Surviving the middle passage Essay

Submitted By olam_kowoh
Words: 1677
Pages: 7
Open Document
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 between those moments may be. This was a harsh reality for the more than ten million Africans taken from their lands and forced to take the middle passage (Mallipeddi 235). Survival depended on factors such as living conditions, nutrition and hydration, and the human spirit. Lawrence Hill portrays these elements vividly through Aminata’s experience of the middle passage. Poor living conditions combined with overcrowding aboard a slave vessel would eventually result in sickness and in death. From the stench of the vessel, to the waste that streamed throughout the ship, and the chains that bound the homelanders through it all. Aminata experiences these issues first hand aboard the ship. One of the first things she does on the vessel is choke on the smell and vomit (Hill 57). This stench motif appears a few more times throughout the second book; it brings with it, a negative connotation that when people are held captive in poor conditions: the odor will reflect that condition. As Aminata stands on the deck as the captives are brought below; the stench of human waste rises up in thick clouds along with the cries of grown men from the hold (Hill 60). Perhaps the sailors cannot dispose of the waste that accumulates due to the number of captives aboard the vessel. There is so much waste, that Aminata describes going below the deck as entering the anus of a lion (Hill 63). The amount captives aboard, meant that they had to be chained, especially the men: when Aminata goes down into the hold for the first time; everywhere she looks, she sees men laying down chained to one another (Hill 63). Being chained together in filth is a great way to spread bacteria and sickness; doing nothing but shortening life expectancy. After many days at sea the sailors started to remove some of the shackles of the men that were allowed up on the deck, but re-shackled them when they went back down into the hold (Hill 78). This gave them a chance to properly bathe themselves; which would have been a key role to stop the spreading of bacteria. Although after the revolt, everyone remained shackled at all times (Hill 93). The shackles made conditions of the ship all the more difficult; which in turn made surviving that much more difficult. Living conditions were brutal on a slave ship. Survival was not made easier by the constant stench of the ship; the waste that flowed throughout it, that spread bacteria; or by the chains that bound all the captives through it all. Proper nutrition and hydration played a pivotal role in the survival of slaves during the middle passage. Throughout the second book the slaves seem to be underfed and dehydrated for the entire duration of the voyage. The first instance you can tell the the homelanders are underfed and dehydrated is: when Aminata goes into the hold for the first time; all the men shout for food, water, air, and light (Hill 64). These are grown men begging for food and water; its not as if they are like little children whining for more desert; infact it gets so bad, that one day the homelanders wrestle over a chicken carcase that gets thrown at them (Hill 79); fighting over scraps of meat and bones for marrow (79). The quality of food could not have been outstanding either; Aminata asks Fomba their first day aboard the ship if the food is any good: he indicates to her that it is not (Hill 69). With all the human waste and blood streaming throughout the ship; one can imagine it was not the most sanitary place to eat. Yet
Show More

Related Documents: Surviving the middle passage Essay

Indifferences In Stephen Crane's 'Open Boat'

1.The story begins in the middle of things, with the crew already stranded at sea. What details does Crane provide about the shipwreck and what does he leave out and why? “Open Boat” is about four men who get stranded at sea. There ship has been wrecked and the caption, oiler, cook and correspondence all find themselves on a lifeboat. With rough and raging seas, all four men work very hard to stay alive. When they finally find land they celebrate by smoking and drinking water only to come and…

Words 1200 - Pages 5

Equality for All Essay

Historically speaking, the brave souls who arrived on the shores of our country and settled the colonies had a very challenging task in surviving, let alone thriving and growing their settlements. Survival instincts, fear, and ethnocentric ideals trumped race relations between English Colonists and the…

Words 728 - Pages 3

The Great Gatsby Light Analysis

One instance is when Nick is leaving the first party of Gatsby’s that he attended and describes the setting of Gatsby’s house saying, “A wafer of a moon was shining over Gatsby’s house, making the night as fine as before, and surviving the laughter and the sound of his still glowing garden,” (Fitzgerald, 55). Nick’s description of the scenery of the party’s end shows his fascination with Gatsby and his mysterious private life as well as his admiration of Gatsby, which is further…

Words 1051 - Pages 5

Slave Plantations In Haiti And Dominican Republic

were slaves could be purchased and sold. Slaves arrived and were sent to other countries/territories in the region. These slaves were brought to the New World through the triangular trade. To keep up with popular demand of Caribbean goods, the Middle Passage was used to unwillingly transport enslaved Africans to British ports. Europeans living in the islands created sugar estates in hopes of building capital and growing rich. Those living in the Caribbean’s amounted debt to the creditors who gave…

Words 1206 - Pages 5

The Southern Colonies In The 17th And 18th Centuries

Company)
1. Jamestown, 1607 -- 1st permanent British colony in New World a. Founded by Virginia Company that received charter in London from King James I. i. Main goals: Promise of gold, conversion of Indians to Christianity (just like Spain), and new passage to the Indies.
ii. Consisted largely of well-to-do adventurers b. Virginia Charter
i. Overseas settlers given same rights of Englishmen in England
ii. Became foundation for American liberties; rights extended to other colonies. 2. Colony wracked…

Words 4366 - Pages 18

Afrolatinx In Latin America

west and beat everyone to India.” One thought, one ambition, changed the course of history. People were exploited, diseases were spread, and colorism took root. The Europeans settled and there were about 11.2 million Africans that survived the Middle Passage and landed in the New World; only 450,000 of that 11.2 million came to the United States. Afrolatinx are people of African descent in Mexico, Central and South America, and the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, and by extension those of African descent…

Words 1002 - Pages 5

What Is Shakespeare's Identity?

In Stewart’s article, he admits that there are no documents about Shakespeare as an author, nor are there are any surviving play drafts. However, in the time period, Shakespeare wasn’t thought of as a genius. Also, Stewart reminds, “Nobody was about to save a laundry list he wrote so they could sell it on eBay” (6). These actions were not the culture in the sixteenth…

Words 1252 - Pages 6

Boston Hospitality Review

exchange horses, or pass communications from one rider to another. These were located at a distance equivalent to one day of travel, which was typically about 20 miles. An extended journey was thereby div­ Boston Hospitality Review | Winter 2014 Surviving Roman road near Manchester, England (1994) ided into multiple stages between posts and relay stations. Guest houses with dining facilities were established at each relay station. Origin­ ally the state operated these as barracks for military or…

Words 2301 - Pages 10

A Journal Of The Plague Year Essay

or not a person was sick, how long they had been sick, and what was the best way to cure them. Often the sick did not know they were affected until it was too late, so many people spread the plague unknowingly. Sometimes people dropped dead in the middle of the street, unaware of the illness until the hour of their death. So many people were dropping dead in the streets that the job as caretakers became very popular. The caretakers were left to take care of the corpses that were littered in London…

Words 1438 - Pages 6

The Architectural Orientation Of Ancien Essay

pyramid was dedicated to a God whose shrine sat at its peak. During this period of Maya culture, the centers of their religious, commercial and bureaucratic power grew into large cities. Through observation of the numerous elements and distinctions, surviving traces of Maya architecture have become an important key to understanding the evolution of their ancient civilization (Webster 1997, 219). Long before archaeologists could read Maya dates, understand the meaning of Maya inscriptions, or comprehend…

Words 1567 - Pages 7