What is meant by the term "Middle Passage"?

The Middle Passage was the leg of the Atlantic slave trade that transported slaves from Africa to North America, South America, and the Caribbean. It was called the Middle Passage as the slave trade was a form of Triangular trade; boats left Europe, went to Africa, then to America, and then returned to Europe.

Slave traders acquired slaves from numerous ports in Africa. They were able to pack nearly 300 slaves and approximately 35 crew into most slave ships. The men 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 very small portions of corn, yams, rice, and palm oil, normally just enough to sustain them. Sometimes captives were allowed to move around during the day, but many ships kept the shackles on throughout the journey.

It is estimated that 15% of the captured slaves died on the journey.

More Info: en.wikipedia.org

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10 Comments

Raashid Khan

Slavery an ugly face of humanity.

Robert Henderson

the majority of the slaves weren't captured by Europeans but by other blacks and Arabs and sold to them as slaves for shipment to the Americas I do wish that could be made clear. It was still a nasty business by TODAY'S standards

Mark G. Feeney

Europe was not always a leg in Triangular Trade. New England merchants would finance trips to Africa to buy slaves (from African slave merchants), trade them to plantation owners in the West Indies for molasses, which the plantations produced using slave labor, and return to New England to make and sell rum. Part of the huge profits would go into the next round of Triangular Trade. The slave traders, plantation owners and New England shipp owners amassed huge fortunes. This went on for more than 200 years. This isn't some woke interpretation of history. History books provided interesting classroom reading 60 years ago or so. There also is a song in the musical 1776m "Molasses, Rum, Slaves."

Denise Currie

Learned something new today. I just cannot imagine being on that voyage, the fear those people must have felt, Terrible

Noelito

Robert Henderson, Only those that were enslaved by said Blacks and Arabs had (at least ) the opportunity and were IN FACT freed at some point in their wretched lives. It was the White enslaver that actually perfected and perpetuated the concept of chattel slavery ...in which man, woman and child could NEVER be freed. Thus children were begat who only ever experienced this live of servitude and arrant savagery. Moreover, under this system, the average young healthy male was worked SO hard (especially in the Caribbean) that he barely lasted more than a few years. Perhaps, whilst making your position, you might like to add this to it.... to ensure that proper clarity is manifested.

Carroll Price

Virtually all slave ships leaving America for the west coast of Africa were made and equipped in New England shipyards, prior to being loaded with Boston rum and cloth goods manufactured in New England cotton mills by child labor. As to living and working conditions, the average slave working on southern plantations, due to working in a healthier more wholesome environment, had a longer life expectancy than did the average New England cotton mill worker who seldom saw the light of day.

Janet Head

Sadly, human trafficking is still rife today but it is not reported much.

Robert Oldenburg

Slavery was worldwide throughout all history until the late 1700s and early 1800s. Even then, only Western Europe and northern United States even questioned it. Until then every people group enslaved whatever people group that they could. Unfortunately it never completely went away and unfortunately is on the rise again, though not legally.

Robert Oldenburg

The slave trade was merely one of many types of trade and shipping that used this. At that latitude winds go basically east to west, and at a latitude further north winds go basically west to east. This was the major routes until the invention of the steam engine.