Transcript Slide 1

Objective: To examine the conditions faced by African
slaves during the Middle Passage.
'Inventory of
Negroes, Cattle,
Horses, etc on the
estate of Sir James
Lowther Bart in
Barbados taken this
31st day of
December 1766'
The Arrival of Europeans in Africa - 1795
The Portuguese, under the sponsorship of Prince Henry, had
landed in West Africa 350 years earlier.
This engraving, entitled An African man being inspected for
sale into slavery while a white man talks with African slave
traders, appeared in the detailed account of a former slave
ship captain and was published in 1854.
Middle Passage – passage across the Atlantic Ocean from
West Africa to the Americas the was the route of the African
American slave trade
Read the bottom right side of page 40 in The African
American Experience, where it says, “The Middle
Passage”.
What happened to the two women aboard the slave
ship, and what caused it to occur?
One drowned trying to save her baby that was thrown
overboard. The other woman, who also jumped overboard to
save her baby was rescued. However, she later jumped over
again, committing suicide.
• Many Africans committed suicide because of their
inhumane treatment.
The slave ship Brookes with 482 people packed onto the decks. The
drawing of the slave ship Brookes was distributed by the Abolitionist
Society in England as part of their campaign against the slave trade,
and dates from 1789.
Interior of a Slave Ship, a woodcut illustration from the
publication, A History of the Amistad Captives, reveals how
hundreds of slaves could be held within a slave ship. Tightly
packed and confined in an area with just barely enough
room to sit up, slaves were known to die from a lack of
breathable air.
• Africans were crowded and chained cruelly aboard
slave ships.
"...the excessive heat was not the only thing
that rendered their situation intolerable. The
deck, that is the floor of their rooms, was so
covered with the blood and mucus which had
proceeded from them in consequence of the
flux, that it resembled a slaughterhouse."
Taken from Alexander Falconbridge, a surgeon
aboard slave ships and later the governor of a
British colony for freed slaves in Sierra Leone.
Frequently, slaves were permitted on deck in small groups
for brief periods, where the crew would encourage, and
many times force, captives to dance for exercise.
"Exercise being deemed necessary for the
preservation of their health they are
sometimes obliged to dance when the
weather will permit their coming on deck. If
they go about it reluctantly or do not move
with agility, they are flogged…”
Taken from Alexander Falconbridge, An Account of
the Slave Trade on the Coast of Africa.
Heading for Jamaica in 1781, the ship Zong was nearing the
end of its voyage. It had been twelve weeks since it had sailed
from the west African coast with its cargo of 417 slaves. Water
was running out. Then, compounding the problem, there was
an outbreak of disease. The ship's captain, reasoning that the
slaves were going to die anyway, made a decision. In order to
reduce the owner's losses he would throw overboard the slaves
thought to be too sick to recover. The voyage was insured, but
the insurance would not pay for sick slaves or even those killed
by illness. However, it would cover slaves lost through
drowning.
The captain gave the order; 54 Africans were chained together,
then thrown overboard. Another 78 were drowned over the next
two days. By the time the ship had reached the Caribbean,132
persons had been murdered.
Hear a BBC dramatization of Olaudah Equiano's
account of his experiences
"I was soon put down under the decks, and
there I received such a salutation in my nostrils as I
had never experienced in my life: so that, with the
loathsomeness of the stench, and crying together, I
became so sick and low that I was not able to eat, nor
had I the least desire to taste anything.
I now wished for the last friend, death, to
relieve me; but soon, to my grief, two of the white
men offered me eatables; and on my refusing to eat,
one of them held me fast by the hands and laid me
across I think the windlass, and tied my feet, while
the other flogged me severely.”
- Olaudah Equiano, giving the first eyewitness account
of life on a ship from a slave's point of view.
THIS is the Vessel that had the
Small-Pox on Board at the Time
of her Arrival the 31st of March
last: Every necessary Precaution
hath since been taken to cleanse
both Ship and Cargo thoroughly,
so that those who may be
inclined to purchase need not be
under the least Apprehension of
Danger from Infliction.
The NEGROES are allowed to be
the likeliest Parcel that have been
imported this Season.
• Diseases, such as dysentery, malaria, and smallpox
killed thousands of Africans.
• From 13% - 20% of the Africans aboard slave ships
died during the Middle Passage.
• Between 1699 and
1845 there were 55
successful African
uprisings on slave
ships.
William Snelgrave,
from A New Account
of Some Parts of
Guinea, and the Slave
Trade