The Middle Passage, Essay Example

This paper examines the historical perspective of the “Middle Passage”, the forced passage of African peoples to the New World as slaves.  The passage formed part of a triangular trade route used by the Europeans.  Ships set sail from Europe laded with trade goods for African exchange of people to be used as slaves in the Colonies.  From Africa they navigated a treacherous voyage across the Atlantic, where many slaves dies. Upon arrival they exchanged slaves for merchandise like Cotton or Tobacco and returned to Europe, thereby completing the triangle.  How could such treatment and forced labour be legitimized by the Europeans ?

The treatment of the African people that were rounded up for the slave trade was brutal. They were herded from their villages like cattle and taken to slave prisons on the coast awaiting transportation to the Americas.  ” Out of the roughly 20 million who were taken from their homes and sold into slavery, half didn’t complete the journey to the African coast, most of those dying along the way.”[1] (Clark 2010).

The African slaves had no idea of what fate awaited them. Many of them were terrified and thought the invading Europeans were cannibals.  The slaves shared living quarters bundled together after being chained and branded. They packed in between 300-400 people in tight quarters with little ventilation and scarcely room for buckets for waste.  Disease became rife and of the 20 million slaves exported to the Americas only 50% survived the voyage.

The disease on board the ships often spread amongst the crew and some even got ill before leaving the slave ports in  Africa ” Common hazards of the voyage, stemming from no other source than poor diet and close confinement, included scurvy and gangrene. Dehydration, caused by lack of drinking water and high loss of bodily fluids from fevers or dysentery, was a primary killer aboard the slaving vessels.” [2] (Fisher 2001).

It was on September 22nd 1862 that the US President Abraham Lincoln issued the emancipation proclamation abolishing slavery in the USA. In 1883 the British Imperial Act  had abolished slavery throughout the British Empire.  Even with the abolition the African Americans were treated as both second class citizens and a source of cheap labour. and this remained until the Irish immigrants arrived on the scene.[3] (Sound 2010)

Despite the fact that nobody could legitimise the wilful murder and treatment of human beings on such a mass scale.  History might  be looked upon less painfully if it galvanised a nation of African American people who fought for civil rights / liberties and ultimately became a beacon of hope for suppressed people everywhere. ” But, if this part of our history could be told in such a way that those chains of the past, those shackles that physically bound us together against our wills could, in the telling, become spiritual links that willingly bind us together now and into the future – then that painful Middle Passage could become, ironically, a positive connecting line to all of us whether living inside or outside the continent of Africa.” [4] (Feelings 2010)

Works Cited

Clark, Rachel. People and Events. 2010. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1p277.html (accessed 3 28, 2010).

Feelings, Tom. The Middle Passage. 2010. http://www.juneteenth.com/story.htm (accessed 3 28, 2010).

Fisher, Mel. A slave Ship – Wreck of the Henrietta Marie. 2001. http://www.melfisher.org/exhibitions/henriettamarie/middlepassage.htm (accessed 3 28, 2010).

Sound, Owen. Black History In Canada. 2010. http://www.osblackhistory.com/history.php (accessed 3 28, 2010).

[1] Clark, Rachel. People and Events. 2010. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1p277.html (accessed 3 28, 2010).

[2] Fisher, Mel. A slave Ship – Wreck of the Henrietta Marie. 2001. http://www.melfisher.org/exhibitions/henriettamarie/middlepassage.htm (accessed 3 28, 2010).

[3] Sound, Owen. Black History In Canada. 2010. http://www.osblackhistory.com/history.php (accessed 3 28, 2010).

[4] Feelings, Tom. The Middle Passage. 2010. http://www.juneteenth.com/story.htm (accessed 3 28, 2010).