Essay On The Middle Passage

Words: 891
Pages: 4
Open Document
The Middle Passage was a voyage from Africa to the New World. The Middle Passage, however, was not the first voyage. The first section or the Outward Passage was the first of them and ran from Europe to Africa. Next was the Middle Passage and then came the final journey known as the Return Passage which was from the Americas to Europe. During the Middle Passage, millions of Africans were shipped to the New World as a part of the Atlantic slave trade. Ships would depart from Europe to African markets with manufactured goods that would be traded for enslaved Africans, who were then transported across the Atlantic and were sold or traded for raw material. After this, the goods would be transported back to Europe to complete the voyage. It lasted …show more content…
The slavers thought that they were better than the slaves and therefore treated them very badly. “The deck, that is the floor of their rooms, was so covered with blood and mucus which had proceeded from them in consequence of the flux, that it resembled a slaughter- house.” From this description puts an image in your head of how badly the slaves were treated. From the beginning of the voyage till the end the slaves were being treated the same way which led to the slaves wanting to starve themselves so that they would die and wanting to commit suicide. When the slaves would refuse to take sustenance, coals of fire, glowing hot, were put on a shovel and places so close to their lips as to scorch and burn them. If they were still refusing to eat they would force upon threats for them to swallow the coals. It has also been said that a certain captain in the slave trade poured melted lead on such of his Negroes as obstinately refused their food. The slavers didn’t care how they were treating the slaves and didn’t see anything wrong with the way they were going about handling certain situations. The slaves did not deserve that kind of treatment because it was as if they were being treated inhumanly. In fact, John Barbot said, “These slaves are severely and barbarously treated by their masters, who subsist them poorly, and beat them
Show More

Related Documents: Essay On The Middle Passage

The Middle Passage Essay

Michael U.S. History 1 Mr. Kokoska April 22, 2013 The Middle Passage The Middle Passage was a small piece of a much larger system. The system it belonged to is known as the Triangular Trade. The first stage of the Triangular Trade was the journey from Europe to Africa to trade goods like copper, clothing, guns, and ammunition to African kings and royalty in exchange for young African men and woman. The second stage, or the Middle Passage, was the transport of African people to the Caribbean and…

Words 632 - Pages 3

The Middle Passage Essay

The period of time and travel was also a time of slavery and suffering for blacks all across Africa. The Middle Passage, also known as the Transatlantic Slave Trade, was a long voyage that took packed African slaves into a ship like sardines and took them to America. The trade started around the early 1500’s but quickly grew; by 1750 anywhere from 60,000 to 70,000 slaves were being imported from Africa to America every year. No one knows the extent of these numbers due to the lack of necessary paperwork…

Words 712 - Pages 3

Middle Passage Essay example

the practice of legal slave trading and ownership during the days of the Atlantic-Slave Trade. The enforced migration of Africans to the Americas in conditions of slavery lasted from the middle of the sixteenth century until the 1860s and constituted the largest movement of people across the Atlantic until the middle of the nineteenth century. 1The repercussions of this practice are still felt to this day. Although slavery has been abolished it still exists today in underground forms of human trafficking…

Words 1059 - Pages 5

Essay about The Middle Passage

Cyrus Oveissi Thursday, October 18, 2012 The Amistad Choice 2 The movie Amistad depicts a sad but true picture of how slaves were treated during the Antebellum period. It displays the harsh conditions Africans were expected to live and survive in while being whipped, starved, and in some cases raped. This film incorporated many historical and powerful events into it, while also creating an enjoyable watching experience for it’s viewers. As with many Steven Spielberg movies, it was very…

Words 306 - Pages 2

Surviving the middle passage Essay

Olam Kowoh Professor McNeil English 1001, Intro. to Pros and Fiction 21 February 2015 Surviving the Middle Passage: What it takes You are surrounded by darkness only able to see daylight once a day. The remainder of your time is spent in the company of death, disease, and the foul odor produced from the combination. Stomach screaming for food, is only silenced by the nausea of being aboard this floating coffin. Despite the circumstances you manage to find glimmering moments of hope; far and few…

Words 1677 - Pages 7

Robert Hayden's Middle Passage Essay: Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade

“Middle Passage” by Robert Hayden is a narrative poem about the trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. The poem was a coalescence of historical events and short stories written to mirror the Slave trade during the middle passage. The title “Middle Passage” emanates from the middle journey of the triangular slave trade that commenced in the fifteenth century. This journey required leaving ports in the Americas, sailing to the coast of Africa, and trading guns and other weapons to African kingdoms for their slaves…

Words 609 - Pages 3

Writing and Reading Passage Essay

students are ready to exit from developmental writing courses and move on to college-level courses. The CATW asks you to write an essay in response to a reading passage you are given and to show competency in five categories. The five categories are (1) critical response to a text; (2) explanation and support of ideas; (3) organization of a response that has a clear beginning, middle, and end; and two elements of language use: (4) sentence construction and word choice, and (5) grammar, usage, and mechanics…

Words 1282 - Pages 6

Literature in English (Exemplar Scripts) Essay

Sample answers Literature in English 9695/51-53 These three sample answers are for 9695 AS/AL Literature in English Paper 5. They are intended to give an idea of the range of response and the requirements at the top, middle and middle/bottom of the mark range. They are not necessarily ideal or model answers, but are chosen as being representative answers on model texts. UCLES 2010 2 Example 1 UCLES 2010 example 1 3 Example 1 UCLES 2010 example 1 4 Example 1…

Words 1784 - Pages 8

Middle Passage Research Paper

enslaved people. These ways range from things such as the Middle Passage, being caught and sold to others as well as the general life of the enslaved people on the plantations. This essay will debate which of these factors was the cruellest, however, in the minds of many people the transportation through the middle passage was the cruellest due to the harsh conditions, lack of space and the mass spreading of disease. Firstly, the Middle Passage was the cruellest part of the slave trade due to the harsh…

Words 989 - Pages 4

Outline: The Transatlantic Slave Trade

OUTLINE: The Slave Trade Intro Paragraph Imagine being ripped away from your country along with thousands of others to be sold into slavery. The Transatlantic Slave Trade started in the 1400’s and didn’t end until the 1800’s. African Americans were getting taken advantaged of on their way to their new ‘homes’ being tortured, beaten, and poorly treated and most women were repeatedly raped. The Transatlantic Slave Trade was so brutal because thousands of innocent Africans died horrendous deaths,…

Words 254 - Pages 2