Middle pAssage
Above is a picture of the inside of a slave ship, with hundreds of people stuffed inside
The picture below is a way of how the slaves were chained up, but there were many different forms.
The picture below is a way of how the slaves were chained up, but there were many different forms.
The middle passage was one of the worse parts of the
journey. This passage was part of the triangular trade, and this side was the
one that connected Africa to the Americas. On this terrible journey, the slaves
were treated like cattle. They were stuffed into ships with hundreds of other
slaves making the trip. People were stuffed between decks in spaces too small
to stand and the slaves had to bend over or lay down. usually, they were
chained together. The conditions were very unsanitary. The slaves, having
nowhere to use the bathroom, throw up, or spit, had to relive themselves on
each other. The diseases spread like wildfire, and thousands were infected. The
slaves would be lucky to get fed once a day, much less twice. All of them were
very skinny after being starved for so long. The air was so thick, it was almost
completely unable to be breathed in, and the conditions were hot and stuffy.
And if someone died, they would be thrown overboard for the sharks to fetch the
body. Sometimes when family members were put into the ocean, their family that
was still on the ship would jump with them. The people that were going to not
be sold were thrown in the ocean just because they would have no profit for the
people who ran the ship. Some slaves would commit suicide by jumping over, as
they didn't want to be in such constant pain. When people died they were
hoisted over the sides as well. The men on the ship would sometimes take the
slave women and raped them, and that was just another horror of the journey.
Sometimes there would be "ship rebellions" where the slaves would
rebel against whoever was watching them, and they would always fail because the
pale faces had weapons and the slaves didn't. And this was just the start of a
story that was terrible, because when the ships docked at Sullivan's Island,
that was the next chapter of doom. The typical journey across the Atlantic took
30-60 days, which most likely felt like forever to the slaves. And after all of
the ships docked, and the slave law was passed in 1808, the death count
was huge. In fact, for every 100 slaves that made it to the new world, 40 died.
The death rate was 25%,one to two million slaves had died total. The
total amount of slaves that made it across were 10-12 million, but that was to
both Americas. To the U.S. colonies the amount totaled about 645,000. This was
a grueling life that they had to go through, but yet people survived.
Above is a picture of the triangular trade, with the middle passage in the square.
This is a picture of the ship rebellion, as you can see the ship crew is winning.
This is a picture of the ship rebellion, as you can see the ship crew is winning.
Above is a picture of the ship crew throwing slaves into the ocean.
This picture below is a sculpture in the ocean honoring all the slaves that were cast overboard.
This picture below is a sculpture in the ocean honoring all the slaves that were cast overboard.