trade, second edition, Houghton Mifflin Co., 2002.
1 2 Herbert S. Klein, The Atlantic Slave Trade (Cambridge: The University of Cambridge, 1999), pp. 143–146.
↑ Ron Soodalter, "Hell on the water" (Civil War Times, 2011), p. 1.
↑ Haines, Robin; Shlomowitz, Ralph (2000). "Explaining the mortality decline in the eighteenth-century British slave trade". The Economic History Review. 53 (2): 262. doi:10.1111/1468-0289.00160.
1 2 Bush, Barbara (March–June 2010). "African Caribbean Slave Mothers And Children: Traumas Of Dislocation And Enslavement Across The Atlantic World". Caribbean Quarterly. 56 (1–2): 69–94. doi:10.1080/00086495.2010.11672362. S2CID141289167.
↑ Bernard Edwards; Bernard Edwards (Captain.) (2007). Royal Navy Versus the Slave Traders: Enforcing Abolition at Sea 1808–1898. Pen & Sword Books. pp.26–27. ISBN978-1-84415-633-7.
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